Water Shall Refuse Them cover art

Water Shall Refuse Them

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Water Shall Refuse Them

By: Lucie McKnight Hardy
Narrated by: Holli Dempsey
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The heatwave of 1976. Following the accidental drowning of her sister, 16-year-old Nif and her family move to a small village on the Welsh borders to escape their grief.

But rural seclusion doesn't bring any relief. As her family unravels, Nif begins to put together her own form of witchcraft, collecting talismans from the sun-starved land.

That is, until she meets Mally, a teen boy who takes a keen interest in her and has his own secret rites to divulge.

Reminiscent of the suspense of Shirley Jackson and soaked in the folk-horror of English heritage, Water Shall Refuse Them is an atmospheric coming-of-age novel and a thrilling debut.

©2019 Lucie McKnight Hardy (P)2019 Audible, Ltd Coming of Age Genre Fiction Horror Scary Fiction Village

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Creeper cover art
The Auctioneer cover art
The Watchers cover art
Still Alice cover art
Murphy cover art
The Small Hand cover art
Six Stories cover art
The Weird and the Eerie cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I didn't hate this book but I certainly wasn't enamoured.

I really disliked the animal torture which I personally felt was too graphic, but then I'm a wuss.

Given the current British heatwave, the description of the weather in '76 was realistic and sent me right back there when I was working in my school holidays in a kitchen....but my overall feeling was of a general unpleasantness about the characters and the whole situation.

The whole thing seemed a bit grimy to me.

Slightly unpleasant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really special book, you can almost smell it. I shall be recommending this to everyone

Beautiful and disturbing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I did enjoy this, it was very well written and very dark in tone but I was expecting more of a supernatural theme which it really wasn't, that's my fault for not properly checking. I'd still recommend to others.

Well written and dark but not supernatural

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
After enjoying “The Loney” and “Devils Day” by Andrew Michael Hurley I wanted to read more British Folk Horror. This book was in my opinion the best contemporary folk horror around at present.

It has me spell bound with every word. The atmosphere of all the 70’s furniture decor in a small run down welsh town. The ever present harsh sun create this atmosphere and tension that just tightens all the way through. A bit like how the film Midsommar achieves its horror during bright light summery scenes. It’s remarkably skillfully written.

It has a slow burning tension that doesn’t let you go.

It has subtle themes of how horrific events can change us as humans and about good and evil. It also has a pay off at the end but not as you would expect it’s so clever I had to read the last two chapters again to fully appreciate what happened.

What’s even better is that the book retains its sense of mystery unlike many in the horror genre. It left me contemplating what was really happening between the characters long after finishing.

I was remembering little parts that after the ending take on new significance.

I don’t want to ruin any of the story but I would thoroughly recommend it.

Best Contemporary Folk Horror

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm really conflicted about this. On one hand, I thought it was a sublime read, and a tragical coming of tale story. On the other hand I don't want to think about it again. I found myself thinking about things that were not explored on paper.

Conflicted

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An engaging and evocative tale, bought wonderfully to life by Holli Dempsey’s faultless reading. I was totally immersed from start to finish.

Great Story Wonderfully Read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I am counter to most of these reviews in so far as I found this so very very dull. I gave up on chapter 8. That may have been a mistake but I couldn't grasp on to anything to make me try harder. Got my credit back.

Very dull

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Didn't make it through due to all the animal cruelty so lovingly depicted in unnecessary detail. I get it: She tortures birds, but why do I need hear minute after minute about how she hurts it and how it fights and how it's still alive an hour later FOR THE FOURTH TIME, Jesus. Just say she tortured a bird again and get on with the story.

Animal cruelty lovingly depicted

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.