BOOK REVIEW - BLACK SPRING by ALISON CROGGON - WALKER BOOKS

By: Alison Croggon

Published By: Walker Books

Released : Available Now

Details: Paperback,287 Pages

Thankyou to Walker Books for the review copy.

RATING: 3.75 TRAGIC STARS!

Blurb : Goodreads

Inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, BLACK SPRING reimagines the passionate story in a fantasy 19th century society sustained by wizardry and the vengeance code of vendetta.

Anna spent her childhood with Damek and her volatile foster sister Lina, daughter of the Lord of the village. Lina has magical powers, and in this brutal patriarchal society women with magical powers are put to death as babies. Lina’s father, however, refuses to kill her but when vendetta explodes in their village and Lina’s father dies, their lives are changed forever. Their new guardian Masko sends Anna away and reduces Lina to the status of a servant. Damek—mad with love for Lina—attempts to murder Masko, then vanishes for several years. Anna comes home five years later to find Lina about to marry a pleasant young farmer, and witnesses Damek’s vengeful return and its catastrophic consequences.

Passionate, atmospheric and haunting, BLACK SPRING will stay with readers long after they turn the final page.


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

“There is luck in being born ordinary.” 

Black Spring is inspired by Wuthering Heights. I have not read any of the classics, yes, I know that may be a tragedy in itself.

Alison’s story within, is of darkness, passion, twisted love, lust, betrayal and vendetta’s, told from three pov’s, Hammel, Anna and Lina’s . Hammel, is more of a narrator at the start.

The story is set in Elbasa, the Red House. These walls have seen a lot.

I was not sure what I was going to find within these pages but Alison took me to several places. The start of the book with Grosz’s warning’s, had me thinking Hammel was going to be getting himself into a whole lot of trouble.....but......

I would be honest and say I found the later half of the book stronger.

Damek and Lina are the major tragedy of this story. There are more, being the vendetta’s.

A vendetta, one man murdered, the relative of the murdered man ,after one month can kill, during daylight hours the one who killed his relative. Then that poor man who by law had to kill the murderer, becomes a murderer and the relative of the original murderer ,male only, after one month can at anytime kill this poor sod. So what you have is a train wreck of villages males being killed until there are no more surviving relatives ( male only) that stemmed on both sides from the original murdered victim.

Lordy, I hope I got that right.

But, in this vendetta, there is also the Blood Tax that must be paid each time. Such a cruel and beyond harsh law, which by the way could be started, due to corruptness as King needs his Blood Tax. As you can imagine, being a male you don’t want to be either murdered or related in any shape or form to anything associated to this crime.

“Blood is blood: and in this country , blood is everything.” 

Harsh. Much.

There is a loop hole, but rarely anybody used it as you might as well take a bullet.

I liked Anna’s story she had to tell us. Hammel is really only there to listen. He gets himself in a pickle with a dog. Were his intentions ever served out?

Lina , her character brings out various emotions within the reader. The more you read, the more you have conflicting thoughts. Is she a witch? Is she a little crazy, blinded by love and her own safety?

Damek is the little boy we watch become a man. An almost, Shakespearean style love, that can only ever be tragic, emerges.

“I know you think me a monster. Maybe you always have,” he said. “But I tell you, I am not so inhuman. I wish I were. With all my soul, I wish I were.”

Damek’s world becomes Lina, he does not think about her position. Lina’s world becomes Damek. When somebody’s world gets taken away from them......as cruel as it may appear, what is healthier?

“Without you, the world is a desert of thirst, with no spring anywhere. Without you, I have no soul, no life. Don’t you understand?”


“Damek is like a rock beneath my feet - I cannot escape him, anymore than I could escape my own soul.” 

Then there is Tibor, fate crossed his path to bring a cruelty to a man that should have been given better in life.

The Wizard Ezra, he is one powerful dude you do not want to mess with. He will mess with you if it suits his needs. You will not win.

This is a tragic tale that I enjoyed reading. Alison does paint a very haunted love affair. I would definitely recommend it to the theater enthusiast and lover of classic tales. For a YA genre book, it is a heavy dark read with no escape of complete happiness for its characters.

Except maybe for...........

Michelle