Netherwood
By Jake Arnott
- Netherwood
-
Author: Jake Arnott
-
Publisher: Titan Books
- ISBN: 9781835416631
- Published: August 2026
- Pages: 241
- Format reviewed: Paperback
- Review date: 18/09/2026
- Language: English
If you have ever had the good fortune to visit the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, you would have come across a room full to the brim with curios from across the globe. One of my preferred areas to browse houses a collection from far closer to home, magic items. These tokens of good and bad magic have been gathered over the years across the UK having been found stuffed up chimney breasts or hidden in a cottage wall. There is nothing quite as unsettling as moving into a new house like Justine and Adam do in Jake Arnott’s Netherwood and finding a hidden room dug into the cave. Inside a bottle of strange goo, floating within it are nuts, shells, human bones.
Justine and Adam have had it with living in London. Justine is able to work from anywhere and Adam is struggling with his artistic endeavours in the repressive city. The faded grandeur of Hastings calls to them, and they find a bargain of a house tucked away beneath the castle, half built into the cliff face. It the perfect location and quaint, but the strange locked room does not help. Inside is a presence, a magic that evokes the past, but also Adam’s artistic juices. What is Adam willing to sacrifice to get back on top in the art world, and can Justine discover the truth about the strange bottle they found before it is too late?
Netherwood is a classic feeling creepy horror novel. One of unease and unsettling situations, rather than all out body horror. It is a tense novel, a sense of oppression sits on the character’s shoulders, especially Justine. The couple lost a child in early pregnancy, and this was one driver to move to Hastings. This memory sits with Justine, and the presence of a dark entity makes things worse. Arnott plays on this when Justine becomes pregnant again, you cannot but feel worried for the unborn child. Although most of the book is not all out scares, this element will sit heavily on the reader, even if the child could be perfectly safe. For that reason, a reader warning should be noted for people who could be affected by this element of the story.
As well as the oppression on Justine, there are other elements to the tale. Arnott weaves real and fake histories together to make a fun narrative that brings in the likes of Aleister Crowley and an ill-fated rock/art band. Justine digs deeper into the history of the occult in Hastings to discover what may have happened in her home. This element of the story resolves very nicely in a classic horror manner. You can never truly expect what is going to happen in a supernatural tale.
With a focus on character and history, Netherwood is not the most action-packed horror story. It is written with those who like a more unsettling and cerebral take on the genre. It is almost a criminal procedural novel, but with more goat sacrificing. The setting of Hastings is done beautifully and really informs the story and gives a grounded feel, no matter how odd things get. Justine is a sympathetic central character, far more rounded and nuanced than protagonists are in many horror books.
Written on 18th September 2026 by Sam Tyler .
Topics and themes
Key Tropes
Tone & Pace
Themes
Setting
Content/Warnings
General
You may also like
-
![A Sea of Unspoken ThingsAdrienne Young]()
FantasySimilar:I have not lived in the village I grew up in over twenty years, but I still talk about going home when I am visiting. Where I live now has been my home for longer, but there is something about those formative years that make a place always feel like home. I return to see family, but for some people,...
-
![Pay the PiperGeorge A Romero]()
HorrorSimilar:There are many unique and diverse names in horror making it, for me, one of the most interesting genres out there, but to the layperson they may only know a few names. Stephen King, maybe Dean Koontz. In film they may have heard of Wes Craven, or one of the newer horror auteurs. Zombie fans should h...
-
![This Movie Doesnt End the Way We WantHailey Piper]()
Similar:There is something magical about going to the cinema, the better sound quality, larger image, seats, popcorn. All of it adds to the ambience of a film, making it a far greater experience than just being at home. I will go to watch almost any film and enjoy watching the re-releases of classic films,...
-
![Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting DetectivesTim Major]()
Similar:I always forget how unpleasant some of the antiheros were in Victorian era fantasy and science fiction. In my mind I think of the era being full of ladies and gentlemen, but there were plenty of loathsome people too. Looking back on the working conditions and how society treated its poor, perhaps I...
-
![The Final OrchardC J Rivera]()
Science FictionSimilar:When the apocalypse inevitably comes do you want to know about it? Would you like the chance to peer out of the window and see the world burning, perhaps you can make a run for the high ground? Another option is to live in pure ignorance underground, competing with your fellow residents for the perc...
-
![King RatChina Mieville]()
FantasySimilar:King Rat is the debut of the award winning British author China Miéville. The novel begins with Saul returning from a camping trip to the top floor flat he shares with his father, deciding not to wake him he goes straight to bed. In the early hours of the following morning he is rudely awakened by t...
-
![Into the NightCornell Woolrich]()
General FictionSimilar:What makes a good noir story? Is it the setting, the characters, a murder? All these things, but also none of them. I have read many ‘classic’ noir stories about a grizzled PI investigating a femme fatale set some time in the 40/50s, but I have also read them set in alternative universes where super...
-
![The HollowsDaniel Church]()
HorrorSimilar:Humans fear the dark and we fear the cold. There is good reason for this. In our modern world we can wrap up warm in a synthetic coat and take along a torch that can be seen from space, but that was not always true. The dark used to mean the unknown. Animals or something else preying on you. The col...
-
![DebrisJo Anderton]()
Science FictionSimilar:Tanyana has the innate talent to manipulate the very particles that hold matter together, as one of the most skilled pionners in a far-future society she can craft almost anything with just her concentration. An accident however brings her whole life crashing down and she is virtually cast out of th...
-
![MyriadJoshua David Bellin]()
Science FictionSimilar:I love time travel stories as you can tie yourself in knots figuring out what is going on. A writer can choose to do one of two things about the complexity of it all. Explore in great depth and try to make the inherent paradox work, or just go with the flow. Joshua David Bellin’s Myriad feels like a...
