Baba Lenka

Pure Occult Horror

By: Sarah England

Narrated by: Penny Scott-Andrews

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

1970. Baba Lenka begins in an icy Bavarian village with a highly unorthodox funeral. The deceased is Baba Lenka, great-grandmother to Eva Hart. But a terrible thing happens at the funeral, and from that moment on, everything changes for seven-year-old Eva.

The family fly back to Yorkshire but it seems the cold Alpine winds have followed them home and the ghost of Baba Lenka has followed Eva.

This is a story of demonic sorcery and occult practices during the World Wars, the horrors of which are drip-fed into young Eva's mind to devastating effect.

Once again, this is absolutely not for the faint of heart. Nightmares pretty much guaranteed.

©2020 Sarah Elizabeth England (P)2020 Sarah Elizabeth England

Once Again, Ms. England Has Wowed Me!

This is the one that they should make into a film! Now, I would love for the 'Father of Lies' Trilogy plus 'The Owlmen' to be made into a movie, but the scope of that story would be REALLY difficult and a lot of work. 'Baba Lenka,' on the other hand, has the perfect amount of terror combined with a story that could be told so perfectly on screen. I know this has nothing to do with my review, but it is the PERFECT of England's book to make into a movie.

Eva Hart is young girl when she goes with her parents to her grandmother's funeral in a small Bavarian village. From the beginning, she notices the strangeness of the circumstance they are in. The villagers and the priest do not want to bury Baba Lenka and it only happens after Eva's mother finally convinces the priest to do it outside of the village. A strange group of people prepare Lenka's body and Eva is so confused by everything that is happening around her. The people at the funeral start wailing in a crazed, frightening manner, so Eva's parents, the priest, and she run the moment they start spinning the casket around. Without her mother's knowledge, Eva finds, but is really gifted with, what she believes is a doll. From then on, Eva's and her family's troubles begin. The story then goes into Lenka's point of view and the knowledge and horror of the "family legacy" is revealed.

Sarah England scares me like no other author before her. Everyone finds a lot of the major horror writers to be frightening, but Ms. England delivers the occult with a knowledge that I will never understand. This book told the story of Lenka and Eva with such grace and terror that I could see it being on the screen about halfway through. It was just one of those books that makes you feel for the characters--they are normal, human beings until the legacy takes hold. The characters are so relatable that you feel for them as they sink into a darkness that no one has been able to stop yet.

This horrifying book gets an A- from me and Penny Scott-Andrews will receive a B. Now, let me explain how I feel about this narrator. This is the second book that I've listened to and the only reason that I did was because it was by Sarah England. Ms. Scott-Andrews also narrated England's other book "Monkspike" and, for the first two hours, I had a huge issue with how much she sounded like a car's GPS. Once I was able to move beyond this, I was able to really fall into the story and realize that the narrator was not as bad as I thought. When I started listening to this one, I didn't have this issue, so Ms. Scott-Andrews is not the best narrator, but there are SO many that are worse.

Still not a fan

This is the third book I’ve listened to from SE England and I can officially say I am not a fan. She writes very beautifully , I love how her protagonists are almost always young women that are not only dealing with the supernatural and unexplained things in their life but also the trials of life as young girls in their respective eras. The only issue is that I seek actual horror when I look for new books; at this point I would not classify her books as horror. They read almost like romance novels heavily steeped in the occult. Just because your book has satanist , rape scenes , and murder doesn’t make it horror for me. Maybe I am just jaded at this point , but this was not a horror novel.