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No blood. No body. No murder.
That’s what the police found after Penelope spun her bizarre tale. In a hysterical state, she said her father was butchered and eaten by a mob of birds ~ in her bedroom.
They claim she’s crazy.
That she suffers from delusions.
Penelope is dead set on proving them wrong.
After being institutionalized for eight months, Penelope is out and more determined than ever to find answers to her so-called hallucinations. With her father’s untimely disappearance, she’s convinced her family is hiding something sinister.
THE OMEN OF CROWS NEST is the latest masterpiece by the award-winning author Cathrina Constantine, and is sure to leave fans of fantasy gasping!
One stormy night, and one fateful 911 call, that ended up with Penelope being institutionalised. She is absolutely certain that her father was torn apart by birds, in her bedroom, and that she witnessed the horrific scene. And yet, there is no evidence that her father is even dead, let alone that there were ever any birds in her room. Not, that is, that anyone seems to know exactly where her father is.
After eight months, Penelope is finally back home, or rather, as close to home as she can get. Her mother has arranged for her to stay with the neighbours, the Raniers, and slowly get reintroduced to her real home at Crows Nest, especially after Penelope saw her bedroom again for the first time and passed out. The one plus is that Dean Ranier has been Penelope’s best friend since childhood, and she has had a crush on him forever – and she is now living with him.
But, Penelope is certain something is going on, and not just inside her head. She overhears conversations that make no sense, and she isn’t allowed to go home when she wants to. Her younger brother and sister are being kept from her, and she can’t figure out why her Gramma won’t let her come home.
On top of everything happening with Penelope having to live with the Raniers, and her mother wanting to move away with Penelope, Penelope has to deal with the outside world as well. She is enrolled in school for the first time in her life, for she has always been homeschooled, which puts her in the centre of a society that only know her as the girl who was institutionalised. She has to deal with bullies and people claiming she murdered her father. The only real friend she has throughout everything is Dean, and it’s difficult to act like brother and sister when she wants their relationship to be so much more.
I felt incredibly sorry for Penelope’s siblings, Hazel and Sam. While Penelope is the focus of the story, and they are not featured much, they were always in the back of my mind. They live at Crows Nest with their Gramma, and Gramma is not a character I could stomach very easily. She is an absolutely horrible woman, and the stories Hazel and Sam have to tell Penelope in the small amount of time they spend alone together are awful. While I wanted Penelope to figure out the truth, and for her life to find some semblance of normalcy, I was overly aware that in the time that passes, Hazel and Sam were in a situation that they couldn’t escape from.
This book is labeled as fantasy, so you know immediately that there is going to be some supernatural elements, especially with how the book starts, and the whole situation with Penelope’s father. However, if you didn’t know this was a fantasy book, it might take a while to figure it out. Things seem almost normal for the vast majority of this book, which makes you wonder whether Penelope really did hallucinate the birds, or not. This means that, while Penelope is questioning whether or not she really saw what she thinks she did, you are also questioning the same things as you read.
Something I especially liked about this book is that it very clearly stands alone. I am not sure whether it is part of a series, or if there are future books to come following Penelope, but this book comes to a very clear end, rather than leaving you on a cliffhanger, or waiting for a conclusion. If you are after a book that does not mean you are entering a commitment to buy a series worth of books, this is the one to go for!
I really enjoyed Penelope’s story. She is a character I could sympathise with, and I really wanted to be able to give her a big hug at times. Unfortunately, I could not enter the book to do so, so instead, I rooted for her as she worked to try and figure out who was hiding things from her, what the secrets were, and why they were being hidden. This was a fantastic read, and I will definitely be checking out this author in the future.
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I am blessed with a loving family and forever friends. My world revolves around them.
I grew up in the small village of Lancaster, NY, where I married my sweetheart. I'm devoted to raising 5 cherished children, and now my grandchildren.
I love to immerse myself in great books of every kind of genre, which helps me to write purely for entertainment, and hopefully to inspire readers. When not stationed at my computer you can find me in the woods taking long walks with my dog.
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Thank you for the Awesome Review. I'm so happy that you liked Penelope's story!!
ReplyDeleteYou are more than welcome!
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