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The Feathered Man

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 15 ratings · 7 reviews

In a German town, long ago, lives a tooth-puller's boy called Klaus. It isn't Klaus's fault that he sees his master steal a diamond from the mouth of a dead man in Frau Drecht's lodging house, or that Frau Drecht and her murderous son want it for themselves.

He has nothing to do with the Jesuit priest and his Aztec companion who turn up out of the blue looking for it, or th...more

Paperback, 360 pages

Published November 2012 by David Ficking Books

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Jan 05, 2013 Samantha-Ellen Bound rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jeremy de Quidt's first children's novel, The Toymaker, blew me away when I first read it and quickly became one of my favourite children's books ever. The Feathered Man is much of the same - beautiful writing, mature ideas, grim and gritty action, memorable characters and an adventure story that rarely takes a breath for the whole length of the book.

I really enjoyed it; the only thing is the book is in that in-between stage of 'is it for teens or kids'? As an adventure story it's perfect, becau...more

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Nov 16, 2012 Vivienne Serendipity Reviews rated it 3 of 5 stars

This really is a rather dark and disturbing tale that starts off quite innocently. The story is told in third person and you find yourself privy to the minds of many unusual characters who all have an important part to play in the unravelling of this tale.
I found this book thrilling in parts and strange in others. The concept of the Feathered Man was rather frightening, yet compelling at times. When the creature first appeared, the description turned my stomach. He now sits at number two in my...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Lyndsey Rushby rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

Told in third person, Jeremy De Quidt gives readers the chance to get to know all characters involved in this story. Although we start off by meeting Klaus and Kusselmann, there are plenty of other interesting characters who are introduced along the way. Klaus was an unfortunate young boy and not having a home meant he had to work for Kusselmann, who was the local teeth puller. Kusselmann, exceptional at his trade, is known to everyone in town and is always on the lookout for some good teeth. Ho...more Told in third person, Jeremy De Quidt gives readers the chance to get to know all characters involved in this story. Although we start off by meeting Klaus and Kusselmann, there are plenty of other interesting characters who are introduced along the way. Klaus was an unfortunate young boy and not having a home meant he had to work for Kusselmann, who was the local teeth puller. Kusselmann, exceptional at his trade, is known to everyone in town and is always on the lookout for some good teeth. However, when Frau Drecht calls him over to pull the teeth of a recently deceased man, he finds that they aren’t normal teeth at all – hidden inside is a diamond.

Here is where the story begins to get really exciting and weird. By stealing the diamond, Kusselmann and Klaus’ lives change forever and they soon find that there are plenty of other people who want this particular diamond. Here begins the adventure of hiding the diamond and for Klaus, staying away from the others who want it. I really liked Klaus as a character because he was so misfortunate and I wanted things to get better for him. He didn’t really understand what was going on and all he was really looking for was a break in life which he thought the diamond would give him.

It takes some time for the book to hit the religious aspects of the plot but I enjoyed the way this unfolded. There is plenty of mystery surrounding the diamond and what it is really for. Due to the slow building plot in regards to this, it all becomes really exciting and intriguing. As well as Frau Drecht, a Priest and a Professor are after the diamond and slowly, they explain what it is for and why they want it. Although The Feathered Man is set in an older time in Germany, references go way back to times long before this and the history behind the diamond was exciting to learn.

De Quidt gets the pacing spot on. With a slow build up to and thrilling ending, there is everything in this book to keep you hooked. There are characters that you cannot help but hope do well and characters that you really want to disappear. Along with a story that made my skin crawl at times, there are plenty of twists and turns in the plot which will keep you guessing and holding your breath. I have Jeremy De Quidt’s other book, The Toymaker, sat on a shelf unread somewhere else so I think it’s about time that I found it and gave it a go after liking this book so much. The Feathered Man was everything that I could want in a creepy book!
(less)

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Nov 17, 2012 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, stand-alone

