book review: Hoist House - A Novella and Stories

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 4/5

With deep roots in the state, the author sets all six short stories and the concluding novella in Minnesota. Local readers will enjoy references to familiar towns and establishments, though these details never detract from the experience for those that do not hail from the state.

Robertson is a remarkably efficient writer. She crafts diverse and compelling characters, evocative settings, and deep emotion using very few words -- one story spans less than two pages yet delivers a complete, impactful narrative. The final novella follows early immigrants navigating language barriers, class structures, and shifting family dynamics while working the local iron ore mines. While fascinating, the novella feels a bit dense. Packing so much story and dialogue into a short format leaves the plot feeling crowded. It would make a wonderful full-length novel, giving the rich storyline more room to breathe. 

Ultimately, this collection is highly recommended for anyone seeking thought-provoking stories about identity, sexuality, and personal growth. I will definitely be reading more of Robertson's work.

recipe: Welsh cawl

While The Hill in the Dark Grove is a fictional novel, since it is written by a Welsh author, I found some of the Welsh words and phrases as well as references to what the characters were eating very intriguing. One of these was Welsh Cawl, which I immediately looked up and found to be a hearty soup that uses what the cook has on hand, frequently throwing in ham or lamb along with root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, parsnips or swede (rutabaga), and leeks. I found a recipe and made some of my own, which I served alongside home baked bread. 

Welsh Cawl

Ingredients:

2 1/4 pounds ham hock (or Welsh beef or the neck or shoulder of Welsh lamb)

1 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves

3 leeks, washed and sliced

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 parsnips, peeled and chopped

6 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 small bunch fresh parsley

Vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to taste 

Instructions:

1) Place the ham hock in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2-3 hours over a low heat until the meat is falling off the bone. Leave overnight to cool. 

2) The following day skim off any fat that has risen to the surface. Cut the meat off the bone and return to the stock.

3) Add onion and garlic to a soup pot. Heat until onions are almost translucent.

4) Add the leeks, carrots, and parsnips to the soup pan. Cook until leeks have also softened.

5) Add potatoes, ham pieces, and ham stock to the soup pan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are to desired softness, adding vegetable stock or water if needed to desired broth consistency. 

6) Add parsley and salt and pepper to taste while serving.

There were additional recipes in the book that I would like to make at some point, including wimberry pie and bara birth bread. Wimberry pie has a top and bottom crust. I did locate wimberries (or bilberries) that I could get shipped from a company in the Northwest, however, the amount of fruit needed for a pie was more than I wanted to spend. So, I have not yet made this, or a similar, pie. Bara birth is a light spiced almost fruit cake bread typically slathered with salted butter. I don't have access to enough of the types of dried fruits used, and I'm not super fond of fruit cakes, so I decided not to make this bread. But I did want to include in case any readers have an interest in making it!

book review: The Hill In The Dark Grove by Liam Higginson

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 5/5

Thank you Random House for providing an ARC for review consideration via NetGalley! All opinions are my own.

The Hill in the Dark Grove by Liam Higginson is a folk novel that captures the immense beauty of the Welsh mountains through vivid descriptive detail. It introduces a slow-building, eerie darkness that befalls Carwyn and Rhian’s remote farm. The sheep become sickly, an unpleasant earthy smell intensifies, strange dreams overtake their nights, and they begin to question what they see and hear. As Carwyn becomes more obsessed with digging up artifacts discovered in an unused part of the farm, the strange occurrences and dread only get more intense. 

The couple reminisces about their early life together while pondering generational folklore that may shed light on what they are encountering during this hard, strange year. Ancestral history of the land is also interjected into the book. Both providing a full and invested yearning for the reader to hope this couple can pull themselves to the other side of this darkness. 

I had so much fun looking up the Welsh words in the text and finding recipes for cawl, wimberry pie, and bara brith bread. This extra layer immersed me much deeper into the book. I do wish the ancestral history was tied a bit more neatly together as a complete story so that I could fully understand how it connected to the excavated mound. Doing so might have rounded out the ending by giving a glimpse into what became of the couple and how the site might affect future inhabitants, while still remaining vague.

Despite these small notes, this book absolutely deserves a 5/5. I was astounded by the imagery and the author’s ability to evoke so much about these characters lives through the written word. Readers who love literary works will appreciate this, and those that enjoy lore, witchcraft, or horror will love it even more. I highly recommend this debut novel and so look forward to anything future this author might release.