Review: An Impossibility of Crows - Kirsten Kaschock

Genre: horror Published: University of Massachusetts Press, March 2026 My rating: 5/5 stars

"No matter what it’s meant to grow, a lab works on principles of limitation and elimination, defined by what it excludes. Like the barn where I kept Solo. Like the house where I was kept. Isolation is a tool of analysis. It is not a state to maintain indefinitely."

It’s been almost two months and a partial reread, and I still cannot find the words to do justice to the way I admired and devoured this book. Or maybe it devoured me at times, but in the best way possible. An Impossibility of Crows is the gothic folk-horror debut by a poet, making a genre-switch into the darkside of fiction. And true to her poetry roots, the language, the rhythm, the imagery, and the heavy emotional charge of melancholia that this book brought across, were done to perfection.

The Story:

The novel centers a female chemist who returns to her childhood home after the death of her father. In the small town of Letort, Pennsylvania, her family has lived for six generations—bound by twisted folk wisdom and an uncanny kinship with the crows that loom over their land.

Back in the grim farmhouse of her youth, Agnes is drawn into the strange legacy she tried to leave behind. When she discovers an abandoned nest in the barn, she becomes consumed by a scientific—and deeply personal— to breed a crow large and intelligent enough to carry her daughter, Mina, to a freedom Agnes has never known herself.

Why I adored it:

Through these slightly weird and alienating images of horse-size crows- that are equal parts hauntingly beautiful and intelligent, and purely and violently untamable – we explore themes of science, motherhood, freedom and self-possession, and the cyclical nature of trauma and abuse.

Stylistically, it's poetic and descriptive, and I love how it flirts with its literary classic-influences; primarily Shelley’s Frankenstein and the works of Franz Kafka, which the title is a reference to. Even without any of these connections though, Kaschock’s confident language if powerful enough to deliver the story all by itself.

Given how much I adored this book (a definite candidate to make my top 10 of the year!), it should be an easy recommendation. And it is, but only if you know what you’re getting yourself into.

An Impossibility of Crows is not an easy read, and one of the reasons that it took me some time to review it, was that it moved something in me emotionally, that took a while to put into words. That is the strength of a potential favourite horror-novel for me. True horror isn’t about jump scares and gore, but about helping us confront and process the real (human) horrors in life for which we don’t always have the language. An Impossibility of Crows is such a book, but that means it also comes with some serious trigger warnings.

If you want a fun horror-romp, this book with its heavy themes, fundamentally flawed characters, and bleak atmosphere might not be a good fit. Go into this only if you’re ready to delve into the darkness, and explore the hauntings within. You won’t regret the journey.

Many thanks to University of Massachusetts Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.