The Year of the Witching

For all that this story started well, creepy and gripping, with religious lockdown of women (hence comparisons with The Handmaid's Tale), the second half fell into well-worn tropes and predictable plot twists.  Which might be cool - I don't read much horror so I don't know how much is expected in the genre versus how much is overused. 

I found the character development uneven, the leaps of logic unexplained, the dialogue a weird mixture of formal (One character literally apologises for using a “colloquialism” which felt very out of place in an otherwise normal chat with a stranger). The religion-based lockdown on women's behaviour and movement only applied when the author wanted it to? 

On the other hand, I still finished it, I still wanted to know what happened, I still wanted the bad guy to get their comeuppance and the good guy to win. I think it's a good, scary debut.

This is firmly horror, to the point that my brain was giving me utterly pedestrian dreams such as going to the shops, and doing my favourite work tasks.