Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Wings of Ebony

This book rushed through its plot. It was so fast-paced, that when I started to listen to it, I thought my player jumped ahead. It maybe could’ve used a bit of background work in the beginning.

The story itself is quite traditional YA urban fantasy, a teenager finding out they have powers and all what comes with it, a power hungry antagonist and people to save. The usual.
I did like the take-on of modern social issues. That peeped my interest.

I guess this book works better for younger readers, and those seeking their own voice in a book.

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skylerher's review against another edition

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cheybrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-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

3.0

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this debut!

Wings of Ebony follows Rue after the fatal shooting of her Moms. Her estranged father comes and takes Rue to a land called Ghizon where its inhabitants have magic. Rue is stranded there for a whole year. But with the help of her genius best friend, she's able to transport herself back to Earth without being tracked. What starts out as a simple task to deliver a birthday gift to her sister, becomes increasingly more complicated when Tasha is almost killed in a car crash. Not only that but something is infiltrating East Row with drugs and murdering young Black kids. Rue knows the police are no help, so it will be up to her and the other occupants of East Row to figure out what's happening.

Y'all this book was so good! I really enjoyed the portal fantasy type world going on here. There's also so much going on in terms of colonisation, and systemic racism. J. Elle put so much into this book. I loved getting to know more about Rue's home of East Row, and the magical world of Ghizon. Rue is such a strong and relentless character, I loved her so much. She is fierce in her determination to protect those she loves and cares for. I was rooting for Rue 200% of the time, I wanted to see her succeed.

The world building is done so well in this book. But it is more of a slow build. We don't get all of the mechanics of Ghizon right away. The other thing is that the history of Ghizon has been written by the victors, which have secrets to hide. So if you're confused about how things work, just keep going. Trust me.

I loved how much family plays a role in this story. J. Elle didn't pull any punches either when it comes to the emotional side of things. I definitely was traumatized by a particular scene in the end. I can't wait to see what else J. Elle writes!

Rep: Black and Indigenous (to a fantasy land based off Africa) female MC, Black and Indigenous side characters.

CWs: Abandonment, blood, car accident colonisation, death, death of parents, gaslighting, fire, grief, gun violence, injury/injury detail, murder, racism, violence.

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booksthatburn's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

WINGS OF EBONY is about family, home, and belonging, and the journey to embrace two worlds and help make them better instead of being torn between them.

This has a “keep running, I’ll explain on the way” kind of style, the book drops the reader straight into the middle of a very tense sequence then establishes the relevant backstory piecemeal through narration and alternating chapters between present and past. It works well, pulling me into the story quickly without getting too bogged down in details, then emphasizing the details later once I had a framework to anchor them. It prompted me to have questions then answers them just in time. I liked this style a lot, and it suits the story well.

For the first half of the book I didn’t really get what it was doing. The flashback scenes were fun and informative, the pacing was fine, and I liked the MC, but I didn’t get “it”, where the book was going, why this story cared about itself and what I’d say to convey to someone why they should read it...and then just past halfway through it gets to the cave and the fire and it hooked me instantly. The first half sets up the MC as having been pulled from her home and everyone she loves to learn magic with a father she doesn’t know and people who see her as an outsider and a curiosity. It was harder to get into because (like the MC) I didn’t get why she should care about being there: she wanted to be home, they begrudged teaching her but also seemed to want something from her, so it needed something more, some piece which explained why she should care about anything in this place. There's some coercive structures keeping her there, but it felt like we were waiting to find out what she could possibly want from the magic world other than to just go home. And then... the cave happens (the actual cave is incidental, it’s just a spoiler-free way to note a before and after in the book). It starts a series of events and revelations which set up an actual reason for her to care about the magic world that doesn’t replace or retract all the reasons she felt displaced before, it validates them while also giving her something new. It turned her journey from one where she didn’t want what was happening but didn’t have a goal into one where she has the information she needs to choose what she cares about and what she’ll fight for.

The secondary characters are distinct without cluttering the story, I was able to track the most important three or four people in each world and have a general sense of the rest. The narrative felt very focused on the MC and how she was reacting, which makes sense for this book but also meant that there were only a couple of secondary characters where I had a sense of who they were beyond what they literally did in the story. What this does very well is establish a sense of who the main groups are as communities, there isn't space in this book to infodump the MC's history with everyone as individuals (nor should it have attempted that), but it was very clear who the MC was in relation to those communities, whether and why she felt like she fit in, and then using that alternating discomfort and ease to propel her actions. I didn't need to know her whole history with any one person in her neighborhood because how she related to them conveyed immediately who they were to each other in a way that anchored everyone. We got a bit more history in the magic world via the flashbacks because it's newer to her and she's still learning about it.

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whysomanysams's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

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