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The Ritual
- Author
- Adam Nevill
- Narrator
- David Thorpe
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Publish Date
- 20 May 2011
- Run Time
- 11 hours 59 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Contemporary horror, ghost stories and supernatural fiction, Occult fiction / Paranormal Horror, Thriller / suspense fiction
- Rating
- 3.5 (2 reviews)
What to expect
From Britain's 'master of horror', Adam Nevill, comes The Ritual, winner of the August Derleth Award and perfect for fans of Stephen King.
Now a major film with Rafe Spall.
Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives.
Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artefacts and unidentifiable bones. A place of dark ritual and home to a bestial presence that is still present in the ancient forest, and now they’re the prey.
As the four friends struggle toward salvation they discover that death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees . . .
Critics Review
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This novel grabs from the very first page, refuses to be laid aside, and carries the hapless reader, exhausted and wrung out, to the very last sentence.
The Guardian
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Often horror loses its power when the evil is given a face; in this case it only gets more disturbing.
The Sunday Times
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With The Ritual Nevill has crafted some of the tensest scariest horror this reviewer has read for years.
SFX
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The Ritual by Adam Nevill is a mind-twisting journey into the dark backwoods of terror. Deeply disturbing and absolutely riveting.
Jonathan Maberry, New York Times Bestselling author of Dead of Night and The King of Plagues
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Nevill makes the natural world deeply menacing, using the power of suggestion rather than explicit images to create a growing claustrophobic feeling as the difficult journey to return to some semblance of civilization embeds the quartet only further in the grasp of primal evil.
Publishers Weekly
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If you want something to make you scared of going into the deep, dark woods then I would highly recommend you pick up The Ritual. The Gruffalo it ain’t!
Geek Syndicate
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It has been over a week now since I finished this book and it has really stayed with me and I find myself thinking about it on numerous occasions, and this is another very good sign.
Fantasy Book Review
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The Ritual didn’t just stop at sending a shiver down my spine, carrying on past that to leave me feeling all unsettled and resolved to stay away from large unexplored woods. A horror novel that leaves you feeling melancholy and thoughtful (as well as just plain scared); Neville is rapidly cementing his position as an author worth watching.
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
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The Ritual, is now one of my all time favourite books, for me personally this is a powerful book that ticks every box in horror writing.
Gingernuts of Horror
User Reviews
Book 3.5
Narration 3.0
-
2.0 1.0
Did not finish this, found it extremely tedious and didn’t care about any of the characters. Both my husband and I listened for about 3 and a half hours and then did not want to continue. Also the sound is awful. The narrator goes really loud when narrating but when speaking as the characters goes super quiet. We had to keep putting the volume up and down to hear anything. It was so badly produced.
Helenw102 2026-03-21 -
5.0 5.0
I totally disagree with the other review left on this book. This book is absolutely epic and the narrator does a fabulous job. The characters and setting are so totally engaging and I love the way the forest is almost a character on its own. It’s tense, terrifying, and creepy but also has a soul and is deep and human. It’s an emotional rollercoaster and so well written. I am going to download more by the same author now. Utterly fabulous. Probably my book of the year so far.
AmyG 2026-03-18
Details
- Author
- Adam Nevill
- Narrator
- David Thorpe
- Duration
- 11 hours 59 minutes
- Release Date
- 20 May 2011
- ISBN
- 9780230760714
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Genre
- Contemporary horror, ghost stories and supernatural fiction, Occult fiction / Paranormal Horror, Thriller / suspense fiction
- Rating
- 3.5(2 reviews)
- Narration
- 3.0(2 reviews)
Synopsis
From Britain's 'master of horror', Adam Nevill, comes The Ritual, winner of the August Derleth Award and perfect for fans of Stephen King.Now a major film with Rafe Spall.Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives.Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artefacts and unidentifiable bones. A place of dark ritual and home to a bestial presence that is still present in the ancient forest, and now they’re the prey.As the four friends struggle toward salvation they discover that death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees . . .
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