The Feathered Man by Jeremy De Quidt

About the book

The Feathered Man by Jeremy De Quidt is a stand-alone Young Adult novel. It was published by David Fickling Books on 1^st November and the book is 368 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy for review.

Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads.com)

In a German town, long ago, lives a tooth-puller's boy called Klaus. It isn't Klaus's fault that he sees his master steal a diamond from the mouth of a dead man in Frau Drecht's lodging house, or that Frau Drecht and her murderous son want it for themselves.

He has nothing to do with the Jesuit priest and his Aztec companion who turn up out of the blue looking for it, or the Professor of Anatomy who takes such a strange interest in it. No, Klaus doesn't want any trouble.

But when he finds himself with the diamond in his pocket, things really can't get much worse - that is, until the feathered man appears. Then they become a matter of life . . . and death.

What I thought

I love a good creepy book and that’s exactly what this one is. The plot summary sold me immediately and once the book arrived, along with a pretty blue feather inside, I couldn’t wait to read it.

Told in third person, Jeremy De Quidt gives readers the chance to get to know all characters involved in this story. Although we start off by meeting Klaus and Kusselmann, there are plenty of other interesting characters who are introduced along the way. Klaus was an unfortunate young boy and not having a home meant he had to work for Kusselmann, who was the local teeth puller. Kusselmann, exceptional at his trade, is known to everyone in town and is always on the lookout for some good teeth. However, when Frau Drecht calls him over to pull the teeth of a recently deceased man, he finds that they aren’t normal teeth at all – hidden inside is a diamond.

Here is where the story begins to get really exciting and weird. By stealing the diamond, Kusselmann and Klaus’ lives change forever and they soon find that there are plenty of other people who want this particular diamond. Here begins the adventure of hiding the diamond and for Klaus, staying away from the others who want it. I really liked Klaus as a character because he was so misfortunate and I wanted things to get better for him. He didn’t really understand what was going on and all he was really looking for was a break in life which he thought the diamond would give him.

It takes some time for the book to hit the religious aspects of the plot but I enjoyed the way this unfolded. There is plenty of mystery surrounding the diamond and what it is really for. Due to the slow building plot in regards to this, it all becomes really exciting and intriguing. As well as Frau Drecht, a Priest and a Professor are after the diamond and slowly, they explain what it is for and why they want it. Although The Feathered Man is set in an older time in Germany, references go way back to times long before this and the history behind the diamond was exciting to learn.

De Quidt gets the pacing spot on. With a slow build up to and thrilling ending, there is everything in this book to keep you hooked. There are characters that you cannot help but hope do well and characters that you really want to disappear. Along with a story that made my skin crawl at times, there are plenty of twists and turns in the plot which will keep you guessing and holding your breath. I have Jeremy De Quidt’s other book, The Toymaker, sat on a shelf unread somewhere else so I think it’s about time that I found it and gave it a go after liking this book so much. The Feathered Man was everything that I could want in a creepy book!