A Penance for Crows by Shannon Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars**
A Penance for Crows is a modern Gothic Horror novel that feels like it’s been torn from the past. The novel takes place on the Irish island of Beanna Dubh, set off the Southern tip of the Beara Peninsula. The community is quite insular. They like to keep to themselves.
In fact, there are many on the island who have never even been to the mainland. Untouched by modern technology, the islanders live under strict rule of the church.
As a people, they adhere to many superstitions. The island is also home to thousands of crows, so that fact only enhances those creepy vibes, with the islanders believing the crows are harbingers of coming disaster.
Our MC, Grizela, fled to the island 40-years ago, leaving her native-Glasgow, and her unsettling past well behind her. Though Grizela has been on the island for decades, she’s still considered an outsider by many.
She has been able to forge some strong connections with the young folks on the island though, who she treats as her own. Many of them confide in her things they wouldn’t trust telling their parents, or other elders.
Our action kicks off when Grizela discovers the dead body of the island’s young priest with a diabolical symbol drawn on his chest. Crows darken the sky, and Grizela fears there’s a different kind of darkness now among them.
As the mysterious symbols continue popping up randomly, and more residents meet terrible ends, the islanders’ suspicious fall on Grizela. She’s the outsider, after all.
Mass hysteria quickly takes over and Grizela is scrambling to prove her innocence. During her investigations into these disturbing happenings, she begins to learn new, and startling, information about a group of young women she has previously taken under her wings.
If you follow my reviews at all, you may know that I’m an Atmosphere Girlie through and through. I read to escape, and I particularly love remote settings with an overriding ominous air about them. IMO, this novel delivered that to me exactly as I wanted.
I was so invested in A Penance for Crows. This Occult Horror novel with strong Gothic atmosphere swept me up in the drama of the small island of Beanna Dubh.
I loved the MC, Grizela, who is in her early-60s, which in and of itself was refreshing. I also related to her experience on the island, as far as ‘being from away’ and no matter how long she’s there, she’s still considered an outsider. As an island girl myself, I get it.
Morgan created a great cast of characters in this noveal and the intrigue is excellent. Things keep happening and there’s an awesome feeling of ‘is it supernatural, is it not supernatural’ about it that I always appreciate it.
There were so many twists and turns, and as soon as I thought I knew who, or what, was behind all the mysterious happenings on the island, something new would occur that would blow my theory out of the water.
I loved the Occult elements that Morgan included. I feel like those made the novel so much more beguiling. That type of element rarely gets executed like it was here, in a fully believable, non-cheesy, way and I was living for it.
I highly recommend this to any Gothic, or Atmosphere, Girlies in the crowd. If you’re looking for that atmosphere, this is absolutely going to deliver it to you.
Thank you to the publisher, Kensington, for providing me a copy to read and review. I’m so impressed by this and cannot wait to read more from Shannon Morgan. I really hope she stays in this lane, because it’s fabulous!