Secret Lives Of The Dead By Tim Lebbon, A Masterful Descent Into Folk Horror

Secret Lives of the Dead by Tim Lebbon: A Masterful Descent into Folk Horror

Tim Lebbon’s Secret Lives of the Dead (Titan Books, August 2025) emerges as a taut, blood-soaked narrative that masterfully blurs the lines between folk horror and kinetic thriller. Across a single, rain-lashed day in the fictional UK village of Mariton, three reckless friends, Jodi, BB, and Matt, break into a decaying manor rumoured to house cursed antiques. Unbeknownst to two of them, Jodi harbours a lethal secret tied to a family heirloom. Enter Lem, a brutal relic-hunter obsessed with breaking a centuries-old curse plaguing his bloodline. What unfolds is a chase as relentless as the storm battering Crow Island, where superstition and savagery collide.

Lebbon deftly weaponises genre expectations. Marketed as folk horror, the novel initially unfolds as a crime thriller. The “witch’s relics” serve as MacGuffins; swap them for diamonds or drugs, and the plot’s engine remains intact. Supernatural elements simmer beneath the surface, manifesting primarily through Lem’s fanatical belief in the curse and sporadic, visceral flourishes of body horror in the climactic Crow Island sequence. This ambiguity is Lebbon’s boldest gamble: Is the curse real, or a self-fulfilling prophecy amplified by trauma? The answer lingers like fog, leaving readers to wrestle with their own interpretations.

Characters: Monsters Made of Flesh and Regret

Lem: The Sympathetic Devil
Lebbon’s antagonist steals the spotlight. Tattooed, taciturn, and terminally violent, Lem evokes Cormac McCarthy’s Anton Chigurh, but with layers of tragic motivation. Flashbacks reveal a childhood scarred by his father’s obsession and the curse’s tangible toll. His brutality feels less like cartoonish evil and more like the grim logic of a man who sees murder as survival. Remarkably, readers might find themselves unnervingly aligned with his mission.
Jodi: The Flawed Avenger
Jodi’s quest, avenging her father’s murder by Lem, fuels the plot but divides readers. Her manipulation of BB and Matt sparks accusations of selfishness, yet her trauma resonates. Lebbon avoids easy heroism; her choices cascade into catastrophe, making her a compelling study of how vengeance corrodes integrity. While some reviewers found her “unlikeable”, her moral complexity elevates the narrative beyond simplistic thrills.
Supporting Cast: Sacrificial Lambs?
BB and Matt fade beside the leads. Matt, in particular, feels underdeveloped, though this serves the novel’s breakneck pacing. They exist primarily to heighten stakes, their fates underscoring Jodi’s myopia and Lem’s ruthlessness.

The novel’s greatest strength is its velocity. Unfolding over one day, chapters barrel forward with triathlete intensity (a nod to Lebbon’s own passion). Action sequences, a barn confrontation, and a cliffside scramble are choreographed with cinematic precision. Even flashbacks (Lem’s past, Jodi’s grief) slice into the narrative without stalling momentum. This unrelenting pace mirrors Lem’s mechanical pursuit and Jodi’s desperation, making the book notoriously addictive like a runner’s high.

Lebbon’s genius lies in his characterisations. Jodi’s duality, portrayed as both victim and manipulator, anchors the narrative. In a chilling excerpt, she pockets a carved wooden relic, dismissing it as “worthless” while subtly distancing herself from her accomplices. This moment crackles with tension, foreshadowing her more profound connection to the curse.

Lem, meanwhile, is a villain for the ages. He transcends cartoonish malice. His brutality stems from generational trauma, making him terrifyingly relatable. The trio’s dynamic, BB’s scepticism, Matt’s naivete, and Jodi’s secrecy create a powder keg of mistrust that Lebbon ignites with masterful pacing.

Secret Lives of the Dead is not a pure folk-horror novel; it’s a hybrid beast. Lebbon merges thriller pacing with horror’s existential dread, using the curse as a mirror for human obsession. Lem joins horror’s pantheon of tragic monsters, while Jodi’s morally grey fury challenges easy sympathies. Lebbon refuses to repeat himself; here, he swaps apocalyptic stakes (The Last Storm) for intimate, bone-deep savagery.

Perfect for fans of: The Ritual (Adam Nevill), No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy), and The Wicker Man’s dread-soaked atmosphere.

Lebbon proves, yet again, that the dead’s loudest secrets are whispered by the living, and those whispers can drown out even the fiercest storm. Secret Lives of the Dead is a career-defining novel, the product of almost 30 years of a gifted author honing their craft. This is utterly Timtastic!!

Secret Lives of the Dead by Tim Lebbon

A dark folk horror tale of a deadly family curse, crime and murder that is sure to turn your blood cold, from the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Netflix’s The Silence.

When Jodi, BB and Matt decide to burgle a derelict country home as a thrilling dare, they become embroiled in a twisted legacy of supernatural terror. There are rumours of a bizarre curse hanging over the hoard of antiques and jewellery within the house. And unbeknownst to the others, one member of the trio has darker motives for breaking into the property.

Lem is a brutal man obsessed with a gruesome family legend. He is determined to right the wrongs of the past and lift the curse placed on his bloodline. By completing the work of his father and bringing a bizarre selection of scattered relics back together, he hopes to be free of the malign influence that has hounded every generation of his family for two centuries.

Across a single day a deadly pursuit will culminate on the desolate, storm-swept Crow Island, and those involved are given cause to wonder… can believing in a curse deeply enough bring its own bad luck?

Purchase a copy here

Author

Jim Mcleod
Jim "The Don" Mcleod has been reading horror for over 35 years, and reviewing horror for over 16 years. When he is not spending his time promoting the horror genre, he is either annoying his family or mucking about with his two dogs Casper and Molly.
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