The Merciful Crow (The Merciful Crow #1)

The unnecessary graphic torture death of the cat was completely revolting. I will never read another book by this author.

Let me tell you I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK. Everything from the world to the characters felt so unique and engaging–from the very first page I was hooked (with a first line like that, how could I not be!?).

I should’ve known I’d love this book right away, as it has so many things I love:
Smol angry girl
Secretly soft banter-y pansexual LI
Sweet gay prince
Tooth magic!
Enemies/rivals/idiots to lovers!!
A CAT CALLED BARF

What more could I want!?

So THE MERCIFUL CROW is set in a world divided into twelve castes, each named for a type of bird and each with unique abilities and ranks. The book is told from the perspective of Fie, a seventeen-year-old future Crow Chief who can do magic by using teeth from members of other castes (HOW COOL IS THAT!?). The Crows are mercy-killers, killing people who have been taken by the plague so they don’t have to suffer. When Fie’s band is called to the palace itself, they’re asked to burn the Prince and his body guard. But when they take them to the pyre, they quickly find that neither of the boys is dead and instead that they need the Crows help to escape the murderous queen.

I could go on and on about how much I loved the world building in this book. The little details were so thought out, right down to Fie’s narrative voice which so uniquely reflected her and her understanding of the world. I loved the concept of the castes, and the way in which the magic worked was complicated but also easy to understand and very naturally incorporated.
The descriptions of the different locations were all so vivid, and I loved how unusual each one felt. We travel from a city built on different levels with tiled canals and water trickling down, to a northern fortress with Mammoth riders (YEAH MAMMOTH RIDERS!). It was all so wonderfully fleshed out and felt really original. I also just loved the casual diversity and acceptance of queerness in this world. Not only is the prince gay (and everyone’s totally fine with it), but there was a non-binary character and the love interest is pan. When making fantasy worlds, I love when author’s make a world that’s accepting of queerness like that and it made me so happy!

But the world isn’t the only reason this book was very easily a five star read for me, the characters are really what drew my heart in. From the very beginning, I loved Fie’s anger and her defiance, mixed with a very real vulnerability. Fie’s conflicting emotions about being Chief and the nature of what she has to do, combined with fighting against a world that doesn’t want Crows in it was really well written. I also loved both Tavin and Jasimir, who were really well rounded and interesting characters. I especially liked Jas’s journey across the book, leading to that AMAZING ENDING. And the thing I really loved about Tavin was that he was written so clearly as an equal to Fie, but also as someone who saw her strength and deferred to her authority–it’s really refreshing to see a male character written like that!

Overall, I just really loved this book. The writing and voice are superb and I fell in love with the characters from the first page. I can’t WAIT for the sequel!

Actual rating 2.5 stars. This was a tough one to read. I didnt hate it, but it wasnt memorable. Also, some of the plot started to get a bit repetitive with the fight scenes. I Liked Fie as a person. She fought real hard at the injustices brought on to her just because she was a Crow. Plus she fought perilously to get her clan back to safety. The one who got on my nerves so much was Prince Jasimir. He was such a spoiled, whiny brat. He didnt even care about the Crows until he had to interact with them. He was okay by the end, but ugh, I wanted to wring his neck so bad. Overall, it was an okay story. I am tempted to find out what happens next, but Im in no hurry to pick it up.
One last thing before I end. If the other bird people wanted to kill Crows so much, wouldnt they die eventually too? Crows are immune to the plague. Their job is to pick up the dead bodies of the plague so wouldnt the people die if there werent Crows around? Seems like a plot hole to me.

This book was a fantastic debut fantasy novel set in a world that was so rich and imaginative, even the magic system was incredibly unique and I loved learning more about it. This book follows what I like to call our trio of characters, Fie, Tavin, and Jasimir. They meet early on in the book and are thrust together on a crazy journey to save the kingdom. Each one is from a different caste which means they all have different powers and different ranks in society. Fie’s caste was fascinating to me, between the teeth magic, the protection from the plague, and the mercy kills I feel like in some ways even though they are believed to be the scum of the empire, they are truly the most powerful, especially when equipped with teeth.

While the book is told from Fie’s POV, I still felt that I got to know each character really well. While this book has some standard YA fantasy tropes in it such as the “peasant” fighting for rights within a kingdom, I felt Margaret Owen did a great job of making the story her own and adding her own twists. This book had so many ups and downs with the characters and I truly felt that each character grew and became a better person throughout the story, yes they still have their moments where I want to just bash them over the head at their idiocy. I really cannot wait to see how Margaret Owen wraps up this duology in the Faithless Hawk, and I also think that could be hinting at the sequel being told from Tavin’s POV. I would absolutely love that so much. He was such a complex character and I really appreciated how his story unfolded beyond simply being the double for Jasimir. I also appreciated the complexity of Jasimir’s character as the crown prince as well as his sexual orientation. I felt this was very natural and was not harped on. It was mentioned multiple times but always for a purpose other than adding diversity to the book. I appreciated how it was woven into his character rather than being a main point of the story.

I focused a lot of this review on the main trio in the book, but even the side characters were unique and I felt like I truly knew them. The entire clan that Fie lives and travels with were hilarious. I loved the banter between the Crows and all the different character’s traits and personalities. This book also has a nice ending, even if I still want more! Margaret chose not to follow in the footsteps of many YA authors and there is no cliffhanger in this book. It is a complete part in the two-part series. One final thing I will say is that Barf must be protected (I’m not even a cat person, but I loved the cat in this book).

Set in a world divided into Castes named after Birds every Caste is defined by its Birthright the Innate magic given to them by the 1000 Gods who destroyed themselves in the act of bestowing the magic, for every dead god there is a witch born no more no less while every human has some form of magic save for the lowest caste the Crows, its witches who can wield that castes magic in its purest form, so the peacock clan has the power of illusion, Hawk has the power of healing, the royal clan Phoenix has the power of fire ext. Crow was born without a Birthright yet it does have Witches known as bone thiefs who can burrow other Castes powers for a time through there bones and teeth.

Fie is the Chief in waiting of a crow band, like all Chiefs she is a witch or bone thief along with her band and her Pa she travels the country answering plague beacons, Crows are the only ones immune to a plague known as the Sinners plague when a outbreak happens the other castes light a beacon and the crows come to deal with the dead and dying and if necessary deliver the coup de grace to the sufferers. Equally needed and despised the Crows suffer from the depredations of the Oleanders Gentry a hate group made up of members of the other castes who hunt members of the Crows at will.

When fies band answers a royal summons to the first case of the plague among the Phoenix caste for 500 years it sets In motion a chain of events that will have far reaching repercussions for Fie and her people, as she finds her fate bound together with a renegade prince and his bodyguard as she seeks to stop the Oleander Gentry from gaining ascendancy.

Well paced filled with likable characters and a solid romance, The merciful crow is a promising start to the series, I did feel there needed to be some fleshing out done of characters and their motives, and some things that seemed so obvious never got questioned which I found irritating like everyone said the Crows had no Birthright yet they are the only ones immune to the plagues? And theres more there but I dont want to spoil.
In short this is a very solid start to what looks like it will be a excellent series one I intend to follow.

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