Amy Spurway’s debut novel, Crow is a black comedy following Crow (Stacey) Fortune who moves back to her hometown of Cape Breton after learning she has brain cancer. She is faced with the people from her past along with the memories they carry along with them. Spurway brings every character to life through stories and humour.

The first thing I noticed when I started reading was how realistic everything felt, Spurway beautifully captures the feeling of small town Cape Breton. Every character feels alive, they go through their own struggles and as a reader I ended up invested in all of their stories. My personal favourite characters are Allie and Gimp

This is the first black comedy novel I’ve read so I had to get used to such sad topics being portrayed with so many jokes. After getting used to the humour replacing the usual angst I’m used to I started to really enjoy that aspect of the novel because it depends how some people cope using humour

Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
People of Cape Breton: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Born and raised on Cape Breton Island, Amy Spurway landed her first writing and performing gigs with CBC Radio. Her debut novel, Crow, a black comedy book brought to us by Goose Lane Editions in 2019 is heartfelt, hilarious, and harsh. You will remember each of the deeply flawed characters; Peggy, Char, Allie, and Crow (Stacey). Amy utilizes her special gift to bring these characters to life through words. Your heart will go through the ups and downs as these characters reveal their story.

Stacey Fortune left her big-city glamorous lifestyle in Toronto to return to her mother’s shabby trailer, waiting for her inevitable death due to brain tumours. As often happens, she gradually losses her dignity and ability to function independently. These gradual arrivals of death come in surprises just as what would happen in real life. Back home, her long-time friend Allie is going through a depressed episode due to her mother’s recent death. Allie has gone through everything for her mother, but just as she got the first job opportunity in decades that would allow her to take care of her mother and have a life at the same time, her mother passed the one night she was not by her bed. And there is Char, a hedonistic and flamboyant wild girl who has returned from her travel with a baby conceived with a Congolese criminal, now murdered. Closer Stacey’s cursed family is her aunt Peggy, who pass around gossip like a paperboy but also keep her mouth shut about secrets in her own family.

These stories and characters are so lively yet so painful. These reviving characters and the tasteful Cape Breton humour will company you through the book, leaving reflections about love, death, friendship, hometown, and life.

The only thing that should be warned is the book does as it can to mimic real life. Profanity, sexual reedition, drug, alcoholism, and vile sarcasm are severely overused, which might be annoying at some point in the book, cutting off the flow of character development and plot a bit.

"Crow" by Amy Spurway is an incredible debut novel. You would never know this was Spurway’s debut novel because it is just that good! Crow is a story about a girl that receives terrible news and returns from Toronto to her hometown in Cape Breton. Crow (the main character of the story) relives her life back in Cape Breton and learns and exposes “the dirt” on her family’s name.

The way Spurway writes about places and settings are so detailed it allows readers to truly experience the Cape Breton environment. Her characters were very well developed and had very distinct traits that made them all so unique. It was such a thrill to read a novel with such interesting characters and their development throughout the novel.

Each chapter had a twist to it and had me wanting to keep reading! I especially love how Spurway made such an incredible novel so close to home. You can truly sense real life experiences were put into this novel and it makes it ten times better! If you’ve been to Cape Breton, enjoy reading local or maybe you’ve never read a local novel before, I highly recommend you try Crow. It has an amazing message of living life to the fullest no matter the circumstances. I would rate Crow by Amy Spurway 5/5 stars.