The Clockwork Crow

by Catherine Fisher

Hardcover, 2020

Status

Available

Call number

FISHER

Series

The Clockwork Crow (1)

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Fantasy

Publication

Walker Books US (2020), 208 pages

Description

Fantasy. Juvenile Fiction. Juvenile Literature. Folklore. HTML: Evoking the classic fantasy adventures of Joan Aiken and Eva Ibbotson, this darkly delightful new novel from New York Times best-selling author Catherine Fisher glimmers with winter magic. Orphan Seren Rhys is on her way to a new life at the remote country mansion of Plas-y Fran when she is given a package by a stranger late at night in an empty train station. The package contains a crotchety, mechanical talking crow, which Seren reluctantly brings to her new home. But when she gets there, the happy Christmas she had hoped for turns out to be an illusion�??the young son of the house, Tomos, has been missing for almost a year, rumored to have been taken by the fairies. With the Crow's reluctant help and a little winter magic, Seren sets off on a perilous journey to bring Tomos home. An enthralling story of family and belonging set in frost-bound Victorian Wales.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ed.pendragon

Catherine Fisher's children's fantasy has many of those wonderful spooky Victorian and steampunk tropes parcelled up in one package: an orphan, mist-wreathed railway platforms, a tall dark stranger, a mysterious mansion with a fierce housekeeper, a talking automaton, a blizzard at Christmas and the

ever-present threat of a dangerous fairy realm. Orphan Seren Rhys is travelling by train to Wales from London to be adopted by, she hopes, kindly relatives; instead she finds a depleted household with a dark secret history, a household in which she is treated with suspicion and hedged by injunctions.

And it all starts with a clockwork crow delivered all in bits and wrapped up with newspaper.

The mansion at Trefil is called Plas-y-Fran (Welsh for Crow or Raven Court), highly appropriate as the corvid family is associated with the supernatural as well as death. Seren (her name means 'star' in Welsh) is dismayed to find that Captain Arthur Jones, Lady Mair his wife, and their young son Tomos are nowhere in evidence, only the grumpy Mrs Villiers and the factotum Denzil in a building where everything is covered in dust sheets.

Left to her own devices she has few options: to read her favourite books, to put together the mechanical crow she has been left with in a station waiting room, and to explore the mansion---including the attic room she has been forbidden to look at.

This is a delicious fantasy. First of all, it has echoes of all those perennial children's classics, old and new: Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Philip Pullman's Clockwork, John Masefield's The Box of Delights and many others, but without any hint of slavish imitation. Then it includes so many delightful motifs: the sarcastic talking crow itself, the fascination of snow globes as a miniature world, the tropes of the forbidden room (familiar from the Bluebeard tale) and the hidden tunnels leading off a cellar (as in the Famous Five books, for example). The author slips in references to late Victorian fiction such as the Sherlock Holmes novels, and plays with fears of being cut off by the snow, mitigated by an anticipated white Christmas.

And running through the whole novel like a golden thread is Seren herself, an aspect perhaps of the ideal reader, and possibly the author: filled with a love of learning and of books, hoping for love and friendship in an uncertain world, fiercely defending the truth as she perceives it. But will she be able, when put to the test, to surmount her fears and face up to the dangerous webs woven by the Tylwyth Teg, the Fair Folk of Welsh tradition, or will she be as trapped as the person she set out to save? Will she be able to solve the mystery of the clockwork crow and rescue him from the fate he'd been sentenced to? And will she ever find the hoped-for family for which she'd left the orphanage?

There are delightful rhyming couplets beginning each chapter that are like spells, all adding to the charm. All in all I'm so glad I spotted this, intrigued by the title and then spotting the author's name, a well regarded Welsh author whose 2002 novel Corbenic I positively raced through when it first came out. The Clockwork Crow, meanwhile, is a magical little book that deserves to do well and to become in turn a classic in its own right.

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LibraryThing member Soraya71

I received a copy of The Clockwork Crow written by Catherine Fisher as an ARC from the Library Thing early readers. I was excited to read The Clockwork Crow since I enjoyed several of her other works.

What a fun, gothic novel for children. Creepy,and filled with mystery. Seren an orphan finds

herself after losing her parents in an orphanage and then in the care of a Great Aunt who passes away shortly after finding her. Our plucky heroine is taken in by her Godparents whom she has never met. It is never explained where they have been for the last 13 years but once she arrives she finds a house in mourning. Her Godparents gone to London in grief, and a skeleton staff to greet her.

Talk of the Fey and a sassy clockwork crow keep her busy solving the mystery of the missing son of her Godparents. The story was creepy and fun and keeps the reader on their toes, even I as an adult.

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LibraryThing member jackiewark

Seren is on the train to her godfather's house. She's been orphaned, but now has a home awaiting for her. While on the train, she is handed a mysterious package by a tall, thin stranger admonishing her to not let Them see it or leave the package alone. How strange....

Of course, the stranger never

returns and she carries it with her to Plas-y-Fran, her new home. It is no the joyous arrival she had wished for, but a melancholy air since the young son, Tomos has disappeared. And, everyone, including her godfather and his wife, are not forthcoming with information. In fact, only the housekeeper and a couple of servants remain at the house.

