The Cormorant

by Stephen Gregory

A young family receives a surprise when old Uncle Ian dies and leaves them a cottage in north Wales. For Ian’s nephew and his wife Ann, it seems a stroke of incredible good fortune, enabling them to leave their life in the city for a newfound freedom in the remote seaside cottage. There’s just one catch. Uncle Ian’s will has an unusual condition: the couple must care for his pet cormorant or forfeit the bequest. The will’s provision seems harmless enough at first, but when their young son Harry develops a strange fascination for the increasingly sinister and malevolent bird, they soon find that Uncle Ian’s gift may not be a blessing, but a curse.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Gothic, Novella, Audiobook, Animals, Birds

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Stephen Gregory (b. 1952) was born in Derby, England, and earned a degree in law from the University of London. He worked as a teacher for ten years in various places, including Wales, Algeria, and Sudan, before moving to the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales to write his first novel, The Cormorant (1986), which won Britain’s prestigious Somerset Maugham Award and drew comparisons to Poe. The book was also adapted for film as a BBC production starring Ralph Fiennes. Two more novels, both set in Wales, followed: The Woodwitch (1988) and The Blood of Angels (1994). After the publication of The Blood of Angels, he worked in Hollywood for a year with Oscar-winning director William Friedkin (The Exorcist). More recently, he has published The Perils and Dangers of this Night (2008), and his new novel, The Waking That Kills, will be published in late 2013.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to go ahead and award this one the full five stars. That's right. It rocked!

Picked up yesterday afternoon around 4 pm, finished today around 4pm, this story left me with visions of this bird,(and its streaming jets of shit), bouncing around in my head. The other reviews go into the set up so I will leave that off and just tell you how this story made me feel.

At times, it seemed ridiculous...I mean, really- it's just a big black-ish/greenish/blue-ish bird-what's the big deal, right? But... but what about when in the dead of night your toddler is frozen at the window staring out at the (it's just a)bird in its pen? And the bird, standing with wings spread, totally still,is staring back? Is it a big deal then? That's not even anywhere close to a few other scenes which turned my bones to ice and my skin to goosebumps.

This book rocketed by because I wanted to give it every spare minute. I highly recommend it to fans of quiet 80's horror. Also recommended to fans of scenes that chill to the bone, and images that sear into the brain. Bravo!

*A free copy of this book was provided by Valancourt Books in exchange for an honest review. This is it.*

[Vicki Herbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

It Arrived One Stormy Night
In A Wooden Crate...

THE CORMORANT
by Stephen Gregory

5 stars. Old Uncle Ian, a lifelong bachelor, took his little boat each evening down the mudflats to a small Welsh village to have his dinner and a pint before going home...

On one such trip...

He spotted something large and black floundering in the water, trying to keep itself from drowning...

The dark thrashing thing turned out to be a yearling cormorant struggling to stay afloat due to a coating of oil on its feathers...

Ian rescued the bird and took it home with him...

He kept the bird. He cleaned and fed it to the point it became completely dependent on him to survive...

At first, the cormorant was passive when accepting food from Ian, but as it grew, it became arrogant, unpredictable, and vicious...

It was a lout, a glutton and an ignorant tyrant, and Ian loved and doted on it...

One day...

Ian was told by his doctor that he didn't have long to live, so he saw his lawyer to make provisions for the care of the bird after his death...

Later...

Ian was on the little boat with the bird when he died. The cormorant landed on his chest and pecked Ian's cheeks with its hooked beak...

It continued on, shredding Ian's lips and gums, and ate one of his eyes...

After Ian's funeral...

Ian's nephew and his wife inherited Ian's cottage in North Wales, but only on the condition that they adopt his beloved cormorant and care for it...

A solicitor would be sent around monthly to make sure Ian's wishes were carried out, and the bird was well-fed and thriving...

And...

That was how Ian's pampered, self-serving cormorant came to arrive one stormy night in a wooden crate on his nephew's doorstep...

