The first book was amazing. Now, I had The Crowfield Demon for a loooong while with me, but with a few other unread books to read from, I missed out this one for quite some time. I managed to read this on one go. Well, it was an easy read, and I was sick at that time- my concentration actually goes 1% up while I'm sick. I don't know why.
What lies beneath?
Things are not right at Crowfield Abbey. The building has begun to crumble. And what Will finds beneath the floor of the side chapel is truly terrifying.
Is this the end of Crowfield forever?
So, The Crowfield Demon picked up the story developed from the last book- it was approximately 6 months after the event in The Crowfield Curse. William and his friends were going through the usual routine in the monastery; despite the mundane works and all, William was quite contented. Up until the hob, Brother Walter, noticed a few wood elves running away from the wood and claimed they were afraid of something. If you had read the first book, you'll realized that Crowfield had plenty of weird stuffs going on. As if the the last brush of dead with a certain evil Fae king wasn't enough, his life was suddenly in danger. Again.
I don't want to ruin anything but I'll play it safe by putting a big SPOILER here before you read this post, and click the back button as fast as you can. But if you're already read the book, or you don't mind any spoilers, here's my thoughts about Pat Walsh's The Crowfield Demon.
Now, just like the first book, Miss Walsh did an amazing job of building up the tensions and setting up the atmosphere. The whole setting was so surreal and yet still felt very familiar; the whole ordinary life in Crowfield intertwined with the surreal existence of the faes, elves, hobs, angels and demons. She managed to make their co-existence felt so normal. And I just love how she described everything in simple but detailed ways. I can picture perfectly what the abbey would have looked like with the changes of the season, the monks with their tasks and their demeanor, the forest with all its normal and supernatural atmosphere- everything was so vivid on my mind. And it was such a pleasant kind of vivid. I felt like I was in Crowfield. I love Crowfield. It might sound like a boring place, but I would have loved the quietness, and would have revel at the history and myths surrounding Crowfield (yes, I'm weird in a way).
Another thing that made me love Miss Walsh's writing so much is how she put consideration into the tension building. This was a book which involved a young boy, hobs, witches, fae warriors, evil fae kings and angels. This sounded like something epic was going to happen, but in truth there was this darkness in this story; that ambiguous fear and terror hiding itself away behind all these supposedly innocent imagery of fantasy characters. My skin crawled as the demon was slowly unraveled, and I enjoyed the thoughtful exposure of the demon that the author gave to it. The characters interaction felt nice, I root for William through and through, and enjoyed his thought and his conversations with Brother Snail, Brother Walter and Shadlok. And Shadlok was suprisingly funny, in a cold kind of way. And don't worry, something epic did happen at the end.
So, go out there and buy this book! If you haven't read the first, go buy and read it as well. The Crowfield books are a gem in my collection, and I will be eager for a third round.
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