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    White Crow
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    White Crow
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    White Crow
    Ebook230 pages2 hours

    White Crow

    By Marcus Sedgwick

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    One of School Library Journal's Best Fiction Books of 2011

    Some secrets are better left buried; some secrets are so frightening they might make angels weep and the devil crow.

    Thought provoking as well as intensely scary, Marcus Sedgwick's White Crow unfolds in three voices. There's Rebecca, who has come to a small, seaside village to spend the summer, and there's Ferelith, who offers to show Rebecca the secrets of the town...but at a price. Finally, there's a priest whose descent into darkness illuminates the girls' frightening story. White Crow is as beautifully written as it is horrifically gripping.

    This title has Common Core connections.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJul 5, 2011
    ISBN9781429976343
    Unavailable
    White Crow
    Author

    Marcus Sedgwick

    Marcus Sedgwick was one of this generation’s most lauded and highly regarded writers for children and young people, having published over forty books including acclaimed Midwinterblood and The Monsters We Deserve. He won multiple prestigious awards, most notably the Michael L. Printz Award, the Branford Boase Award, the BookTrust Teenage Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award.

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    Reviews for White Crow

    3.5/5

    92 ratings15 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Creepy atmosphere with an interesting little mystery, but I finished it feeling somewhat unfulfilled.
    • 2/5
      I felt like I was watching one of those horror movies where you keep waiting and waiting for something really scary to happen, but it never does. Disappointing.
    • 2/5
      Creepy and well-written, but not something I exactly enjoyed. [Nov. 2011]
    • 4/5
      When you pick up a new Marcus Sedgwick book you never know what to expect from the author as he has become a master of surprises and loves to keep his readers guessing as to what twist or turn his story will take next. And yet again he took this reader completely by surprise - this book was totally different from what I had expected, and all the better for it.

      The story is told from three different points of view. There is Rebecca, daughter of a policeman who has taken the pair of them off to a small seaside town for the summer; we are not initially informed what he is trying to escape from, but this is revealed as the story progresses. Next there is Ferelith, a seemingly friendless, and certainly eccentric local girl who appears to be very keen to befriend Rebecca, a notion that the new girl in town initially resists. The third voice is one from the past, written as the journal of the local rector back in the 17th Century. For me the story as told by the two girls flowed well, with tantalising snippets of information being revealed as the story progressed. However, even though it sometimes interrupted the flow of the modern day story, the Rector's journal is the device that really got my mind whirring, and made me start trying to fill in pieces of the main story, often with an intense feeling of creeping dread.

      This is one hell of a creepy story, but not the kind that will necessarily appeal to fans of the more gory aspects of horror. Although there are some bloody moments, the real scares in this book are purely psychological, so if you like your horror to really play on the primal fears that lay buried deep in your mind then this book is most definitely for you. And the character of Ferelith is one of the principle causes for this. Right from the first time we meet her we know there is something not quite right about her; her mind obviously does not work in quite the same way as your average teenage girl's, but these differences, that initially seem like eccentricities, soon had me knowing that she is not the kind of person I would like to turn my back on. This strangeness in her personality adds a wonderful amount of suspense to the story, as we constantly wonder whether Rebecca is actually safe in her company. In addition to this her character also ensures that element of unpredictability that I so love in Marcus Sedgwick's storytelling.

      To say much more would be to give too much away about this story. It is a dark gothic mystery, with an intelligence that will really make you think. It requires reading in as few sittings as possible, but maybe not when you are alone on a dark cold night; if you do then you may not get much sleep that night - elements of this story played on my mind and entered my dreams for some days after I finished it, and even now, some time later, writing this review has brought back some slightly uncomfortable memories of the truly chilling ending to the story: Ferelith is a character that could haunt me for some time to come.
    • 5/5
      You would say that all of the crows in the world are black, right? You wouldn't have to see all the crows in the world to know this -- you just know that all the crows you've ever seen have always been black. But what if I showed you a white crow?

      This was one of the most unexpected books I've ever read. Everything from the characters, the setting, and the story line threw me for a loop. It was beautifully rendered, haunting, and at times, frightening. I highly recommend this to readers of horror as well as contemporary who are looking for something a bit more.

