And it taught me something quite important.Ī good horror novel can make a girl cry.

Horseman gives way more than I ever expected it to give. And this is why the tears streamed from my eyes, only to then gush when I reached the novel’s hopeful final passage, the sheer beauty of it nothing short of perfection. She lays bare his anguished emotions, his torturous unrest. Henry slows the story’s pace and digs powerfully into the narrative, opening Ben like a wound. The story is darkly atmospheric and fairy tale-esque, while also brutally gruesome, befitting the genre.īut where the novel truly shines is in its closing scenes when Ben has aged to 24. But what Henry adds to Irving’s legend is clever and entertaining in its own right. Part of my joy in reading Horseman comes from the nostalgia of revisiting Sleepy Hollow and its characters. Until he happens upon a child’s headless body while out exploring, and he and the villagers are forced to wonder whether the fabled Horseman has returned. Ben spends his days helping Brom on the farm and playing games in the woods, living quietly in the Hollow. Henry picks the story up 30 years after the Headless Horseman chased Ichabod Crane from town and introduces us to 14-year-old Ben Van Brunt, grandson of Brom Bones and Katrina Van Tassel. Because her latest release, Horseman, is a mesmerizing, creepy, and (surprisingly) poignant continuation of Washington Irving’s classic tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Leave all the lights on in my house and raise my electric bill, yes.īut cry tears of sorrow and awe from the emotional resonance of the writing in a horror novel?Ĭhristina Henry brought forth my tears, though. Be sure to visit Bantering Books to read all my latest reviews.

Horseman book christina henry