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withlovearin 's review for:
A Feather So Black
by Lyra Selene
Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Spice (scale in bio): 2.5 🌶️
Status: underhyped, this is a hidden gem
TL;DR: started out rough but we got there in the end
First off, the world building in this is so clunky and overwhelming that it made me reconsider the way I write reviews. Maybe I should start noting when the world building in a book is seamless and well done rather than taking it for granted. It’s not as bad as When the Moon Hatched, for example, but you have a world based on Irish mythology (which is pretty cool), but that comes with A LOT of Irish words, which are hard to read and pronounce. And having Irish term after term flung at my head from the first page on in a “swim or drown” type of way was rough.
My edition came with a glossary, but it’s in the back, which not many people will find. There wasn’t a note letting you know, either. I reckon it’s significantly easier for the audiobook girlies, but I had to get used to the FMC name dropping Irish folklore terms every other sentence without explaining a single one on page. You’re expected to find and read the glossary yourself if you’re not already intimately familiar with the terminology, despite not being told that there IS one. Also, the lore is dumped in your lap in chunky paragraphs of pure exposition, and not just once or twice.
The emotions are written in a very telling-over
-showing way. Feelings and sensations are named directly rather than taking the time to show the reader how the world around the FMC, Fia, actually makes her feel in her body, e.g. ”Shame bowed my head” or ”Sorrow burned my throat.” Yes, it’s shorter, but it limits how much I can connect to the characters, because I never actually feel like I’m in the story WITH them, rather that I’m having a story told AT me. It’s a missed opportunity and a shame.
The writing is overall descriptive and pretty, very dark-cottage-core-esque, but I consistently felt like the descriptions were a little too whimsical just for the sake of being quirky, to the point where I had no idea what the author was trying to say. There are descriptions that left me dumbfounded. They sound pretty but aren’t actually saying anything. ”Its bricks were shadow; its windows, tempered starlight. Towers wrought from melancholy loomed above crenellation-fanged walls. To look at it was to look inside it, to see staircases twisting like broken spines and ceilings dripping with diamonds.” …What? I mean, I THINK I get the gist of what this is trying to tell me, but it just doesn’t work when describing physical, tangible things. How the hell am I supposed to picture “tempered starlight windows” or “towers wrought from melancholy”, and why are the ceilings dripping with diamonds? I’m too neurodivergent and think too literally for this crap.
On the flip side there are quotes such as ”I was made of frost and rot and endless things. I was not made to fear the Folk.” which I thought worked really well.
But despite my grievances, the book really picks up steam after the first 3rd. The story is genuinely gripping and Fia is a great main character. It’s not perfect, her decisions aren’t always logical, but I’ve read far worse. Her growth is really compelling and heartfelt. I loved the representation of abuse and neglect and the strength it takes to see it for what it is and decide, for the first time, to grow out of your own shadow, that you deserve better and more. Together with the romance plot, I was sucked in and got genuinely invested.
The whimsical writing really starts to shine once the book stops hurtling world building and Irish vocabulary at your head.
I was on track to rate this book 4⭐️ despite the rocky beginning, but it fell just a tad short because I personally felt like the romance peaked a little too quickly. I enjoyed the buildup and thought it was generally well paced, but then we went from cold shoulders and banter to heated touches and love declarations a little too quickly.
I will say, I read the last 50% pretty much in one single session because I didn’t want to put it down and that’s pretty rare for me.