So I have wanted for a long time to read a novel that would make me afraid to go into the dark or go to sleep. Unfortunately this novel was not able to achieve that. It was however a physically good book for swatting flies, with a death toll of three. 

• Published: 2011
• Completed: 24/05/2025
• Pages: 418

Adam Nevill’s “The Ritual” is about a group of four middle aged men who reunite to go on a hiking holiday through a Norwegian forest. The weather is terrible and half of the party are physically unprepared for the strenuous trek. They consequently decide to divert from the established trail and take a shortcut through a forest in order to get home sooner. 

This decision is that moment in a horror movie where you are screaming at the characters not to make such a dumb choice. It is of course however required to progress the scenario. 

As they get deeper into the woods and as the situation becomes more adverse, it became increasingly difficult to be sympathetic to the characters due their repeated bad decision making. It’s unfortunate that just a bit more and half of the novel is dedicated to this rambling in the forest. I get that it’s meant to be atmospheric, but it became tedious to read about the hiking party’s delusion, fatigue, thirst, hunger and growing discomfort. 

Nevill is a great writer though and does well to immerse the reader in this relentless and cruel environment. There are some sensational descriptions of the gory eviscerations as the group are picked off one by one. Their introspections as they slowly come to terms with their predicaments are also poignant and profound. 

The second half of the novel is vivid and visceral. Many of the themes are cliches of the horror genre – a strange ethnic woman, angry nihilistic youth, strange old world customs and a violent and fleeting supernatural presence – however Nevill imbues them great detail that make them still very fun to read about. 

The novel ends with one of the hiking party being able to escape but I felt regretful that such an ancient culture and supernatural being should be destroyed. The imperative to survive is obvious – I’m just being a dumb woke conservationist 😝

I also wondered about life after such a traumatic event. I always have this feeling at the end of a horror movie where after all this tension, I just want to know how someone can still function. It’s pedestrian, but I think that would be interesting to explore. Like an Anne Tyler novel but at the extremes of human experience.