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A review by theglossreview
The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs
5.0
4.5 stars! For me, the fifth volume is the highest rated in the series so far and the only one I genuinely like. Thank heavens it’s short. A main problem with the fourth volume was that it was 480 PAGES long—which is not the problem, but the fact that most of those plages were filled with filler. In contrast, nothing in “The Conference of the Birds” feels like filler. It was super fast-pasted and had me turning the pages so fast that I finished it in less than 24 hours. I definitely want to read volume 6 now—I just hope it’s at least as good as this one. The only issues with The Conference of the Birds are:
1. The gore
2. They didn’t do Emma justice. She has a few lines of text dedicated to her. Pardon me? She was the second-biggest character in The Library of Souls. It is incongruent to write a book series in which the same character is relegated from “The Female Lead” to a barely visible side character in the space of less than two volumes. It makes it feel like “The Jacob Show” and everyone else, even the titular Peculiar Children, only get as much attention as Jacob deigns to give them. It feels like his whims are in charge of the story, instead of the actual narrator: The author. It’s like Jacob said: “ehhh we broke up and I’m uncomfortable thinking about it” so Emma is just out of the story now?! Worse than that, Jacob SHOWCASES his New Romantic Interest right in front of her nose. Literally, she is described as sitting in the back seat behind the two of them.
Indeed, it’s so much “The Jacob Show” that I was afraid the whole volume might be just about Noor and him running off together (like it looked at the end of A Map of Days). He is so very disloyal.
My predictions for the sixth volume:
- A big battle against the bad guy
- Finding the other 6 powerful peculiars from the Prophecy of Seven (copied from Rick Riordan? They even have the same task to do)
- I’d bet Jacob (or another peculiar we already know) is also one of the 7, but my money is on Jacob
- I have my doubts where the interpretation that the 7 will save the world from hell is correct. There should be a twist in which it is revealed that the 7 will free peculiars by destroying / intimidating the normal world. That’s how I saw it immediately when the first sentence was revealed in A Map of Days
- Sharon will have HIS MOMENT (he seemed to the planning something with his political movement since A Map of Days, so I expect BIG TIME DRAMA to make good on all the little hints)
- Emma should come back as a main character, not a side character (but I doubt the conventions of story-telling can beat Jacob’s teenage brain)
- I hope the little peculiars will have time to shine (unfortunately Claire and Olive just had a few, very “typical” lines in this story)
- wishing for some more interesting, mysterious vintage photos than in this book. They were few and far between. Also, they looked quite normal. There was nothing very peculiar about most of the photos. I hope the sixth volume will have images that make you go like: WOW HOW DID THEY TAKE THIS ONE?
- Last prediction: I hope all of the peculiar abilities and ymbryne abilities will be used in the finale. Give us a big show!
1. The gore
2. They didn’t do Emma justice. She has a few lines of text dedicated to her. Pardon me? She was the second-biggest character in The Library of Souls. It is incongruent to write a book series in which the same character is relegated from “The Female Lead” to a barely visible side character in the space of less than two volumes. It makes it feel like “The Jacob Show” and everyone else, even the titular Peculiar Children, only get as much attention as Jacob deigns to give them. It feels like his whims are in charge of the story, instead of the actual narrator: The author. It’s like Jacob said: “ehhh we broke up and I’m uncomfortable thinking about it” so Emma is just out of the story now?! Worse than that, Jacob SHOWCASES his New Romantic Interest right in front of her nose. Literally, she is described as sitting in the back seat behind the two of them.
Indeed, it’s so much “The Jacob Show” that I was afraid the whole volume might be just about Noor and him running off together (like it looked at the end of A Map of Days). He is so very disloyal.
My predictions for the sixth volume:
- A big battle against the bad guy
- Finding the other 6 powerful peculiars from the Prophecy of Seven (copied from Rick Riordan? They even have the same task to do)
- I’d bet Jacob (or another peculiar we already know) is also one of the 7, but my money is on Jacob
- I have my doubts where the interpretation that the 7 will save the world from hell is correct. There should be a twist in which it is revealed that the 7 will free peculiars by destroying / intimidating the normal world. That’s how I saw it immediately when the first sentence was revealed in A Map of Days
- Sharon will have HIS MOMENT (he seemed to the planning something with his political movement since A Map of Days, so I expect BIG TIME DRAMA to make good on all the little hints)
- Emma should come back as a main character, not a side character (but I doubt the conventions of story-telling can beat Jacob’s teenage brain)
- I hope the little peculiars will have time to shine (unfortunately Claire and Olive just had a few, very “typical” lines in this story)
- wishing for some more interesting, mysterious vintage photos than in this book. They were few and far between. Also, they looked quite normal. There was nothing very peculiar about most of the photos. I hope the sixth volume will have images that make you go like: WOW HOW DID THEY TAKE THIS ONE?
- Last prediction: I hope all of the peculiar abilities and ymbryne abilities will be used in the finale. Give us a big show!