Last Tuesday, seven Middle School pupils gathered to discuss Andrew Michael Hurley’s Starve Acre at Psychotronic Book Club.
Starve Acre is a novel which has been previously published under the pseudonym Jonathan Buckley, who apparently died in 1970, and this was a ‘rediscovered’ lost work. The group had fun debunking this literary myth. Esme, Lucy, Pablo, Maddie, Freya, Jeanne and Emma really enjoyed this powerful example of Folk Horror, which had a brooding atmosphere lurking behind a family tragedy which is revealed as the novel progresses. Like many great horror novels it was top-heavy with ambiguity, with much being left to the imagination and ample opportunity for a great discussion.
For the next club we are reading Susan Hill’s literary novella The Beacon. Psychotronic Book Club is aimed at pupils in Year 9 and above and new members are always welcome. We have copies of the Susan Hill novella in the library for anyone interested.
Mr Jones (Senior Librarian and Archivist)