Wow! This was a great story. I don't want to say anything more about the plot because of spoilers. It was very atmospheric, and even though I could guess how it might come to an end, there was still a surprise waiting.

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have wanted to read The Cormorant for a long while, as it is set in my home country - North Wales! I have long seen it included on “must read folk horror” lists. Stephen Gregory even rented a caravan in Snowdonia to write this.
I was easily able to envisage the setting in my mind, which is the town of Caernarfon and the surrounding area.
I have a great amount of appreciation for the writing style. It was very well-written. But I shall explain why I ended up feeling disappointed with the story.

The Cormorant is about a man’s obsession with a bird he was left by his Uncle Ian in his will. Along with a cottage in Snowdonia. He uproots his family, his wife Ann and his young son, Harry to move into the cottage from their Sussex home and their old jobs as school teachers.
It is made quite clear throughout that Harry and the cormorant, named Archie, have an unspeakable, unexplainable bond. The child is drawn to the bird whilst his parents are trying to keep him away from it.
Even when Archie the cormorant lashes out and acts almost demonically, you feel sorry for him. You want the bird to be kept safe or at least released from this family’s possession.

Ultimately, the treatment of the bird towards the end of the novella (without giving too much away) left me feeling distressed, upset, and a little disappointed... as up until that point, I had rather enjoyed the pacing and the descriptive narrative. I had to skim read parts of the ending.

3.5 Stars - for the quality of the writing overall.

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit wordy for me, but the cruelty and hypocrisy of the human race kept me irritable enough to remain engrossed.  Archie, Archie, Archie...

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

between a 4 and 5, really; extremely disturbing and difficult to read but oh so good.

full post here:
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2021...

Recently reissued by Welsh publisher Parthian Books just last month, Stephen Gregory's The Cormorant (1986) is exactly the sort of dark fiction I look forward to reading, in which the weird makes its way into regular life making it difficult to decide whether there is something supernatural at play here or if it's something else altogether. I first read this book seven years ago when it was published by Valancourt, and that was the question I was left with at the time; after finishing this time around, the ambiguity remains. Added to the uncertainty is the fact that we have only the narrator's word to rely on for what happens here. My kind of book indeed.

The flaws in the characters begin to appear early on, but then again, we're watching this story unravel from the point of view of the narrator, whose choices throughout the narrative are just mind boggling. One of the highlights of this novel is Gregory's purposeful, highly-controlled and taut writing style which allows for him to adeptly turn up the volume little by little on the slow-building horror that fills this book, and in my case at least, setting forth an eerie atmosphere from the moment the bird's crate is opened in the cozy living room, offering its entrance as a harbinger of dread and doom.

I won't deny that there are some extremely disturbing scenes in this book (including one especially beyond-squirmworthy event that takes place in a bathtub which is mentioned in pretty much everyone's review of this novel and got a serious and out-loud WTF from me as well), but in a sick way they accord with the narrator's increasingly-disturbed state of mind, which is in my opinion is at the heart of this novel.

I cannot for the life of me say why, but as disturbing and horrific as this book is, I absolutely loved it. I found, as the author says in the introduction to this novel, that

"Like the bird, the book is beautiful and ugly, intriguing and upsetting, appealing and appalling, in its different, changing moods."

The Cormorant is not only effective as a horror story, but as literary fiction with a weird bent as well. The ambiguity here left me thinking about it long after I'd finished, going through evidence in my head for both the psychological and supernatural. Writing it down now, I'm still thinking about it. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough, although on many levels it is a very difficult read, so beware.

[Jon Recluse · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a rare event when a book not only stuns me speechless, it refuses to loosen it's grip upon my subconscious, coloring my nightmares and haunting my waking moments.
This is a work that must be read to bear witness to it's power, there are no words that can adequately describe the creeping sense of unease that oozes from it's pages.
This is quiet horror at it's finest, a stunning work of dark imagination that pays homage to the weird tales of the past, yet proves itself to be a masterpiece of macabre originality.