Seren is determined to figure out the mystery of Tomos's disappearance much to the chagrin of the household. Yet, with the help of the contents in her mysterious package she is confident she can put all the puzzle pieces together. A foreboding tone of dark danger awaits in The Clockwork Crow.

Thank you to Candlewick Press, Catherine Fisher, and LibraryThing Early Reviewers for this ARC.

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LibraryThing member drebbles

When orphan Seren Rhys is sent to live with her godfather and his family at their mansion Plas-y Fran, she thinks her life will change for the better. She can’t wait to meet Captain Arthur Jones, his wife Lady Mair, and their son Tomos. Even meeting a stranger at the train station, who asks her

to hold a package for him, can’t dampen her enthusiasm. But things go wrong quickly – the stranger disappears leaving her with the package that she soon discovers contains a mechanical talking crow. And speaking of disappearances – where is Tomos?

“The Clockwork Crow” is a delightful fantasy for readers age 9 – 12. Truthfully, older readers may find nothing new here, in fact, I had a vague sense of having read this storyline before. Having said that, younger readers will enjoy this book and it would be a great introduction for them into the world of fantasy. Seren is a great character – strong, heroic, feisty, inquisitive, and a bit impudent. My other favorite character in the book is the Clockwork Crow – how I loved him! Plas-y Fran and the surrounding area are like characters in the book with just the right atmosphere. As to the mystery of Tomos – this is well done with just the right touches of mystery, tension, and fantasy. All in all, a nicely done book.

While “The Clockwork Crow” can easily be read as a standalone book, there are a few loose ends tied up and you may want to read the next book(s) in the series.

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LibraryThing member bah195

This is a well written and interesting story that is fast paced and has great dialogue. I read this book in one sitting.
It would be a good book to read to a child at betime. The only problem will be that your child may not want you to stop reading and go to sleep.

LibraryThing member Kristyn44

I enjoyed this magical tale by Catherine Fisher. The book is perfect for middle grade readers who like a little bit of mystery, adventure, and mythical creatures. The story revolves around a little girl who goes to live with her aunt and uncle after her parents die. On the way she is given a

package, which contains the clockwork crow. Once she arrives at her new home she notices how everything is very dark and depressing, but no one will tell her what is going on or what has happened. With the help of the clockwork crow she finds out what happened ans sets out to set everything straight. I liked this small novel and I think it has potential to be a hit with the 8-10 year olds. I will be looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

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LibraryThing member ComposingComposer

I received a copy from a giveaway on LibraryThing as an ARC for this edition. (The cover is beautiful)

I enjoyed this book. It was sweet and simple with each task Saren had to do being fairly straightforward. I certainly can't say I disliked the book, Saren was a good character. She didn't really

have a lot of character growth, but I don't think that's as necessary for books with this target audience. The crow was a great character. He's crotchety and irritating, but he secretly cares for Saren more than he wants her to know. My main thing with him is that, apart from him being disassembled twice in the course of the book, there really didn't seem to be anything a real crow could do that he couldn't, which made me wonder why he was clockwork, instead of just a row. A parallel of the crow was Mrs. Villiers. She too was irritable almost to the point of being unreasonable, but her anger hid pain. She made me think a little bit of Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter. The only part where I lost the thread of her character was when she decided to send Seren back to the orphanage. I could have excused this if she had seemed like she was making an idle threat, but when Denzil told Seren that the carriage would be able to get out the next day, it really seemed like she was going through with it. I really liked the moment when Seren saw Plas-y Fran as a doll house and sees Mrs. Villiers weeping and being comforted by Lady Mair. It seemed like that scene opened up her hidden love for Seren, and I only wish the author had capitalized on this when Seren and Tomas returned. I admit that I'm curious if the crow's brother really succeeded in finding a cure, since the series is called the Clockwork Crow series and it would be a bit weird if the series's titular character was de-enchanted before the second book. Denzil and Gwyn were good characters too, I hope they get to be developed more in the next books. Tomas also has potential, but in this book he was less of a character and more of a goal or plot point.

My conclusion is that I liked this book, and, though I have criticism for it, most of these came because I am a twenty-something-year-old who has read a few too many books on how to write stories. If I was under twelve or younger, I think I'd have loved it.

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LibraryThing member hawaiianmermaid701

This was a fun and quick middle grade adventure set in Wales. I don't think I've ever read a book set in Wales before! It was fast paced enough to keep the story moving along and was really engaging for a book that's so short.

LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

Cute, fun story. Seren is less genre-savvy than I expected her to be - though I suppose if she prefers reading Sherlock Holmes to fairy stories there's no reason for her to know details. The Crow is...a very unlikely coincidence, as are most of the things that help her. And why the heck did the

family choose to bring her there at all? It's been nearly a year, surely they hadn't offered before things happened... Unlikely but nicely done.

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LibraryThing member catzteach

This was an early review I received. It is a children’s book. It was a cute read. A bit slow with the world building and character building, but did get more exciting near the end. I think a child between the goes of 8 and 10 would enjoy it.

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