Wakening the Crow - publication day review round up


Oliver Gooch comes across a tooth, in a velvet box, with a handwritten note from 1888 to say it’s a tooth from the boy Edgar Allan Poe. He displays it in his new bookshop, and names the store Poe’s Tooth Books.

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.


“Wakening the Crow is an overt homage to the work of Edgar Allan Poe and the book captures that feel perfectly.” – Kirkus Reviews, November Picks
 
“Like the book Gooch fantasises from time to time about writing, Wakening the Crow is “something so dark and disturbing and demanding of the readers, so odd and unusual and out of the ordinary” that it’s apt, at the last, to be overlooked. If you have the heart for it, however, expect to expose a fiction of human horror of the highest order.” – tor.com

“Gregory invokes the unquiet ghost of Poe, in the figure of a small boy whose shadow looms large, yet deftly manages to surpass the power of Edgar’s darkest imaginings in this fine example of literary horror.” – Horror AfterDark

“Stephen Gregory writes fantastically well.” – Completely Different

“A great read for a dark and stormy night, filled with gothic imagery and a overriding sense of unease.” – Lipsyy Lost & Found

“A masterpiece of dark fiction that weaves psychological horror with hints of the supernatural in a tale of a flawed family, fractured by tragedy, only to have their lives and sanity shattered by the presence of a carrion crow.” – Reclusive Reads

“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.” – Char’s HorrorCorner

“consuming coldness
with musty little secrets
tinged by a nightmare

gloriously different
pure Poe-inspired creepiness”

The author has some beautiful turn of phrases that really catch the reader’s attention.” – Carabosse’s Library

“[Gregory’s] hoarding of details and doling out of information only until you need it is quite masterful… the slow psychological reveal is fast becoming a lost art in storytelling especially in the horror genre. This is why I recommend Wakening the Crow so highly. 4/5” – The Novel Pursuit

“Wakening The Crow is one of the most beautiful, thoughtful, and unsettling novels that I have ever read. A slight deviation from my normal penchant for horror, it did not leave me wanting. Stephen Gregory writes as if he created language; his words are poetry without pretence.” – Andreya’s Asylum

“A wonderful, wicked novel that could have been written by the dark master (Poe) himself. Fiendish.” – Cayocosta72

“This story has the perfect setting, and excellent plot lines that swirl together to create an old time creepy tale. One that doesn’t need blood and gore to frighten.” – Blogga Book

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Wakening the Crow is out now:

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