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The Cormorant Paperback – August 18, 2023

by Stephen Gregory (Author)

198 ratings

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A young family receives a welcome surprise when old Uncle Ian dies and leaves them a cottage in north Wales. For Ian's nephew and his wife Ann, it seems a stroke of incredible good fortune, enabling them to leave their unfulfilling lives in the city for a newfound freedom in the remote seaside cottage. There's just one catch. Uncle Ian's will has a strange condition: the couple must care for his pet cormorant or forfeit the bequest. They think nothing of it at first: Uncle Ian was eccentric, and the bird is amusing in a way. But when the cormorant begins to show a violent and malevolent side, they soon find that Uncle Ian's gift may not be a blessing, but a curse.

Stephen Gregory's first novel, The Cormorant (1986), received widespread critical acclaim, winning the prestigious Somerset Maugham Award and earning comparisons to the works of Poe. This edition includes a new introduction by the author, in which he reveals how this enduring and haunting tale had its origins in his own experiences during a bleak Welsh winter.

'[An] artful first novel, reminiscent of the tales of Poe . . . Gregory uses a low-key style and subtle lyricism to build an atmosphere of nightmarish horror in a tale that could become a classic.' - Publishers Weekly

'[A] first-class terror story with a relentless focus that would have made Edgar Allan Poe proud.' - New York Times

'[N]o summary can do justice to the subtlety of Gregory's first novel, with its fresh, vivid, sensual prose and its superb descriptive and evocative power. An extraordinary novel - original, compelling, brilliant.' - Library Journal

'A work of tremendous self-assurance that leaves the reader with a lingering sense of unease and announces the arrival of a considerable new talent.' - British Book News

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Valancourt Books
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 18, 2023
Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1939140374
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1939140371
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.32 x 8.5 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #764,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #595 in British & Irish Horror
- #13,481 in Classic Literature & Fiction
Customer Reviews:
198 ratings

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Stephen Gregory is the author of seven dark and disturbing novels. His first book, The Cormorant, which won the Somerset Maugham Award and was made into a film by the BBC starring Ralph Fiennes, was set against the wintry mountains and beaches of Snowdonia. His most recent book, Plague of Gulls, is set within and around the 13th century town walls and castle of Caernarfon, north Wales. A few years ago he was summoned to Hollywood and spent an exhilarating eighteen months writing a screenplay with William Friedkin, the notorious director of The Exorcist. Meanwhile, he continues to earn a crust teaching French to teenage Malay/Chinese girls in Borneo, but hopes to retire soon with his wife Christine to their lovely old house in France.

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Customer reviews

198 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and well-written, with one describing it as excellent slow-burn horror. The pacing receives mixed reactions, with one customer noting it's a fast read while another finds it rushed. The narrative quality and content also get mixed reviews, with one customer appreciating the beautiful dark tale while another finds the plot predictable.

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Suspenseful Writing quality Pacing Narrative quality Content

9 customers mention "Suspenseful"7 positive2 negative

Customers find the book engaging and suspenseful, with one customer describing it as an excellent slow-burn horror novel.

"...The Cormorant is definitely a treat for horror and suspense fans. Perhaps not so much for bird lovers!" Read more

"...any of the plot for this novel, except to say that it was an engaging read all along; one that had me unable to guess its ultimate conclusion at any..." Read more

"...Gregory's first novel is an elusive novel that withholds some of its secrets, even while dangling their presence in front of the reader...." Read more

"...It’s disturbing. Beyond horror really, and more in the way of disturbing social mores, if I can try to explain what I mean without spoilers...." Read more

6 customers mention "Writing quality"6 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book, with one noting its incredibly evocative prose.

"...bound to note that for a first novel, The Cormorant is not only well written, but contains some strikingly well-crafted passages...." Read more

"...Pros: It is very well written...." Read more

"The first thing I'd like to say is that the writing in this book is simply brilliant!..." Read more

"Couldn't finish it. It was so well written. I felt I was there with Archie...." Read more

6 customers mention "Pacing"4 positive2 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with some finding it fast and well-crafted, while others describe it as rushed and slow.

