Reviews with content warning for Stalking - When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky

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When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky by Margaret Verble

4 reviews

kappafrog's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

This book got off to a very strong start. I loved the opening chapter, immediately grounding the book's approach to historical fiction in Indigenous storytelling and history. Two Feathers was a great main character. The best parts of the book were the ones from her perspective.

The middle of the book dragged. I didn't enjoy reading from the antagonist's POV, and the book drifted too far from her perspective with side characters. I did like Clive as a character, and Crawford, though their romantic side stories were again taking a lot of time away from Two.

I loved the magical realism in this book. The ghosts were really compelling. This book just had such a refreshing take on the setting, providing windows into a variety of worlds, from early 20th century entertainers' lives to the perspective of the buffalo.

So while the romances and Jack dragged the book down a bit, I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in this world and seeing it from Two's eyes. We need more books like this.

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

“We get the world we have, not the one we want. But we can make this one better.”

Choosing to read this one was a unique process for me. I had never heard of it, not seen any reviews of it, but had the option to get an ALC from Libro.fm a few months ago. The title caught my attention, so I decided to go for it. And for the first time in a long time, I went into a book with no idea what it was about (I never even read the blurb, actually) and having no frame of reference for what other readers thought of it. (What I learned from this experience is that I have spent years getting to know myself as a reader and curating my TBR accordingly, so while I am here to take a chance now and again, I will also probably not make this a new habit.)

It's the late 1920s in Tennessee and Two Feathers is a young Cherokee woman who works as a horse-diver in one of Glendale Park Zoo's more popular attractions. When a disaster happens during one of her shows, Two ends up injured and having to take a break from her work from the park. However, they allow her to stay on, under the care and supervision of the boarding house-mother Helen, Glendale's lead zookeeper and WWI vet Clive, and her close friend on staff Hank Crawford, a fellow sort-of-sidelined employee, as a Black man in the segregated South. At the same time, weird things start to happen at the Park, like a hippo falling ill, spirits becoming visible (and acting on the environment), a creepy-mysterious admirer obsesses over Two, and more. The zoo employees and various community members come together to work to get to the bottom of what's going on, while working to protect the zoo, the animals, and the history/memory of the land they're on.

Well, I don't usually read historical fiction, and I have never really been a fan of zoos (it's a whole thing, but I won't go into it here), so I'm glad I didn't know much more about this one going in, or I may not have picked it up. That being said, it was a very unique read. I have never read anything set in this region, during this time period, that I know of. And mayyyyyyybe something I read in high school would qualify, but if it did, it sure wasn't anywhere near as representative of the actual population as this was (more explicitly: it would have been written by a white man, with a typically white-male-author-of-the-time-period POV and fullness, or lack thereof, of representation). That being said, one of the biggest strengths of this novel is the fully rendered portrait of the historical time/setting. It's a nuanced and historically insightful look at race relations and social stratifications in the US south (past, even, the black/white that is most familiar, with Two Feathers' Cherokee background/family necessarily including an Indigenous perspective). The way Verble illustrated the way that segregation (in effect, racism) affected everyone and everything from small day to day life details to the realities of getting medical attention to all the interpersonal relationships, was complex and thorough. As the anthropological “science” beliefs of the time period about racial differences were liberally spoken of/referred to, it was illuminating to see things that I’d read about in nonfictional texts illustrated in fictional full life examples.

A few other societal and cultural aspects were similarly well-developed and central to the novel. First, I had never heard of (or at least, not that I remember) anything related to the Scopes Trial before now. It was a fascinating historical detail about the ideas about evolution at the time. And really, it is ridiculous how much we are still how we’re still dealing with the same religious arguments 100 years later… *giant eye roll* In fact, the entire religious-based moral underpinnings of society that this novel explores were really interesting, from how it affected the outlooks on the argument of evolution to the support/practice of prohibition to romantic relationships. I had some idea about religious enmity, because I know the Catholic-Protestant tension was a serious familial issue for my grandparents, in their “mixed” marriage on that front. But I only understand it in overview, conceptually, not in the intensity that some of the details here show. There was also a visceral WWI PTSD portrayal – ooooof.

A few other notes. There was a buzz of tension underlying the entire story. It was exhausting in its constancy, which is great, from a “well-written vibe” perspective. And really, it did build to something(s) pretty bad happening, so it’s not like it wasn’t warranted. But for some reason, it never felt as horrible on paper as I was expecting the “finale” to be. Like, it was upsetting and bloody, but also, the ugliest (as far as violence goes) part felt deserved, so I wasn’t upset in the way the tension build had me expecting. For some reason, that combination made the final reaction experience fall flat for me. And I was a little disappointed in that, after such a subtle but well-done build to it. I also had to put out quite a bit of effort in tracking characters – there were lots of them on and off the page quickly (all named and many really unimportant/ in the long run). There were also lots of zoo animals with very human-sounding names and since Two Feathers spoke to many of them as I they were human, I sometimes lost track of which was which. It was a bit annoying, a lot of effort on me as a reader, but possibly would have been fine if I didn’t wander mentally while reading (which I was doing, not infrequently, because while the setting and historical build and atmosphere were great, the plot itself moved slowly and didn’t keep my attention as much as I would have liked for a mystery/thriller-ish story).

I did really like the “spirit” narrator, Little Elk, as his perspective brought historic Indigenous beliefs and traditions (lost to the everyday realities of the time, and well as much of today, due to colonization, forced assimilation, and genocide of Native peoples.) It didn’t always fit the story/plot development, but since the highlight of this novel was the breadth of the historical detail, I thought it was great. As a specific note here, I loved that Two Feathers “falling from the sky” is in parallel to some Indigenous origin folklore/beliefs (that I’ve read about in other places – it is not specifically described in that way here) in a very cool way.

To sum up… This was a really unique historical fiction/mystery/magical realism sort of mashup. I loved the way Verble skirted that line of real or fantastical (the same way Once Upon a River did – if you read and enjoyed that, this one is worth a try). And the historical setting felt incredibly tangible and authentic, and really educational, if I’m being honest. I Googled a number of things while reading. But there was a slow pacing to the story itself that I wasn’t necessarily expecting or prepared for, especially after I started to recognize the feeling of the tension build that comes with a mystery plot, and that caused me to disengage a few times while listening. Overall, a really solid novel, but not a favorite for me.

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

jansreading's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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