Scan barcode
A review by stephbookshine
Game of Crones: Tales of Witchcraft and Wickedness by Jay Raven
4.0
*I received a free copy of this book with thanks to the author and Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources blog tours. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Game of Crones is a collection of eight short stories that feature the dark and dangerous aspects of witchcraft through the ages.
The blurb accurately describes and sums up the contents here: there are witches, seers, hags, necromancers, a Cassandra, a Pandora, curses, potions, rituals and poisons. The overarching theme celebrates the wily intelligence and precarious favour of women with power; following traditional fairytale and folklore templates, but often adding a new and unexpected twist to a familiar tale.
I particularly enjoyed the shivers I got from ‘Clutching at Straws’ and ‘Suggestion of Evil’ which cleverly channel the reader’s own imagination against them to highlight and magnify the horror presented. Some of the attitudes in the stories are disconcertingly un-PC (in ‘Prince Charming’, for example) but the attribution of such thoughts and feelings are reasonable in the context of the character perspectives and the periods in which the stories are set. These are not modern, but medieval horrors.
Fans of short, dark, frisson-inducing tales of haggard crones and sly sirens will enjoy this varied collection of wicked witchery and twisted folk stories.
“I have a patient to urgently examine. A young woman. She was one of the few to live through the earthquake.”
“Oh yeah, and what’s so damned important about her?”
Geoff paused for a second, aware how bizarre it would sound. He let out his breath in a low hiss.
“They claim,” he said, “that she caused it.”
– Jay Raven, ‘Quaking with Fear’ in Game of Crones
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2019/06/08/blog-blitz-game-of-crones-jay-raven/
Game of Crones is a collection of eight short stories that feature the dark and dangerous aspects of witchcraft through the ages.
The blurb accurately describes and sums up the contents here: there are witches, seers, hags, necromancers, a Cassandra, a Pandora, curses, potions, rituals and poisons. The overarching theme celebrates the wily intelligence and precarious favour of women with power; following traditional fairytale and folklore templates, but often adding a new and unexpected twist to a familiar tale.
I particularly enjoyed the shivers I got from ‘Clutching at Straws’ and ‘Suggestion of Evil’ which cleverly channel the reader’s own imagination against them to highlight and magnify the horror presented. Some of the attitudes in the stories are disconcertingly un-PC (in ‘Prince Charming’, for example) but the attribution of such thoughts and feelings are reasonable in the context of the character perspectives and the periods in which the stories are set. These are not modern, but medieval horrors.
Fans of short, dark, frisson-inducing tales of haggard crones and sly sirens will enjoy this varied collection of wicked witchery and twisted folk stories.
“I have a patient to urgently examine. A young woman. She was one of the few to live through the earthquake.”
“Oh yeah, and what’s so damned important about her?”
Geoff paused for a second, aware how bizarre it would sound. He let out his breath in a low hiss.
“They claim,” he said, “that she caused it.”
– Jay Raven, ‘Quaking with Fear’ in Game of Crones
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2019/06/08/blog-blitz-game-of-crones-jay-raven/