      The town of Winterfold, the setting, is a character itself. With its old churches, close-knit citizens, and the roiling waves on the coast, it is beautiful and mysterious. But that beauty is slowly being eaten alive by the ocean. Every time there is a storm another piece of the town is taken into the sea, leaving graves upturned and open to the sun, churches dismantled, toe-paths suddenly ending on a cliff side. The idea of a town being torn apart by the ocean, yet its inhabitants still living there, was fascinating to me. I longed to actually see it with my own eyes.

      In Winterfold is an old hall, almost like a castle. It's long been swallowed up by the nature around it, but our two main characters, Ferelith and Rebecca find their way there, into it's old musty turrets and creepy Candle Room. Together, after a long, tortuous prank played by Ferelith, the two girls unlock Winterfold Hall's dark secrets.

      There were times I had to actually put the book down, it was so scary. Between the girls exploring Winterfold's underbelly, and dark experiments held by Dr Beaurieux and the 18th century Rector, I could feel the anticipation building, bitter in the back of my throat. Something terrible was coming, I just didn't know what or when. And when it hit (and I found out that this doctor actually existed) I was fascinated and intrigued and I could NOT put the book down.

      The three characters caught in the middle of this story were wonderfully fleshed out. I felt so bad for Rebecca and her father. His past mistakes, and her broken romance, really spoke to me, and I really did want them to heal their relationship. The old Rector from the 1700s was amazing. Watching a man of the cloth battle his demons is always an interesting story, and the unique perspective of his diary entries gave us an insight I'm not sure I've experienced before. But if the rector and Rebecca were interesting, Ferelith takes the cake. Her past was shrouded in so much mystery that even though her passages were told in first person I couldn't tell if she was being truthful or not. And the way she was described by the other characters had me wondering if she was human, or something more.

      The ending of WHITE CROW was utterly perfect. I couldn't have asked for more. There was a delicious twist, but I won't tell! Just know that WHITE CROW explores the idea of an after-life, and the story is actually resolved by the end of the book.

      As I said earlier, I would definitely recommend this book. WHITE CROW was unexpectedly scary, and surprisingly moving. Just make sure to read with the lights on!
    • 4/5
      This was a very peculiar novel... in a good way. It was creepy. I don't tend to read scary books as I get freaked out easily so this was definitely something different and interesting. It's short and to the point; I got through it in less than two hours but its length didn't make much of a difference to the story. Sedgwick has a way with words and certainly succeeded in being precise in this book. The imagery is amazing; I felt like I was in the book. The story keeps the reader in suspense until the very last pages which makes for a compelling and heart-racing story.
    • 4/5
      You would say that all of the crows in the world are black, right? You wouldn't have to see all the crows in the world to know this -- you just know that all the crows you've ever seen have always been black. But what if I showed you a white crow?

      This was one of the most unexpected books I've ever read. Everything from the characters, the setting, and the story line threw me for a loop. It was beautifully rendered, haunting, and at times, frightening. I highly recommend this to readers of horror as well as contemporary who are looking for something a bit more.

      The town of Winterfold, the setting, is a character itself. With its old churches, close-knit citizens, and the roiling waves on the coast, it is beautiful and mysterious. But that beauty is slowly being eaten alive by the ocean. Every time there is a storm another piece of the town is taken into the sea, leaving graves upturned and open to the sun, churches dismantled, toe-paths suddenly ending on a cliff side. The idea of a town being torn apart by the ocean, yet its inhabitants still living there, was fascinating to me. I longed to actually see it with my own eyes.

      In Winterfold is an old hall, almost like a castle. It's long been swallowed up by the nature around it, but our two main characters, Ferelith and Rebecca find their way there, into it's old musty turrets and creepy Candle Room. Together, after a long, tortuous prank played by Ferelith, the two girls unlock Winterfold Hall's dark secrets.

      There were times I had to actually put the book down, it was so scary. Between the girls exploring Winterfold's underbelly, and dark experiments held by Dr Beaurieux and the 18th century Rector, I could feel the anticipation building, bitter in the back of my throat. Something terrible was coming, I just didn't know what or when. And when it hit (and I found out that this doctor actually existed) I was fascinated and intrigued and I could NOT put the book down.

