I first saw this movie on Netflix & then I found out on GR that is was a book. I went right to Amazon to buy it! I loved it! I love both the book and the movie although I'm glad they left out the first part of the movie in the book. I didn't care for it. And on the second day things did not get better. The rain fell hard and cold, the white sun never broke through the low grey cloud, and they were lost. But it was the dead thing they found hanging from a tree that changed the trip beyond reco...

Adam Nevill never fails to thrill me as a fan and a reader. I am working my way through all of his books and The Ritual perked my interest late at night on a cold February evening here in England. I was sucked in from very early pages and picked this book back up at every opportunity I got eager to know what was coming next in the journey of four friends who have found themselves in a terrifying and horrific situation deep in the dense woods of Scandinavia. Nevill is brilliant at building up ten...

A little personal history on my encounters with The Ritual.First, I had seen it around on various horror book lists, so I bookmarked it long ago (it was published in 2011!)Then, Book Outlet was having a sale on horror and I bought like a dozen titles for my Christmas present last year. So this has been on my shelf almost a year. This summer, my son and husband watched the Netflix movie adaptation and I don't really "do" horror movies but my husband assured me I would like it. And I did! It was v...

The first half of this book was genuinely terrifying -- it's as harrowing as "The Descent," and in very similar ways. Luke and his three friends meet to go hiking and camping together, but Phil and Dom's less-than-stellar physical condition forces Hutch, the leader of the group, to propose a shortcut through a section of national forest. This shortcut turns frightening very quickly: not only is the forest much more dense and difficult to navigate than anyone anticipated, but early on they discov...

Survival Horror! Just in time for October. Wanna dive into some very nicely creepy atmospherics and get reacquainted with your old buddies on a camping trip, just getting away from the old world, finding out what the big deal about Scandinavia is?Welcome home.Of course, these four men are a bunch of ponces. They eventually grow on me after some of the real festering shit comes out, but before then, there's very little positive I can say about it other than the fact that the atmospherics are pret...

[Spoilers.] Every now and then you come across a book that causes you to examine your life: the good you've done in the world, the ill. What sin did I commit to have deserved a book as god awful as The Ritual?Here it is in brief: The Ritual is a derivative, shallow, insidiously sexist novel from an author whose ideas far exceed his technical skill.In the foreword, Nevill credits a number of other authors for inspiring him, among them Cormac McCarthy. Within the first chapter of The Ritual, it wa...

i’d say that adam nevill should have quit while he was ahead with this one, but then no book would exist (although maybe it’d be better that way)

Wow. This one came soooo very close to getting five stars from me. I am a horror buff and I LOVE to be scared ...really, truly freaked out. Not grossed out (I'll take a bit of that in good fun) but creeped out. My ideal physiological response to horror is when I get the heebie-jeebies (pardon my use of technical terms here) -- you know, the tingling spine, sweaty palms, paranoia, pounding pulse. I'm addicted to dread, and if you can make me want to sleep with the light on I will love you forever...

3 - 3.5★Hmm. I enjoyed this novel, for the most part; until it went in a direction I wasn't expecting. The 'South of Heaven' chapters, didn't really work for me, much - though it did redeem itself, slightly, with the attic scene, and the seemingly, harmless, little old woman (who I would've despatched first). Four friends: Luke, Hutch, Dom and Phil, reunite, to go on a hiking-trip through the Scandinavian wilderness, and get more than they bargained for, after taking a shortcut, into unknown ter...

This year, I chose Stephen King’s Pet Sematary as my Halloween-season book. I’m not much of a horror junkie, so I generally don’t read more than one scary book in a year. In one respect, Pet Sematary turned out to be a great pick. It is a work of absolute genius. But in other respects, Pet Sematary failed. Or maybe it’s better said that it succeeded too well. Anyway, I’m trying to say that Pet Sematary filled me with the kind of oppressive existential dread that I usually only feel on my birthda...

Underwhelming. I struggled with the main characters, and lost interest in the ridiculous aspect of the latter part of the story. Maybe the movie is better?

"Evil was, he decided, inevitable, relentless and predictable. Imaginative, he'd give it that much, but soulless." This one is a truly maddening, horror filled reading experience. The situation these four friends have to face is unimaginable and it pushes Luke, our main character to the very brink of sanity and beyond. I highly recommend this one for anyone who appreciates a good scary page turner!

I feel like this could have been so much better. The horror aspects, the creature itself, the twist all are very well done. Unfortunately, the horror gets very much bogged down in internal moralizing/dialogue. I feel like this book could have been half as short and been that much better for it. This would have made an excellent novella/short story, as it is; it gets much too bogged down in its own internal preaching to make the horror as punchy and spine-tingling as it could have been. A shame,

Luke, Dom, Phil and Hutch have been friends since college. Over the years since, however, they have begun to drift apart. Particularly Luke, who is the only one still single and without a stable career.The men decide to travel from their homes in the UK, to the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle for a backpacking adventure; a reunion of sorts.Unfortunately, the camaraderie of the group isn't as strong as you would hope. In fact, it's slightly hostile. Dom and Phil are condescending to

Dizzy with exhaustion, weary like the dying, you hang between the bindings of vine and the scaffolding of sticks. And wait...Wait for it. I read this novel over a year back, and I recently watched the movie adaptation of the story which brought me back to the sinister uncharted woods of Scandinavian forests, where the unspeakable thing lurks in the shadows, cunningly stalking its prey.The novel tells the story of four long-time friends getting together for a hike in the woods, but the

I just finished this book and I am utterly exhausted emotionally and physically. What a harrowing journey through the Scandinavian wilderness this turned out to be. Mr. Neville has such a beautiful and descriptive voice. Some of the passages are so lyrical yet horrifying. I honestly felt the fatigue, agony, and utter hopelessness these characters felt. While some readers didn't care for what some are calling the second half of the book, South of Heaven, I found it just as frightening as the firs...

The Ritual was a stunning book to get lost in. The beginning with the four University friends trying to hike out through some ruthless Scandinavian forests ravages more than their clothes, they all have personal issues that over time have formed thorns between them and what better time to hash it out then out in the wild where tempers flare. So it's a double lost in the bushes story, physically and mentally, it's a grueling non hold barrel of a good time, for the reader who is safe on the couch

"There are some things worse than death."I don't know what possessed me to bypass my next intended read for THE RITUAL....probably the wonderfully creepy cover? All I know is that once it showed on my GR feed, I was being drawn to it, and once I started, I couldn't stop the need to find out what IT was and how it would all end.This story is about four university mates who get together for a hiking reunion in the wilderness of Sweden. If you're a horror reader, you know that often times character...

'And then the nearest part of the shadow, that defined itself by the thinnest light of the torch that brushed that place, moved. Raised itself no more than a few inches, in the way a stalking cat will engage in the next step towards its prey.'I'm almost ashamed to say that The Ritual is my first read from British supernatural horror author Adam Nevill and I was for the most part quite impressed with the characterization, tension and pace of the story.Four old University buddies decide to relive

Actual rating 3.5/5 stars.Four university friends reunite a decade later for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness. Relations, moods, and the weather quickly turn sour and what promised to be an adventurous retreat from their daily lives soon turns into a miserable and soggy trek. Blisters and wet socks soon become the least of their problems however and an isolated house found in the middle of virgin terrain is only the start of the nightmare they find themselves inside of...I initially