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Cunning Folk

By: Adam Nevill
Narrated by: Peter Walters
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Summary

A compelling folk horror story of deadly rivalry and the oldest magic from the four times winner of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. No home is heaven with hell next door.

Money's tight and their new home is a fixer-upper. Deep in rural southwest England, with an ancient wood at the foot of the garden, Tom and his family are miles from anywhere and anyone familiar. Tom's wife, Fiona, was never convinced that buying the money-pit at auction was a good idea, not least because the previous owner committed suicide - though no one can explain why.

Within days of crossing the threshold, when hostilities break out with the elderly couple next door, Tom's dreams of future contentment are threatened by an escalating tit-for-tat campaign of petty damage and disruption.

Increasingly isolated and tormented, Tom risks losing his home, everyone dear to him and his mind. Because, surely, only the mad would suspect that the oddballs across the hedgerow command unearthly powers. A malicious magic even older than the eerie wood and the strange barrow therein. A hallowed realm from where, he suspects, his neighbors draw a hideous power.

"Nevill has crafted some of the tensest scariest horror this reviewer has read in years." (SFX)

“Adam Nevill excels at making nightmares real.” (The Guardian)

©2021 Adam Nevill (P)2021 Adam Nevill
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What listeners say about Cunning Folk

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome folk horror story about horrible neighbours

I really enjoyed the story here, but just a heads up, the narrator does some incredibly grating voices for the characters. His typical voice is fantastic, but his characters almost pull me out of it. The voice of the little girl, Gracie, is especially awful. Aside from those gripes, this is a really great story for fans of folk horror

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration

Enjoyable story ruined by poor narration. Unconvincing accents, odd pronunciation and for some reason, read as though it was aimed at 5 year olds. Odd.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story and Narrator

With accessibly poetic writing that perfectly portions out the story to make it believable at its extremes, I was really sucked into Cunning Folk.
In contrast to a couple of other reviews, for me, the narration was captivating; I sped him up to 1.2; other than that, I found the way the narrator seemed to delight in the language of the book charming. His reading has since influenced my own reading style when reading aloud to kids and at work. He particularly excels at more entitled posh characters.
Having previously only seen a film adaption of the author's work, I look forward to reading more.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Shame about the audio

I really love the story but struggled to listen till the end as I found the audio and the narration poor. The Narrator pronounced words in a strange way, there was a hiss that came and went as the Narrator spoke like poor audio equipment and there were some strange pauses like bad audio editing! It’s such a shame as the story is so good.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good story, sub-par narrator

This is a difficult one. I really enjoyed the story, but struggled with the narrator. I had seen similar reviews prior to reading the book but disregarded them. Unfortunately, the narrator let's this book down. The pronunciation of some words is baffling, eg., pronouncing 'decade' as 'decayed' and 'trauma' as 'trowel-ma'. This might seem trivial, but it really does become jarring to listen to. I would definitely recy the book, but you're better off buying a physical copy.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

The utterly dreadful narration.

It is really impossible to rate this book because the narration was so bad.
I don't know who chooses the narrators, but they should be fired.
whole thing was a waste of a credit.....

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