Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
A book review
Silvie
and her parents join an archaeology professor and three of his students on a
field trip to Northumberland. The trip is an experiment in "experiential
archaeology" in the sense that its participants try to recreate and
re-enact the living conditions of the Iron Age tribes which inhabited these
remote areas. The professor's intentions are innocent enough, at least at the
outset - a mixture of academic curiosity and a "Boys' Own" thirst for
adventure which he seems to share with his students. Silvie's father, on the other
hand, has darker motives. We soon learn that he has supremacist fantasies about
"Ancient Britons", whom he considers a pure, home-grown race,
untainted by foreign influences. He idolises their way of life which, albeit
nasty, brutish and short, is for him a test of manly mettle. And he has a
morbid fascination with the Bog People, Iron Age victims of human
sacrifice.
At first the group dynamics make the novel feel like an episode of "Celebrity Survivors" as we sense the increasing friction between the disparate characters. However, things decidedly take a turn for the sinister when the men decide to build a "ghost wall" - a wooden barricade topped by animal skulls which the ancients apparently used as a means of psychological warfare against invading hordes.
At first the group dynamics make the novel feel like an episode of "Celebrity Survivors" as we sense the increasing friction between the disparate characters. However, things decidedly take a turn for the sinister when the men decide to build a "ghost wall" - a wooden barricade topped by animal skulls which the ancients apparently used as a means of psychological warfare against invading hordes.
Ghost Wall is a slender novella which packs a punch. The narrative element is tautly controlled. There's a constant sense of dread, of violence simmering beneath the surface. These leads to a terrifying climax, in which the novel skirts the folk horror genre to chilling effect.
More importantly, however, the work is a timely indictment of patriarchal and racist prejudices which, though distinct, often fuel each other. It also seems to suggest that even monsters have redeeming features which endear them to their own victims, whilst seemingly innocent persons can commit grave acts when they give in to atavistic instincts. Perhaps what make this novel so disturbing is that these horrors are all too real.
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