Book Review of The Crowfield Curse
The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh is the first book of her Crowfield Abbey series. It is set in Crowfield Abbey in the mid-1300s. This story is told from the perspective of the protagonist William, a kind-hearted orphan taken in as an apprentice by the abbey’s religious monks. One day while collecting firewood, he rescues a knowledgeable, magic hob from a painful snare, which he then discards in the haunted Whistling Hollow. On that same day, William overhears a bit of the conversation between a couple of monks and a villager about a dead angel.
A few days later, two strange guests arrive at the abbey, a rich man named Master Bone and his “servant”, Shadlock. However, neither of them, as revealed, are human. And interestingly, both are looking for the location of the angel’s buried body. William wonders whether to trust these odd “people”, so he starts to dig deeper for answers regarding their world of Old Magic, and thus he ends up getting drawn into their war between the magical creatures of dark and light.
Overall, the plot of this book is one of a kind; the author notably connects religion with fantasy. In addition, the book has many plot twists, which I found very enjoyable. I also found it really helpful that Walsh provides a glossary of confusing religious terms in the back of the book.
However, I feel like William as a character is a bit on the dry side. In addition, William’s backstory contains too many loose ends. Plus, I felt that this book could definitely utilize a wider variety of figurative language and add some humor, since the writing style felt somewhat bland, too.
So, my rating for The Crowfield Curse would be a 2.5 out of 5.
-Kaylee Z
Kaylee, I like how your review was very honest! I appreciate how you described the book with no bias at first, giving some of the key plot points without spoiling it. Then towards the end, you gave your own opinion, which I think is important to a book review, as authors want their readers to enjoy the book. I usually don't read a lot of books in this genre, and since you don't like this one, are there others similar that you enjoy? What made this one different?
ReplyDeleteGood review! I liked that you included the positive things about the book but also the negative things, because I think sometimes people don't mention the parts they liked less. You also did a good job on the summary, as it was enough to vaguely understand the plot, but not enough to fully spoil the book.
ReplyDeleteHi Kaylee, I liked how your summary could convey the mysticism for this book. The plot of the book sounds like an interesting one to explore, and it was nice that you made sure to talk about the negative aspects of the book.
ReplyDeleteNice review, I liked how you played devil's advocate in your own blog, from talking about what parts of the book you liked to talking about what you didn't like about the book.
ReplyDeleteGreat review Kaylee! The book summary itself sounded very interesting, especially as a fan of fantasy! I really liked your unique take on the book and how you conveyed your perspective by talking about what you didn't enjoy about the book.
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