"...The Cormorant is not only well written, but contains some strikingly well-crafted passages...." Read more

"...I just didn’t find the ending satisfactory. Seemed rushed and more shock value than something that made sense to me...." Read more

"...mind the puzzling nature of the novel, it's really a masterful read---slow, cerebral, methodical, and drenched in eerie atmosphere, a kind of neo-..." Read more

"...The prose of The Cormorant was beautiful, well forged. Gorgeous sentences, full of invoking imagery. The plot, however, was pure shite...." Read more

4 customers mention "Narrative quality"2 positive2 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the narrative of the book, with one describing it as a beautiful dark tale, while another finds it predictable and useless.

"...A good hook. After a few pages, you’re all in. It’s a compelling narrative. It’s short...." Read more

"...to see an obviously talented author wallowing in such a useless story...." Read more

"I picked it up and was locked into this beautiful dark tale from start to finish, as obsessed with the story as the main character is with his..." Read more

"...But the plot was predictable and I didn't feel much of anything but disappointment by the time I got to the end (and rushing to do so by that point)." Read more

3 customers mention "Content"2 positive1 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's content, with one finding it matter-of-fact while another notes it withholds some secrets.

"...Gregory's first novel is an elusive novel that withholds some of its secrets, even while dangling their presence in front of the reader...." Read more

"...evoke certain feelings in the reader, but I still found these details unnecessary...." Read more

"...I did like the prose style. Matter of fact when it needed to be, just enough exposition when it mattered...." Read more

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Eclectic Reader
"The Art of Being Vile"
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

For a young couple, being left an inheritance in their bachelor Uncle Ian's will of a cottage in Wales means the financial freedom to sell their house and live in relative comfort. While Ian's nephew stays at home writing a history textbook and watches over their eleven-month old son Harry, his wife, Ann, gets a job at a local pub. The will has one "binding condition," however: the couple must take care of Ian's pet cormorant. It doesn't appear to be too much of a demand for the couple until the bird arrives in a box at the cottage a week after they have moved in and they discover they have a bird "as ugly and as poisonous as a vampire bat" in their midst with even more terrifying consequences ahead of them.

The Cormorant (1986) is Welsh writer Stephen Gregory's first novel. Gregory (b. 1952) has written five horror novels to date. The Cormorant "received the 1987 Somerset Maugham Award, and, in 1993, the BBC made it into a film, starring Ralph Fiennes, which won two BAFTA Cymru awards" [...]. In his Introduction to the new Valancourt edition, Gregory explains: "Birds, and the wild countryside, especially the woods and beaches and mountains of Wales... it's the material I've loved to work with and use as the setting for my stories. One review had said that my writing was a fusion of Stephen King and the English nature-poet Ted Hughes..." Gregory tells of being "homesick in North Africa, twenty-three years old and teaching English in a shabby, sidestreet language school... longing to be home in England or breathing the salt air of a beach in Wales." Gregory finds himself writing a poem about a cormorant, "trying to catch the paradox of the bird, its dual nature... its satanic silhouette as it stood on the rocks and dried its cloak of wings, its silvery sleekness as it dived and hunted underwater." Years later as he begins to write a book, he returns to the cormorant: "The same essential paradox of the bird intrigued me. Its dual nature--its beauty in the water and yet its sinister gluttony--appealed to me as the subject for another, longer story. Through my first winter in the Welsh mountains I wrote and re-wrote the novel, it grew darker and odder in its rewriting..."

