The Briarmen: A fairy-tale for adults

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I had sent the manuscript off to a few agents and it didn’t get picked up, so I thought I could either keep trying or just start my own publishing house. If you don’t fancy a run, you really have to force yourself to take those first few steps, but once they are out of the way you can easily find yourself running for miles.

The Briarmen – A Review – Loie Reads The Briarmen – A Review – Loie Reads

I didn’t really think all that much about it, honestly, but I think ‘A fairy tale for adults’ sums it up perfectly.The history was made to feel very tangible and it really felt as though this was exactly what a village in the second world war would have been like – with the added fantasy element!

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We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. There, they befriend the Briarmen, four magical creatures, and are bound together through a shared secret. Sure, she’s often infuriating and profoundly flawed, often making terrible choices, but she’s also been through a lot, and the war often brings the worst out of people; the book is honest about that.The main character, Hamish, is evacuated early in the rural Brombury which is largely untouched by the war; we therefore don’t witness gruesome details such as bombings, starvation, and ultimately death.

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As soon as I started reading I could just tell that this was going to end up being a favourite read for 2021. I liked the way Penny’s relationship with Hamish, Clemens, her mother and her missing father was written.The novel itself is a fantasy-adventure blend following the lives of Hamish – a young boy who is evacuated to the small and unassuming village of Brombury in 1939 – and Penny, whose mother takes Hamish in. The Briarmen are depicted in great detail, not as perfect creatures, but as a group that is determined to survive in a world that is threatening their very existence. We got to know all the main characters well and feel as if we knew them too, and the sadder parts of the book really pulled at me.

The Briarmen: A Fairy-Tale for Adults - Goodreads The Briarmen: A Fairy-Tale for Adults - Goodreads

I’m not sure what I would classify it as but historical fantasy seems to be close enough so let’s go with that!

Small details such as the fields, the school and the pubs made this feel like a real place, so it wasn’t hard to suspend disbelief when it came to the magical aspect of the book; the mysterious woods and the peculiar inhabitants.