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Banquet For the Damned

3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 · rating details · 198 ratings · 40 reviews

Few believed Professor Coldwell was in touch with an unseen world—that he could commune with spirits. But in Scotland's oldest university town something has passed from darkness into light. Now, the young are being haunted by night terrors and those who are visited disappear. This is certainly not a place for outsiders, especially at night. So what chance do a rootless mus...more

Paperback, 410 pages

Published March 9th 2010 by Virgin Books

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Nov 02, 2012 nicoll lu rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: mini-book-club, scrap

Probably the worst book I had the pleasure of giving up on. after well over 250 page my reading buddy and I decided it was not worthy. Believe me you do not want to read this. It's badly written, it has no plot direction, the characters are awful. most of the book appears like a scene-descritpion in a movie script - short, and exhaustive. just don't. this book is NOT about a scholar investigating mysterious deaths. this book is about killing your will to read and live. be smart, walk away.

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Feb 17, 2012 Brian Steele rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Very few contemporary books I've read have so perfectly captured the atmosphere and tension of dread better than Nevill's genre-stretching ghost story. The fear experienced by so many of the characters is beyond palatable, truly visceral, and felt by the reader in all five senses. It's a brilliant concept, wonderfully executed, only flawed by the individuals Nevill chose to populate his book with.

Our two failed rock stars are often unbelievable, even more so the drunken American anthropologist....more

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Jan 17, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the hazards of writing supernatural horror fiction at novel-length are many and legendary. The received wisdom is that it cannot be done with any real success. But the received wisdom is that there are also a few honourable exceptions. So whilst good novel-length supernatural horror fiction (meaning here what can be conveniently be called “Jamesian” or “dark fantasy”, and thus not simply horror fiction) is as rare as Weird Tales keeping to its adverti...more It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the hazards of writing supernatural horror fiction at novel-length are many and legendary. The received wisdom is that it cannot be done with any real success. But the received wisdom is that there are also a few honourable exceptions. So whilst good novel-length supernatural horror fiction (meaning here what can be conveniently be called “Jamesian” or “dark fantasy”, and thus not simply horror fiction) is as rare as Weird Tales keeping to its advertised publication schedule, nevertheless it does exist.

Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness come to mind, as does Ghost Story by Peter Straub, as well as several novels by Charles L Grant and the late and considerably under-rated Michael McDowell. In his Introduction to Banquet for the Damned Ramsey Campbell invokes the Leiber novels, and also mentions Kingsley Amis’ The Green Man and Daniel Rhodes’ Next, After Lucifer. (And modestly omits to say anything about any of his own valuable contributions to the list.) But, as Campbell correctly points out, it is still clear that novel-length “Jamesian” fiction is a rare commodity

And now there is Adam L G Nevill’s new novel Banquet for the Damned. It is Jamesian to the core, and not just in the aspects that are apparently the easiest to do, and which in the past have so often caught out the writer of mere pastiche. The novel has a genuinely gothic and scholarly setting: the Scottish city of St Andrews, with its ancient university and long-established academic tradition. The atmospheric background is established from the opening line: “It is a night empty of cloud and as still as space.” But you can’t construct a novel on atmosphere only, and we aren’t only looking backwards into the more leisurely period of stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, and candlelight. We are also clearly in the contemporary world, with computers, CDs, guitars, a battered Land Rover, considerable amounts of drinking, and much academic intrigue and back-biting (although that last is perhaps simply timeless).

M R James always set his stories in thoroughly recognizable (if sometimes unusual) settings, and used the trappings of the time. Thus the supernatural is a part of the scene, although a thoroughly unwelcome intrusion, and all the more able to terrify through its distortion of what was previously thought to be simple reality. That is where Nevill starts from.

Two young men from Birmingham, Dante and Tom, arrive in St Andrews. Both have spent years drifting in and out of jobs, and getting absolutely nowhere at all with their band and would-be musical career. Now Dante is following up the chance of a life-time: becoming the research assistant to philosopher Eliot Coldwell, cult author of Dante’s favourite book, the occult study Banquet for the Damned. Tom tags along in the hope of also being able to make a new start in a new city.