      The three characters caught in the middle of this story were wonderfully fleshed out. I felt so bad for Rebecca and her father. His past mistakes, and her broken romance, really spoke to me, and I really did want them to heal their relationship. The old Rector from the 1700s was amazing. Watching a man of the cloth battle his demons is always an interesting story, and the unique perspective of his diary entries gave us an insight I'm not sure I've experienced before. But if the rector and Rebecca were interesting, Ferelith takes the cake. Her past was shrouded in so much mystery that even though her passages were told in first person I couldn't tell if she was being truthful or not. And the way she was described by the other characters had me wondering if she was human, or something more.

      The ending of WHITE CROW was utterly perfect. I couldn't have asked for more. There was a delicious twist, but I won't tell! Just know that WHITE CROW explores the idea of an after-life, and the story is actually resolved by the end of the book.

      As I said earlier, I would definitely recommend this book. WHITE CROW was unexpectedly scary, and surprisingly moving. Just make sure to read with the lights on!
    • 5/5
      Wow. This is a damn scary horror/psychological suspense YA novel. The book weaves together a present-day story of two troubled girls with a science experiment turned serial murder from the 18th century. The common threads are the town in which both stories happen, and a horrible room with a mysterious purpose hidden away inside a moldering old English great house. This book is different from his other works in content and tone, but it is pure Sedgwick. His deft handling of different points of view, times, and tenses are definitely on display here. A fearsome joy to read.
    • 2/5
      I am not even on page 100 and already I want to throw in the towel. I am not quite sure what the point of the book is and why I am supposed to feel anything for the main characters so far. There are three people who have the microphone and none of them have any sort of personality. If they are cardboard cutouts I don't even know what the minor characters are. Yet the fact that this book is a review copy makes me feel as if I have to finish it. Also I heard that it gets better further on. Here's to hoping.It is not too hard to find out the theme of this book. Angels and Demons? Heaven and Hell?Although, if you missed that memo then I can safely say that you have not been reading the book. And I include skimming as part of a looser definition. Let's get back to chronological order, shall we?So Rebecca and her father move to a small town by the sea called Winterfold. Why? No one knows until around two-thirds of the way through the book. Until then we get a lot of emo monologues and random point of view switches. The reader is told over and over again about how something happened to them both that caused them to leave behind their life but other than that there is a whole lot of nothing.While Rebecca (that is such an awesome name, by the way) is exploring and surprisingly brooding in broad daylight she comes upon a cliff. Cue the air-headed idea to stand really close to the edge and then have someone come out of nowhere and you get Rebecca almost over the edge. This first meeting of Ferelith is a good indicator to the rest of their relationship. It is very obvious where you hear from Ferelith's point of view that she has a crush on Rebecca (how can you not with a name like that) however Rebecca is still in denial over the ending of her last relationship. They do a bunch of stuff together that we don't really know about because of the priest's story.The pastor is corrupt. I know this is so surprising, right? When have there ever been corrupt people put in the clergy? *Note the heavy sarcasm, please.* So he gets together with a doctor who I am pretty sure was kicked out of Paris for being a nut-job and they kill some people in order to find out the big question that is being asked every other paragraph in this book. What happens after you die? Ohhhhh! All the priest sees is hell.Back to Rebecca and Ferelith. They do a bunch of stuff and many of the things that Ferelith forces Rebecca to do would have made me stop hanging out with her. Yada yada ya. Things happen and we find out that they moved because of something that happened while her dad was working. I was all ready to hear how something also happened to her. I was Wrong with a capital W. Nothing happened to her. She is just being a brat and making it all about herself. I think if anyone was to combine all of the parts that actually explained why they moved it would barely fill up a page. That is how little is said about it.The last few chapters confuse me. Are we supposed to believe what Rebecca told her dad or was she really hallucinating? When did it happen? So confusion abounds.My thought on the fact that they have three point of views is that it could have been done better. The three people that we hear from are not likable and I think that they had been better fleshed out or fleshed out at all I could have found them interesting. Maybe. The first half of the book drags. Nothing happens and yet it takes a surprisingly long time for it to happen.I would have given the book three and a half stars if it had not been for the beginning and the end. The middle was surprisingly interesting but just as I was starting to get into the book the completely confusing ending came along. I did not find myself scared at any point of the book which is always nice but in this case very disappointing. This was the first book by Marcus Sedgwick that I have ever read so I can't really say how this one compares to his other books but many say that his other ones are much better.