Highest possible recommendation.


*A free copy of this book was provided by Valancourt Books in exchange for an honest review*

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE CORMORANT was the first book I had read by Stephen Gregory. My first reading was so long ago, that I had forgotten virtually everything (with the exception of one scene). This re-read years later felt like reading it for the very first time.

The writing in this book is simply brilliant! While very adept at creating the perfect atmosphere, Gregory is at times almost poetic in some of his descriptions. This story begins with with the death of reclusive "Uncle Ian", who leaves to a young couple his cottage in North Wales--contingent upon the condition that they take care of his pet cormorant.

For those not familiar with a cormorant, Gregory's words truly bring it to life in every sense of the word. "A large, black scavenger bird with a vicious horned beak capable of breaking fingers; with the exception of its grace when diving in the water, this bird had virtually no redeeming qualities."

"The cormorant was a lout, a glutton, an ignorant tyrant. It affected nothing else."

One of the descriptive passages that I found most enlightening was the telling of what the other sea-gulls thought, upon seeing "Archie": "It came and went in the company of a man, not his slave, for they had seen him retreat from the wild beak, but in the company of people. It was more than the cormorants along the shore....immeasurably more than the biggest of the black-birds or the oldest raven. The gulls swooped down to see. They recoiled from something they could not understand."

The tension in this story starts up from the very first page, and seductively lures you in. Even in the lulls created by "Archie's" unpredictable behavior, you know that something horrible--yet not quite namable--is on the horizon. I won't give away any of the plot for this novel, except to say that it was an engaging, even compulsive, read all along; one that had me unable to guess its ultimate conclusion at any point.

In summary of the "pet" cormorant: "But this bird made an art of being vile." .

That, very accurately, sums it up.

Highly recommended!

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last year I read Stephen Gregory's book, PLAGUE OF GULLS published by PS Publishing. To simply state that I was impressed with his writing would be an understatement but that's the best way I can think of to say what I mean. I was very impressed. Each word seems carefully chosen. He paints scenery and sets the stage vividly. You can see, with your mind's eye, exactly the room his characters dwell in.
After I read and reviewed PLAGUE, an author friend who is also an avid reader, recommended THE CORMORANT.
Valancourt books have a great edition of the book with an atmospheric cover that appeals to me so I knew I would eventually own it.
Flash forward a bit and Ashley and I chose this book for our February Night Worms package with two other books--both of us excited to have a copy of it for ourselves to read.
I enjoyed seeing many reviews come in and the variety of ratings but I always held back a little so as not to spoil anything for myself--but people seemed very riled up by something in this book.

Now I know what it is.
And does this "thing", this "scene" bear consequences for my approval of this book? It does.
But let's unpack my whole reader's experience first.
Again, Stephen Gregory is a masterful storyteller. There were some descriptive moments early on in the book where he's describing a living room and it's anything but ordinary--it's just so rich with detail and the living room comes to life. I could see everything and I particularly enjoy that. The protagonists, a family of three--the narrator husband who is a school teacher, his wife Ann and their young child, Harry.
They seem like a normal enough family and then one day, a crate arrives with something alive in it. It turns out to be a Cormorant that they inherited from a dead Uncle Ian.
From this moment on, the story takes a strange turn and feels eerie and unsettling. The characters begin to behave strangely--especially as we lead into our infamous, "off putting" scene.
That scene.
I will never, ever be able to unsee it.
Ugh. *cringe* Why?
I wish someone had a theory and could explain it to me. I might even ask some people that I know who have rated this book so highly and never even mentioned it--it's so disturbing and uncomfortable. I know that me even talking about it this way is going to make people want to read the book and for that I'm glad because Stephen Gregory is immensely talented and people should read his work.
After that scene, my guts were feeling very sensitive and vulnerable. The rest of the story and going towards the ending, I had a foul taste in my mouth. But this was possibly the intention of the author--there's lots of shocking, disturbing things about this book--it's good horror. A sure classic. I'm glad I read it--even despite my aversion to some of the author's choices.

[Mindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one came in a recent Night Worms subscription package, and to be honest I had never heard of it until it was in my hands. The cover is fantastically atmospheric, which you can always count on from Valancourt Books, and it's thin enough that I thought I could squeeze it in while in the middle of a buddy read. Of course there has been a lot of chatter amongst subscribers about this one lately too. All of that was enough to pique my interest.

There are quite a few triggers for folks in this one. I was warned by some friends in a chat that animal violence is fairly prominent, and that proved to be true. It's not overindulgent, but it's enough that as an animal lover I was cringing at times. I have to admit I was afraid to read this one because I'm a huge bird lover and this is a horror novel called The Cormorant. Anyone who has read as much horror as I have knows that doesn't bode well for said Cormorant. Basically, any animal in a horror novel is toast 99% of the time.

In this one the Cormorant is both a punishment and a test. A couple with a young son are disenchanted with their lives as teachers. When an uncle dies and leaves them a cozy cottage in North Wales, they jump at the chance to live there. But there's a catch. Uncle Ian was an odd man, and his will stipulates that the couple can only continue to live in the cottage as long as they care for his pet Cormorant.

I'm going to assume that most people know next to nothing about Cormorants. They are fairly large birds that live in coastal regions and hunt for fish and shellfish. The have long hooked beaks, and they produce pellets like owls. Basically, this is a wild animal that should never be a pet. However, the family desperately wants to keep the cottage, so the unnamed husband and protagonist does everything he can to bond with the bird. Even their eleven-month-old son Harry begins to have show an odd obsession with the Cormorant, but the wife Ann sees the it as nothing but a danger and a nuisance. After some bad encounters with the bird, she delivers some ultimatums to her husband, and eventually things escalate and the bird has to go. But this is a horror novel. Things are never so simple with horror.

I started to imagine early on the end of this story, and yet when it actually happens it's still incredibly disturbing. Oh, and let's talk about that scene that everyone is whispering about. All I'll say is that the family takes a bath one evening, and things get seriously uncomfortable and wrong really fast. The scene isn't necessary except for shock value, and it definitely succeeds in that regard. Overall though, this book is incredibly well written. Gregory is a master at description and setting a scene. This is one unsettling story, and the writing almost makes the reader forgive the more unsavory elements. Overall I enjoyed this one. But that bath scene is forever burned into my brain.

[Plagued by Visions · Rating 5 out of 5]

A near-perfect, quiet little nightmare.

[Ctgt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A grim, sinister story of the trials of a young family after they receive a stroke of apparent good fortune. A distant uncle leaves his cottage in Wales to his nephew with one caveat, they can keep the cottage as long as they care for a cormorant(Archie)taken in by said uncle. How bad can it be?

I loved the descriptive writing in this book. From the atmosphere created to the descriptions of the bird, I had no difficulty forming a picture in my mind.

It had grown into an impressively ugly bird, a gangster of a creature, with its mantling black wings, the cocksure stance, the menacing angles of that horn-brown bill and its rubbery, webbed feet. It oozed the stink of fish, the smell of the river, it breathed the tang of the tides.

It was only a game, it seemed, for the rat which emerged from the skirting was big and brave. The rat stood on its hind legs, like a pocket grizzly bear, swayed and snickered. The cormorant beat the air with its wings, sending up a cloud of dust. The rat and the cormorant continued their threatening displays until honour was satisfied, and the rat slid back into the darkness.

The cormorant was all black. It stood up straight and faced me. In the darkness, Archie was all black, its wings held out in a mockery of benediction.

The story takes a dark turn when even their toddler son becomes enthralled with the bird.
With his hands on the sill, he leaned forward to peer down into the backyard. Moonlight bathed his face. His eyes narrowed a little at the gleam. Harry concentrated on his object in the yard.