The Feathered Man features some very strong characters, some of whom are very cruel and heartless. Particularly Frau Drecht who uses children as free labour and has an unusually high number of deaths in her boarding house. I loathed this woman and really wanted her to get her just desserts. In comparison, the two young children, Klaus and Liesel, were so innocent, naive and vulnerable. Because of this they ended up constantly on the run and all I wanted was for them to find safety and hope. My h...more The Feathered Man features some very strong characters, some of whom are very cruel and heartless. Particularly Frau Drecht who uses children as free labour and has an unusually high number of deaths in her boarding house. I loathed this woman and really wanted her to get her just desserts. In comparison, the two young children, Klaus and Liesel, were so innocent, naive and vulnerable. Because of this they ended up constantly on the run and all I wanted was for them to find safety and hope. My heart went out to them both because they had no parents or anyone to look out for them, and sorely needed someone to give them a hug, food and a warm bed. But in the poverty stricken German setting, safety and love were very hard to find.

The setting very much reminded me of Victorian London, due to the historical timing as well as the stark contrast between those with money and education and the poor struggling just to survive. There were also a fair few gruesome acts in the story from murder, torture and maltreatment which gave the town a very dark and sinister underbelly. This poverty meant that Klaus and Liesel were forced to work for horrible adults just to survive, and when they were both in danger (which was quite often!) I was wracked with fear for them. The plot also took a number of sharp twists and turns, and there was plenty of intrigue when new characters were introduced and I tried to figure out how hey might fit into the puzzle.

A huge part of the plot links to the spiritual and what happens after death. I’m not sure I completely understand the other world. In fact, if that’s what it is like afterwards, I’m not sure I want to know. And yet, the desire to know what lies beyond drove several of the characters to commit heinous acts of violence and murder. I did like that this spiritual element was balanced against the exploration of the physical through anatomy, and that the anatomists were intrigued in life after death despite having a scientific background.

The Feathered Man is a dark and chilling tale of human nature and what happens when our curiosity about death exceeds the value of life.(less)

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Jan 18, 2013 Carly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review

-Where does life go when you have breathed your last?

The Feathered Man is yet again another extraordinary instalment from Jeremy De Quidt! While I didn't enjoy it as much as The Toymaker I still think it is a bone chillingly brilliant book. I can promise that you will never have read anything like this before, it is so imaginatively different that you will be gobsmacked at the intriguing storyline and you really will remember it for a long time to come. Quidt's writing style is fantastic, it ho...more

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Jan 25, 2013 TheBookAddictedGirl rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All Those Who Love Creepy, Amazing Books!

Shelves: for-review, in-my-mailbox, action-adventure, british-fiction, fantasy, horror, magic, mystery, paranormal, psychological-suspense, read-2012, thriller-suspense, urban-fantasy, ya, historical-fiction