    • 4/5
      Creepy! Rebecca goes to the country with her dad. Both of them are emotionally damaged and really distant from each other. When Rebecca meets a strange girl, Ferelith, who tells her a bit about the history of the town and the rumors about the scientist and preacher who tried to discover what people see at the point of death. Twists and turns filled this gruesome tale where clues about the history and motivations of the characters were slowly revealed.Three different narratives are intwined as the story unfolds - the preacher's diary from 1798, third person narration focusing on Rebecca, and first person from Ferelith.
    • 4/5
      This is a good teen gothic with interweaving plots and voices. Rebecca, unhappily moved to a small village with her father, and Ferelith who lives in the village, become somewhat reluctant friends and tell their story from their own angles. Interleaved with these two accounts of events in the present are pages from a 17th century diary - the diary of the vicar of the same Parish. All three are involved in dark and unpleasant happenings.I wanted to like it more than I did. It's well told, and the voices are well done, it's very sinister indeed, there was just something missing and I don't quite know what it was.
    • 3/5
      I can’t help but feel that I ought to like Marcus Sedgwick. He is a popular teen fiction author and has won several awards. He was a guitarist in an ABBA tribute group. He watches Black Books. And yet my last experience of his writing (‘Revolver’) left me cold and a little irked by the book’s morality (or lack of). Would I be more impressed by ‘White Crow’? It’s been nominated for the Carnegie Award so some people clearly think it’s good. More specifically, some librarians think it’s very good. I like librarians. Ipso facto…? Amazon reviews to date are 4 or 5 stars, but the cover is annoying me before I even start reading. Does the girl have to look *quite* so miserable? Then again, maybe she does; this is billed as a ‘modern gothic thriller’.A dark, dark taleRebecca has been dragged to spend the summer in boring, isolated Winterfold. Not cool. Her relationship with her dad is not great and her relationships with her city friends suddenly seem to be non-existent. It’s barely worth owning a mobile. Then she meets the rather unusual Ferelith. Highly intelligent but oddly friendless, Ferelith quickly develops an obsession with Rebecca and shares secrets with her, secrets about an old experiment that took place in 1798, a deadly secret…So it definitely sounds like a modern gothic thriller. Is it? Teen angst and friendship problems feature strongly, so it’s definitely modern. There’s plenty of stormy weather and Ferelith is rather creepy, which ticks some gothic boxes, and the opening chapters are reminiscent of a clichéd horror movie in which the innocent young woman wanders about looking beautiful without ever realising her every move is being monitored, so there’s the ‘thriller’ aspect. Less facetiously, the story does do what it says on the tin: it is creepy and dramatic; it does build suspense successfully. Everyone seems to be hiding secrets, and not about what they had for lunch. I felt that the early pages whetted my interest nicely. The author avoids the clunking cliffhanger trap while skilfully creating suspense through what is not said.Sedgwick also captures relationships well, whether that’s the tension between Rebecca and her father, or Rebecca’s intuitive distrust of Ferelith. Every visit described between the two ‘friends’ leaves Rebecca and the reader feeling uneasy. I felt that this was a real strength of the book. Ferelith, despite clearly being vulnerable herself, is presented in such a way that young readers are likely to fear for Rebecca’s safety. That said, Rebecca herself is not an immensely likeable heroine: she mopes, sulks and fails to support her father. Interestingly, as in du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’, the purportedly malevolent character is by far the more interesting and I would have liked to read a little bit more about Ferelith’s experiences. I felt that she was a very sympathetic character and that this made the story more interesting to read – she was not simply monstrous.Ferelith is given her own voice in places and this helps to create the sense of danger in the story. It also creates a good sense of balance as the main part of the story focuses on the girls’ friendship. Their story was creepy but believable, even when it crossed with something darker…A dark, dark house…In typical gothic style, Sedgwick uses fake documentation to create a chill and develop a point of view. A holy man fears hell; how far will he go to assuage those fears? The rector’s short, often elliptical diary entries hint at his developing relationship with a doctor, a newcomer to the sleep village. Just as in the modern story, the inhabitant’s relationship with the newcomer spirals into something