Review: A Penance for Crows - Shannon Morgan

Genre: Gothic horror mystery

Published: Kensington (print) & Tantor Media (audio), July 2026 My Rating: 2/5 stars

I am easily excitable when it comes to gothic tales with isolated island settings. Bonuspoints if those islands are Irish and/or Scottish or otherwise haunted by bleak weather year-round. Unfortunately, this specific Irish gothic murder-mystery was a miss for me. had this not been an ARC for review I would’ve almost certainly DNF-ed it.

The story:

Off the southern tip of the Irish mainland lies Beanna Dubh, an island of savage beauty, its jagged cliffs lashed by Atlantic winds and infested by thousands of crows. Untouched by 21st-century advances, the islanders live under the strict rule of the church, while clinging to old superstitions of the crows as harbingers of disaster.

Their isolated community is shaken up when a woman finds the body of a young priest with a diabolical symbol drawn on his chest, under a crow-darkened sky… Religious superstations rise and mass hysteria grows, as Grizela – a woman in her sixties who came to the island 40 years ago and is still considered an outsider by the locals - scrambles to protect the innocent—a quartet of young girls she has taken under her wing. When she uncovers dark truths behind the girls’ mysterious midnight gatherings, her grip on reality unravels and she is faced with an impossible do the unthinkable to protect the girls.

What I loved:

In a way, Penance for Crows delivered the one thing I wanted most from it; the gothic atmosphere. From the mist-swallowed rocky shores, to the tight-knit suspicious of outsiders island-community, to the corvids circling ominously overhead: this was spot on. The author brings the setting to life through her prose and the slow-building sense of gloom, foreboding and dread actually carried me to about the 50% point without any complaints. The audiobook adds to the immersion with a great narration in appropriate Irish accent. Although the story is set in modern times, this would work perfectly for historical-fiction fans too, as the island community feels like it’s stuck in the 1900’s, refusing to progress with the rest of the world into modern times. There were actually moments I forgot this was supposed to be “modern gothic”.

From the half way point on however, I felt like the novel never actually took flight and its flame fizzled out like a candle in a dark night.

What I didn’t love:

Atmosphere alone wasn’t enough to carry me through 300+ pages. Unfortunately, I found the plot and especially the characters to be lacking, which made me disengage from the story as a whole. As alive as the setting felt, so flat and lifeless felt the characters to me. I couldn’t get a feeling for Grizela’s personality and genuinely couldn’t tell the four younger girls apart, as they were written so similarly.

That feeling of disconnect kept the themes of bullying and ostracism from hitting as hard as they could have.

Although I liked the audio-narrator, and feel she delivered a great performance, I’m not sure if the casting fit the character of Grizela. Grizela is supposed to be an elderly woman in her sixties, which I kept forgetting constantly. Not only is she written significantly younger (at times you could’ve convinced me she was the 4 girls’ age!), the narrator sounds like a far younger woman too.

It pains me that I didn’t love this book as much as I hoped I would, specifically since I seem to be in the minority among early reviewers.

Many thanks to Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an advanced listeners copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.