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Wylding Hall cover art

Wylding Hall

By: Elizabeth Hand
Narrated by: Jennifer Woodward, John Telfer, Dan Morgan, Emma Fenney, Simon Victor, Kris Dyer, various narrators
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Summary

In the aftermath of the mysterious death of their lead singer, the young members of a now-legendary British acid folk band hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient English country house with its own dark secrets. There they record Wylding Hall, the album that makes their reputation - but at a terrifying cost when Julian Blake, their new lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen again.

Now, years later, the surviving musicians and their friends and lovers - including a psychic, a photographer, and the band's manager - meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened during that summer. But whose story is the true one? And what really happened to Julian Blake?

©2015 Elizabeth Hand (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Wylding Hall

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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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

Atmospheric English Folk Horror

Really my only complaint about this book is that it's too short. Its themes are very reminiscent of the English Folk Horror films of the 1970s like Blood on Satan's Claw and the Wicker Man. The story is set over one hot summer in the early 70s. An almost famous folk band are sent to stay in an ancient manor house deep in the countryside to write their second album. The sense of time and place is very believable as is the dynamic between the band members - at least to a non-musician like me. It really made me want to listen to the legendary album they create! The story is told in the present day so all the narrators are potentially unreliable given the distance of time and the alcohol and drugs they were consuming at Wylding Hall. No one has the full story and we can only piece together what happened from the subjective views of each character. There aren't really any shocks or big scares but instead a pervasive atmosphere of something not being quite right. Odd things happen and are never really explained so if you get frustrated by stories that lack a big denouement and exposition you might not like this very much.

As you can see it's quite short; more of a novella and probably one to get if you have a few spare credits. I would listen to it on a hot summer day - ideally sitting outside under a tree. Just watch out for the wrens.

The narrators are uniformly excellent. Having a different actor for each part really adds to the experience of listening to the book.

I've only read one other book by Elizabeth Hand and going by this I wish there was more of her work available on audio.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Really enjoyable

This is a proper old-school ghost story. No guts or gore, just something genuinely creepy and disturbing. Perfect for what it is.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Addictive from start to finish

Wylding Hall was something that caught my eye on the Audible Plus collection and, with it being a freebie through that, I felt there was zero risk in giving it a go. 

I'll be honest, I had zero clue what to expect (having never experienced the author before), so this is one of those rare books that I can just go in blind and have no preconceived notion as to how good or bad I think a title will be. Which, if I'm honest, is the absolute best way for me. May have to try out more random finds.

I can't speak for the printed version, but the documentary style of this worked insanely well via audio book. The narrators all did a wonderful job of actually sounding like they lived the experiences being talked about and, I'll be entirely honest, there were large portions of this where I felt the acting was so good that I just totally forgot it was fiction. If someone had hit play and told me I was listening to an unexplained mystery as told by the surviving members of the band that actually lived it, I'd totally have believed them. So, well done to everyone involved with making this.

The overall story was good, but not excellent. This is mostly because of the open-ended ending that just leaves enough room for every possible outcome to have actually taken place. It's pretty much a 'the reader can't go wrong' ending ... until you talk to someone else who read it and they have a totally different take to you. Then the fun would start with the whole discussion as to what happened. So, I suppose, with that in mind, maybe it was excellent. I really don't know. Elizabeth Hand has created something that could be amazing or could just be very good. 

Either way, I enjoyed it, so bravo to the author.

The horror aspect of this is more atmospheric and very light as all things scary go. It's the kind of 'horror' that pretty much anyone can get through, even if the slightest bit of horror sends them running for the hills in fear. That sounds fairly negative, but for this piece, it worked very well and I really enjoyed it. It felt more realistic due to the lack of overt creepiness. Everything had both a potential rational explanation and a potential grounded explanation.

One other slight negative is that it's mostly build up. Mostly getting to know the band, the people involved, their little quirks etc ...that's all super-enjoyable, but for a four and a half hour audio book, it did feel like too much slow burn. Yet, oddly, it worked. 

I know. Really indecisive review. Apologies.

All in all, I raced through it, loved the characters, the voice acting and the story as a whole. It's the whole 'I can't decide if this was fantastic or just good that has me not giving it top marks. But my 4 out of 5 is certainly towards the higher end of the scale.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Great!

Great book, really enjoyed all the different narrators and the story which kept me enthralled until the end.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Engrossing and atmospheric

Fleetwood Mac has made a spooky book. Evocative of ancient English countryside mixed with 70s rock and roll high times. Rushed ending.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

atmospheric and eerie

All around good performance about a very eerie and unique folk horror story with a fun setting.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A slow burn

The story is told through a series of interviews with the stories characters. It took a while to get going but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

one irritation for me was the inclusion of several inaccuracies. BBC radio 3 & BBC 4 are digital channels that didn't launch until several years after the millennium, to name two of them. Only a Brit of above a certain she would realise this and perhaps be irritated by it.

I'll probably check out other works by the author.

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1 person found this helpful

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

Wylding Hall

For a short listen this dragged very badly in places. An interesting angle to take on the tale although l was thrown out by some casual Americanisms that were there. "Should l bring this to the police?" instead of "take". Small, but irritating. It was only a matter of time before someone felt the urge to "reach out". So to summarise, not the worst, not the best, but certainly something a little different.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it!

I honestly couldn't put this down. I'm certainly recommending it to friends and ive already pestered my partner to read it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

really enjoyed that

that was very good. Well done and actually quite scary when it came to it. Good job

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1 person found this helpful