When Among Crows by Veronica Roth
When Among Crows by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I received advance digital copies of this book and audiobook from the publishers, Tor Books and Macmillan Audio, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
When Among Crows is the first Veronica Roth book I’ve read since throwing Allegiant across my living room over a decade ago. I really enjoy her writing style but felt desperately betrayed by that book, and so I haven’t picked up anything by her since then. However, the premise of When Among Crows fascinated me, and a standalone novella sounded like a relatively safe way to dip my toes back into the pool of her work. This proved to be a great decision. While I didn’t quite love When Among Crows, I did have a lot of fun with it. Is it a perfect novella? No. Is it worth picking up? Absolutely.
Remember that premise I said I found fascinating? By the time I actually got my hands on this book, I had forgotten most of that premise. Which served me really well. If you can go into this novella without reading the synopsis, I would highly recommend doing so. It added a layer of depth to the story for me. The synopsis is actually laden with spoilers, reveals that aren’t made until over halfway into the book itself. Stay away from it if you can.
Here we have our world, but with a monstrous underbelly. Most of the narrative takes place in modern Chicago, where Dymitr, one of our main characters, is on a quest to break a curse. Here he meets Ala, a zmora who feeds on fear, and Niko, an incredibly powerful (and rare) male strzyga who feeds on anger. The three are tied together by Dymitr’s mission, and visit some truly freaky locales on their quest, having to make occasional pitstops to fight darker, fouler monsters. Or, the bogeyman of all monsters, a knight of the Holy Order, monster hunters who split their own souls in half to forge a blade they keep sheathed in their spine until the time comes to slay their prey.
I appreciated the Slavic inspiration behind this story and its monsters. I know less about Slavic folklore and mythology than I do Greco-Roman or Egyptian, and it’s always fun to get an urban fantasy book populated with such new (to me) and unusual faces. I also thought that the story had a very strong sense of place. The characters were compelling and sympathetic, and I was invested in their tale. However, I felt that the plot could have been sharpened, and that a bit more time could have been given to the world building. The chemistry and tension between the characters also felt slightly unbelievable to me. But all three of those complaints are due to the brevity of the story. I tend to have such complaints when it comes to novellas.
Roth’s writing style is captivating, in a similar way to Sanderson’s writing style. Like Sanderson, Roth has the kind of prose that paints a vivid picture and then melts away, leaving you with a movie playing in your mind. I could see every small detail of every scene of this book. I love writing that disappears like that, leaving you alone with the story being told. But that’s not to say that Roth (and Sanderson, for that matter) doesn’t have a lovely way with words, and doesn’t offer up poetic tidbits when the mood strikes. She just doesn’t get in the way of her own story.
For the most part, I really enjoyed this novella. When Among Crows is a dark, adventurous, interesting story well told, but it would have benefited from deeper world building, a sharper plot, and room for the characters to develop and breathe. Even considering that, it was well worth reading. I had access to both the ebook and the audio, and the tandem reading experience bumped my rating up from 3.5 to 4 stars. The audiobook had multiple narrators and was very well done. It was incredibly helpful to hear so many of these new-to-me terms pronounced, instead of trying to figure out that pronunciation myself. So, if you’re an audiobook fan and are considering picked up When Among Crows, I would definitely suggest the audiobook!
Expected release date: May 14th, 2024.
You can pre-order this book from: Blackwell’s | Bookshop.org (Support independent bookstores!) | Libro.fm (Another way to support independent bookstores!)