Review of The Haunting of Paynes Hollow—Lakeside Horror

The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelly Armstrong is a folk horror novel set in a fictional upstate New York lake town. Sam Payne returns to her family’s lakeside property after inheriting it, but must stay for one month to claim the inheritance. Fourteen years earlier, she witnessed her father burying a murder victim at the same location. Upon her return, Sam experiences supernatural phenomena including hoofbeats from a legendary headless horseman and water spirits called nekkers. She must uncover the truth about sacrificial rituals connected to these entities while confronting her past trauma. Rather than developing into a romance, the story focuses on Sam’s platonic friendship and mutual healing with Ben, the murdered boy’s older brother. The novel combines the headless horseman legend with Dutch folklore and water spirit mythology to create its folk horror backdrop.

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