It’s no secret that when Chris Lynch’s first Neverbury book, Welcome To Neverbury, was published, we fell at least a little in love with it here at Mass Movement. In fact, it became my book of the year in a heartbeat. The combination of creepy folk horror and comic writing that created a twee, forgotten old British seaside town with deep, deep secrets hit all the dark comedy buttons you could wish to be hit, in the ways in which the likes of The League of Gentlemen and Inside No. 9 absolutely should have, but never quite did – probably because of their reliance on grotesques to make the point. 

Neverbury shied away from those grotesques, and its people felt like people – just people in a place where Weird Stuff happened.

Having the delicate combination of shudders and laughs read by the intensely versatile Terry Cooper in the audio version lifted the writing to new levels of believability, highlighting the anchoring details that proved the reality of the town, so that the horror and the comedy both came along for the ride, sliding into your brain easily, and refusing to leave for perhaps longer than you’d have liked. 

Shudder.

Going Back, Going Forward

Now Lynch and Cooper are back with Return To Neverbury, which isn’t so much a sequel as simply more of the good stuff, finding new entry points to the life of Neverbury and the Neverburyans and exploring the dark sides behind them all, from an antiquarian book dealer with Something in the cellar, to a serious alternative to the Boy Scouts, to a lawyer called upon to turn exorcist, to a visiting social worker with a very particular set of skills, and a cycling club with deeply historical antecedents determined to face down a fate worse than Satan. As you do. Or at least, as you do in the weird, wonderful and deeply freaky world of Neverbury.

The hallmarks of Lynch’s Neverbury shine through more clearly in the second book; the hooks are polished more sharp and shiny, and the same dedication to both situational and human realism that made the first book’s shudders up the spine work so well is very much in evidence here. 

There are believable people in Neverbury, acting like the people you know, and it’s that which makes the horrors work – if the people are believable, why would the things with which they have to deal be anything beyond the bounds of reason – however many tentacles or teeth they may have?

The Devil In Bicycle Clips

That means you get dark mages with pet Things, pensioners with a horrifying white worm infestation, carnivorous forest spirits and the humans prepared to sacrifice the town’s children to them, fae-like zombies and their girlfriends curdling milk and relationships with equal gusto, demons forbidden from swearing when they possess teenage girls, supper clubs with a horrifying cost, and possibly, just possibly, the Actual Devil.

And you believe in them all. Sure, you know you’re buying fiction, but like the best horror fiction over the centuries, once you start Return To Neverbury, you’re locked in, and you’ll let it affect you on a visceral level. It’s a take-the-day-off-and-stick-your-phone-on-Do-Not-Disturb kind of book. An event in your year kind of book. A go-back-to-the-start-immediately-when-you’re-done kind of book.

The sheer number of pop culture riffs and references Lynch manages to squeeze into these stories deserves a hat tip in and of itself, and there’s a dedication to solidly effective writing and never letting a good gag go unpolished here that you can only appreciate as a reader or listener. 

A Pair of Powerhouses

You’re in expert hands if you like either folk horror, comedy, or a twisted combination of the two. There are riffs here that will make you think of everyone from MR James to Lovecraft to Poe, alongside more recent sources of a good shudder like the Hammer movies, The Exorcist, and The Menu.

If asked for my personal favourites among the tales here, I could almost name them all. Terms and Conditions Apply, It’s What’s Inside That Counts, Be Prepared, Rites of Way and My Wife’s Friend – the joyously transgressive modernised folk horror tale which acts as the collection’s final bite – would certainly be among them. That’s half the collection in a handful of heartbeats, between which it would be impossible to choose. 

Lynch has a powerhouse gift of blending his sources, his humour, and his dedication to unnerving the pants off you that only shows evidence of picking up punch in this collection.

And Terry Cooper works his vocal cords off to provide genuine distinctiveness to a village full of characters, from ageing, disabled pensioners to spotty young legal oiks, to confirmed bachelors with a bicycle pump and helpful women with a history. 

That vocal dexterity helps underpin Lynch’s written realism and sell the prospect of the creepy village through the relatability of its inhabitants. 

Return To Neverbury is an early candidate to become my book of the year for 2026. Give it a try, especially as an audio experience, and it might well become yours too. Tony Fyler

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