A Crow Named Torment

Description

A Crow Named Torment is a Gothic horror with a crow as the heroine. It is a fast-moving story told exclusively from Torment’s point of view as she travels from a simple, message-carrying crow to a complex character focused on self-preservation. Her voice is strong, coming loud and clear from the page, and she captivated me. Sometimes, when a story only has one point of view, it can become a little stilted, but not in this case. There are vampires, secrets, lost loves, a few more secrets, and an innocent young crow trapped in a high tower.

Torment’s character journey drives the narrative forward as much as the imminent threat to her life. A moment of Torment’s development that stood out to me as particularly clever is when Torment tries to enlist the help of Sister Catalina, who is also being manipulated by Phileander. Torment has the recipe for a potion Catalina needs, but she withholds that information until Catalina helps her. Torment’s life experiences haven’t shown her that someone might help her because they want to; she thinks everything should be transactional. This episode marks the start of her journey to understanding that people are not all like Phileander.

Much of the narrative takes place in Torment’s consciousness, called a Mind Palace, which contains all the knowledge she has picked up along the way, even things she observed as a normal crow but understands better with her heightened intelligence. Here, she explores who she is, who she wants to be, and learns to be more than what Phileander wanted her to be. This philosophical aspect is well-handled and doesn’t feel too heavy. Torment explores it both in discussions with others as well as physical exploration, which makes it easier to understand what is happening.