As the narrator of The Cormorant accepts the "strange gift" as well as the "bizarre duty" of taking care of the bird and begins to gain "growing confidence with Archie" (the name given to the bird), bonding with the eighteen-month-old bird as did the man's uncle, the reader develops a growing sense that all is not right with this creature and that danger for the family hangs on a tail feather or upon the flash of Archie's three-inch beak, "an impressive weapon of heavy horn." Adding to the suspense of the novel is that while Ann will have nothing to do with the bird or its care, Gregory's narrator appears to be totally oblivious of any possible danger and lulled into a sense of security around the bird.

Readers are also bound to note that for a first novel, The Cormorant is not only well written, but contains some strikingly well-crafted passages. Something as simple as a jet howling overhead leaving "behind a thunder of bruised air" leaps out from the page. Gregory excels at describing domestic tranquility as well as the chaos and discord that the antics of Archie can abruptly cause. The author vividly portrays the contradiction of the cormorant: in the sea near the beach of Caernarfon the bird becomes a graceful and even beautiful, efficient predator. On land "away from water, it was ungainly and crude." Gregory also displays moments of incredible restraint, at times choosing to describe intact portions of entities allowing the reader's imagination to provide gruesome details of what Gregory has chosen not to describe. Such writing is quite effective.

As the novel progresses Gregory throws in some taunting foreshadowing spiced with tones of the supernatural as events begin to transpire, hurling readers toward a climax that is not altogether unexpected, but still shocking none the less. The Cormorant is a fast read and at times the cliché, nail-biter, applies to the book as well. The Cormorant is definitely a treat for horror and suspense fans. Perhaps not so much for bird lovers!

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Philip Cowgill
Very Eerie!
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2019
Format: Paperback
I struggled with whether or not this book should get 3 or 4 stars. It's probably more a 3.5 but I'm going to bump it to 4 because it was just so effectively eerie. It truly got under my skin, and that may be because I have a fear of birds. Especially birds that look like the cormorant. Those hard hooked beaks and webbed clawed feet. *shudder* Actually, I googled images of cormorants when I started reading because I had no idea what they were.

The mood of the story, and how the cormorant was effecting his caretakers was portrayed hauntingly. In fact, this book was getting a full 5 stars from me until three quarters of the way through. What changed? You may have read it in other reviews, and I agree. There is one scene (and oh- you'll know it) that seemed to be written in only for shock value and was completely disturbing. The ending was fitting and expected, but I felt like it lacked something, especially after the doozy of the aforementioned scene.

In summation, I definitely got the Poe vibes that were promised (and that I cherished) and I will not be relieved of my phobia of birds anytime soon. To me, this means a mission accomplished for a horror story. If all this sounds good to you, give it a read!

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J. Butler
Beautifully written, if you’re here for that
Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2019
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
To be completely honest, I’m not sure what I think. I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks, and I still can’t decide if I liked it, or not. Mostly, I’m ambivalent about it.

Pros:

It is very well written. The author is talented—it’s quite a descriptive novel, and he has a way of writing that flows beautifully.

A good hook. After a few pages, you’re all in. It’s a compelling narrative.

It’s short. You can knock it out in one or two sittings.

Cons: (subjective stuff)

It’s ambiguous. You either like that sort of thing, or you don’t. I just didn’t find the ending satisfactory. Seemed rushed and more shock value than something that made sense to me.

The dialogue is sparse, hence the Poe and Lovecraft comparisons

It’s disturbing. Beyond horror really, and more in the way of disturbing social mores, if I can try to explain what I mean without spoilers. One in particular that I’m still not sure had anything to do with the premise.

It wasn’t scary really, as much as disturbing. The reviewers who have written that it scared them— I tend to wonder what horror fiction they’ve read.

This was on a lot of “Best of” lists. A lot of horror writers I’ve read and enjoyed have recommended it. I’m still thinking about it, I suppose that probably means it was good— it’s stuck with me, whereas a lot of things I’d characterize as good have not.

Maybe I’ll read The Haunting of Hill House again.

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5 people found this helpful

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nonnatus
Astonishing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2018
Format: KindleVerified Purchase

Horrendously sensational book.
I was totally absorbed in to the story and still can't decide whether I love or hate the narrator - I adore Archie!