Straightaway, the setting of the old city and university of St Andrews starts to make itself felt. But the placid city is taking on a life of its own. Dante and Tom have arrived just as a number of students are reporting suffering from terrifying sleep disturbances, and some have disappeared. And with the American anthropologist Hart Miller also newly arrived on the scene, and starting to investigate, St Andrews is certainly not the quiet and somewhat remote academic backwater that it might have seemed to be on the surface. The past has become like something cold, dark, and tainted rising up slowly through mud into the bright daylight of the present.

Nevill starts building up the suspense early on. Banquet for the Damned is as much a thriller as it is a novel of supernatural horror. Intriguing and ambiguous hints are liberally strewn around. Eliot Coldwell turns out to be as utterly dodgy as it is possible to be. He crudely tries to get his assistant, Beth, together with Dante – something which she is certainly enthusiastic about. Coldwell’s university employers finally start to wonder who they have taken on and start to put the pressure on him. And when Hart Miller’s work with the disturbed students starts him to making connections with Eliot’s non-academic activities that seem to have resonances with aspects of St Andrews’ dark past, then the stage is set.

The tension gradually mounts. Scuttling things are glimpsed; dreams are disturbing and life-like. There is plenty of arresting imagery, with often little sense of the city really being quite of this world, despite the mundane setting. There are many Jamesianesque hints scattered throughout. For example: “That was the last straw, to turn around and see your own overcoat upon the table, where it had been upset from the window sill, lying as if face down with the shape of a body still inside it, on the desk where his books and folders were open.”

Not all is deadly serious, either. One character is called Rhodes Hodgson! (The character Eliot Coldwell of course recalls Mr Karswell from “Casting the Runes”. The resemblances between them are not limited to their names, and are surely not coincidental.) And there is much that is distinctly non-Jamesian as well. Banquet for the Damned has a strong erotic element. Beth is presented to Dante as a sort of senior research assistant to Eliot Coldwell -- someone who will show Dante everything. That turns out to potentially be the least of it. Beth puts the fatale firmly back into femme fatale. And does it with much femme as well…

Past occurrences have consequences in the present. Dante collides with that most clichéd and Jamesian -- and correct -- of notions with a vengeance. Coldwell has apparently made contact with some sort of coven from St Andrews’ violent past, and Beth is also intimately involved as the corrupting channel for the mediaeval terrors newly breaking into the city. Friends and acquaintances are becoming deadly enemies. Dante, Tom, and Hart Miller have to put a stop to it all. Nevill winds up Banquet for the Damned in a very vivid and satisfying way, with plenty of violence and the always present possibility that they might still yet fail.

The breathless pace is maintained right up until the end: a considerable achievement for a long novel of 494 pages. (For comparison, Fritz Leiber’s Our Lady of Darkness weighs in at 189 pages of quite large print). The dustjacket by Edward Miller is a bonus, capturing as it does much of the eerie essence of Adam L G Nevill’s novel. Banquet for the Damned is a first-rate read, and one which contains a great deal to savour for the enthusiast of the Jamesian manner, and which also offers as much to those who prefer a more obviously contemporary approach to supernatural horror.
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Dec 30, 2011 Isidore rated it 2 of 5 stars

A prolix potboiler, despite critical praise from people who should know better. There is talk of the novel as Jamesian, which it certainly is not; it has none of M.R. James's wit or brevity, and very little of his gift for the unexpected sinister image or analogy. Much of the novel consists of agonizingly protracted introspection on the part of tedious characters: Dante, the empty-headed Rock-Star-wannabe, and Hart, unconvincing as an anthropologist and hilariously unbelievable as an American (H...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

