Chorus of Crows
Sharon Wagner
Dreamsphere Books, 2026
ISBN-10: 199772622X
ISBN-13: 978-1997726227
Ebook, 306 ppg.
When Sedona Walton is fed up with her job and her life in Wisconsin, she decides to head back home to live with her widowed father, who has Parkinson’s Disease. Switching to living on a farm after living in a city is quite a change for Sedona, but she is determined to be a caregiver for her ailing father and bring positive change into her life. She doesn’t count on finding love, but that’s exactly what happens. In Chorus of Crows by Sharon Wagner, readers are treated to a touching story of a daughter’s loyalty to her sick father and her quest to find happiness. But even as Sedona tries to make life easier for her father, life becomes more challenging for both father and daughter as strange paranormal activity happens at the farm, along with several crows often lurking on the grounds.
Reading about how Oren deals with his hallucinations is heartbreaking. They are very real for him, even if people try to tell him that they are not real. But as the hallucinations keep happening, he begins to accept that they ARE hallucinations, and he starts to question if that’s what’s happening when they do happen. At the same time, however, some of the hallucinations are so terrifying that he is more frightened of them than he is analytical. When he starts to see monsters and attacking crows, he is no longer certain if he really is hallucinating or not. Sedona tries to encourage him to share about what he is seeing, but sometimes, he has no words to explain any of it.
Sedona knows what she is getting into when she decides to take on the role of caregiver for her dad. Even so, as his symptoms and side effects from the medications get worse, she struggles with how emotionally taxing it all is. She finds comfort in Jeb, a local pastor she knew as a teen (they were both school mates) and who she begins dating. She also finds relief from her duties in Lavinia, a local woman who has been consistently caring for her father before Sedona arrived. She also finds comfort in reading her mother’s journals. Reading the journals causes her to reminisce on happy memories as well as getting to know her mother in a way she never had before. Her mother has been gone for many years but she and her dad still miss her very much. She also misses her brother, Seth, who died in a tragic accident at a young age. It is an accident that Sedona feels terribly guilty about, and she knows she must come to terms with this guilt.
The story is written so well. I loved the author’s writing style in describing the settings and the characters are fleshed out so well that they seemed to be real people I was reading about and not just characters in a story. I also liked how some past scenes of Oren’s life with Annilise, Sedona’s mother, is shared in the second part of the story.
Chorus of Crows is an entertaining and chilling story that hooks readers from the very beginning. It offers good insights about the realities of Parkinson’s Disease while also exploring the myths and superstitions associated with spirit boxes. I love how the author wove these two things together to create such an interesting story, and the symbolism of the crows throughout the story was not lost on me. Filled with engaging characters, surprising twists and terrifying paranormal experiences, Chorus of Crows is an entertaining novel horror lovers are sure to enjoy.
Five stars
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is entirely voluntary.
