A review by steph01924
The King of Crows by Libba Bray

3.0

Holy crap, I've finally finished this series. I thought I was going to pick up this book right after the third because I was DETERMINED to finish it last year but the stakes had gotten so high and I felt a little deflated when I saw all the 3 star reviews. It was also right in the middle of the 2020 election cycle and, honestly, if the fourth book was going to be dark, I was not in the headspace to deal with it. But I felt the itch a few weeks back and I see I read the third book almost a year to the day, so apparently August is the time I long for jazzy historical fiction. But I digress!

This book was...fine. I now completely agree and understand those 3 star reviews. I need Libba Bray to find a writing partner or editor who exclusively works with her on her story conclusions, because I was not super happy with the Gemma Doyle finale either (ALTHOUGH--don't think I didn't see that small shout-out to Gemma pulling Kartik from the tree!!). And we know the woman knows how to WRITE. Her stories are gorgeous and multi-faceted and her settings are so completely immersive. She can evoke emotion with just a few pen strokes. I love her characters. ...But while she can start 'em, she can't finish 'em.

My biggest issues:
The pay-off after four books was too tiny.

Spoiler

I was okay with Isaiah dying and I liked that he was the one to vanquish the King of Crows, but it wasn't very epic or meaningful. After Marlowe found out where they were and took them to the Eye in Death Valley, the level of drama and pomp just wasn't there. Healing the breach, something discussed for hundreds of pages, just...happened. After hundreds of pages of being unable to work together (even before they met Sarah Beth in person), the Diviners just "got it". Theta finally mastered her power and faced down her abusive POS ex while he was surrounded by literal KKK members, and all she did was singe their eyebrows and let them leave. Sorry, no, I wanted that fucker to burn. (Yes, I have a vindictive streak. I am know this about me.) What happened to Miriam!? This lady single-handedly supported, freed, cajoled all these other Diviners while being imprisoned for years, and she didn't even get name-dropped at the end with nary a "she's good." Also, yeah, Marlowe is dead and maybe didn't need an epic showdown but DAMMIT I wanted comeuppance for his horrible behavior. I wanted at least a line about the look in his eyes when he realized all of his work was for naught and that he was about to be dead as a doornail (see: vindictive). I needed all of that, Ms. Bray, before you give me a brief moment of them happy, sitting around a diner, with Hitler then looming in the background.

It got repetitive.

Spoiler

I appreciated Bray's author note and I feel like she did get across her message about America's complicated history. And I can absolutely see that over the course of a decade her priorities changed and she wanted to write more meaning into the story. But I feel like she also couldn't see the forest for the trees and got lost in her story. There was no driving action to keep the plot moving for as many pages as were put down. No urgency to the characters or the writing beyond constantly telling us "the ghosts are coming" -- like, okay, after the fifth one, I know. They're coming. They're here. We got it. I loved the idea of the Diviners being split up and creating these pairings that wouldn't happen naturally in the wild. I'm really curious about how long they were all on the road, because, my dudes, Evie said get to Bountiful. SO GET GOING. Like yeah, hop in with the circus and get enough money together to then ditch them to get a train to Nebraska. It felt like they were on the road for at least a month, unable to get any closer. But then they all have one dream and suddenly it's NOT impossible to get themselves to Kansas in literally a day, so...why were you dragging your feet?? This book either needed more plot or like 200 less pages, and I don't like saying "less" because Bray's writing still enthralled me even while Theta swept dead daisies from her train compartment YET AGAIN.

Which brings me to my other and final point: the characters' random IQ drops.

Spoiler

I still loved them all, but sometimes...sometimes they are none too bright. Sister Walker sees Will's dead ghost (from when he was, ya know, MURDERED) telling her not to go into her house, so she goes right in anyway and gets arrested. Theta does a magic spell to bind a ghost and then gets haunted and doesn't put two and two together. They keep killing ghosts and feeling bad after and the ghosts just lap up the energy and seem to grow and get stronger, and yet it takes more than half the novel for the smartest character to finally ask themselves WHY. Memphis constantly gets warned by the King of Crows, A NOTORIOUS LIAR, not to "use up" his magic healing others, and then he gets worried the KoC might be right without considering the KoC is scared of his power and that's why he's fucking with him. And then--yes, I know he's grief-stricken, but duuuude--Memphis bargains away his power with a known trickster for his dead brother. It just...sigh. I don't need all the characters to be extremely clever, but, like, pretend your lives are at stake here, please.

All in all, I am going to look on the series, as a whole, fondly, because I cannot discount the amazingness of the first three books just because the ending didn't completely satisfy. These were excellent ghost stories, amazing atmospheric writing, and an interesting critique on the parallels between America's blood-soaked beginning and its political values from the 1920s to now.

Now, reading about herself and her friends, she realized how much it mattered who got to tell the stories that ended up in the newspapers and the history books.

“There is no greater power on this earth than story.…”