The Folly by Gemma Amor – A Horror Book Review

“the whole thing feels ruthlessly lean and well-paced – and the prose rings with authenticity.“

The Folly introduces us to Morgan, a middle-aged woman who has spent most of the last six and a half years of her life (and her personal and family wealth) fighting to get her father’s conviction for the murder of her mother overturned. Having secured his release, the two relocate to the eponymous Folly; a remote building in a small coastal community that needs live-in caretakers, and which represents both an escape from the house where her mother died, and a fragile chance at rebuilding their lives

This was my first experience with Amor’s writing, and I was mightily impressed. The premise is set out with commendable efficiency, and Amor has that rare gift of seamlessly weaving backstory into a propulsive narrative, such that I learned a great deal about Morgan and her relationship with her father in the opening chapters without ever feeling like I was experiencing an info dump. A lot of that comes from the voice: Morgan is a very well-drawn character, immediately vivid and psychologically real, and her interiority provides the perfect medium for this artful weaving of backstory and present-day narrative; it works similarly to conversation, complete with asides, deviations, parenthetical observations, but it never feels confusing – indeed, the whole thing feels ruthlessly lean and well-paced – and the prose rings with authenticity.

That authenticity becomes a powerful tool as events in the story escalate, providing a grounded believability to a series of increasingly escalating weirdness. There’s also a ton going on under the hood thematically; the story mostly takes place mid-pandemic, immediately post-lockdown, and the feeling of dislocation and oddness perfectly echoes Morgan’s internal emotional landscape, the relationship with her father (struggling to adjust to life as a free man, compounded by the move to a new residence), and the increasingly troubling occurrences at The Folly itself.

I feel like The Folly is a perfect novella, honestly; it pulls off the incredible feat of having a deeply conversational style where not a single word is wasted, and the pacing is top-notch (had it not been for life responsibilities, I’d have happily devoured the entire tale in one sitting, and I envy anyone with the time to do so) the story twists and turns delightfully, there are some genuinely macabre moments, and I found the conclusion thrilling and satisfying.

In conclusion, I had a great time with The Folly, and I look forward to reading more of Gemma Amor’s work.

KP

9/2/24

The Folly by Gemma Amor

From Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award nominated author Gemma Amor comes an

atmospheric gothic mystery that will haunt you long after the final page is turned.

Morgan always knew her father, Owen, never murdered her mother, and has spent the last six years campaigning for his release from prison. Finally he is set free, but they can no longer live in the house that was last decorated by her mother’s blood. Salvation comes in the form of a tall, dark and notorious decorative granite tower on the Cornish coastline known only as ‘The Folly’. The owner makes them an offer: take care of the Folly, and you can live there. It’s an offer too good to refuse. 

At first the Folly is idyllic, but soon a stranger arrives who acts like Morgan’s mother, talks like her mother, and wears her dead mother’s clothes. Is this stranger hell-bent on vengeance, in touch with her restless mother’s spirit itself, or simply just deranged? And, most importantly, what exactly happened the night Morgan’s mother died? 

An atmospheric nod to The Lighthouse, with hints of Du Maurier’s Rebecca, played out on a lonely, Cornish backdrop, THE FOLLY is visceral mystery and family drama, a dark examination of love, loyalty, guilt and possession that draws on the very real horror of betrayal by those closest to us, by those we love the best. 

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