"Too much curiosity is a killing thing…”
Herr Kusselmann is a tooth puller. He takes teeth from dead people and places them in the mouths of the living.
Klaus is his servant, chosen for his beautiful white teeth. Kindness is not the reason the street boy was hired. Kusselmann has a violent motive, obviously.
I mean, why does a street rat need teeth so white?
But more about that later. Our story really begins in a loft - Frau Drechts' loft, to be precise.
It's there Klaus sees his master pull a dia...more "Too much curiosity is a killing thing…”
Herr Kusselmann is a tooth puller. He takes teeth from dead people and places them in the mouths of the living.
Klaus is his servant, chosen for his beautiful white teeth. Kindness is not the reason the street boy was hired. Kusselmann has a violent motive, obviously.
I mean, why does a street rat need teeth so white?
But more about that later. Our story really begins in a loft - Frau Drechts' loft, to be precise.
It's there Klaus sees his master pull a diamond from a dead man's tooth.
Kusselmann doesn't tell Frau Drechts. That's a mistake. The one thing you should never, ever do is cross Frau Drechts - and her terrifying, murderous son.
But they aren't the only ones after the diamond.
The diamond Klaus finds in his possession.
Yes, it all looks pretty dire.
But, oh, it gets so much worse when the feathered man enters the equation...
I do love a good spooktastic book and The Feathered Man was so awesomely spooky! I was just like instantly hooked! It was so brilliantly gruesome and utterly addictive. I'm a pretty seasoned horror-creepy movie watcher and book reader, but even I found this one disturbing! Probably not one to read in the middle of the night when it's raining. You might be a wee by freaked out. Just a warning! But young and old teens alike will adore this deliciously dark and chilling book!
The characters were all very, very strong. Some I liked. Some I didn't. Some scared md to death. But all were very strong. I did get a wee bit confused about which name was which minor character at times but it didn't affect my read much. Nor did the fact that there were like four or five characters with names starting with 'K' - it wasn't real hard to keep track of them, surprisingly, even though I know others have had problems with that. The main ‘K’ was Klaus, who had had a really, really hard life, poor kid. He was quick, street smart and brave. Liesel also had a really, really hard life. She was caring, though, smart and determined. And I really liked Marcus – Herr Assistant – because he was curious, did good sleuthing and was caring. Karolus, on the other hand, scared the heebie jeebies outta me. And the priest dude was creepy too. Or maybe that was just that creepy, blood eating little monkey... Shudder. And Frau Drechts was just horrid - I really hated her! She was just a despicable human being.
Basically, I either liked or was creeped out by the characters. And the monkey. Ugh…
The writing was very beautiful and super creepy. It was all in third person, which meant less personal, but multiple characters to follow: yay! De Quidt's visualisation was intense and amazing. But the perspectives jumped a lot – we could have two, maybe more, POVs in a single paragraph. It didn't bother me overly but it might be confusing. I loved his repetition of: "Sometimes, you see, there just isn't a choice" which was a real moral and thought provoking aspect of the story. And the plot, thanks to multiple characters to follow, was full of suspense: yay! It was totally gripping. It was also really weird, very bizarre and dreamlike. It was very much a suspenseful mystery for most of the book, but near the end... My God, it was just... um... Whoa. I barely have words for what it was. Fast paced, terrifying, so freaking additive it was untrue. And I had no idea how it could possibly end. The end, btw? Stunning.
And the setting was very much gothic Victorian – very atmospheric and creepy. You get that real Dickens-style of living. You know: even when our lead kids wanted to do the right thing there was always that feeling that they needed to look out for themselves first because they knew no one else would. I also loved how the streets of Germany blended with the dreamlike exotic jungle. It was amazing.
I should point out that there's quite a bit of gory stuff. Ok, quite a lot gory. And scary, disturbing stuff too. So, not for the little ones, but early teens will love it. We all know how the kids love the horror! But the parents get something, y'know, besides the scary. Now, it took a while to become evident, but there was a real philosophical feel to the book. About faith and proof and religions. About what happens when we die. About whether the religion we believe in is the 'true' one, even though it is the one we believe. Heavy stuff. But de Quidt managed to write it all in in a way that was light as a feather (forgive the pun) even when it managed to wriggle its way into my head and just stick there, making me really think.
The Feathered Man was an amazing, deeply disturbing, addictive book, one that had me hooked start to finish. Even though I was thoroughly creeped out of my head, I stated up very, very late to finish it. Needless to say, my dreams were deeply disturbing that night. But it was worth it. It was one heck of a book, totally twisted and totally addictive. I can't wait for my next de Quidt! (less)

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Dec 03, 2012 Stefan Bachmann rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ok, this book *looks* like a kids book, but... it's not really. It's dark and grim and violent in a not-at-all storybook way, and I actually had to set it down once because it was getting so FREAKISHLY SCARY. Which of course means that the writing is really fantastic. It is. I loved the dense, claustrophobic atmosphere of the city. The titular feathered man is one of the creepiest story inventions ever. There are a lot of characters, but their stories and motivations intertwine seamlessly. I'll...more

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Shelves: adventure

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Shelves: young-adult, historical-fiction, available-at-library

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Shelves: occult-supernatural, historical-horror

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