3.5 stars

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Folk is a beautiful collection of short stories all set on a slightly mystical island called Neverness.

I’m not a huge connoisseur of short stories so I did go into this one with some trepidation but I just knew it was something I had to give a chance to, and I’m so glad I did.

I really loved the slightly creepy feeling of the book - as if the land was about to come alive and devour everyone at any moment. The people on the island follow a set of traditions, and we see little bits and pieces with every story such as the gorse bush hunt and the girls wanting to get a red kiss because the boys’ faces should be full of blood from the hunt. That was a great story to start off the book. It immediately sucked me in with the combination of emotion, feeling and gore.

I also loved that the characters aged throughout the book. In the first story, we meet many characters who are teenagers and in the last story, they are middle-aged with children of their own.

There was some magical realism in parts of the book like a character who had a wing instead of one arm, and then one old man called Guller who had the ability to send people into the minds of kites so they could fly.

This was a wonderful mix of tragedy, lust, love and a sense home and belonging. I really enjoyed it.