Scan barcode
knittyreader's review
3.0
I think the writing sometimes was a little too confused, the narrator Oliver a little too creepy, to get into the story. Although both can add to the story and the overall tension in the book, since both were overdone it was difficult to really relate to what is told. This is unfortunate, because the book in itself had a lot to reccomend itself: a good angle and setting, and in-depth and gradually growing characters.
I received a free copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review. My full review can be read in Dutch, on my weblog.
I received a free copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review. My full review can be read in Dutch, on my weblog.
andrew61's review
3.0
I am really torn about this book as it was a very unsettling horror set in the English Midlands the device of a possessed object (Edgar Allen Poe's baby tooth lost when he was at school in England) and the ominous Crow to great effect as we see the impact upon a family and particularly the gradual descent into madness and obsession by a young father.
The book opens with a prologue in which an antiquarian bookseller gifts Olive Gooch the tooth. The next chapter steps back to an event where Oliver , caring for his troubled daughter Chloe, sees the 7 year old injured in a car accident. Chloe suffers an injury which changes the challenging child to a mute lamb. With compensation Oliver and his wife buy a home in an old church and Oliver sets up a bookshop called Poe's tooth bookshop, but when a mysterious carrion Crow adopts the family the horror ramps up.
I was definitely gripped by the book and the portrayal of a character haunted by something or someone who descends into paranoia, and self neglect is very well done. It definitely had me looking over my shoulder.
My only qualification is that I found the portrayal of Oliver's wife Rosie uncomfortable and somewhat troubling. The narrator, Oliver, seems obsessed with Rosie as big, voluptuous etc and his treatment of her is uncomfortable including deliberately feeding her alcohol, I almost put the book aside as a consequence and felt the characterisation of the female character a negative. This is amplified by Oliver being such an unlikeabke person who is sponging off his wife .
Similarly Chloe and her father's relationship is uncomfortable and again I did not like some of the scenes between them particularly given a later reveal and the amount of time Oliver wanders around naked.
As I say a contradictory book. Definitely a creepy story.
The book opens with a prologue in which an antiquarian bookseller gifts Olive Gooch the tooth. The next chapter steps back to an event where Oliver , caring for his troubled daughter Chloe, sees the 7 year old injured in a car accident. Chloe suffers an injury which changes the challenging child to a mute lamb. With compensation Oliver and his wife buy a home in an old church and Oliver sets up a bookshop called Poe's tooth bookshop, but when a mysterious carrion Crow adopts the family the horror ramps up.
I was definitely gripped by the book and the portrayal of a character haunted by something or someone who descends into paranoia, and self neglect is very well done. It definitely had me looking over my shoulder.
My only qualification is that I found the portrayal of Oliver's wife Rosie uncomfortable and somewhat troubling. The narrator, Oliver, seems obsessed with Rosie as big, voluptuous etc and his treatment of her is uncomfortable including deliberately feeding her alcohol, I almost put the book aside as a consequence and felt the characterisation of the female character a negative. This is amplified by Oliver being such an unlikeabke person who is sponging off his wife .
Similarly Chloe and her father's relationship is uncomfortable and again I did not like some of the scenes between them particularly given a later reveal and the amount of time Oliver wanders around naked.
As I say a contradictory book. Definitely a creepy story.
charshorrorcorner's review
5.0
Stephen Gregory is a genius! Let me tell you why.
First, here is the set up for this story:
"Oliver took the money from his small daughter Chloe's accident insurance and bought a converted church to live in with his altered child and wife. Rosie hopes Chloe will came back to herself but Oliver is secretly relieved to have this new easy-to-manage child, and holds at bay the guilt that the accident was a result of his negligence. On a freezing night he and Chloe come across the crow, a raggedy skeletal wretch of a bird, and it refuses to leave. It infiltrates their lives, it alters Oliver's relationship with Rosie, it changes Chloe. It's a dangerous presence in the firelit, shadowy old vestry, in Poe's Tooth Books.
Inexorably the family, the tooth, the crow, the church and their story will draw to a terrifying climax."
This tale is a lot more complicated than the synopsis makes it out to be. There is a sense of creeping, building dread that, at times, becomes intense. You know something is coming but you can't get a handle on what it will be.
There are several-I'll just call them "uncomfortable moments" sprinkled throughout this book. The reader ends up off balance, questioning, confused. Wait, is that normal? What's he doing? Is that a European thing? I would love to say more about this, but I can't without spoilers. Suffice it to say this book has a lot of WTF moments, and my opinion is that the author masterfully placed them there just to mess with us.( So yeah,genius ! )
This story also seems to be an homage to Edgar Allan Poe himself, so much so that...well I can't say. It all becomes mixed up: Poe, the tooth, the crow, heavy drinking and guilt. What's real? What's not? You're going to have to read it to find out.
I am now a full fledged Stephen Gregory fan. The Cormorant blew me away and this novel is right up there on that same level. Mr. Gregory produces beautifully written, literary, atmospheric stories that resonate with the reader. I will be thinking about Poe's Tooth Bookshop and that crow for a long, long time.
Highly recommended for not only fans of horror, but also for fans of literary fiction and psychological tales. This book is not easily categorized, but it's worth reading, if only to watch a genius at work.
I received this eARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review and this is it.
First, here is the set up for this story:
"Oliver took the money from his small daughter Chloe's accident insurance and bought a converted church to live in with his altered child and wife. Rosie hopes Chloe will came back to herself but Oliver is secretly relieved to have this new easy-to-manage child, and holds at bay the guilt that the accident was a result of his negligence. On a freezing night he and Chloe come across the crow, a raggedy skeletal wretch of a bird, and it refuses to leave. It infiltrates their lives, it alters Oliver's relationship with Rosie, it changes Chloe. It's a dangerous presence in the firelit, shadowy old vestry, in Poe's Tooth Books.
Inexorably the family, the tooth, the crow, the church and their story will draw to a terrifying climax."
This tale is a lot more complicated than the synopsis makes it out to be. There is a sense of creeping, building dread that, at times, becomes intense. You know something is coming but you can't get a handle on what it will be.
There are several-I'll just call them "uncomfortable moments" sprinkled throughout this book. The reader ends up off balance, questioning, confused. Wait, is that normal? What's he doing? Is that a European thing? I would love to say more about this, but I can't without spoilers. Suffice it to say this book has a lot of WTF moments, and my opinion is that the author masterfully placed them there just to mess with us.( So yeah,genius ! )
This story also seems to be an homage to Edgar Allan Poe himself, so much so that...well I can't say. It all becomes mixed up: Poe, the tooth, the crow, heavy drinking and guilt. What's real? What's not? You're going to have to read it to find out.
I am now a full fledged Stephen Gregory fan. The Cormorant blew me away and this novel is right up there on that same level. Mr. Gregory produces beautifully written, literary, atmospheric stories that resonate with the reader. I will be thinking about Poe's Tooth Bookshop and that crow for a long, long time.
Highly recommended for not only fans of horror, but also for fans of literary fiction and psychological tales. This book is not easily categorized, but it's worth reading, if only to watch a genius at work.
I received this eARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review and this is it.
More...