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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
I couldn’t get into it. It felt like a very young YA story if that makes sense. I’m not the target audience so not giving it a bad rating
Yes. Just: yes. A strong, "mean," and angry female protagonist, who isn't perfect-at-everything-and-always-emerges-unscathed. A new world of terrific magics. A stifling caste system. I'm almost afraid to read the second book, in case it can't keep this standard.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A really good premise, but from the first couple chapter onwards everything else became painfully predictable. 😬 I found no joy or excitement in any of the plot points, because I saw them coming from miles away. Nothing new or unique here.
Also, frankly, as a queer reader, the "diversity" is... laughable. I saw this advertised as a "queer normative world" somewhere, but other than a throwaway comment about someone's sexuality there's nothing about this that feels queer. Really disappointing. It's just diversity points for the author.
The plot itself was okay, the main character had a strong drive and everyone had good reason to do as they did.
I just wish the plot hadn't followed the same structure again and again and again.I feel like they did nothing all book except run away, nearly get caught, run away again, escape-- Made everything feel super repetitive and boring.
Also, frankly, as a queer reader, the "diversity" is... laughable. I saw this advertised as a "queer normative world" somewhere, but other than a throwaway comment about someone's sexuality there's nothing about this that feels queer. Really disappointing. It's just diversity points for the author.
The plot itself was okay, the main character had a strong drive and everyone had good reason to do as they did.
I just wish the plot hadn't followed the same structure again and again and again.
Fie is a great heroine -- snarky, smart, confident in some ways but insecure in others, not perfect but trying hard to do the right thing.
The caste system and the magic system were both nicely done, but I'm unconvinced that mammoths are really useful in battle. (Seems like the enemy could just shoot you while you were mounting or dismounting, because that would take a while.)
The caste system and the magic system were both nicely done, but I'm unconvinced that mammoths are really useful in battle. (Seems like the enemy could just shoot you while you were mounting or dismounting, because that would take a while.)
Teetering between 2.5 and 3 stars for this one, but I'm feeling magnanimous today so I'll round up to 3 stars. The plot was pretty derivative and I couldn't help but think it was really weird that all of the castes were named after birds for some reason?? I mean I suppose it was linked to the type of magic found in each group but the same characteristics can be found in other animals - no reason was given as to why this particular world was so hung up on birds. There were gods mentioned but they didn't seem to be birds so???
That said, the story can be boiled down to an unnecessarily long moral of "eat the rich," which I'll support in any guise.
I had such high hopes for this book...alas.
So, first off, I must say that the marketing for this book made me think I was walking into something...completely different. Not really a spoiler, so much as a warning here for those expecting a queer romance: even though the book has LGBT+ characters, the main romance in the book is M/F. You only really hear about characters' queerness as one-off sentences, and, at least in this book, no same sex relationships are explored. Also, while we're on the marketing, the sleeve for my copy put the cat that shows up for a couple scenes as like, a main character of the book? The cat was barely there and completely insignificant. That kind of threw me off. But I digress.
Let's discuss characters. Fie, Tavin, and Jasimir are your main characters here, and of the three, maybe unpopular opinion here, I was only really interested in Jas. I liked that the three were all pretty clearly written as characters of color, but that was about it. Fie was pretty one note and mainly shifted between "I'm mad because I'm a Crow" and "I'm sad because I'm a Crow". She makes a few jokes here and there that left me stony-faced but which seemed to have the other characters in stitches, so maybe she's supposed to be in-universe witty, too. Then there's Tavin. Oh, Tavin. He is a part of the "romance" element of the book, which, by the way, is meant to be "understated"; it was pretty much his whole character. He was also my least favorite in terms of in-world politics. While Jas gets dunked on pretty severely by Fie and Tav for being "ignorant" of other castes, or by saying things that come off as privileged, there's like, no indication that Tav should believe differently? But Tavin is pretty instantly like "right on Fie, f*** this guy right?" to Jasimir despite them supposedly being close. It just felt like an odd way to paint Tavin as sympathetic while having Jasimir be ignorant, when they both should have been relatively similar in political experience. That's why I was interested in Jasimir, because I found it interesting for his character to learn and grow in ways that it seemed the other two never did.
