The Merciful Crow
Written by Margaret Owen
Narrated by Amy Landon
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Debut author Margaret Owen crafts a powerful saga of vengeance, survival, and sacrifice--perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Kendare Blake--in The Merciful Crow.
One way or another, we always feed the crows.
A future chieftain
Fie abides by one rule: look after your own. Her Crow caste of undertakers and mercy-killers takes more abuse than coin, but when they’re called to collect royal dead, she’s hoping they’ll find the payout of a lifetime.
A fugitive prince
When Crown Prince Jasimir turns out to have faked his death, Fie’s ready to cut her losses—and perhaps his throat. But he offers a wager that she can’t refuse: protect him from a ruthless queen, and he’ll protect the Crows when he reigns.
A too-cunning bodyguard
Hawk warrior Tavin has always put Jas’s life before his, magically assuming the prince’s appearance and shadowing his every step. But what happens when Tavin begins to want something to call his own?
Margaret Owen
Margaret Owen was born and raised at the end of the Oregon Trail and has worked in everything from thrift stores to presidential campaigns. She is the author of the instant Indie Bestseller Little Thieves, which received five starred reviews and was a Kids' Indie next pick and YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection. Her debut, The Merciful Crow duology, was an NPR Best Book of the Year, a Tor.com Best of the Year, and a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection. In her free time, she enjoys exploring ill-advised travel destinations, raising money for social justics nonprofits through her illustrated work, and negotiating a hostage situation with her monstrous cats. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
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The Merciful Crow Series
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The Merciful Crow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithless Hawk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for The Merciful Crow
143 ratings8 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title to be a mixed bag. Some reviewers found the writing style overly complicated and dense, making it difficult to read. They also felt that the world building and character development were lacking. However, other reviewers praised the book for its amazing world-building, storytelling, and characters. They found it fun, witty, and heartfelt. The book has a high-paced plot with unexpected twists and turns. The protagonist, Fie, is a strong and relatable character who doesn't revolve her life around a love interest. Overall, the book has received positive reviews for its interesting world-building and engaging narrator.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5High paced - Fie is on the run for most of the book. The twists and turns towards the end are unexpected.
Interesting world building - Fie is a witch that can draw her power from teeth of the dead. Her caste - the Crows - is treated with disrespect and is chased down at night by the white oleander, who murder crows without repercussions - all this appears to draw parallels to real world problems of the past and present.
Love interest: I really appreciate Fie for not turning into a sappy, all-about-the-boy mess.
Character building: the main characters are well rounded for the most part, especially the prince with his flaws and good intentions.
The narrator: very pleasant, engaging voice.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finished
THIS WAS SO SO SO GOOOOOOOOD!!!! And I’m putting so many really good books away to start the second book because I can’t get enough of thissss
The world building is magnificent! The language is so strong and the writing style is super enticing!
My absolute favorite part is when she starts calling him “her hawk” and “her lordlings”, I’m in love with these characters!
Best joke is when she said to his mother and brother and her pa that she slept with Tavin, I laughed so hard I cried real tears!!???
I can’t explain how much I love this
If you’re just starting, and you’re finding it slow, or hard to understand, keep going, it takes a few chapters but it gets so much better and exceeds your expectations! - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ahhhhh I love it! Fie is my role model, Slytherin to the core
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was beyond amazing. Such great world-building and storytelling. I loved these characters and everything about this book!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the most under hyped books of 2019. It’s been a while since teeth magic had it’s hay day (thanks Karou!) but this is a stunning addition to the lexicon. It’s fun, witty, heartfelt, and most of all, a blast to read.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Yikes I did not like this. Took me ages to finish because I just didn’t want to pick it up, going to bullet point this review otherwise I will end up ranting;
- overly complicated and dense writing style, difficult to read and obviously trying to be distinct with words like ‘betwixt’ and ‘ken’, but was just irritating to read. I kept losing focus and having to re-read many parts.
- not enough world building/explanations of the world and magic system, it kind of just gets thrown at you and expects you to know it.
- I felt nothing for any of the characters, no attachment to them at all. They were very blandly written with not much dimension imo. I wasn’t interested in the romance at all, didn’t care what happened to them and didn’t love the protagonist. The romance was rushed and unrealistic.
- literally 80% of this book is the main characters walking, arguing and trying to convince each other about who is the most hard done by.
-weak, boring plot & not enough action
- only thing I liked about this was the sexuality and non binary rep - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amazing narrator. This was such a good debut novel.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This had really good parts and some that I didn’t find that interesting but overall a good book. I definitely want to check out the next book.