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A review by le_corbeau_romantique
The King of Crows by Libba Bray
This series has meant so much to me in my 20s. I read the first book when I moved away from home right after college, and now I'm closing my 20s reading the last book a few months before entering a new decade. I have reread these books more than I have ever reread any book (including Jane Austen). I'm probably going to be in the minority, and I don't know if I'm just grieving and need time and space for another read of Book 4. So I will emotionally vomit everything going through my head right after finishing this book.
First of all the positives: the gang's all back together, Sam + Evie, the Circus, The Harlem Haymakers, Theta, Bill + Samson's ending, Jericho's character development, Ling + Alma, Isaiah's twists and turns, and the power development in the Dead.
So here are the things that are not so great:
- Anticlimactic: It was slow with a lot of padding (the Voice of America- overly repetitive and didactic within the story. Even though I fully agree with these ideas, they became filler due to the repetition. Also, Memphis was unnecessarily risky while on the run!).
- Less romance: This series has EVERYTHING and has always balanced all of these elements so well.
- Less Sam (see above)
- I still don't feel closure with Mabel.
- A lot of jumps: A lot of the action was fast-forwarded like the old Underground Railroad tunnel under the museum ---don't stop telling the story when a ghost attacks---, the Proposal, Roy's lack of comeuppance, the actual demise of the King of Crows.
- Small, personal issue: I HATE anything with animals in it because I'm worried the entire time about them to the point I can't enjoy anything. Samson about killed me in a previous book, and there's even more critters to worry about in this installment (dog, cats, a frog).
- Little to no character development for Ling: She's back to being who she was when we first met her (in the interaction with other characters except with Alma and the ending bridesmaid remark).
- Sarah Beth= OBVIOUS
- The book ends with the remaining group listening to a Nazi/Hitler rally on the radio with nothing else said. (...Does this mean we'll see them battling real, living evil in a WWII series of short stories while they fight crime as they figure out how to work without powers?! I know they didn't defeat all evil in this book, this action made the series feel unresolved. Need to think more on this....)
I will eventually reread this book as I have the rest of the series, and maybe my thoughts will change as they did when I had my first reread of Book 3, but now, it's too raw, and I'm too busy daydreaming my own endings for these characters I grew with and love.
On a side note, the audiobooks are some of the best I've ever listened to.
Spoiler
First of all the positives: the gang's all back together, Sam + Evie, the Circus, The Harlem Haymakers, Theta, Bill + Samson's ending, Jericho's character development, Ling + Alma, Isaiah's twists and turns, and the power development in the Dead.
So here are the things that are not so great:
- Anticlimactic: It was slow with a lot of padding (the Voice of America- overly repetitive and didactic within the story. Even though I fully agree with these ideas, they became filler due to the repetition. Also, Memphis was unnecessarily risky while on the run!).
- Less romance: This series has EVERYTHING and has always balanced all of these elements so well.
- Less Sam (see above)
- I still don't feel closure with Mabel.
- A lot of jumps: A lot of the action was fast-forwarded like the old Underground Railroad tunnel under the museum ---don't stop telling the story when a ghost attacks---, the Proposal, Roy's lack of comeuppance, the actual demise of the King of Crows.
- Small, personal issue: I HATE anything with animals in it because I'm worried the entire time about them to the point I can't enjoy anything. Samson about killed me in a previous book, and there's even more critters to worry about in this installment (dog, cats, a frog).
- Little to no character development for Ling: She's back to being who she was when we first met her (in the interaction with other characters except with Alma and the ending bridesmaid remark).
- Sarah Beth= OBVIOUS
- The book ends with the remaining group listening to a Nazi/Hitler rally on the radio with nothing else said. (...Does this mean we'll see them battling real, living evil in a WWII series of short stories while they fight crime as they figure out how to work without powers?! I know they didn't defeat all evil in this book, this action made the series feel unresolved. Need to think more on this....)
I will eventually reread this book as I have the rest of the series, and maybe my thoughts will change as they did when I had my first reread of Book 3, but now, it's too raw, and I'm too busy daydreaming my own endings for these characters I grew with and love.
On a side note, the audiobooks are some of the best I've ever listened to.