The King of Crows

Book Title: The King of Crows

Author: Libba Bray

Series: The Diviners #4

Date Started: January 16th 2020

Date Completed: February 10th 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Mystery, Romance, Horror

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I’ve been awaiting the finale of The Diviners series for a few months and suddenly it appeared at my door, when I’d quite forgotten about it. And suddenly I was sucked straight back down the rabbit hole into Bray’s supernatural, ghostly 1920s New York adventure, even on crowded commuter trains in the gloom of British winter. It barely took me three days, and I absolutely loved it.

Okay, yeah, the final resolution was actually quite easily solved, but it was emotionally satisfying and at the end of the day that’s more important for me. I’ll admit that the way characters’ emotions were generally put at a level that was convenient for the plot rather than their arcs annoyed me a little (Sam should be more worried about his mother, surely? Evie should be more upset about Will? Why has everyone forgotten about Woody?!). But it’s also the kind of thing that you get used to with this series; with a cast of characters so big it’s likely that some of their side-plots are going to fall through the cracks.

To the book’s credits, all of the characters do still sustain a full arc, finishing neatly in this final novel. I thought it was slightly obsessed with the romances, a little more than was necessary, but nevertheless allowed the protagonists to grow within themselves. I don’t have the time to single every person out, so I’ll just say this about Evie, arguably the main protagonist but my personal favourite either way. Evie is a very flawed character, who I root for ceaselessly. And everyone knows I’m a fan of Evie and Sam, but I loved that this also felt like the platonic love story of Evie and Theta, and Evie finally coming to terms with having balanced friendships with what I can only see as depression and possibly PTSD. That in itself means a lot to me. 

All round, Bray allows her characters to have conditions, histories or general struggles that they suffer from, but can live through – as well as defeating the king of an undead army while they’re at it. You have a disabled character, characters with mental health difficulties, characters of African, Chinese, Irish heritage, characters of varying sexualities (including asexual!). I have never read another book that has that much representation. And none of their stories – none of them – are solely about these parts of their character.

One of the things that has always been strong with this series is its portrayal of 1920s America – a fair amount of which is based off of fact which might surprise some readers. And while the last instalment does feel less political than the rest of the series it was, after all, tying up the ends of the story with its political points already made many times. And the representation truly is gold, all the way through. The cast is so diverse, their identities normalised but acknowledged with all the societal prejudices they come with. But Bray represents it proudly, which makes it empowering.

This series has been an absolute joy to read from start to finish. It’s entertaining to read, indulgently romantic without being sickly. It knows when to make a scene exciting or scary, heartfelt or cold, and its representation is one of the best examples of diversity in YA out there at the moment. The King of Crows was a fitting end to the series, and for once I’m actually excited about the potential for a sequel series that’s sort of (?) hinted at in the epilogue.

The Midnight Lie

Book Title: The Midnight Lie

Author: Marie Rutkoski

Series: The Midnight Lie #1

Date Started: January 16th 2020

Date Completed: February 6th 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Mystery

Quality Rating: Two Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Stars

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

A few years ago I was persuaded to read The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski. I thought it would be too much of a romance for my tastes, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it complex, political, nuanced and exciting. When The Midnight Lie came up, I was prepared to be blown away once again. Sadly, this book turned out to be everything I had wrongly assumed the first time round, only this time my expectations were pretty high.

I had two main problems for enjoying this book. The first was that I couldn’t get behind the main character, Nirrim. As a Half-Kith, a ‘lesser’ citizen preyed upon by law enforcement and just about everyone above her, she’s been brainwashed into thinking she’s inferior. Or at least when it serves the plot. The problem is then that she comes across so stupid and/or hopeless that it’s dull. Subsequently, everyone referring to her like she’s clever drags things into unbelievable territory.

My second reservation is the representation of the lesbian (bisexual?) relationship. It begins with us being persuaded that the love interest is a man because Nirrim’s eye-sight and hearing is conveniently easily-led (some girls can seem ‘masculine’, that’s fine, but for the rest of the book she’s pretty feminised in everything apart from clothes – and I suppose the fact that she’s a lesbian (but associating that with masculinity is already problematic). There’s a part where Sid is described offering Nirrim her arm ‘like a man would,’ and when I read that it immediately crystallised what I didn’t like: it really felt like all that had been done was change the gender of one of the characters. But sexuality is so much deeper than that (and gender is likewise, women aren’t just ‘like’ men or women), especially in a society that shuns non-heteronormative orientations.

The plot itself is actually pretty slow; there are these massive stakes but it never actually feels massive. It’s too familiar, it’s too predictable (painfully so), and there’s way too much talking for us to feel the urgency of the moment anyway. Nothing really happens. I don’t really know what the story was supposed to be. A love story? Well, that already rings false. A dystopian class drama? There isn’t enough attention paid to Nirrim’s character traits in that case (she has no problem frivolously throwing a very expensive item into a bet, and she doesn’t seem that offended by Sid’s honestly superficial approach to things). A mystery about where magic comes from in this world? That’s basically never in the forefront so I’d call it a cheap option. But turns out that’s actually what it is.

The key fantastical element that allows Nirrim to succeed (something about Nirrim having an over-active imagination? Magic blood? Mind control?! I’m still unclear) is mentioned at the beginning and then disappears for 300 odd pages and comes into play right at the end. And what a strange ending it is. So off-beat, different from everything up until then, but unfortunately not at all satisfying. There was me criticising the romance for being too important to the story, and then the finale has literally nothing to do with any of it. (Top tip to publishers (ft. SPOILER), maybe selling something on the LGBT element isn’t a great idea when the relationship doesn’t actually last).