The Ritual

An Unsettling, Spine-Chilling Thriller, Now a Major Film

By: Adam Nevill

Narrated by: David Thorpe

From Britain's 'master of horror', Adam Nevill, comes The Ritual, winner of the August Derleth Award and perfect for fans of Stephen King.

Now a major film with Rafe Spall.

Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives.

Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artefacts and unidentifiable bones. A place of dark ritual and home to a bestial presence that is still present in the ancient forest, and now they’re the prey.

As the four friends struggle toward salvation they discover that death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees . . .

Critic reviews

This novel grabs from the very first page, refuses to be laid aside, and carries the hapless reader, exhausted and wrung out, to the very last sentence.

Often horror loses its power when the evil is given a face; in this case it only gets more disturbing.

With The Ritual Nevill has crafted some of the tensest scariest horror this reviewer has read for years.

The Ritual by Adam Nevill is a mind-twisting journey into the dark backwoods of terror. Deeply disturbing and absolutely riveting. (Jonathan Maberry, New York Times Bestselling author of Dead of Night and The King of Plagues)

Nevill makes the natural world deeply menacing, using the power of suggestion rather than explicit images to create a growing claustrophobic feeling as the difficult journey to return to some semblance of civilization embeds the quartet only further in the grasp of primal evil.

If you want something to make you scared of going into the deep, dark woods then I would highly recommend you pick up The Ritual. The Gruffalo it ain’t!

It has been over a week now since I finished this book and it has really stayed with me and I find myself thinking about it on numerous occasions, and this is another very good sign.

The Ritual didn’t just stop at sending a shiver down my spine, carrying on past that to leave me feeling all unsettled and resolved to stay away from large unexplored woods. A horror novel that leaves you feeling melancholy and thoughtful (as well as just plain scared); Neville is rapidly cementing his position as an author worth watching.

The Ritual, is now one of my all time favourite books, for me personally this is a powerful book that ticks every box in horror writing.

Well narrated

I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second where it dragged in some sections. Overall story was great.

Good story

The story is good, but so so so much filler on those chapters. Too long for the payoff.

Good story and great narrator

What made the experience of listening to The Ritual the most enjoyable?

The pace is good, it keeps you engaged and wanting to find out what is going to happen next.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Ritual?

It's genuinely creepy, the first half of the book in particular. The story was unusual and interesting, the characters were engaging and you never knew quite what was going to happen until the very end.

What does David Thorpe bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I really loved the narrator! A good narrator can make the experience of listening to an audiobook so much better.

11 hours too long?

I so wanted to like this after having received a recommendation Adam Nevill is the UK's Stephen King.

I felt the characters missed enough roundness. But most important, the author didn't play enough with the blurring between nightmare and its opposite. I wanted more ambiguity, if you see what I mean. Or maybe the opposite: blatant 'magical realism' 'a la Murakami.

Sorry: I wanted the rather inevitable ending to happen sooner than later.

Don't put yourself through this...

I have to agree with a comment I read before embarking in this painful journey. Something along the lines of: great story, but 11 hours too long.

Maybe watch the movie. but yea.