Horror Novel Review - Mike Carey - Fellside

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2016 – Orbit Books – spoiler alerts A horror story set in an isolated moorland brutal women’s maximum security prison, the Fellside of the title. Jess, The heroine is a heroin addict who has almost died in a fire in her apartment, though an innocent child in the flat above hers died in the blaze. Treated for extensive burn injuries and behaving as if guilty even though her lawyers think her boyfriend is the real culprit, Jess arrives at the prison’s hospital already determined to kill herself by gong on hunger strike, only to be drawn back to a commitment to surviving by the ghost of the boy who died. The other inmates despise Jess for various reasons, her general weirdness, her part in the death of a child, and from losing bets on when she would die before her miraculous recovery. Jess finds the spirit of the boy Alex, who sees some other mysterious woman as his true killer, guarding her against the attacks of the other inmates and the story builds up to a spectacular blood-splattered finale. Strong horror from the human agents with the supernatural elements serving the protagonist rather than adding to her terrible ordeal and struggle to survive in a very hostile hateful environment. Arthur Chappell