Review: Black Spring

Black Spring by Alison Croggon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Knowing this was a tribute to Wuthering Heights going in, I knew it was going to be dark, depressing, and tragic. And it was. It's not the type of book I usually enjoy, but I love Croggon's writing so I picked it up even knowing it was going to be nothing like her Pellinor series. And it wasn't.

Croggon succeeded at writing a beautifully dark tale of a young couple trapped in a harsh society with no place for either them, doomed by their passionate and rebellious natures. The setting is a historical fantasy version of the Northern Moors, where magicians enforce vendettas for generations, witches are killed on sight, and curses are an immediate danger. Lives are lived and lost with a sense of the completely unchangeable nature of this world, embedded in the land itself. It's haunting and tragic.

One negative - I was confused at first because the story starts out with a bored, rich man from the South deciding to get away from society by visiting the North, but it turns out that the story is not about him at all. His is just a wrapper for the real tale that he hears while he is there. I felt like the 'story within a story' aspect was not really needed, except for setting the mood.

I can't say I loved it or even really liked it, since I usually don't enjoy books that are so depressing and hopeless all the way through. However, I do feel that I can give it 3 stars because I did enjoy the atmospheric writing and can recognize a good Gothic tale when I read one, and because it is refreshing to read outside of my comfort zone sometimes.

**Received free arc for review.

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