C. M. Rosens

Spotify Playlists

I’ve put together some playlists on Spotify: one with songs that (I think?) go with the themes of each chapter, roughly in order, and the other is an instrumental reading playlist that has mood/vibes for the book.

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Reviews of The Crows by bloggers:

Runalong The Shelves review Feb 2025 – If link to external site is broken, click here.
Horrified Magazine’s review Jul 2021 – If link to external site is broken, click here.
Red Cape Publishing’s review May 2020 – mini review, also on Goodreads
Meredith Debonnaire’s review May 2020 – If link to external site is broken, click here.
Nimue Brown’s review Feb 2020 – If link to external site is broken, click here.

Other Reviews of The Crows:
Amazon Reviews
Storygraph Reviews
Goodreads Reviews

Reader Advisory/Content Warnings for The Crows:

This is a book full of Gothic Horror tropes, some mild eroticism (the sentient house is also eroticised in descriptions), and mental health issues depicted and explored in the context of abusive familial, platonic and romantic relationships. There are sex-positive characters but no on-page sex. There is no sexual assault, but there are scenes of boundary-crossing in a bedroom context and the pressurising of an asexual character questioning [his] levels of sexual attraction. There is recreational alcohol use and references/hints at recreational drug use and dealing (characters are positive, negative and neutral, variously). An alcoholic character relapses in the book with the encouragement of another character, and has his own point of view.

The following list is advisory not comprehensive: please take this as a general flavour/indicator of content and apologies if your specific trigger is present but has been missed. Reader discretion is advised.

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MENTAL/PHYSICAL HEALTH
– Character (without claustrophobia) is put in a claustrophobic situation
– Death, loss, bereavement throughout (including a dying elderly father)
– Physical and mental health deterioration, induced coma, dehumanisation of a coma patient
– Losing grip on reality, intrusive thoughts (inc. telepathic external ones causing confusion over sense of self, non-consensual messing with people’s heads, including the non-consensual removal of a memory in a physical pseudo-injection manner)
– Head injuries and blunt force trauma, both violent attack and accidental (on-page)
– Car crashes (one on-page, non-fatal ~ one reference to a historic, off-page, fatal, result of DUI)
– Disordered eating (male monstrous character)

ABUSIVE/DISTURBING DYNAMICS
– Domestic abuse (emotional and psychological m/f, male serial cheater and gaslighter) and toxic co-dependent family relationships (physical, psychological, emotional abuse, inc. beatings and poisoning) ~ resulting intrusive thoughts, negative spirals of thought patterns and behaviour
– Inbred monstrous family who are consensually and almost exclusively incestuous between siblings/cousins (hinted at, not explored, no cross-generational incest)
– Asexual character pressured/questioning sexual attraction – boundary-crossing in m/f context, both ways to various degrees
– Relapsing alcoholic character (encouraged by a manipulative maternal figure) and on-page POV drunkenness.
– References to past drug/alcohol abuse by another character now sober/teetotal.
– Dehumanisation of a coma patient
– Intimidation and brutal murder of elderly characters including one in a care home setting (not by staff or relatives)

HORROR ELEMENTS
– Historic murder of a child (brutal, ritual killing)
– Gore, mutilation, dismemberment, disembowelment, decapitation, exsanguination, torture and animal cruelty (historic/implied – a character is a soothsayer who reads entrails to see the future)
– Fire/Arson, immolation as cause of death
– Implied (consensual) sibling incest
– Supernatural horror, body horror, monster horror
– Threatened lobotomy by parasites
– Zombies/zombie abuse! [abduction of girls by abusive mother-figure, treating women/girls like dolls]