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.