We crept up behind the child. Still Harry was unaware of us. We looked over him, at the blue-black garden, the purple shadows. The cage was lit by the light of steel.

Archie too was awake. The cormorant stood in the full silver beams of the moon, head and beak erect, wings outstretched. Utterly motionless. Utterly black. Not a tip of a feather trembled.

Throw in a few mysterious appearances of a cigar smoking man and cracks start to form in the family. There are two very disturbing scenes in the book that will stay with me for a long time. This is one of those books you can't really say you enjoyed(if you know what I mean) but it certainly had a strong impact.

[Ruth Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing style is easy and the story started off really well, but it failed to live up to my expectations for the following reasons:

Although I didn't like Archie, I didn't find him sinister. Archie was just being a cormorant and doing, I guess, what cormorants do. At times, he was even cute.

The mentions of Uncle Ian and the smell of cigar smoke weren't enough to make any significant contribution to the story and didn't really go anywhere.

I didn't like the two main characters. I felt no connection to them, no sympathy for them and at times I thought Ann's behaviour was bizarre.

Animal cruelty, for want of a better word. You need a strong stomach to read it.

But the main reason was the bath scene on Christmas morning, with toddler Harry and his parents. I'm not easily shocked, but what Harry did, his parents apparent enjoyment of it, their lack of reaction after the bath, and the mention, a little later in the book, of Harry, who can’t keep his pestering fingers to himself, made me feel in need of a long, hot shower. If I was supposed to deduce from this that Archie was somehow influencing Harry's behaviour then the author failed miserably.

After that I skimmed through to the end to find out what happened, and then wished I hadn't bothered.

From a 4 star beginning to a 2 star ending.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really felt for the cormorant. Quite an interesting read, the author definitely has talent, but I didn't like the ending too much and I didn't like the main character's dealing with the cormorant.

[Hux · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man (the narrator) and his wife (Ann) and small baby (Harry) inherit a cottage in Wales from an uncle (Ian) but his will stipulates that he must also look after his bird, a cormorant, as part of the deal (why?). So this family now live in the cottage and the husband keeps the bird (naming it Archie) in the backyard behind some chicken wire. One day, the bird attacks the cat and kills it, ripping its face off. Ann leaves with the baby and stays with her parents for a week. Meanwhile, the narrator seemingly bonds with the bird by going fishing with it. Then Ann and the boy return, then there's a very blunt ending.

I mean... it was fine. I was never bored reading this but the creepiness I was supposed to feel never really materialised. Maybe I just don't find horror very interesting. To me, it all seems a little silly and I never understand the motivations of the people involved let alone the malignant desires of the dead. If you simply read it as the mental disintegration of the protagonist then it's still a rather dry reading experience especially when you take into account the fact that Gregory really drags this out. It's a short story stretched out into a novella. Or maybe it's just the standard Poe-esque building of tension by describing the mundane daily experiences. I dunno, I really don't care for this genre in all honesty. Like I said, it feels a bit silly. Why is uncle Ian a dick? Why would he stipulate that you only get the house if you get the bird? Is he some kind of wacky japester? Why not just give the bird away and screw that crazy uncle and his inheritance. There's just something about books that are supposed to be creepy that require a lot of dumb convenience or coincidence or downright irrationality. I'm just left thinking... but why? Why would you do that?

But it was easy enough to read and certainly kept me intrigued enough to continue. The ending left me somewhat baffled I must say. It felt forced and cheap. The only truly creepy moment in this book comes in the form of the bath scene where husband and wife and son are all together and lathered up. It sort of comes out of nowhere and doesn't really add much to the story but it's unquestionably the most WTF moment. But if that moment is why this book is considered a transgressive classic then it's a very low bar. I had to read it twice to check what happened actually happened (of a sexual nature) then tried to grasp what the purpose of this scene was (inconclusive).

So yeah, overall, I enjoyed it. I was never bored. The writing is pretty basic stuff and occasionally dull and monotonous but it was okay. Worth a look.

