I would like to thank Francesca from Luna Press for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Luna Press

Published – Out Now

Price - £7.99 paperback £3.19 kindle ebook

Two misfits, Carys Price and Angharad 'Hazard' Evans, strike out from their disenfranchised seaside town to take ownership of the High Fields, a mythical island brimming with world-bending promise.

Objecting to the demands of modern society, they hope to find a place where they can live as they choose, but instead they find an ancient power that tears their friendship apart.

Ten years later, Carys returns to the collapsing world of the High Fields to face the terrifying power of the friend-turned-goddess she left behind.

I think all fantasy fans know the feeling of wanting to escpe into another world. We all have our reasons why we would go through the wardrobe, door or portal and experience something new. It’s a feature of myth, legend, and epic tales too but traveling changes you and not all experiences will eb good. I loved the approach taken in Rhiannon A Grist’s fantasy novella The Queen of the High Fields that mixes modern Wales, obsession, and ancient Welsh myth into a tale of wonders and also things to fear.

In the small town of Severn’s end there has been a long legend of a magical land known as the High Fields that sits somewhere off the coast. People have tried to visit and never returned. Carys and her schoolfriend Angharad nicknamed ‘Hazard’ bond over a shared love of the legend and a desire to escape. They devise to out their skills are put together and hey find out everything they can to get to the High Fields and ultimately after many years succeed but then Carys returns back to the mainland, and Hazard eventually becomes known as the Queen. Ten years after leaving Carys is persuaded by a handsome stranger and his friend to return but Carys finds the Island an eerier place and more dangers are now around every corner.

This is a fascinating story I loved going on a journey with two really interesting characters who we see as fully three dimensional beings. Carys and Hazard are outsiders in school and one studious and quiet the other the naughty rebel and yet both have a need to leave their small town. The thrill of a magical world is offering them both a calling they cannot resists. Hazard is fascinating we see her a a big strong hard girl who becomes a woman happier with forestry and avoiding people yet kind to her beloved gran. She turns from someone we are wary of to someone we really want to see happy. Carys is more scholarly and focused avoiding offers of better jobs and a life in London or University just so she can find obscure clues and papers. A reminder that school outsiders are not stupid or wastrels they just probably are interested in different things to anyone else. Watching these two who bond over a love of myth and share so much in life asks questions of where their close friendship is going but Grist make these developments subtle as we see how each reacts around the other. Their relationship is very much the heart of the story.

The setting of the tale is the kind of strange unexplained fantasy world I love to explore. With its roots in the ancient tales of Witch Kings and crossing boundaries into magical kingdoms where we actually find that when Hazard and Carys arrived then Hazard became very powerful. Literally connected to the land and able to control crops, weather, and the form of the land itself. It’s a very classical world but what really impressed e was how Grist gives it some interesting 21st century twists. The High Fields becomes almost a cult for other outsiders seeking answers in life and Hazard becomes their leader; we get a interesting idea that shared beliefs makes a fantasy land stronger and when you throw in the power of people to see things via the internet it gets stronger and underneath we sense a darker power at work seeking its own way through.

Grist moves from fantasy exploration to horror very easily and there are some well told horror scenes where people meet nasty ends and a very twenty first century threat of male privilege turns also to be a major threat to the two women. But of all the plot threads it’s the way we see the friendship between the two leads start, end and then attempt reconciliation after ten years that pulls you in. How afar will they hide their secrets from the world? What is actually now going on with Hazard is the central question of the story and I loved how it plays with our expectations throughout.

The Queen of the High Fields is a very impressive story ending this year’s series of Luna novellas and I very pleased to say it was another story that sucked me in. If you enjoy myth, horror and well constructer characters to unpeel the layers of; then I can confirm this story is for you. Highly recommended!