Scenes with Tavin and Fie were certainly ones I wanted to skip-the awkward futzing around, the budding romance tropes, none of these were things I wanted in this book, certainly not for a book I'd gone into for the LGBT+ fantasy label. Jasimir and Tavin scenes were a rarity, and in fact seemed to reinforce that they weren't very close. A shame, considering revelations about their relationship later on. However, Fie and Jasimir scenes were probably among the strongest. While my eyes glazed over for "tense" scenes, anything involving Fie trying to use her magic, and overwrought teen romance, I flew through Jas and Fie scenes where the two most opposing world views were forced to become closer and confront one another. If only the whole book were like this! I relished learning more about Jasimir's life in the castle and seeing them bond without a hint of ~sexual tension~ or whatever.
The magic in this book has a lot of potential. The bone stuff, while kind of irrelevant to the whole bird theme, gives the magic users a lot of room to play with, if being a bit fuzzy on the actual limitations. I was also fascinated by some of the castes not explicitly explored in the book--what is life like for the Swans, the Sparrows, the Pidgeons? It definitely veered toward being derivative of Tomi Adeyemi's Legacy of Orisha series, and I would probably point readers interested in this form of magic and "caste" system to Adeyemi's series instead. Not only do the "gods" and "Covenant" parts of the lore feel vague, but the racism aspect? Hoo boy...
The Crows are...pretty transparently meant to parallel black people in America, from Fie ostensibly being black to the literal color of the birds. I just. I didn't think the author would go so far as to make a fantasy-KKK???? The author is a white woman, and this...really, really shows. I wish she hadn't gone for this parallel because it falls apart pretty easily upon examination. Why would the Oleander Gentry go after the people saving them from the plague? What part of the caste, other than the occasional witch and like, plague-immunity, is hereditary? What stops the Crows from simply pretending to be other castes, or, as Fie seemingly is the first to consider, fighting back with the crazy strong bone magic they wield? It's not great.
Final nitpicks: what on earth is the dialect used in this book, I kept occasionally reading Fie as like, a pirate? I'd also like a bit more development of the faceless villains, other than one minor villain who becomes more interesting near the end. This book also seems like it would have really benefitted from multiple character perspectives as Fie's is pretty bleak and uninteresting. Again, in a book like Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone, getting to see things from the perspective of the villain and other characters who see the main character from a different worldview does a lot of the legwork in making the characters seem realistic and somewhat well-developed. A lot of potential here, but a shame the execution was shoddy. I'm not interested in reading the second book.
So, first off, I must say that the marketing for this book made me think I was walking into something...completely different. Not really a spoiler, so much as a warning here for those expecting a queer romance: even though the book has LGBT+ characters, the main romance in the book is M/F. You only really hear about characters' queerness as one-off sentences, and, at least in this book, no same sex relationships are explored. Also, while we're on the marketing, the sleeve for my copy put the cat that shows up for a couple scenes as like, a main character of the book? The cat was barely there and completely insignificant. That kind of threw me off. But I digress.
Let's discuss characters. Fie, Tavin, and Jasimir are your main characters here, and of the three, maybe unpopular opinion here, I was only really interested in Jas. I liked that the three were all pretty clearly written as characters of color, but that was about it. Fie was pretty one note and mainly shifted between "I'm mad because I'm a Crow" and "I'm sad because I'm a Crow". She makes a few jokes here and there that left me stony-faced but which seemed to have the other characters in stitches, so maybe she's supposed to be in-universe witty, too. Then there's Tavin. Oh, Tavin. He is a part of the "romance" element of the book, which, by the way, is meant to be "understated"; it was pretty much his whole character. He was also my least favorite in terms of in-world politics. While Jas gets dunked on pretty severely by Fie and Tav for being "ignorant" of other castes, or by saying things that come off as privileged, there's like, no indication that Tav should believe differently? But Tavin is pretty instantly like "right on Fie, f*** this guy right?" to Jasimir despite them supposedly being close. It just felt like an odd way to paint Tavin as sympathetic while having Jasimir be ignorant, when they both should have been relatively similar in political experience. That's why I was interested in Jasimir, because I found it interesting for his character to learn and grow in ways that it seemed the other two never did.
