eProof Review - When Among Crows

As I said in my Queen Macbeth post, I was holding that shorter stories will give my reading the kick up the backside it needed after March’s reading slowdown/slump and the disappointing reads over the Easter break.

So you would be surprised to hear that I decided to read this novella.

Let me explain: I fell in the love with the cover when it came into my Twitter timeline and I was deeply considering buying it, so when I saw it on NetGalley, I requested it but I had my doubts that I would be approved as my stats on NetGalley haven’t been great since the great Amazon Easter Hack/Deleting of 2023 (no idea if someone tried to hack my Amazon account or if Amazon tried to delete my account by accident but, due to this, I lost ALL MY EPROOFS ON MY KINDLE!). Now, imagine my surprise when I found out I was approved and, after reading The Brothers by Kimberley Chambers and feeling so underwhelmed by it, I decided to read this instead of the reads I had planned (The Escape Room by LD Smithson, Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett &/or The Company by J.M. Varese).

Title and Author: When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

Publisher: Titan Books

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction.

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In modern day Chicago, Polish folklore is alive. Monsters feast on human emotion, knights split their souls to make their weapons and witches always take more than what they give.

Pain brings Dymitr and Ala together. Dymitr’s pain is the monsters he and the other Knights of the Holy Order slay and split his soul into two to create his sword from his own spine, while Ala’s is the family curse she has inherited to see visions of the horrors that the Holy Order committed.

One fateful night, the two meet and agree a bargain: if Ala can help find the legendary witch Baba Jaga. In exchange, Dymitr will give her an enchanted flower that might cure her.

But Ala doesn’t know who Dymitr is and what he truly wants and with less than 24 hours before the flower dies, killing her hopes of the curse being broken, the two need to move fast. But others want the flower and Baba Jaga’s location and they aren’t afraid to hurt and kill to get them… 

It’s been a long time since I read Veronica Roth, but there was something about this that got me excited.

I will admit that this does have a slower start as this does throw you at the deep end. There is a lot of world-building at the start of the novella to explain the folklore, the urban fantasiness. Because of this, I did struggle to find my feet and to keep all the creatures straight in my head (if you know Polish folklore, it will help you get you on a even heel).

However, once this story gets over the world-building and the story/characters find their feet, the story runs and it fits an urban fantasy (though the cover doesn’t scream urban fantasy, but something a little more gothic).

It grows into a gripping read though I do feel that it could be a tad longer (not a full blown novel, but an extra few pages to flesh out ideas as I do think some readers will find that some aspects of the premise needed to be more fleshed out). Plus, I would have loved more pages to read the gentle and sweet M/M romance.

Might not be every urban fantasy readers cup of tea, I really liked this and feel that we could have more novellas in this world, very similar to Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. If Veronica Roth decides to do this, I will be all over it!