The ScaldCrow, Grace Daly
The ScaldCrow, Grace Daly
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
Club: $17.49

The Scald-Crow

Author: Grace Daly

Narrator: Aven Shore

Unabridged: 7 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/14/2025

Categories: Fiction, Disabilities, Lgbtq+


Synopsis

Shot through with gallows humor and speaking in the voice of a trusted best friend, this self-deprecating horror novel explores medical trauma through Irish folklore, asking “Can a sick woman ever be trusted?"Brigid—that’s the Irish Breej, not “Bridge-id,” though it’s not like she’d correct you—has had a rough go of it. Her mother abused her when she was little, her best friend (and secret crush) is too busy chasing some blonde to answer Brigid’s calls, and she lost her job thanks to chronic pelvic pain with no identifiable cause. As a self-doubting, disabled adult, she’s certain that everything that has happened to her is her fault.Now her mother has gone missing and Brigid’s only option is to move back into her childhood home in the idyllic Midwestern town of St. Charles, Illinois. Soon the uncanny begins: A particular crow that once harassed her reappears, following her everywhere. A painting of Jesus keeps coming back, no matter how many times she throws it away. Frozen body parts show up in places rubber band balls and door stoppers ought to be. Every night the same nightmare repeats: her real mother is dead and decaying in the closet, and the identical mother who raised her is not her mother. But it’s all in Brigid’s head. It’s all her fault. It must be. What other explanation could there be?After all, since when can a sick woman be trusted?

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lauren on March 30, 2025

Loved the humor and the chronic invisible illness rep. Brigid is a living, breathing, lovable character and the Irish mythology is awesome. There were some legit creepy scenes in here. In addition, it was the perfect combination of gross/funny/heartwarming. I enjoyed how unflinching certain scenes w......more

Goodreads review by Aubrei on September 26, 2025

I was SO excited about The Scald-Crow but it unfortunately ended up being just ok for me. The positives: -Disability representation and the horrors of not being believed when having an invisible illness! Very realistic and tbh the medical trauma was one of the scariest parts of the book IMO. -The cat.......more

Goodreads review by Evangeline Munster on May 28, 2025

Thank you so much to Creature Publishing for providing me with an arc in exchange of an honest review 4.5 stars Unsettling, dark and painful (quite literally, shout out to my chronic pain ghoulies woop woop) As someone with endometriosis I really reallllly appreciated seeing it represented when so ofte......more

Goodreads review by thebookishhalfling on October 03, 2025

In the Scald Crow, Brigid is chronically ill and had a traumatic childhood. Now she has moved back to her childhood home after her abusive mother has gone missing and her car was found in a river. Being in this house is bringing back bad memories and when weird things start happening she doesn’t kno......more

Goodreads review by Kendall on September 17, 2025

The Scald-Crow tells the story of Brigid, a chronically ill, trauma filled, queer woman who moves into her childhood home after her mother’s car was found in a lake with her mother no where to be found and presumed to be deceased. With her intention being to clean out the house and make it her own,......more