Book Review: "Greater Sins" by Gabrielle Griffiths

I know, it's another folk horror novel - this one is a bit dense though in terms of its cast of characters. As I have said countless times, there is something that takes you a little out of the story the more complex it is, especially if it is horror. Horror may be a vast and wonderful genre, but simplicity is a virtue here and sometimes, I found that this book was trying to do too much. However, that doesn't mean it was no good - there are several things about this book which were frankly, brilliant and I am glad I took the time to read it. It very much relies on some classic folk horror tropes, something we may not get to see too much of today as everyone is trying to reinvent the wheel. This book takes things, quite literally, back to the roots of the sub-genre.

The novel deals with the year 1915, so we can tell that there is already going to be some war tension in our midst. The other thing we have is a very remote community in Scotland in which the vast majority of people do manual labour. The next thing we must contend with is the fact that there are several characters hiding secrets, some of which have not many redeeming qualities and yet, there's something else. A woman. She's not only been found dead but has also been there for some time and yet, she's perfectly preserved. We can already tell that the author is going to introduce us to this scapegoat-like hysteria that this could induce as the woman will not be buried just yet, not until she reveals her secrets. As this continues, things in the community start to go awry - it starts as heavy rain the likes of which people have not seen in years, but it builds and builds.

Alongside this, the author mixes in another timeline - 1905. In this timeline we learn about certain secrets we were perhaps not privy to before. Former secret loves, tensions between people and a strange mention of a group which is almost like a cult but not quite. Someone saw something, there was an attempted murder and whispers are passed around. So when one of these character's returns to work the land ten years' later, it opens (quite literally) old wounds. The writing is very lyrical and very Scottish, sometimes it can be difficult to read and get lost in but it is so atmospheric that I honestly couldn't bring myself to put it down. You know how much I love lengthy and super-detailed atmospheric descriptions. The rain, the land, even down to the inn where the characters drink, there's definitely a folkish tone pervading the entire text and I think that might be the book's greatest quality.

Besides this, there's also a change in identity. Yes, someone's got a new name but why? This is something we need to find out back and forth in the text. One thing the dead woman represents is this hysteria in which one of the main character's actually says that they're going to need to blame this on something. Religious tensions and fear brews and bubbles throughout, and everyone is blaming this strange dead body - perfectly preserved but now rotting as she's been dragged from the depths. They burn effigies of her, they lose their minds over her and the entire town is focused on what kind of chaos she will unleash next. But what if it was never about her at all? What if she is part of a bigger problem in this remote town? What if it was always meant to be this way?

The author weaves an intricate story and though there are many characters, there's a lot of heavy story to pay attention to and there are hefty descriptions throughout, I do have to say that it works. Once I sat down to read it, I could not stop myself from discovering more about what these people were hiding from each other and how it was going to come to light. It's only when people start dying that it all becomes a whole lot more serious.