[BOOKS OF THE DEAD] All the Fiends of Hell - Adam Nevill

All the Fiends of Hell - Books of the Dead Review

Welcome to Books of the Dead. A monthly series by published author and founder of The Readers in the Rue Morgue Book Club Victoria Brown where she deep dives into some her favourite (and not so favourite) authors and books.

Author: Adam Nevill

Publication Date: 02/04/2024

Synopsis: Seeing the morning is no blessing. The handful of scattered survivors are confronted by blood-red skies and an infestation of predatory horrors that never originated on earth. An occupying force intent on erasing the remnants of animal life from the planet.

Across the deserted landscapes of England, bereft of infrastructure and society, the overlooked can neither hide or try to outrun the infernal hunting terrors. Until a rumour emerges claiming that the sea may offer an escape.

Ordinary, unexceptional, directionless Karl, is one of the few who made it through the first night. In the company of two orphans, he flees south. But only into horrifying revelations and greater peril, where a transformed world and expanding race of ravening creatures await. Driven to the end of the country and himself, he must overcome alien and human malevolence and act in ways that were unthinkable mere days before.

Thoughts:

Most horror readers have subgenres of horror they avoid, likely because that specific subgenre is too heavy for them to read, it bores them, or they just don’t enjoy it. For me, it’s zombies, environmental horror, aliens, and post-apocalyptic tales. Given this purposeful avoidance, I was not looking forward to reading Adam Nevill’s ‘All the Fiends of Hell’. He’s an English author I’ve been meaning to read for a long time –  I was more drawn to his folk tales, like ‘The Reddening’, ‘Ritual’, and ‘Cunning Folk’ – but part of running a book club (@readersintheruemorgue) is choosing a wide variety of books, including ones I myself wouldn’t normally read. Hence why I chose ‘All the Fiends of Hell’. 

I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it! It was less action packed than I was expecting (in a good way) and the aliens were one of the most unique variations I’ve ever encountered. 

The story follows Karl, a refreshingly ordinary man. He is divorced, lives alone, has no children or close friends, and his business has failed. On the night that changes the world, he is lying sick in bed and has no idea that almost every other person on earth has disappeared until he is able to get up and go outside. Front doors have been left open, cars left unlocked, not a person or animal in sight. The sky is red...and the darker it gets, the more danger it brings. 

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Karl eventually, and reluctantly, takes care of two children who were left behind, and struggles with his new found responsibility to keep them alive, all while being antagonised by one of the worst men left behind – with the anticlimactic name Bob – and these alien invaders, who stand tall, thin, and shrouded, like angels of death, and stretch their victims to the point of flaccid death and hang them from various trees and power lines in some perverse presentation or offering. 

I’m usually not one for survival stories but going on this journey with an ordinary man with no real skills, accomplishments, or goals beyond survival itself, was interesting. Stories like this typically feature someone brave and daring, or who possess some useful skills or experience, but having Karl possess none of those things made this tale all the more unsettling. Karl could have been any one of us. It felt real, and therefore frightening. I felt for Karl and the children, and I wanted them to survive. The way Nevill told their story made me think about the lengths humans go to survive, and what I would do in Karl’s situation, which created a tangible empathetic link between myself and the characters. 

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The way Nevill expands the plot made me feel anxiety towards this biblically apocalyptic world, one with an almost Lovecraftian cosmic indifference. His writing style is fairly simple but it is wildly effective in inducing dread in the reader. The book also ends rather abruptly, with no loose ends tied up, and no explanations offered, which is, by far, one of the story’s strengths. We don’t need everything to be explained or tied up with a cute little bow; sometimes we’re dropped into a world and pulled back out, and changed by our time with that world. 

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What I liked most about the story was the eerie silence. There are no bombastic fight scenes (except for one particularly gruesome and well-deserved death), nothing blows up, and there are no authorities coming to the rescue. Everything moves glacially, almost painfully so, and you can practically feel the silence of Karl’s empty world on your shoulders. 

A truly uncomfortable read that puts you squarely in the shoes of the protagonist and prompts you to consider what you would do at the end of the world, when faced with a seemingly unstoppable cosmic force. I will definitely be reading more of Nevill’s work. 

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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