ARC Review: Curse Bearer #1

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

Publication Date: May 14, 2024

Summary from NetGalley:

ARC provided by Tor Publishing via Netgalley for an honest review.

Confession:

For such a short novella, this one is certainly full of all the things that I usually enjoy in a full length book. Wonderfully complex and sympathetic characters, a plot that kept you guessing and amazing world building. This also is the second book this year that I read that was based on Slavic mythology, specifically the vampire like creatures, strzyga. that feed off of human feelings.

The story is centered around Dymitr’s quest to find Baba Jaga, but why exactly he wants to find her is not fully revealed until the end. I really liked Dymitr, he is sort of an antihero, in that he seeks out the help of those he is sworn to destroy, and you are not really sure of his motives in doing so. Was he going to befriend them or kill them in the end? That question was what kept me riveted to this story.

The two characters he recruits to his cause were also very complex, and whose motives I questioned throughout the story. I liked Ala, a zmora who feeds off pain. She reluctantly agrees to help Dymitr only because he holds the key to breaking her curse. That curse was very interesting and different from anything I’ve read before. Niko, a strzyga, is also drawn into Dymitr’s orbit, and I found myself questioning his motives for most of the story. But motives aside, I still really liked him and was hoping he would turn out to be good instead of evil.

The world building was wonderful. There was a seamlessness in the way the author incorporated the supernatural into the real world of Chicago. I loved how the different categories of creatures had different rolls in the real world. Like those creatures that feed on sadness ran a hospice. The descriptions of the city were also well done and made you feel like you were there.

For such a short book the author covers a lot of themes. Not only of redemption and atonement, but also ones of pain and regret in the choices we make for ourselves and the ones made for us. This was also a commentary on what makes a monster, and how your upbringing influences your perceptions of the world and the people in it.

This was such a dark and well written urban fantasy that I would love to see broadened into a full length novel, or at the least a series of novellas. There is so much depth to this story and the settings and characters would certainly lend themselves to something bigger. I highly recommend that you pick this one up.