When Among Crows
The Curse Bearer series, Book 1
Veronica Roth
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Dymitr traveled from the old country to Chicago on a quest, seeking perhaps the most powerful witch the world has ever seen, Baba Jaga. He is descended from a long line of monster hunters, self-styled knights of the Holy Order who are determined to slay the monsters who hide in plain sight among ordinary mortals. If he were to succeed against the witch where many a knight has failed, he would become a legend... but he has another reason for his hunt, one he has hidden even from his own kin. In the uneasy company of Ala, an inhuman burdened by a deadly curse, he must find the witch before time runs out and his own people hunt him down.
REVIEW: Set in a modern Chicago with a hidden underworld of monsters, with roots deep in Eastern European folklore, there's a fair bit to enjoy in When Among Crows... but there's also enough holding it back to keep it from that solid fourth star in the ratings.
From the outset, there's an intriguing mythic feel to Dymitr and his journey, as he confronts a guardian leszy to obtain a rare, magical fern flower from a hidden grotto, with hints about the secret nature of his quest. The trail then leads to a small movie theater specializing in horror shows run by zmory, magical beings who feed on fear, and specifically to the curse-burdened Ala. So far, I was enjoying the story, as it moved at a fair clip and did a decent job crafting its hidden world, how the unseen creatures have adapted to modern America and learned to extract what they need from humans, and establishing its rules; magic, here, is based on debt and sacrifice, and there's been enough human misery and exploitation in a modern city like Chicago for a thriving underworld of mystical beings from around the world, though most of the ones Dymitr encounters are conveniently ones from his own Eastern European homeland. The Holy Order itself relies on pain and sacrifice for the magics they use to destroy the "evil" beings, creating a generations-long chain equating suffering and abuse with purity and even familial love (not to mention a generations-long chain of xenophobia and extreme intolerance ensconced in impenetrable trappings of "tradition"). These are not happy people, either knights or "monsters", and it's not always a pleasant place to be as a reader, but it is intriguing.
As Ala and Dymitr pick up another inhuman companion, the anger-eating strzygon Nico, I started feeling an itch of discontent. The events of this tale unfold over the course of a couple nights. Dymitr is an outsider to the Chicago monster community, even before they figure out his true origins. Yet it takes only a couple hours max for both Nico and Ala to bond with him to the point of being willing to defend him against their own kind... and the same for Dymitr, when his kid sister insists on following her big brother on his hunt. (She really was a pointless character, existing to pop up like a fun house ghost whenever the story needed a little jump.) There are even sparks between Nico and Dymitr. I just did not buy the speed at which this happened, given the histories and the hurts and the many secrets that linger between them all, for all that the trio aren't a bad character mix ... especially when, while the personal relationship evolution is turbo-charged, the tale itself bogs down in painful backstories and stretches of dialog and dithering when the metaphoric clock is ticking.
The ending seems to forget a key threat, drawing out a confrontation and final twist and leaving the story in an odd place that didn't seem to really fit with what had come before and what must surely come after. I know this is the first of a duology, but it did not feel like a conclusion so much as a shrug. While it was reasonably well written and I enjoyed several aspects of the story, the whole just wasn't my cup of cocoa and didn't quite work for me.
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