Release Date: September 28th 2021
Publisher: Titan Books
Pages: 336
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 4.25/5 stars

Synopsis

Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt’s grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that’s just legend, the village gossips talking.

Twenty years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play “Sleepy Hollow boys,” reenacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods near the village, and the sinister discovery makes Ben question everything the adults in Sleepy Hollow have ever said. Could the Horseman be real after all? Or does something even more sinister stalk the woods?

Review

Christina Henry is well known for her retellings and when I heard her newest release was a retelling of Sleepy Hollow, I was desperate to get my hands on it. The story follows Ben Van Brunt a resident of sleepy hollow. Everyone in the village knows the legend of the horseman, but no one actually believes it happened. When Ben and a friend are out playing in the woods, they discover the headless body of one of the village children. Ben soon becomes entangled in a web of secrets and is determined to uncover the truth – is the Horseman real or is the evil thing in the woods even more sinister?

Just like every other Christina Henry book I’ve read, I absolutely raced through this one. It’s the perfect Autumn/Winter read and is full of atmosphere. I loved the tense, eerie feeling in the story and there are plenty of creepy moments. The story was actually a little gorier than I was expecting but it worked really well with the story. There were also a few moments that I found genuinely quite scary, which is always the mark of a good horror tale.

The pacing in the story was excellent and Horseman is a book you will find hard to put down. Henry has created some truly wonderful characters in this book and I absolutely adored Ben, Brom, and Katrina. Horseman is a well-executed story and one that I still found myself thinking about after I’d finished reading. If you’re looking for a dark and spine-tingling story to keep you reading until the wee hours of the morning, Horseman is a brilliant choice.