The Crow: Quoth the Crow

The Crow Novels #3

by David Bischoff, James O'Barr (Created by)

Inspired by the works of Edgar Alan Poe, Jeremy Botham, a writer, must enter a portal of truth and clarity to exact revenge on the man who raped his wife and destroyed him with the assistance of a black feathered "Raven." Original.

Genres: Horror, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

aka Mark Grant (with Bruce King), Brad Quentin (with Terry Bisson)

Born in Washington D.C. and now living in Eugene, Oregon, David Bischoff writes science fiction books, short stories, and scripts for television. Though he has been writing since the early 1970s, and has had over 80 books published, David is best known for novelizations of popular movies and TV series including the Aliens, Gremlins, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and WarGames.

Reviews

[trestitia ⵊⵊⵊ deamorski]

oha, kitap mıymış kitaptan mı almışlar diye taradım, çünkü filmi benim için külttür, 89'da yayınlanan çizgi romandan uyarlanmış film, bu kitap da filmin kitabı.

kitabını okumadığım için beklettiğim filmler, filmini izlediğimin için okuyamadığım kitaplar yetmiyormuş gibi bi de bu çıktı :D tşk sanat dünyası.

bana hatırlatın da bu zamana kadar uyarlama filmler hangi kitaplardanmış bi ara listeleyeyim ya üf.
nys şimdi gidip filmi izlicem. bb.

edit: bi sürü graphic novel'ı var bunun...

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An original story While reading this book, I was wondering what this has to do with the original graphic novel because it doesn't really relate it that much. Although the main character is resurrected it doesn't happen until about half way through the book. William Blessing is one of the main characters he is an expert and obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe the writer and poet from the 18-19th century. At first I found his character a little boring, but one he was murdered and he was resurrected the plot for this character picked up the pace. Mick Prince and the gothiques are a group of friends who are goths and they get the idea from William's protege to break and loot the Poe collection of first edition signed books in William Blessing's library. Mick Prince is a psychopath and a murderer, he would willingly murder anyone for money or if that particular person was a nuisance with a big mouth for example.However things don't go according to plan, after William discovered that he was betrayed by his protege Donald Marquette and the direct result of it is that his wife Amy is beaten and raped and William is murdered by Donald and his friends the Marquis and count Mishka. William is resurrected and allowed by the crow to seek vengeance upon the people that were directly responsible for the rape and beating of his wife and to avenge his own murder. I liked reading the parts of the book about Edgar Allan Poe and his siblings and parents. I wasn't aware that he had any siblings because his family isn't mentioned much in books or in any adaptations about him. If you are a fan of Edgar Allan Poe then you will love this book, because before the start of every chapter there is a quote from Edgar Allan Poe's poems and short stories.

[Skunke · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

I love The Crow, I love a bunch of the horror writers mentioned in this book and I love tales of authors. This should have been the perfect book for me, but I felt that it was a bit too much Poe and a bit too little Crow so to say.

The character of William Blessing is a very good Crow. He works well in the role and his personality fits the character. The villains of the book however really drag it down. They're all supposed to be goth and while I think David Bischoff did a good job with the research on Poe, he didn't research anything about goths. Just entry level stuff and gave a couple nods to Bauhaus and The Cure at like 2 points in the book. To say this in a way that might seem a bit rude, but this is what the media thinks goth is (or at least the media in the 90's/early 2000's).

This book also had major pacing problems and it almost, now that I read it, felt like the 2024 The Crow was to some extent an adaptation of this book. The villain of the book just gave me a ton of vibes of Danny Hustons villain in the 2024 Crow.
Now, I really liked the main villain of this. He was a good antagonist, but could have gotten a bit more work done with 'em. It felt like he turned evil in almost a second and that was just something I didn't like.
Also, Blessing turning into The Crow at way past the halfway point of the book. A little too late for me. To add to that, showing one of the murders in the prologue and then just mentioning it later on, yeah it felt really weird.

Some things that this book however had that were really interesting was "the library" which was a highlight of the book and that Amy, William Blessing's wife, was left alive was just something I really liked to see. It gave this story a unique Crow-twist.

All in all. It was an alright read but one for the completionists. Tracking this down is a pain and for what it was worth, I as a The Crow fan thought it was worth it, but for most people it is NOT worth it.

[A.L. Bellettiere · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of The Crow for years, and my journey with Quoth The Crow, one of HarperPrism's early novelizations, reflects that. I reviewed it on Amazon twice—first in 1999 as an enthusiastic fan, and then again in 2004, once I’d gained a more critical perspective. While later novels and graphic novels brought fresh and compelling takes to The Crow’s world, this one missed the mark.

