Mischief Acts

Reviews / Votes

Wild and wonderful ... a delirious labour of love * SUNDAY TIMES, BOOKS OF THE YEAR * Inventive and subversive ... A mesmerising journey down the byways of English folklore * MAIL ON SUNDAY * A joyous mad brick of a book * THE TIMES, Best summer reads 2022 * Verbally dextrous, inventive, and hugely entertaining * THE TIMES * A dark-dazzling archive of enchantments, pursuit, and desire -- ELEY WILLIAMS Weaving together prose and poetry, myth and history, the past, present and future, it's a work of extraordinary ambition, brilliantly realised * OBSERVER * Gilbert conjures up an enchanting history of a now near-forgotten woodland. elegizing the myths lost to modernity and the wild spaces swallowed by the city * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT * This is the most adventurous, stylistically magnificent thing I've read for years. Nobody does fantasy like Zoe Gilbert -- NATASHA PULLEY Mischief Acts is a deeply lyrical, century-spanning polyphony of voices; a dazzling new take on an ancient myth, reminding us of the wildness within. I adored it -- KERRY ANDREW Mischief Acts is brimming with magic - full of wild hunts, river spirits and revelry. The story of Herne, like the forest itself, transforms, entangles and enchants -- LUCY WOOD Superb. A work of shimmering allure. By turns beguiling and mercurial, Gilbert takes British folklore to new heights -- IRENOSEN OKOJIE Charming, naughty, epic, adventurous, mystical, beautifully penned, and incredibly good fun to read - do so as soon as you can ... A little bit David Bowie in his chameleonic charisma, with a touch of Jim Morrison, perhaps, the character imagined here can't help but charm the reader, but it's Gilbert's effortless, imaginative prose that is the true delight, for it's just as stylish and suave as the central protagonist * BUZZ MAGAZINE * Such an important novel for our times ... Reconnects us with a centuries-old story of an environment that is bigger than us, older than us and at whose whim we are ultimately dependent on for our survival * THE CONVERSATION * An absolutely glorious work * FORTEAN TIMES, Books of the Year *