★★★⯪☆
Review:
First, I would like to thank the author for providing me with a free advanced reader copy of this book. This is my honest review.
A dark, gothic tale of a man’s descent into madness
Reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, a man slowly descends into madness after accidentally killing a raven in a hunting trap. Convinced the ravens are punishing him, his grief and frustration consume his life.
This gothic tale is darker than I had expected for a novella. As someone who primarily consumers darker fiction, I would have expected to love this book, but something about it just didn’t work for me. None of the characters stood out to me, and there was a superficiality to the story that prevented me from becoming invested.
While I was not the right reader for this book, it is very well researched and will likely appeal to fans of gothic fiction and horror.
Audience: adult
Trigger warnings: animal death, child death, parental death, child murder, rape (off page)
Recommended for fans of: gothic fiction, horror, novellas
Publisher's Synopsis:
As illness tightens its grip, something darker begins to stir.
England, 1665. As plague ravages London and fear spreads north to York, Martin Blake, a humble cobbler, struggles to protect his family through a bitter, death-shadowed winter. When the parish rector, his wife’s domineering uncle, forces orphaned children from London into their already meager home, Martin’s fragile world begins to unravel.
Grief, illness, and the weight of buried sins close in. Ravens gather. Martin’s reason begins to slip. Whispers spread—of misused alms, of spirits that roam at night, of faith twisted into something monstrous. As snow blankets the land and the dead lie unburied, Martin must confront a chilling truth: is he haunted by guilt, or by something far more sinister?
A gothic tale of illness, obsession, and the perilous border between loyalty and madness.
Source:
NetGalley
©Celtic Sea, LLC: September 8, 2026
Edition: digital ARC
182 pages
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