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A review by readingcat1832
The King of Crows by Libba Bray
5.0
EDIT 4/5/2021: Going to update my review as some of my thoughts have changed slightly since the first time reading. The gist of it is that yeah even though the pacing was a little off for this installment, good god it was still fantastic and the characters all developed so much and so beautifully. I love this series.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE KING OF CROWS AND THE ENDING OF THE DIVINERS SERIES
like most people, this wasn't my favourite in the series (that honour goes to lair of dreams hands down) but i felt about it more or less the same way as i did about btdby, which is most people's fave, so who knows, maybe i was one step ahead of you all. but i still enjoyed it very very much, it came with plenty of gut twisting moments and, in true libba bray fashion, it was filled with moments where i had to stop and reread a sentence a few times, feeling absolutely stunned by libba bray's MASTERY of the english language. this woman.
as with the previous installments, libba bray's handling of the more serious topics that really make up the series' thematic concerns was absolutely masterful and touching and everything i love out of a libba bray book. and alongside that, this book was such a beautiful and poingnant reflection on grief, on humanity, on history and on who gets to write it, and the agency we have in writing our own stories. horror and historical fiction and ghost stories put to the best use i've ever seen:
“It was always somebody’s turn. The Irish, the Italians, the Jews, the Negroes or Chinese or Mexicans. A great wheel of bigotry, ever turning. Who got to decide what made somebody an American? America, the ideal of it at least, was its own form of elusive magic.”
i did think the pacing was a little rushed at times, but less in that libba bray wrote it that way, and more so that the king of crows was originally a longer book that got cut down a lot in editing. for the record i would have preferred an 800+ page chonker but i guess you can't have everything in life. i think this book's biggest weakness is the pacing, i really had a hard time caring about some of the new characters that the cast travels with to get to bountiful, especially sam's circus companions. i get their purpose, but i guess i just wish we had either spent more time with them, or else rendered them into a clearer background role so we could focus more on the arcs of the diviners gang.
also there was that one scene where ling, jericho, alma and doc go through that abandoned, ghost-consumed town which was VERY CLEARLY HAUNTED and VERY OBVIOUSLY A BAD IDEA but instead they were acting like stupid white characters in a horror movie, which is hilarious because jericho was the only white one there. it didn't make a ton of sense.
my favourite scenes were the quieter, character-focused moments that i wish i got more of. there were scenes or moments i'd been looking forward to that i wish were a little more developed, especially sam's reunion with his mother, which i'd been looking forward to for literal years and the result was sooo underwhelming after i'd hyped it up in my mind, and for that matter the the entire sam rescue mission was way too easy, plus i just wanted a little more sam angst and felt he should have suffered more like the sadist that i am. but there were so many brilliant scenes too.
some of my favourites included evie returning to ohio, the new dynamic between ling and jericho (WHICH I WANTED MORE OF), ling's exploration of her identity and relationship with alma, and memphis and henry considering their relationships to their personal points of privilege. and even though apparently a lot of people were disappointed or underwhelmed by the climax of the book, let me just say i abso-fucking-loved it. it might not be up to the level of the climax of lair of dreams, but honestly i don't see how it could.
the fact that isaiah was the one who defeated the king of crows in the end was brilliant, and the way he came back was fantastic too. even though i wish we had gotten a little more from evie's final goodbye to james, her final scene with mabel left me an absolute mess and for me anyway it was the most heartbreaking scene in the novel.
the epilogue was... meh. i wish it had been a little more bittersweet since i do think everything wrapped up a little too neatly for everyone, or else i wish we had gotten more winding down action after the king of crows was defeated. but the final lines left me feeling absolutely chilled and i thought it was a perfect conclusion. in a book where the real horror and the big bad is a physical manifestation of american colonialism and genocide, it's a good reminder that even though the big bad has been defeated, it doesn't mean an ending to prejudice and violence and bigotry.