[Adrienne L · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could have loved this book, the writing is really beautiful, but...that ending...no, in all ways, no.

Also, WTF with the bathtub scene??

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giving this a full 5 stars for its ability to stun, revolt, and mesmerize me. There are so many great reviews for this book and I encourage you to read them before taking this little masterpiece of horror on. The story is unique to anything I've ever come across. Stephen Gregory is deft at injecting texture and sensory detail into his scenes and you are brought along on a wave of sight, sounds, scent, and touch. And with that wave, you will be revolted, made happy, saddened, and finally left stunned by it. The ending was laid out well, not rushed, it is complete, and yet I was left off-balance, wondering what just happened. The book is very thought-provoking and will stay with me for a long time (some parts too long).

You'll read in many reviews about "The" disturbing scene and you should take that seriously, I'm with others that wish they could unsee and forget it. I find myself (like others) wondering why he added it, if it was really necessary. My conclusion was, yes, it was needed to emphasize there were forces at work we could not, would never, see or understand.

I will definitely read more of Stephen Gregory's work but need to get over this one first.

[Jerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

How do I rate this one? How do I do it? I've gotta say this is one of the strangest books I've ever read. Not because it's truly strange in the way you're thinking (well, it kind of is, but not strange strange), but because I just don't know what the hell to think of this one. Ok. The writing/storytelling is excellent. There are moments throughout that are amazing. They really are. But there were times that I just wanted to put the damn thing down. Multiple times. But then those "moments" I speak of kept grabbing me. Dammit. Then... then... something disturbing or awful, or just... off... would happen. Not disturbing or awful in a good, twisted, fun, demented way... but in an off way that made me feel... off. There's a theme here I think. I guess I'll call this a good book (maybe), but I have to say I've never been happier to be done with a good book. I wavered between two stars and four stars (doesn't seem right, does it?), so of course this one's stuck with a three. Moving on, Archie.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have listened to several audio books with Matt Godfrey as the narrator and the dude never fails to voice a gem. His cadence and tone are always spot on. Excellent.

Also, cormorants which are part of the Phalacrocoracidae family of aquatic birds are horrible pets and must never be domesticated because they are born of the devil and have a murderous nature that will devour the entire family whom it will suck into its circle of evil influence and demonic arrogance.

Duh.

[To-The-Point Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A married man with a toddler son becomes obsessed with a cormorant until it gets really creepy.

His wife doesn't like it.

Then they all have a bath together and the toddler fingers mum.

[Matt (TeamRedmon) · Rating 2 out of 5]

"A young family receives a surprise when old Uncle Ian dies and leaves them a cottage in north Wales. For Ian’s nephew and his wife Ann, it seems a stroke of incredible good fortune, enabling them to leave their life in the city for newfound freedom in the remote seaside cottage. There’s just one catch. Uncle Ian’s will has an unusual condition: the couple must care for his pet cormorant or forfeit the bequest. The will’s provision seems harmless enough at first, but when their young son Harry develops a strange fascination for the increasingly sinister and malevolent bird, they soon find that Uncle Ian’s gift may not be a blessing, but a curse."

I enjoyed the beginning of this book quite a bit. I thought the writing was atmospheric and exciting. The Cormorant reads like a classic both in its style and tone. I've seen it compared to Hitchcock and Poe, and I can see this comparison. The first third or so of the book did a fine job of establishing the premise, the characters, and the underlying tension of the strange situation. However, that's as good as it got. The rest of the book was quite tedious, and the characters never connected with me. Archie, the titular cormorant, was supposed to be a scary and ominous part of the story. However, he was just a bird, doing bird things, being cared for by people that are DRAMATICALLY unqualified to have a pet.

