Do You like book The Cormorant (1996)?
I'm going to go ahead and award this one the full five stars. That's right. It rocked!Picked up yesterday afternoon around 4 pm, finished today around 4pm, this story left me with visions of this bird,(and its streaming jets of shit), bouncing around in my head. The other reviews go into the set up so I will leave that off and just tell you how this story made me feel.At times, it seemed ridiculous...I mean, really- it's just a big black-ish/greenish/blue-ish bird-what's the big deal, right? But... but what about when in the dead of night your toddler is frozen at the window staring out at the (it's just a)bird in its pen? And the bird, standing with wings spread, totally still,is staring back? Is it a big deal then? That's not even anywhere close to a few other scenes which turned my bones to ice and my skin to goosebumps.This book rocketed by because I wanted to give it every spare minute. I highly recommend it to fans of quiet 80's horror. Also recommended to fans of scenes that chill to the bone, and images that sear into the brain. Bravo!*A free copy of this book was provided by Valancourt Books in exchange for an honest review. This is it.*
—Charlene
This book makes for somewhat grim reading and in the end I wasn't quite sure who to feel sorry for.A young family who have just had a child move to a small Welsh village after inheriting a house from a distant relative but it comes with a strange clause on it; they must also care for a rescued Cormorant that their benefactor cared for until he died. As a consequence, their dreams of an idyllic rural retreat turn into a hellish nightmare as they struggle to accommodate this strange bird into their lives.The Cormorant itself makes a fantastic and shocking entrance to the story, stalking from its crate and sending streaming arcs of faeces onto their furniture as they foolishly open its container in their living room. Its arrogant pride, violent temper and vile appearance paints a vivid picture in the mind of the reader. The Cormorant seems to affect each member of the family in different ways. The child becomes enamoured with it, irresistibly drawn to it on every occasion. The mother detests the very sight of it and won't go near it while the father gradually forms a bond of grudging mutual respect.But there seems to be something else going on, the ghost of their dead relative appears to haunt them, manifesting in ghostly visits and a seemingly possessing like effect on the young child.In the end one feels quite a strong sympathy for the bird that has really done nothing wrong, only acting according to its nature and could never be properly domesticated. By the end there is no clear source of villainy or evil yet horrific and evil things happen nonetheless.A clever, well told gripping story that is also grim and often deeply unsettling. An impressive début novel and I'll definitely read more of this author's work.
—Simon
While the story told by Gregory was indeed skillfully written, I just couldn't bring myself to sympathize with the young couple in this book. As someone who works closely with wildlife and especially with colonial waterbirds, I have spent a lot of time around cormorants and I adore them. His descriptions of the bird and its behaviors were for the most part spot on, but I only felt sorry for it suffering under the blundering and abusive care of these nitwits. It didn't really seem like the bird was haunted or possessed, it was just doing what a cormorant in captivity would probably do. The implied presence of the dead uncle and the creepy possessed/possibly mentally handicapped child were the major creep-factors for me. All in all a pretty effed up story with some effed up characters.
—Jacquie
