It's obvious from the start that something is wrong with the small town of Moonwell, on the edge of the Peak District. Journalist Nick suddenly remembers he has been there and knows an American schoolteacher Diane who teaches there - but he had mysteriously forgotten and no one else he asks, including telephone enquiries, have heard of it. He sets out to see Diane, who had passed on misgivings about things happening in the community, and enroute finds himself driving into - total darkness.

Cut to what led up to this. An American evangelist and his cohorts arrived a few months previously and set about converting the town. All but a few sceptics, including the local vicar and Diane, became avid followers, but it is clear through disquieting incidents that an inimical influence from the deep pothole near the town is probably assisting this process and drawing some sustenance from it. Eventually, Diane hears the truth from an old resident. The inhabitants have carried out a kind of 'well dressing' with a flower figure on every St John the Baptist's day - apart from him, they have forgotten that the custom dates back to druid times and is to safeguard the locals from what lives in the pothole. By the time he tells Diane, it is too late to prevent the evangelist from descending into the hole to confront what he believes is the devil, with devastating consequences.

The book features a large cast of characters though for the most part they are kept distinguishable. There are some truly horrible villains, including the husband and wife who run the school and browbeat the older children. Before long, they become sworn enemies of Diane who had been trying to shield the children from them. The evangelist and his converts are the worst kind of religious fanatic and have no genuine Christianity, with their scapegoating of non believers. The creature in the pothole enjoys manipulating the foibles and flaws of human beings with devastating consequences, as when it influences the father of a vulnerable boy, Andrew, who is supposedly backward at school but is probably that way because of his truly dreadful mother and his father's neglect. As with other Ramsey Campbell stories, the innocent suffer and the most helpless and pitiable characters become victims. The evocation of the darkness which descends on the community, literally as well as figuratively, is excellent and very spooky, as are the descriptions of the minions of the evil force. And the characterisation of the moon as a sentient horror is also very effective.

The slight detraction which holds back the book from a 5-star rating is that the end is rather contrived as there is no real build-up to the way Diane is able to pull things out of the bag in the climax. Plus the whole missile base angle, which is worked into the book from early on and which seems to be leading up to possible worldwide apocalypse caused by the creature which feeds on death and souls is rather quickly dropped. He admits in an afterword that this was because he couldn't work out how to get all the characters necessary to the base - probably because he had made it impossible for anyone to leave the town and therefore written himself into a corner. The epilogue is interesting though and gives a bittersweet ending to the survivors' emotional and spiritual journey. ( )

An interesting Lovecraft Ian tales from the monumental Ramsey Campbell. This centres around a folk horror ritual that occurs in Derbyshire. It was initially an incredibly evocative, Macon or Blackwood type piece. Unfortunately, it’s took the form of an adventure film in the last third. I felt that this week in the pram eyes of the whole venture. I also feel that Campbell’s An interesting Lovecraft Ian tales from the monumental Ramsey Campbell. This centres around a folk horror ritual that occurs in Derbyshire. It was initially an incredibly evocative, Macon or Blackwood type piece. Unfortunately, it’s took the form of a adventure film in the last third. I felt that this weakened the premise of the whole venture. I also feel that Campbell is better when describing the set up rather than When the creature finally emerges. Good but can be missed if one is not a Campbell completist. ( )

I've read a few of Ramsey Campbell's short stories, and I've liked them. The Hungry Moon is the first novel of his I've read. It is straight-up weird horror, with no overtures to the Lovecraftian "mythos." Set in the secluded English town of Moonwell, it includes a diverse ensemble of central characters. The heroine -- who does not really dominate the narrative -- is an American expatriate schoolteacher named Diana Kramer. Other important figures include a couple of booksellers, the town postman, a local midwife, a young boy and his parents (who operate a sporting goods store), a journalist from out of town, the blind man who is the town's eldest resident, and so on. Each of these have their own perspectives on the terrible events of the story as it unfolds.

The town is named after a large cave out on the moors that has a folkloric legacy, decorated every midsummer in some survival of pagan custom. An American evangelist comes to town to purge this "godlessness" and exorcise the cave, only to liberate the dormant evil that is actually confined in its depths. The stakes are raised by the presence of a nearby military base with nuclear weapons.

As the influence from the cave waxes, the town becomes thoroughly isolated from outside, and the residents are turned against each other. Much of the menace of the story comes from the religious fervor of the townspeople consolidated under the evangelist Godwin Mann. But there are unquestionably supernatural events, with little effort made to rationalize them; on the contrary, they often seem calculated to defy explanation. Additionally, the malefic influence exploits the psychological idiosyncrasies and weaknesses of various characters in other ways besides the hymn-singing cult. Before the story has ended, many of the characters have, and in an assortment of grisly ways.

The book is a fast read of 67 short chapters, oppressively spooky, and likely to satisfy fans of its genre.

A creepy story centering around a small town called Moonwell. Things are strange in Moonwell where there are a lot of myths and legends about Druids and a cave/well out on the moors. Things become even more strange when an American evangelist comes to town with a hoard of his followers and stirs up religious fervor, making the people in town who do not agree with his ways become out casts. All the suspense builds leading up to St. John the baptist day where the evangelist goes into the cave to cast out the demons. Then the town goes dark, people from the outside forget all about the town, and no one can leave the town. What is the cause of this? Could it be evil? Will the town survive?

This book had great suspense, and was very creepy. It was hard to follow at first because the story jumps around between the townspeople, but once you get a handle on who everyone is it becomes a great read. The plot is very involved, so it wasn't a quick read. ( )

If you like a good creepy story, then you'll really like this one!

The book begins with a newspaper reporter, trying to get in touch with a woman in the town of Moonwell (in England somewhere), but no one seems to have heard of the town. It is not listed in any atlas, the telephone operator has no clue of what the reporter (Nick) is talking about, and yet, Nick knew he had been there! What is going on?

On the sidelines, an American evangelist has come into Moonwell, ready to "exorcise" the evil there as instructed by God. He whips the town's inhabitants (all but a few sane people) into a religious frenzy and soon the town becomes crazy with religious fervor. But not everyone is sure that the evil should be exorcised -- and that long-standing traditions should be disrupted in favor of the plans that God has for the evangelist.

I won't say more, except that this was a very creepy story and a real page turner. I finished it in about three hours, largely because I didn't want to stop.

I would recommend it to readers who are willing to dwell in the realm of disbelief for a while and who just want to relax and have fun with a good old-fashioned horror story. I liked it. ( )