BOOK REVIEW | A CROW NAMED TORMENT | SILAS BISCHOFF

BOOK REVIEW | A CROW NAMED TORMENT | SILAS BISCHOFF

ABOUT THE BOOK

After a perfectly normal bird is captured by a perfectly deranged alchemist, and her soul is remade in torment, she rots in a cage, dreading her doom, awaiting the perfect moment …

 Escape lies in the dark secrets of her new mind, as does a disturbing new thirst for blood.

 Together with Vladimir, her feline companion in captivity, Torment sets out on a flight through realms of dreams and spirits in search of a way to break the curse that binds them to their master.

 But in the vast and strange worlds yonder dwell the discontented spirits of the dead, and Torment and Vladimir are as likely to uncover the truth they seek as they are to be lost forever, or consumed by the ancient darkness stirring in the depths of their alchemically altered souls.

 A novel filled with horrors lurking in the shadows, with whimsical creatures from surreal dimensions – a fable about journeys inward and onward into the unknown – featuring mad scholars, vampires from the dawn of time, animal familiars and giant slugs (among many other oddities).

 Perfect for fans of Terry Pratchett and Edgar Allan Poe, lovers of Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Otfried Preußler’s Krabat, for those who would like to see Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland meet Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in a modern dark fantasy.

REVIEW

In his first book, A Crow Named Torment, Silas Bischoff writes a hallucinatory tale of delving deep into yourself to find the strength to overcome obstacles.

The book revolves around a crow who one day lands on the telescope of a deranged alchemist who is looking for a solution to harness the power of the weather. This leads the alchemist to perform an experiment on the crow which gives her the power of self-awareness and individual thought.

In the reconstruction of her personality, the crow chooses the name Torment, as this is what  she was born in.

As the story progresses, she makes friends with the alchemist’s cat who was the precursor for her own transformation. Unfortunately for her though the cat does not have the power of speech.

Torment soon discovers the reason for her transformation and realises that for some inexplicable reason she is tied to the alchemist which means that she cannot escape her fate.

She learns that the answer lies deep inside herself and that she has to find the answers to her escape deep inside herself.

A Crow Named Torment is a strange mashup of genres, taking influences from gothic horror such as Poe and Shelly, the existentialism of Jeff Vandermeer, the weirdness of Carroll and the absurdity of Pratchett to form a unique story that veers into totally strange territory.

The prose can be quite dense at times. And the plot can veer and meander in many different directions. At times becoming a little too convoluted, ultimately leaving the reader with very little idea of what is actually going on. In addition to this, there were some instances where I found the prose to be a little repetitive, especially at the beginning.

However, that is not to say that the book is not enjoyable, because it is. You can’t help rooting for Torment as she undertakes her journey to break her bonds of servitude or becoming embroiled in the strange events that take place on the page.

A Crow Named Torment is a perfect metaphysical fantasy for fans of people like Luke Tarzian or Yaroslav Barsokov.