The story features William Blessing, a horror writer and Poe aficionado who returns to avenge his death, yet the execution doesn’t live up to its potential. The character of Blessing is hard to connect with, and the “Gothetiques”—a Goth gang opposed to him—feel more like stereotypes than fully realized characters. The heavy references to Goth music and horror films seem more like filler than meaningful elements of the story, pandering to fans instead of developing depth.

While other Crow graphic novels like Curare, Skinning the Wolves, and Waking Nightmares offer darker, more nuanced storytelling, Quoth The Crow feels more like an attempt to check off familiar Goth and horror elements. In the end, it’s a read for the completists rather than for those looking for the emotional intensity that defines The Crow series.

[Leif · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend recommended this to me because "The Crow" was one of many movies we bonded over.

Maybe I would be more forgiving now, but back when I read it, the story seemed like "fan fic" before I even knew what that was.

Ugh was my reaction then. I remember disliking it all the way to the end. Normally, if I don't like a book I don't finish it. Sometimes that is a good approach.

[Nikolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I originally read this book when I was in high school and at the time I had really enjoyed it, so I thought I would read it again because I wanted a shorter book from what I had read previously. I didn't finish the book this time around, in fact, I'm not sure why I liked it so much in high school. The writing was ok, but it just feels... I don't know how to explain it. Lacking?

[Packleader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once the story had finally established the main characters it was a fun read. Entertaining but of course nothing deep and no unexpected twists.

But. I always take a big issue with goths portrayed as drug addicts and satanists, and this is another book that goes this road. You can easily have those characters be drugheads and know about Edgar Allen Poe's works without them being goths.

[Sasha Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful read from Harper's crow series. This one has direct dialogue between the crow and the main character. I also love the Poe references and the ending was wonderful.

[C R · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a very elaborate Edgar Allan Poe fanfiction

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up on one of my trips to the thrift shop because it's set in the "The Crow" universe and the description sounded good.

This is one of the best books that I've read so far this year. The characters, setting, descriptions and writing style are all excellent. I could just picture the characters sitting in Baxter's goth bar on a dark night in Baltimore. The violence, and there is a lot of if, is justified. It's not just there for shock value. The Poe reference are neat too.

Each chapter starts with a quote from a poem or short story by Edgar Allan Poe, with "The Raven" and "The Pit and the Pendulum" being used the most. The main character, William Blessing, was a professor, an author and a Poe expert. He quotes various Poe works to his victims before killing them.

I really like the crow itself in this book. He's a more sarcastic version of the one in the original "The Crow" graphic novel. He serves as a guide and mentor for Blessing. This book also deals with the fact that Blessing is basically a reanimated corpse. It's very realistic about the complications that would cause.

By the last chapter I was cheering for William and the ending made me smile. It was a great ending and I think it was very well done. I would recommend this to any fans of The Crow, revenge novels and people who love great stories.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

tja, an sich etwas verwirren, aber wenn man über die ersten 100 seiten hin weg ist, will man wissen wie es weiter geht, obwohl man es sich eigentlich denken kann.
viele hinweise auf andere gute schriftsteller, die mich immer wieder zum schmunzeln gebracht haben oder aber auf grandiose musiker, wie alice cooper - dennoch ein buch, dass mich jetzt nicht unbedingt vom schlafen abhält..

[Derya Y. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ayrıntılı yorumu Yorum Ustası'nda okuyabilirsiniz.

Bir yıldız evet oda Kargacığımın hatırına yoksa onuda vermeyecektim. Bu kadar sıkıcı kitap olamaz arkadaşlar fenalık geçirecektim. Film ile alakası yok yazar tamamen baştan hikaye yaratmış yani çizgi romanlara bağlı kalaydın bari. Çık! Olmamış bu kitap.

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my love for The Crow movie series, I sought out this book. It follows the same vengeance vein as the rest of the series, but with an Edgar Allen Poe twist. The story is familiar and the writing is very fan-fiction based, so if that's your thing this isn't a bad novel to reach out for. But in the horror genre, its not very original.

[Morgan]

The Crow never aims to displease, except in the sequel movies

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this authors take on The Crow. His use of Edgar Allen Poe was really cool.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice take on The Crow mythos and the story revolves around the stealing of an Edgar Allan Poe book collection. Nicely Done.

[Sara Weiss · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of time

[Descending Angel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charges abit of the rules. In fact, this could of changed it's name to something other then the crow and been a rip off, because thats what it feels like it is.