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athen14 's review for:
The Merciful Crow
by Margaret Owen
It has been a while since I read this book, so I will try my best with this review.
One of my favorite things about this book was the surprising romance. Not necessarily Tavin (he's fine, but he's not my favorite), but it was the fact that after reading the blurb and knowing it was YA, I made a prediction about the romance. In books like these, typically the main character gets matched with the prince, so after the first chapter or so, when Tavin started flirting with Fie, I was pleasantly surprised.
Another thing I loved about this book was the diversity and representation. All of the main characters were black or middle-eastern, or something along those lines, and I might be wrong, but I don't think any characters at all were white. After millions of books with only white characters have been published, I'm glad to see a story where it's the exact opposite. The discrimination themes didn't focus on race either, more on the social hierarchy and the caste system, which is very similar to the caste system in India. Not to mention the talks about consent and sex, periods, and sexuality.
Character-wise, Fie is great. At first glance, she definitely appears as your typical YA protagonist, but after a bit, I feel like there's a lot more to her character. Instead of being headstrong all the time, she makes mistakes because of her stubbornness. Another important note is that she's not the headstrong but clueless protagonist. She knows what's going on and it's Jas and Tavin that are screwing everything up. Speaking of Jas, he's made it to my Fictional Character Adoption List, and I loved his character arc of being stuck up and spoiled to becoming sweet and innocent and a good best friend for Fie.
And then we have Tavin. He's a stereotypical YA love interest in my eyes, awkward and charming, but simultaneously loyal to a fault and migraine-inducing. At least for me. His attempts to flirt with Fie in the beginning were funny to me, but I was also extremely annoyed with him for his tendency to spoil Jas so that he was comfortable and no one else was. His trick at the beginning with Pa where he just casually ordered to be brought with them ticked me off immensely, and at the end when he sacrificed himself I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes. Over-protective male love interests just aren't my thing, I guess.
A really good book, but not as good as the sequel, so if you've read this, I recommend the next one.
One of my favorite things about this book was the surprising romance. Not necessarily Tavin (he's fine, but he's not my favorite), but it was the fact that after reading the blurb and knowing it was YA, I made a prediction about the romance. In books like these, typically the main character gets matched with the prince, so after the first chapter or so, when Tavin started flirting with Fie, I was pleasantly surprised.
Another thing I loved about this book was the diversity and representation. All of the main characters were black or middle-eastern, or something along those lines, and I might be wrong, but I don't think any characters at all were white. After millions of books with only white characters have been published, I'm glad to see a story where it's the exact opposite. The discrimination themes didn't focus on race either, more on the social hierarchy and the caste system, which is very similar to the caste system in India. Not to mention the talks about consent and sex, periods, and sexuality.
Character-wise, Fie is great. At first glance, she definitely appears as your typical YA protagonist, but after a bit, I feel like there's a lot more to her character. Instead of being headstrong all the time, she makes mistakes because of her stubbornness. Another important note is that she's not the headstrong but clueless protagonist. She knows what's going on and it's Jas and Tavin that are screwing everything up. Speaking of Jas, he's made it to my Fictional Character Adoption List, and I loved his character arc of being stuck up and spoiled to becoming sweet and innocent and a good best friend for Fie.
And then we have Tavin. He's a stereotypical YA love interest in my eyes, awkward and charming, but simultaneously loyal to a fault and migraine-inducing. At least for me. His attempts to flirt with Fie in the beginning were funny to me, but I was also extremely annoyed with him for his tendency to spoil Jas so that he was comfortable and no one else was. His trick at the beginning with Pa where he just casually ordered to be brought with them ticked me off immensely, and at the end when he sacrificed himself I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes. Over-protective male love interests just aren't my thing, I guess.
A really good book, but not as good as the sequel, so if you've read this, I recommend the next one.