Scenes with Tavin and Fie were certainly ones I wanted to skip-the awkward futzing around, the budding romance tropes, none of these were things I wanted in this book, certainly not for a book I'd gone into for the LGBT+ fantasy label. Jasimir and Tavin scenes were a rarity, and in fact seemed to reinforce that they weren't very close. A shame, considering revelations about their relationship later on. However, Fie and Jasimir scenes were probably among the strongest. While my eyes glazed over for "tense" scenes, anything involving Fie trying to use her magic, and overwrought teen romance, I flew through Jas and Fie scenes where the two most opposing world views were forced to become closer and confront one another. If only the whole book were like this! I relished learning more about Jasimir's life in the castle and seeing them bond without a hint of ~sexual tension~ or whatever.
The magic in this book has a lot of potential. The bone stuff, while kind of irrelevant to the whole bird theme, gives the magic users a lot of room to play with, if being a bit fuzzy on the actual limitations. I was also fascinated by some of the castes not explicitly explored in the book--what is life like for the Swans, the Sparrows, the Pidgeons? It definitely veered toward being derivative of Tomi Adeyemi's Legacy of Orisha series, and I would probably point readers interested in this form of magic and "caste" system to Adeyemi's series instead. Not only do the "gods" and "Covenant" parts of the lore feel vague, but the racism aspect? Hoo boy...
The Crows are...pretty transparently meant to parallel black people in America, from Fie ostensibly being black to the literal color of the birds. I just. I didn't think the author would go so far as to make a fantasy-KKK???? The author is a white woman, and this...really, really shows. I wish she hadn't gone for this parallel because it falls apart pretty easily upon examination. Why would the Oleander Gentry go after the people saving them from the plague? What part of the caste, other than the occasional witch and like, plague-immunity, is hereditary? What stops the Crows from simply pretending to be other castes, or, as Fie seemingly is the first to consider, fighting back with the crazy strong bone magic they wield? It's not great.
Final nitpicks: what on earth is the dialect used in this book, I kept occasionally reading Fie as like, a pirate? I'd also like a bit more development of the faceless villains, other than one minor villain who becomes more interesting near the end. This book also seems like it would have really benefitted from multiple character perspectives as Fie's is pretty bleak and uninteresting. Again, in a book like Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone, getting to see things from the perspective of the villain and other characters who see the main character from a different worldview does a lot of the legwork in making the characters seem realistic and somewhat well-developed. A lot of potential here, but a shame the execution was shoddy. I'm not interested in reading the second book.
The Merciful Crow was amazing, I loved it and can't wait to read the Faithless Hawk, but the title scares me. I just want Fie and Tavin to be together, to be happy, to finally have what they want. The story grabbed me from the very first page and didn't let go, not even after the very last word. There wasn't a second that I lost interest and that's been a hard thing for me to find lately. The characters were also amazing, beautifully written. I 100000% recommend, and I can't believe I have to wait a whole YEAR to read the sequel
adventurous
dark
tense
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
Didn’t like this one quite as well as Little Thieves, but this was still a really solid fantasy: really good worldbuilding, good pacing, good character building, and I’m looking forward to reading the next one!
More of a 4.5 stars, if I'm being honest.
This book definitely took me by surprise, since although I was expecting an entertaining ride, I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. A few things made this not quite a 5 star for me, but this was an amazing book. The world was so different and well thought out, the talks on class were really interesting and the characters made me root and suffer for them. I honestly can't wait for the next one.
This book definitely took me by surprise, since although I was expecting an entertaining ride, I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. A few things made this not quite a 5 star for me, but this was an amazing book. The world was so different and well thought out, the talks on class were really interesting and the characters made me root and suffer for them. I honestly can't wait for the next one.