A review by octoberrust1108
Little Bird: The Fight for Elder's Hope by Darcy Van Poelgeest

3.0

A mostly decent story wrapped in a bundle of tired cliches. A ragtag group of rebels start a war against a Christian Nationalist oppressor (quite timely, I must say). It falls very plainly into the “religion bad” argument and while that’s true, it doesn’t offer much depth or new insight to the conversation. Everyone who’s a part of this Inquisition-like kingdom is either downright evil or spineless and unquestioning to the powers that be which makes that aspect of the story fall flat. I think it could be a more interesting concept if both sides of this war were more nuanced, more gray. What if there were people who believed in God, but didn’t agree with this whole religious tyranny thing, ya know, like in real life?

I absolutely loved the artwork. All these different pastel colors were so pleasant to look at, and they accented the very dark tone of the story well. That’s another thing I did like. This book is VICIOUSLY dark. There were a couple pages that had my jaw hanging open just because I couldn’t believe what I was looking at, story wise. There’s a lot of very strong imagery, as well as a great flow throughout the book. It’s always moving and is aware of what the reader wants to see more of, so I’m thankful for that. There are a ton of wicked cool fight scenes that are so much fun to look at and I bet even more fun to draw.

Overall, I enjoyed Little Bird. This book was more of a win than not, I just think the base story was a little weak.