but even with those haunting final lines, the ending didn't overshadow the tone of hope that ran through this novel, all captured by that one beautiful, simple line. make a better history
i don't really know how to express my feelings, honestly, knowing that one of my favourite series ever is now OVER. even if this wasn't the perfect finale. these characters are Everything and i'm so grateful for the four books i got to spend with them.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE KING OF CROWS AND THE ENDING OF THE DIVINERS SERIES
like most people, this wasn't my favourite in the series (that honour goes to lair of dreams hands down) but i felt about it more or less the same way as i did about btdby, which is most people's fave, so who knows, maybe i was one step ahead of you all. but i still enjoyed it very very much, it came with plenty of gut twisting moments and, in true libba bray fashion, it was filled with moments where i had to stop and reread a sentence a few times, feeling absolutely stunned by libba bray's MASTERY of the english language. this woman.
as with the previous installments, libba bray's handling of the more serious topics that really make up the series' thematic concerns was absolutely masterful and touching and everything i love out of a libba bray book. and alongside that, this book was such a beautiful and poingnant reflection on grief, on humanity, on history and on who gets to write it, and the agency we have in writing our own stories. horror and historical fiction and ghost stories put to the best use i've ever seen:
“It was always somebody’s turn. The Irish, the Italians, the Jews, the Negroes or Chinese or Mexicans. A great wheel of bigotry, ever turning. Who got to decide what made somebody an American? America, the ideal of it at least, was its own form of elusive magic.”
i did think the pacing was a little rushed at times, but less in that libba bray wrote it that way, and more so that the king of crows was originally a longer book that got cut down a lot in editing. for the record i would have preferred an 800+ page chonker but i guess you can't have everything in life. i think this book's biggest weakness is the pacing, i really had a hard time caring about some of the new characters that the cast travels with to get to bountiful, especially sam's circus companions. i get their purpose, but i guess i just wish we had either spent more time with them, or else rendered them into a clearer background role so we could focus more on the arcs of the diviners gang.
also there was that one scene where ling, jericho, alma and doc go through that abandoned, ghost-consumed town which was VERY CLEARLY HAUNTED and VERY OBVIOUSLY A BAD IDEA but instead they were acting like stupid white characters in a horror movie, which is hilarious because jericho was the only white one there. it didn't make a ton of sense.
my favourite scenes were the quieter, character-focused moments that i wish i got more of. there were scenes or moments i'd been looking forward to that i wish were a little more developed, especially sam's reunion with his mother, which i'd been looking forward to for literal years and the result was sooo underwhelming after i'd hyped it up in my mind, and for that matter the the entire sam rescue mission was way too easy, plus i just wanted a little more sam angst and felt he should have suffered more like the sadist that i am. but there were so many brilliant scenes too.
some of my favourites included evie returning to ohio, the new dynamic between ling and jericho (WHICH I WANTED MORE OF), ling's exploration of her identity and relationship with alma, and memphis and henry considering their relationships to their personal points of privilege. and even though apparently a lot of people were disappointed or underwhelmed by the climax of the book, let me just say i abso-fucking-loved it. it might not be up to the level of the climax of lair of dreams, but honestly i don't see how it could.
the fact that isaiah was the one who defeated the king of crows in the end was brilliant, and the way he came back was fantastic too. even though i wish we had gotten a little more from evie's final goodbye to james, her final scene with mabel left me an absolute mess and for me anyway it was the most heartbreaking scene in the novel.
the epilogue was... meh. i wish it had been a little more bittersweet since i do think everything wrapped up a little too neatly for everyone, or else i wish we had gotten more winding down action after the king of crows was defeated. but the final lines left me feeling absolutely chilled and i thought it was a perfect conclusion. in a book where the real horror and the big bad is a physical manifestation of american colonialism and genocide, it's a good reminder that even though the big bad has been defeated, it doesn't mean an ending to prejudice and violence and bigotry.
but even with those haunting final lines, the ending didn't overshadow the tone of hope that ran through this novel, all captured by that one beautiful, simple line. make a better history
i don't really know how to express my feelings, honestly, knowing that one of my favourite series ever is now OVER. even if this wasn't the perfect finale. these characters are Everything and i'm so grateful for the four books i got to spend with them.