The Haar: A Horror Novel

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A blood-drenched love letter to Lovecraft, handled with impressive authority and confidence."James Fahy, author of The Changeling series Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, married there, and intends to die there.

Review: The Haar by David Sodergren – Escaping in Paper

The ending was perfect and the varying POV’s we get to see some of those last moments through was fantastic to really highlight the emotional aspect of this book. Speaking of ugly, what about portraying the youth of Scotland as murderous thugs hired by the Ugly Americans to rob and kill their elderly folk... The end of the book has some words from Sodergren's own gran from a journal entry. He mentions parts of Muriel were inspired by her and it was such a treat to see her own words and thoughts on paper.

Then there's the cliche yelled from a police blow horn at an 80-something year old widow: You are surrounded! Come out with your hands up!!... The tag line that this is a ‘gore-soaked folk-horror fairy tale’ just elegantly sums up this story.

The Haar by David Sodergren book reviews | Goodreads

Actually, The Forgotten Island is the first book of his I discovered from a friend here on WordPress. Definitely have to give both works a try when I can beat down the clutter on this cursed TBR! It is too bad that the one interesting aspect of the story, the monster found in the fog by the old woman, was overshadowed by the inane nonsense of the rest of the story. David Sodergren has always had a very specific and direct prose, excelling in the descriptions of things from the most mundane to the most extremely visceral. It’s impressive to see how his writing has grown and refined over his career, though it has always felt mature and sophisticated. His writing has never been pretentious and it never insists upon itself. The same is true for The Haar, but it stays interesting and smart enough to keep an academic entertained. I think one of the most impressive aspects of this novel is the basis of Muriel. The dedication of the book is for his grandma Connie who, “would not have liked this book at all.” He goes on to state in the afterward that the character isn’t solely based on her, but there are elements of her life that he worked into the character, which really gives it a personal feel and elevates it just that much more. “File:Fingals cave Staffa Iona Scotland deepInside.jpg” by N2e is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there. But then, I can’t help but feel he’s having a go at us, the horror film fans too. Only someone with absolutely no respect for his audience whatsoever could release a product as slipshod and unfinished as this as a ‘sequel’ to a well-liked original. It’s as if he’s saying that horror fans will literally watch any old garbage, whether it’s recycled footage from two years prior or just some low budget junk he shot with his friends by the side of a pool. It’s insulting.If there was ever a story I wish I could erase from my mind only to read over and over again…it would be this one! It is the perfect love story with a Cthulhu twist, and although I don’t foresee anything like this happening to me, it has really made me think about my own relationships in my life. It’s a wonderful piece about humanity and what we are as creatures in this vast world. I have never felt so small and meaningless in this world, and yet my heart has never been so full. Initially it seems like a piss-take of Hollywood. The guests at the party are all vacuous airheads or coked-up sleazebags, and are lit from below by torchlight like they’re kids pretending to be a monster to scare their friends. They talk of ‘All the culture you can take – The Hollywood Bowl, the Universal Tour,’ and take potshots at Brian DePalma for wasting money on Blow Out. So yeah, it’s probably Hollywood that Lommel has it in for. Muriel Margaret McAuley was eighty-four years old the first time she saw a man turned inside-out by a sea monster. You might think it would bother a woman of her age, but, as Muriel was fond of saying, she had seen a lot in her eighty-four short years. They're entertaining, I laughed out loud a couple of times, the conversations or the way the characters are thinking can be truly funny. There is gore, there are some surprising creatures. In both of these books.

The Haar by David Sodergren | Goodreads The Haar by David Sodergren | Goodreads

A blood-drenched love letter to Lovecraft, handled with impressive authority and confidence."
James Fahy, author of The Changeling series
NIGHT SHOOT I did not expect David to give me another amazing unexpected story, yet here we are. When you have been loving every book by an author, you are scared that the next one might not meet your expectations. To some it brings redemption… to others, it brings only madness and death. What macabre secrets lie within… The story had a good premise. After all, who isn't a wee bit afraid of a fog bank and what may lurk therein... This book makes you feel FEELINGS!! And I can easily say, I loved every second of it. When I started this book I did not expect to have my heart pulled in such ways, but I truly could not put this down until I was done. I was cooking dinner while reading, doing laundry and reading, I moved my schedule around so I could FINISH THIS BOOK!!Oh dear! There may be spoilers. 2 stars. I'm sorry, but I didn't find this story the least bit plausible or entertaining... The Haar starts as a story about a greedy American arsehole who is trying to destroy the small coastal fishing town of Witchhaven, Scotland, and slowly turns into a story about love, self-preservation, and the human condition. Since the publication of his first novel, The Forgotten Island, he has written and published a further eight novels, including the gore-soaked folk-horror Maggie's Grave and the romantic and disturbing The Haar. Do I think David’s work is grossly overlooked? Absolutely. Look at his body of work thus far; ‘The Forgotten Island,’‘Night Shoot,’‘Dead Girl Blues,’ Maggie’s Grave,’ The Perfect Victim,’ and ‘Satan’s Burnouts Must Die!’ I would call all of these Indie Horror Masterpieces. Sodergren fully embraces the DIY Self-Publishing model and the level/caliber of books he’s given us are second to none. And I’m not going to include our co-written novel ‘The Navajo Nightmare’ as I think that would be too biased, but I will say, his opening salvo that makes up the story is simply one of the best Splatter-Western stories released in that genre over the last few years. Watching these Video Nasties has forced me to develop my own mantra, which I repeat over and over under my breath for the first 10 minutes of every film. It goes,

The Haar by David Sodergren | Goodreads

Do I think David’s work is grossly overlooked? Absolutely. Look at his body of work thus far; ‘The Forgotten Island,’ ‘Night Shoot,’ ‘Dead Girl Blues,’ Maggie’s Grave,’ The Perfect Victim,’ and ‘Satan’s Burnouts Must Die!’ I would call all of these Indie Horror Masterpieces. Sodergren fully embraces the DIY Self-Publishing model and the level/caliber of books he’s given us are second to none. And I’m not going to include our co-written novel ‘The Navajo Nightmare’ as I think that would be too biased, but I will say, his opening salvo that makes up the story is simply one of the best Splatter-Western stories released in that genre over the last few years. Muriel is a resilient and resourceful octogenarian deeply connected to the land. Her husband, Billy, has disappeared at sea and she misses him every day. Despite her age, she refuses to submit to the greedy and rich. Her unwavering determination is respectable and proves you can’t get everything by throwing money at it (although the cynic in me whispers that this is another fairy-tale element of the story). But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost… until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland. The story concerns an old woman in a sleepy coastal town that is slowly fading away. Like most towns so connected to the sea, there are mythological beings and interesting happenings surrounding the waters. This book takes that to a whole level of something I’ve never experienced before. Update: I've managed to read the rest of the book, thankfully the worst parts were over by then. The ending was quite satisfying, so I've updated the rating, but my point still stands: some parts were unnecessary, disgusting and disappoining.As much as I would LOVE to detail a few of the reasons, I really enjoyed the horror in this book, I feel as though I'd be spoiling the fun if I did. I will say the creature on the cover of the book needs blood to stay strong and healthy. The way it kills is brutal asf, and it's awesome. I feel as though this book takes inspiration from some of the best and most influential horror stories, putting its own little twist on them.