I had high expectations for this book, and when I heard the whispers of a particularly disturbing scene, I knew I needed to know what the deal was. The scene in question was indeed distressing, but ultimately gratuitous. Perhaps if the scene had been a catalyst for further plot or character development, I could have understood its significance to the story. It certainly wasn't stomach-turning entertainment, in the way I've come to appreciate from this genre. Between that scene and the extensive animal abuse that occurred towards the end of the book, this one was not for me.

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple and their young son move to a cottage in Wales that they inherited following the death of an uncle. They do so under the condition that they also have to take care of the uncle's pet cormorant.

I think we've all had the fantasy of leaving our jobs and starting a new life in the country and many of us would jump at the chance if we had it. Even if there was a caveat to the opportunity. But could this change our lives for the better or for the worse? There was a series of highs and lows within this story but all with an underlying sense of dread.

Stephen Gregory is a very talented writer and I'm not sure whether this novel is to be classified as horror or firmly literary fiction. At the very least I think it would be horror adjacent. His writing is at times dreamlike and nightmarish, at times awfully real. I found this to be quite an emotional read with some distinctly unsettling and uncomfortable moments. The details and descriptions are very evocative whether they be about the weather or the scenery, or something much more horrific.

This is an excellent read and one that I highly recommend if you are looking for a quiet, slowly building story that will leave you feeling like you got punched in the gut and unable to stop thinking about what just happened.

[Chandra Claypool (WhereTheReaderGrows) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well then. This book.

To be honest, I probably never would've thought to have picked this up had it not been for a few readers who were doing a buddy read that I became a part of. And there were creepy whispers about "that scene" and dangit - my curiosity got the best of me and I just HAD TO.

I'm certainly glad that I did because the writing, as somber as it is, is absolutely beautiful. The feel as the story progresses gives you that Alfred Hitchcock/Poe vibe all the way through. Each and every single page! I did get to "that scene" and well, it certainly was unexpected but I think I expected something... different? I was a little taken aback by it because I wondered if it was even really necessary. It did certainly give you that extra punch to see just how sideways this book was going to get. Did it need to go *there* to do it? Maybe? Could it have given the same oomph without that scene or a different one? Probably. I do like that the author went there though because this is horror fiction and I love it when it does.

Solid read through and through. Don't anybody bequeath me a bird, mmk?

[Maxine Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read by Stephen Gregory this year. The first was Wakening the Crow, which was fantastic and refreshingly well written while being unassuming and subtle and creepy. The second was Plague of Gulls, which struck the same chord, namely a man with some sort of aimlessness whose life is suddenly inhabited by a bird and then comes undone as the encounters with said bird become more and more destructive. The Cormorant, written before both of those books, runs along the same lines. First the bird is little more than a messy nuisance, and then slowly the main characters relationships and morality dissolve into tragedy.

A stunning story.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this odd, little, disturbing book. As dark a statement on family and civilized man as you'll find.

(re-read on 1/4/14 in prep for Stephen Gregory's new novel)

Sill weird as hell! And the brutality of the narrator (both physical and psychological) still hits hard.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew, what a ride!  A young couple inherits a house from a recently deceased uncle with one twist: they must also take the man's pet Great Cormorant that he rescued and keep it alive and healthy. They readily accepted without thinking that the bird will be much of a burden and were they in for a surprise!

I picked this one up after seeing Charlene and Jon's glowing reviews (it also helped that I've been fascinated with birds for over 20 years). I was pleasantly surprised to see Gregory was extremely accurate in his descriptions of Cormorants and the various other birds listed in the story as well. His writing was superb, flowing smoothly along and quite beautiful. The characters were very well done, especially my favorite (of course), the Cormorant itself. Gregory wrote about it in such a way that I could easily visualize it in its various actions which is quite an impressive feat when writing about an animal. 

Overall, I'd highly recommend this book to anyone, especially those who enjoy beautiful prose like this book contains. 

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid novel of quiet horror that probably deserves a higher rating than the one I’m giving it. I might come back and bump the rating up to four stars, but for now I’m sticking with three.

