Reviews

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

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kelalycat's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

deathmetalheron's review against another edition

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adventurous informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

Content Warnings

leafblade's review against another edition

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2.0

I got an ARC of this book via NetGalley.

As someone with a heavy Spanish family tree, I really wanted to enjoy this book. Most of my Spanish relatives were assholes, rapists, slave-owners and so on, so I wanted to read an accurate historical take on the whole thing. With fantasy elements, of course, because otherwise I'd be reading the wikipedia page for the inquisitions.

But what I encountered in this book, overall, was a mess of elements.
We had the history part, about the muslim not-Spain part of actual Spain and the, uh, Spanish speaking people. And their conflicts, specially evangelization. But it honestly didn't feel well fleshed out at all? It almost seemed like the author got us away from it all because she didn't know how to explain what was going on anymore. Like she had a mess of places and languages and events and she didn't know how to make the characters fit in it except for the premise of the book, so she just made them run away.
The Spanish in this book is not good, and it couldn't have been more than a couple sentences. It's "señora", not "senora". The Ñ sound is WAY different from the N and it's just how the word is written. Just because there isn't a sound for it in English doesn't mean you have to change it for the closest looking letter. And "oido" is not the same as "oído". There are accents in Spanish words for a reason (phonetics), and it always ends up seeming like your Spanish characters don't know how to speak their own language.
Hassan's magic was so so so beautiful and we saw so little of it!!! He's the reason Fatima had to run away, we should've gotten more of it!!

The island part gave me strong Uprooted vibes. It was kinda weird to be honest and it felt like it didn't go well with the first half of the book. Like it should've been a second part, or a different thing altogether. A lot of people were introduced in the last third of the book, and it was confusing af. I didn't even get to know them and they were already dating the MCs or dying!!

I don't think I liked how the gay character was handled, either. He liked every single thing that stood in two legs and had abs, even a half-dog, furry-esque thousand years old jinni. He was jealous of Fatima for kissing/having sex with other men, even though we're told multiple times he has been in relationships before. In the end he gets a boyfriend but makes sure to let her (jealous, obv) bff Fatima that he loves her more. Which would be cute, if he hadn't been the gay best friend trope impersonated. This type of representation is way obsolete in 2019.
(despite all of this he was STILL my fav character)

And last bc I know it's not the author's fault and it doesn't impact my rating: there were many many many italized sentences, but they were like in a different format than the rest of the book? Sometimes they were a bit below the normal sentence they were after, or a bit above, and sometimes they changed lines so you would read (invented example)
"He raised his head and said ' ' with tears in his eyes. Fatima"
So sometimes it seemed like another character was saying it, or that it was a complete different sentence, and it got confusing to read, even more so not being a native English speaker myself. I hope it can be fixed for the actual ebook release.

alchaea's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

ecross_poppy's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I think I'm a little confused on the ending but I had a blast reading it and that's really my goal right now.

hannahpings's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

a little miracle of a book. wilson does something with pacing and expectation here that i can't even begin to articulate, but is so beautifully representative of the larger point of the bird king i can't help but marvel at it. like hassan's maps, short passages contain entire odysseys in themselves, while long ones are easily (and quickly!) traversable. its ending is deceptively simple and beautiful and heartbreaking with a single, final image that feels like it's going to be burned in my head forever.

Content Warnings