Queen of the Crows, by Harmony Wagner
A captivating fictional tale about overcoming challenges in life
An 11-year old girl, Elsa, is bullied at school by three mean girls and their ongoing gossip, exclusion, offensive graffiti, and directly hurtful comments. The same girls taunt her classmate, Eh Ta Taw, because he is foreign and therefore different. The attacks are often deeply personal and humiliating.
Elsa feels a connection with Eh Ta Taw because together they suffer from the same repeated and childish attacks, but Elsa is afraid to show her admiration for him because of their harassment. And therefore she admires and studies Eh Ta Taw from afar while they are caged in school.
Outside of school, Elsa hides a dark secret. It’s been five days since, Dana, Elsa’s mother, vanished. It’s not uncommon for Dana to leave without a word, but this is the longest she’s been gone. Elsa is left to fend for herself in the city, while living off other people’s recycling and scavenging for scraps of food. Then, one day, hungry and alone she finds an unexpected comfort and acceptance with a raucous group of crows that live in a nearby Park. Suddenly Elsa is no longer alone. The flock of crafty crows communicates with Elsa in a way only she can understand.
This fictional tale follows in the footsteps of Elsa and her journey towards self-awareness, and her evolving perception of her own less-fortunate life and family. Although I was skeptical at first when Elsa stepped into the magical universe of the crows, I found the human characters engaging and their relationships believable.
But as the tale unravels, the reader comes to an understanding that mental illness and “magical thinking” is a primary symptom of schizophrenia.
There were sections in the story that I had to re-read for clarity, and some names did not make sense to me for example, “Boughbend” and “Popcan,” but eventually I came to believe this break from conformity and outside the box thinking was trying to showcase how people with mental illness struggle to think and perceive reality in the same way as healthy people. P.E.I. author and filmmaker Harmony Wagner does a fine job of keeping the story moving and the reader guessing. There are many layers weaved into this story on bullying, diversity, social class, mental illness, family dysfunction, and overcoming these challenges that will touch your heart. “Queen of the Crows” is Wagner’s first book, based on the award-winning short film screened by Telefilm Canada at the Cannes Film Festival. The book is published by Acorn Press, in Charlottetown. Wagner has also directed two feature films, “Kooperman” and “Singing to Myself.”