Like a lot of British horror, Stephen Gregory’s 1986 tale of an inherited cormorant and the havoc it wreaks on a perfectly average family is chilly, reserved, and not exactly welcoming. I don’t mind that, not really; but, in this case, the characters were really flat. And when they weren’t flat, they were unlikable. I could not quite ever get my finger on any of them, but maybe that was the point.

That said, the prose is poetic, stark; and there are several nasty scenes that won’t leave my head any time soon. The boy standing at the window, in the night, staring out at Archie the Cormorant . . . that gave me chills!

This is a quick read, one that I enjoyed. I do wish the characters had been better developed, but the writing is exquisite; overall, I had a fine time with this. Recommended.

[Gearóid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really excellent!
Very atmospheric and creepy!
The book is set in Wales and by coincidence just last week I passed through
Wales on a coach and got a feel for the amazing countryside.
And this books describes the countryside beautifully.
Also I often observe the cormorants in our local harbour and they are fascinating creatures.
So this story where a cormorant is a main character was so interesting and
creepy.
The writing was really terrific and the creepy dark atmosphere really reminded me of reading Edgar Alan Poetry stories.

So highly recommend this book and author.

I will read more of his books.

[Jennifer Juniper · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will now move on and try to forget that I paid for and read this book.

[Nina The Wandering Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The gulls came from the castle walls, fell close by and wheeled away, screaming at the menace of the cormorant. Here was something [...] which was more than the everyday sea-crows on the brown waters of the estuary. It came and went in the company of a man, not his slave, for they had seen him retreat from the wild beak, but in the company of people. It was more than the cormorants along the shore, much more than the swans which preened themselves in their muddy reflections, immeasurably more than the biggest of the black-backs or the oldest raven. The gulls swooped down to see. They recoiled from something they could not understand.”

This being my second book by author Stephen Gregory—the first being The Woodwitch—I have concluded that (1) the author adores writing about nature and wildlife and (2) has a tendency to sneak uncomfortably strange segments into books that have the reader saying “what the actual hell?!?!”.

How to describe Stephen Gregory’s The Cormorant (1986): atmospheric, literary, gothic, unsettling, and an all around bizarre story that left me wondering what I’d just read.

A family inherits a seaside cottage in northern Wales from a deceased uncle under the strict condition that they will also care for the uncle’s wild black cormorant. While a cormorant is no canary—it’s an intimidatingly sizable bird —the creature and the family settle into a routine that’s somewhat agreeable. That is until the cormorant starts showing malignant tendencies and the couple’s small child takes an almost hypnotic fascination with the bird.

This was one of those stories where I had my suspicions as to what might be happening throughout the book, but could never truly be sure. To reveal those suspicions might end up being a plot spoiler, so I’ll let readers deduce for themselves what in the world went on between this bird and the family it was saddled with.

All in all, I enjoyed it (in spite of there being a particular scene I could’ve done without). In fact I enjoy Gregory's writing so much that I would go as far as to say I'm a new fan! If you’re up for a literary gothic horror novella with beautiful prose highlighting wildlife and the Welsh countryside, you might enjoy this!

**TRIGGER WARNINGS: animal cruelty, animal death

[Jess Platt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The summary on the back of this book should read, “A surprisingly idiotic couple abuses their child and pet bird, while believing a ghost made them do it.” The only scary thing about this book was the author’s ability to come up with this gross stuff and then, try to pass it off as horror. It’s just gross. That’s all. Not scary, not spooky.

Can he write? His descriptions are extremely vivid, drawing you in. But he writes in first person and yet describes in detail the tastes, feelings and thoughts of other characters who aren’t even around or who haven’t communicated their personal experiences etc. I don’t think that’s how first person works. Also, the obvious holes in the story are maddening. Most of the catastrophic events could have been avoided with...wait for it....a lock on the bird’s cage.

Anyway, using child abuse and animal abuse for shock factor isn’t my idea of truly great spooky literature. This book had great promise, but the shock factor stuff just felt like a base and cheap choice.