Priya is a gifted author and her stories remind me of the works of Angela Carter; she evokes that same kind of mystery, terror and awe as AC. If you haven’t read anything by her, please buy Priya’s debut collection All the Marvellous Beasts (2018) which contains this story. ‘The Crow Palace’ is one of the better ‘quiet horrors’ that I’ve read in recent years. Sharma’s use of language is rich and lush, the interactions between characters aren’t stilted; their conversations ebb and flow like a dawn tide and it’s the perfect story to round off my personal anthology. Its disquiet will haunt your thoughts.

First published in Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales, Pegasus, 2017