Flame Tree Press
Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green. It’s where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident, for which he blames himself. The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name. Why were they obsessed with a strange song he seemed to have made up as a child?
Now, their daughter Adele has found him. By the time he discovers the cosmic truth about the stones, he may be trapped. There are other dark secrets he’ll discover and memories to confront. The Fellstones dream, but they’re about to waken.
Beyond a couple of short stories, Ramsey Campbell has been notably absent from my bookshelves for far too long. Strangely for someone who writes the type of blog I do I'm not much of a reader of modern horror and the ones I do read tend to be those channelling the early 20th century heyday like, Mark Valentine or John Howard but, when I saw this on the shelf at the day job a little while back I fancied giving it a go as it seemed rooted in the more rural strangeness that I favour.
Paul Dunstan has escaped the clutches and the plans of his adopted family in the village of Fellstones, so named after the stone circle that sits on the village green. Unfortunately, he's too important to their schemes to be left alone for long, and the villagers are soon going all out to pull him back. I have to say here that Paul is a very different type of person to me as faced with people as controlling and manipulative as his adopted family I'd have categorically told them where to go but he seems to almost want to be manipulated which I found rather frustrating.
The story unfolds nicely to reveal not the 'folk horror' that the prominence of the stones had led me to expect but an entirely more cosmic scheme and the story builds to a transcendent but ultimately downbeat ending that leaves our protagonist in a very different place from where he began. My love of the gothic meant that I would have dearly loved for much more of the back story to have been featured, but we get tantalising glimpses.
As a first - book length - visit to one of Campbell's worlds it was an enjoyable one. Beyond my little obsessions I'm very much a whim reader and I'm looking forward to reading the next one of his that catches my eye.
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