Parts of the book are truly shocking and I didn't predict the ending but it left me in floods of tears (no spoilers here!)

One of the best books I've ever read and have already bought all of the authors other books....

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Alexandre
Creepy and exciting
Reviewed in Canada on July 5, 2022
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
A great little book, sometimes scary, sometimes gross and a creepy ending, i am looking further to read more books from this author.

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Andrew Fowlow
The Cormorant is a gripping tale and beautifully written, a triumph for the horror fiction genre.
Reviewed in Canada on October 28, 2019
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
The Cormorant is a gripping tale and beautifully written, a triumph for the horror fiction genre.

Im going to keep this review short but sweet, just like the book.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into when I agreed to read this book. My friends over at Night Worms kept talking about “that scene”, a weird and unforgettable part of the story. Well, after all the chatter about “that scene” I couldn’t help but read the book and find out what “that scene” was all about. Six of us over at the Night Worms crew got together to buddy read this novella and I must say, the story caught me off guard. I kind of thought the story wasn’t going to be any good and we were just reading it for “that scene”. Well, guess what!? This book is awesome. I can’t believe how much I enjoyed it. Stephen Gregory put together a beautifully written tale that was altogether dark, ominous, gripping, and suspenseful. I read a few other reviews that stated that the author had this amazing ability to put the reader in each scene with great clarity. I agree completely but not only that, I was able to connect with the characters on a deeper level because of this as well. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was “that scene”. What a weird thing to toss into this story. It gives me chills but not in a good way. So if you're like me and your curious about “that scene” well you’re in for a delightful surprise because this is a great book and “that scene” is well… weird… but read for yourself.

I give The Cormorant by Stephen Gregory 4/5 stars. A lot of reviews compared the writing style of the author to Poe and although im not exactly sure about that, I can say with certainty that this tale is exceptionally well written. I maintained a deep connection with the characters while being firmly planted in each scene. I went into this read with very low expectations, desperately wanting to get to “that scene”. By the end, “that scene” was far from my thoughts. My mind was narrowed in on the extraordinary writing and gripping story by an amazingly talented writer.

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Tartan Girl
Horrible but Not in a Good Way
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 10, 2023
Verified Purchase
I was looking forward a more literary sort of horror, something less formulaic than most, as it had won a prize. How on earth did it do that? I could hardly believe the sloppy writing, cliches that any writers worth their salt would avoid, school essay type metaphors, a child's behaviour that any father would have found help for and a story line that is truly horrible - not in a deliciously scary or interestingly disturbing way, but just mean and dispiriting. What a nasty way to treat a wild bird that is just being itself. As to whether a cormorant's beak could bite down to the bone, I very much doubt it. A macaw maybe. It catches fish. It does not crack nuts or tear flesh. Certainly the beak is powerful enough to give a painful bite but down to the bone? And are there really men out there that like touching their wives teeth with their tongue?I kept waiting for something better a few pages on but the more I read the angrier and more disgusted I got. It was certainly a horror of a read but probably not in the way it was intended. It could have been so much better. I shan't be reading anything else written by this author, that's for sure.

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DaveC
Brilliant and disturbing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2017
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Brilliant, nasty little book with a devastating ending. Only hints and the possible supernatural aspects. Would highly recommend to fans of Susan Hill ?

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Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars "The Art of Being Vile"

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Eerie!

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, if you’re here for that

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy and exciting

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cormorant is a gripping tale and beautifully written, a triumph for the horror fiction genre.

2.0 out of 5 stars Horrible but Not in a Good Way

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and disturbing

"The Art of Being Vile"

Very Eerie!

Beautifully written, if you’re here for that

Astonishing

Creepy and exciting

The Cormorant is a gripping tale and beautifully written, a triumph for the horror fiction genre.

Horrible but Not in a Good Way

Brilliant and disturbing