Hi everyone, I hope you are all having an amazing day and are staying safe. I recently got my second covid vaccine and couldn’t be more thankful for all the work and effort that so many have put into getting this to us and can only hope that things will finally start to look up for all of us going forward.
So it’s been a hot minute since I wrote any kind of review and even longer since I did a full review so I’m a bit rusted but hopefully this makes sense.
Title: The King of Crows
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Atom
Release Date: February 4th 2020
Number of Pages: 560
Genre: YA, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Ghost Story
Goodreads Synopsis
After the horrifying explosion that claimed one of their own, the Diviners find themselves wanted by the US government, and on the brink of war with the King of Crows.
While Memphis and Isaiah run for their lives from the mysterious Shadow Men, Isaiah receives a startling vision of a girl, Sarah Beth Olson, who could shift the balance in their struggle for peace. Sarah Beth says she knows how to stop the King of Crows-but, she will need the Diviners’ help to do it.
Elsewhere, Jericho has returned after his escape from Jake Marlowe’s estate, where he has learned the shocking truth behind the King of Crow’s plans. Now, the Diviners must travel to Bountiful, Nebraska, in hopes of joining forces with Sarah Beth and to stop the King of Crows and his army of the dead forever.
But as rumors of towns becoming ghost towns and the dead developing unprecedented powers begin to surface, all hope seems to be lost.
In this sweeping finale, The Diviners will be forced to confront their greatest fears and learn to rely on one another if they hope to save the nation, and world from catastrophe…
*May contain spoilers of previous books in the series*
After over a year of saying I’m going to pick this book up I finally did and am very glad as it was a great ending to the series. I know from reading other reviews that not everyone loved this and it seems a lot of people were disappointed with the ending. This led me to feeling a little apprehensive going in and I can see why people didn’t love it so much but honestly I reall enjoyed it.
This novel takes part right where the last leaves off which is something I appreciated as I hate when a book ends on a cliffhanger and the next starts later instead of picking up straight away. In this we see the Diviners split up and all trying to find their way back to each other but of course the King of Crows isn’t going to make that easy for them. I enjoyed getting to see them split as I feel it helped us learn more about each of the characters but also to see them come back together and realise how much stronger they can be when they combine their strengths.
Libba Brays writing style really is one of the best things about this series so many of my all time favourite quotes come from this. I also loved that we get to expand on the setting here and get to see more of America in this time. She also does a brilliant job at creating atmosphere in this, of letting you really see the emotions that these characters are going through and she does a really good job at exploring the themes of the book and reminding us that while this book is set almost 100 years ago a lot of society’s views haven’t changed and we all have a long way to go to fight for that change.
Overall I actually enjoyed the ending of this, yes it was rushed compared to the rest of the book and I know people have said they found the way it was resolved a little lackluster but to be honest I actually enjoyed it. Though I will admit a lot of that may be down to Libba Bray’s writing style. Which makes simple things seem much more profound.
I will say that one of the things that I did really miss from this novel was the mystery element that the other three had as that was on of the things that really drew me into the series.
I thought this was a really great ending to an amazing series and definitely one that I plan on rereading over and over again. I gave this 4.5 stars.
Trigger Warnings: racism, human experimentation, Ableism, anti-semitism, xenophobia as well as class oppression.
Have you read this? What were your thoughts on the series?
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