I liked it...While I happen to sit on the side of the fence of readers who claim that horror is much more potent in short-story format, once in a while I run into a full-length novel that can throw a continually sustained chill down my spine. Banquet for the Damned did just that. Although it didn't give me nightmares or produce the sort of night terrors that some of the characters suffered in this book, the creep factor was intense enough to where I read it in one sitting -- alone, at night,wind...more I liked it...While I happen to sit on the side of the fence of readers who claim that horror is much more potent in short-story format, once in a while I run into a full-length novel that can throw a continually sustained chill down my spine. Banquet for the Damned did just that. Although it didn't give me nightmares or produce the sort of night terrors that some of the characters suffered in this book, the creep factor was intense enough to where I read it in one sitting -- alone, at night,wind howling outside, the perfect horror-read atmosphere. If the object of writing horror is taking the reader briefly into the zone of the worst that might possibly happen and letting him or her experience the fear, panic and hopelessness that abides in that space, well, Nevill's done a great job.

I'll just leave impressions here, I have a longer review elsewhere.

On the whole, I found Banquet of the Damned to be a disturbingly good occult horror read. There are no gimmicky creatures, the terror is manifested at times but for the most part cerebral, and the tension is sustained throughout the story, keeping you alert and ready for what might happen next. Nevill writes without going overboard in the telling, and The setting is inexorably linked to its already-charged historical atmosphere -- St. Andrews was once a place of religious martyrs, witchcraft and the cleansing of heresy ; Nevill has just added a new dimension to the already-existing history of darkness there. It works perfectly, from the dunes on the beaches to the dark Tentsmuir forests.

I'm not a reader who cares about instant gratification -- I'm very much willing to wait, especially in horror and in crime novels. Other readers have complained about the repetition of the night-terror scenes, but I thought they were necessary for raising the tension level right off the bat. Some have noted that Dante makes some really stupid decisions, and that is true, but my take is that in his growing state of disillusionment, he's kind of slow or maybe unwilling to grasp what's really going on. My issues with this book are in some of the characters: first Tom -- while you could argue that he had to be included as the first link in a chain of cause and effect as to Dante's current predicament, we really only see him through Dante's eyes without any real fleshing out, and I was totally unsympathetic and apathetic toward this guy. And when he and Dante have a fight and Dante begins to think about their relationship, the book gets a bit draggy while we have to go through the sordid backstory that I really didn't think added to the tension of the main story. Second is Hart and the way he speaks -- it is so stupid, having him refer to the women as "honey" -- sort of unrealistic for most modern American men.

But truth be told, I really liked this book despite the stuff that niggled at me, and I definitely recommend it when you want an old-fashioned story that will give you the willies for a few hours. (less)

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Aug 28, 2012 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I did like this book much better than Apartment 16; however, I didn't really love it. My biggest complaint is that the book is incredibly repetitive. Since I'm not a big fan of this genre and don't read a lot of it or watch a lot of these movies, the only things I have to really compare this book to are video games. So, here's a gamer's perspective on this book:

Adam Nevill would have gotten five stars from me if he would have heeded the following:

1.) Cut the book in half. The whole thing dragged...more

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Jun 22, 2010 Blair rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ghostly-and-magical

This was one of those books you're just not quite sure what to make of. I was really into it at the beginning, and couldn't put it down for about a third of the story, but little by little I began to lose interest and by the last few chapters I didn't really care what happened. The supernatural/occult element was really interesting at first, but some of what happened was just overkill and it all became a bit silly. While the narrative painted a really vivid picture of the setting, and some of th...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lisa by: Jade Brelsford

Shelves: 2010

Dante Shaw is a struggling rock musician hoping to record a concept album of his favourite book, Banquet for the Damned, so when he's invited to St Andrews in Scotland by the author (his hero, and sort of Crowley type figure) Eliot Coldwell, he jumps at the chance. On the day of his arrival, with his best friend in tow, an arm is discovered on the beach; students are suffering from terrifying night terrors, some are going missing and it starts to seem that Banquet for the Damned may not have bee...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Keith rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

It was marketed as an MR James style ghost story, but, having got about a quarter of the way through, it falls far short of this. We get tourist map geography in place of local flavour, grand guignol instead of creeping horror. There is little or no growing sense of unease, we know that something is wrong because it hits us round the head almost every chapter.