dark and unhealthy.This is the ancient horror lurking in the background that is emphasised in the book’s blurb. The story of 1798 is told concurrently and the perspective switches repeatedly and frequently between Rebecca, Ferelith and the Rector. I found this story to be less interesting as I found the rector’s obsession difficult to understand and felt that his diary entries were often rather hysterical (as in clinical hysteria, not amused laughter). I did not like him and I think this was intentional on Sedgwick’s part – this is the real villain. And yet he is rather bumbling and obsessive rather than evil.The real gothic element of the text came from the setting and the weather and was highly effective. I felt parts of the girls’ story were told in a very atmospheric way. I also liked that the fear in the story stemmed from psychological reaction rather than scenes of blood and gore. In particular, the rector heightens the reader’s feelings of horror when he briefly mentions blood, as much by his detachment from the situation as from the actual situation. I don’t like reading about the act of severing limbs and wouldn’t ever watch ‘Saw’ so I was glad that, as would be suitable for young teen readers, Sedgwick preferred to create fear rather than vomit.A twisting taleAfter an engaging opening the plot is suitably gripping until the end and there is a suitable twist which is shocking but, on reflection, fitting. There is a sort of epilogue which ends the story on a final chill and encourages the reader to reconsider the provenance of some of the documentation. I thought the ending was suitable and effective.I did, however, find the shifting perspectives problematic. My objection was simply that it was a hassle moving back and forth and that, especially early on, the story felt a little disjointed. My students noted that they were disappointed because they wanted to spend more time reading about each character to give them a chance to really engage with the characters and their choices. They didn’t like the short (often very short) chapters and wanted the viewpoints to be more sustained. Perhaps the book would be better with a bit more space given to each, but then it would lose its pace and perhaps its darkness. I think it is a flaw but I am not sure how it could be resolved.Overall, I thought this was a well paced, gothic but not gory read in which the two storylines came together effectively to create a dramatic conclusion. If you don’t mind a little initial confusion created by the shifting narration, then you might well find this mildly interesting. That said, I think it is a teen read, suited perhaps to 11-16 year olds in particular due to the themes, events and challenging structure. I don’t think it is a crossover book; there is not enough substance to grip a mature reader. Can it win the Carnegie? It’s suitably complex in style but possibly not in subject matter.
    • 4/5
      After a traumatic few months in London, Rebecca and her dad move to the small seaside town of Winterfold. When Rebecca strikes up a friendship with Ferelith, an eccentric local girl, she becomes embroiled into a horrific and thrilling journey that leaves her near the edge. Will she make it back?In another time (1798) a priest welcomes a visitor into his parish. The visitor is strangely aloof and distant; Dr Barrieux has a secret, one that the easily led priest becomes involved with.A haunting gothic novel that will take you on three journeys of self discovery. The chapters flow well into each character, although it took me a few chapters to get the hang of it.Sedgwick has again got it right. He has written a page turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
    • 5/5
      Amazing gothic horror story that builds terror slowly and carefully and still has me shivering!
    • 5/5
      The latest teenage fiction novel from Brit author Marcus Sedgwick. This is his take on a gothic novel and I couldn’t put it down! Rebecca and her father move to the country for the summer after there is some media controversy over his involvement in a police case. In the sleepy town Winterfold, which is slowly falling into the sea, she meets the troubled Ferelith.In between the modern storyline we are taken back in time to a Priest in the 1700s who is seeking the secret of life after death. A Doctor from France moves in to the Hall in town and the two put their heads together to come up with a series of horrible experiments to try to communicate with the dead and find out if there really is life after death and what it is like if so. The Priest fears for his mortal soul as he can picture Hell in great detail, but his imaginings of Heaven are lack lusture and seem fake to him.The story jumps between the two sets of tales as they interweave. The narrative moves from Ferelith to the unnamed Priest to a look at Rebecca and they slowly all converge across the centuries. Ferelith is such a sinister character and when I finished reading this in bed I have to admit to flicking to the end to check how it ended. I was scared I would have nightmares and wanted to see it turned out ok! Very naughty I know and I can’t remember the last time I did that. It’s my favourite of his books yet and I can’t recommend it enough. Subtly building I really felt for Rebecca and there were still so many questions buzzing around my brain long after it ended.