The Fallen By Watchbird by Jane Weaver

Title: The Fallen By Watchbird

Author: Jane Weaver

Publisher: Volcano Publishing

ISBN: 9780956736956

Rating 2.5/5

The cover on this has the appearance of a marbled background with silhouette lady and her watchbird.  The font for the title is eye catching in yellow, with swirl detail.  The book is a very short read.  From Jane's website: "The Fallen By Watch Bird is a new conceptual pop project featuring seven chapters of cosmic aquatic folklore by songwriter Jane Weaver"

The illustrations throughout are largely silhouette based with super imposed monochrome pictures for faces, which I found creepy – they aren’t my sort of thing, but they are unusual.  I did like one illustration which has a marbled background with the girl’s side profile being overlaid with her watchbird. 

This is a tale of love lost, and not found…where a girl wishes her love goodbye never to be seen or heard from again, so she goes searching for him once her watchbird has departed to also find him.  Alas, she ventures into the witches cave after losing her voice to grief, believing that both her bird and love are lost.  The witch gives her a magik potion to bring back her voice, and then demands the gift of her watchbird in return.  The girl refuses and is locked in a cage.  A flock of birds help her escape by flying with the cage to help her find her watchbird.  The watchbird has found the wreckage of her love’s ship and whilst some sailors return, her love does not.  The story ends where the girl takes her watchbird and goes on a journey to try and find her lost love.

All in all this was a little too fanciful for me when accompanied with the silhouettes, as I found it hard to take seriously.  I like folklores and storys to have a bright, or happy ending with hope.  This one ends gloomy, as the story suggest that ‘some might consider obvious impending doom” whilst she goes in search of her lost love.  I also like to know the characters, and for them to have names, we aren’t privy to those details for this story….I sadly didn’t feel any connection to the characters or the story, although I admire the background on many of the illustrations.  The Utube video below gives a glimpse into the book and also the illustrations.

To see more about the author and this unusual book, please visit:

http://janeweavermusic.com/home.html

Many thanks to the publishers who contacted us for a review - a copy was received in return for an honest review.