Finished it. This is a much better book than Apartment 16, in fact I'm glad I read this second, it at least leaves me with some hope for h...more

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May 03, 2010 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

So I have a weakness for occult thrillers. It's a problem that goes way back. I've tried to get help for it...well, ok, so I haven't tried to get help, but I probably should. The point is, I really wanted to love this book, but I ended up just liking it. Don't get me wrong, it's an entertaining page-turner, and I do appreciate that Nevill avoided the ubiquitous vampires, werewolves and other tired gothic standbys that have infected current pop culture. But I just wish he'd had a better editor to...more

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Jul 03, 2010 Paula rated it 5 of 5 stars

I decided to read 'Banquet of the Damned' after reading a great review and I was not disappointed, 'Banquet of the Damned' is a excellent supernatural story, it has everything, suspense, terror, things that go bump in the night, everything I expect from a good supernatural book. What I liked the most about 'Banquet of the Damned' was how original it was in its story, its set in the most unlikely of places, St Andrews in Scotland, I also enjoyed that it was psychological horror, there is definite...more

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May 01, 2012 Chimene rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Horror fans

Shelves: horror, supernatural, cult

I enjoyed this book, but probably not as much as I enjoyed Adam Nevill’s Apartment 16...

Banquet of the Dammed follows the story of Dante and Tom who arrive for fresh beginnings in St Andrews, Scotland.
The reader follows them as mystery and terror unfolds. Something dark and restless is among the youngsters at the university. Something is visiting them in the night and those who are visited disappear.
Throw into the mix the seemingly nutty, consistently intoxicated, professor Coldwell, who believe...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Lizcoldwell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Slow-building horror in the classic MR James vein, where the atmosphere of the place in which evil lurks, in this case the university town of St Andrews, is as important as events. Moderately successful rock musician Dante moves from Birmingham to St Andrews to help his idol, Professor Eliot Coldwell, in his research into the supernatural. The only trouble is, Eliot's studies have gone from the theoretical to the practical, apparently bringing an old horror into the modern world, and his previou...more

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Mar 04, 2010 Jade rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 23, 2012 Victoria rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: awful, mystery-thriller

What a disappointment.... At first, I hoped this book was just a bit slow to start. As I kept plodding through, I kept hoping that eventually the pace would pick up and it would start to feel like an exciting, thrilling story. As the book went on (and on and on), the scariest part was that I feared it would never get any better. Finally, just under a hundred pages from the end, the book’s plot moved a bit faster. But even by the final scene, the book never became the thrilling and frightening st...more

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Apr 04, 2009 Hannah rated it 5 of 5 stars

I walked into Whitcouls one day, looking for a good read. I had just finished Twilight, and I wanted a book with a supernatural theme but a better read than Twilight. And in the corner of my eye I saw a book with a gloomy cover, I walked over to it, and it was "Banquet For The Damned" by Adam L.G. Nevill.
And from that moment, the book captured me, before I even knew what the book was about, it captured me.
I can't go into detail as to what the book is about, because I will get carried away and te...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Whisper19 rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: mini-book-club

With every page I am disliking this book more and more.
Reasons:
1) his style of writing. I have a thing to say to this writer: not every noun has to have an adjective and there is such a thing as a simple sentence in the English language. Why, in god's name why!?, do you have to write like this! This is a horror/suspense story - there is no horror and no suspense here simply because the author can't seem to get to the point. He keeps writing about the existential crises of some of the characters,...more

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Mar 12, 2011 Chloe Thurlow rated it 5 of 5 stars

Adam Nevill is carving his name on the great rock of horror writers and I can see with the years his position is going to move forever onwards and upwards. His technique is to set out on page one by lighting a very long fuse and allowing it to burn through the pages and chapters, taking us on a horrifying journey into the depths of our own inner being. If you're home alone (especially in Knightsbridge) don't read this book.

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Aug 18, 2011 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is my favourite book by Adam Nevill so far. After reading Apartment 16, I decided to take a look at what other books Nevill had written and found The Ritual, then found Banquet Of The Damned. Yet again, Nevill delivers a well written and absorbing novel. I found this book to be slightly different than his others in a small way, it was more focused on the supernatural rather than giving the reader fear, but that is by no means a bad thing. I found myself quickly engrossed in storyline and wa...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Martha rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found some of the reviews of this book to be outrageous and unfounded. I've become weary of reviews, and after this I will most likely ignore any I come across in the future. I really enjoyed Nevill's style. His descriptive language is vivid and stunning and thought the plot to be unique and well thought out. It is worth the read if you enjoy this genre, just give it a chance. Looking forward to reading the rest of his work!

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Feb 17, 2012 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars

I thought this novel a bit pedestrian. The characters were a bit shallow, althogh I did relate to the alcoholic, weird university profesor studying night terrors and thought his character added something that was missing to the book. As with most horror novels, I found the endgame a little bit contrived...but there again, where do you go with a story of the paranormal.

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Jan 04, 2013 KC rated it 3 of 5 stars

Alright, I suppose. Characters bit bland and quite irritating at points. Ending is an anti-climax, which is also something I've noticed in other AN novels. Pace is pretty slow and I wonder if that's because he's not v confident about endings.

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Oct 27, 2012 Casey Nash rated it 3 of 5 stars

Great concept, but the writing style just annoyed me. I can't tell you why, but I just couldn't read it. There was one point where I was starting to get into it, but then it changed to a different point of view and I lost interest again.
The storyline's good and I'm sure it's a good book, but while I have other books to read this will be staying on the shelf.

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Feb 15, 2013 Abeille rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-books-wtm-challenge

This book got off to a good start, dragged horribly in the middle, and then recovered somewhat at the end. Throughout, it remained *just* promising enough to make me slog on but the book never lived up to that promise. I find myself annoyed that I forced myself to finish; there are so many good books out there waiting to be read that I need to be more ruthless when I come across one that isn't up to snuff. Book #12 in the Book a Week in 2013 Challenge from the #WTM boards.

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Jan 13, 2012 Leslee rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-horror-the-horror

I liked it better than Apartment 16 but I felt like the ending fell flat and didn't live up to the huge build up. That's the same problem that I felt Apartment 16 had. Nevill seems to do a great job with setting up a very creepy situation but doesn't quite know how to finish the job with a satisfying climax.

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Feb 26, 2012 Mandy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Really disappointing. This should have been good. All the elements were there, the setting, the characters, the anthropologist, the failed rock band members, the mystery of night terrors, the figure cloaked in rags ... but...
It just dragged on, and on. I never got a sense of who Dante was, why he was so obsessed with Eliot. The descriptive detail went too far, sometimes losing the point of the sentence in it's over flamboyant language. Even in dialogue, the descriptive detail was unconvincing an...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Anne Girouard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Spooky, creepy, dank, and dark. My favorite parts of this novel were the chapters in which Hart Miller (an American anthropologist) explores the dark dreams of various cultures. The protagonist Dante was OK, but not someone I was terribly interested in for most of the book. Would I recommend it? Only if you're into scary stuff....

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Feb 15, 2011 Sophie Carsenat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great 'classic witchcraft' novel with really genuine scares and dense atmosphere. Hard to believe this is Adam Nevill's first horror novel, it's so very assured and tight. The Brown Man has seriously haunted my sleep for the past few weeks, but that's OK because I have a crush on Dante and he'll save me. Can't wait to start 'Apartment 16'!

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Apr 01, 2013 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this and found it genuinely unsettling. The only thing I didn't like was the main character being called Dante...mmm. Hats off though.

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Mar 20, 2010 Paul Whiffin rated it 3 of 5 stars

At times it was tense and full of suspense. However for long periods the description of st Andrews was too indepth and took the pace out of the narrative

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About Adam Nevill

Adam L.G. Nevill was born in Birmingham, England, in 1969, and grew up in England and New Zealand. He is the author of novels: Banquet for the Damned, Apartment 16, The Ritual and Last Days. He lives in London and can be contacted through wwww.adamlgnevill.com

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