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A review by karis321
Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong
2.0
The first couple pages drew me in, but the longer it went on, the more obvious it became to me that this book shouldn't have been so damn long.
Despite the book trying so hard at showing its feminist themes, the three main girls are not only one-note but they don't change at all by the end of the book. The narrative was really pushing that these girls were destined to be together, a found family, if you will. But all their scenes together were forced, stilted, and they went nowhere because not one of them could properly trust the other. Matilde tries to make them bond through telling each others secrets, but they still keep a ton more that leads to some very bad things down the line. So much for 'sisterhood.' Additionally, Armstrong tries to tie Sayer's love interest(?) Fen to them over halfway through the narrative as the final element (The magic is based on the four elements - earth, air, water, and fire), but it felt more like a copout to make drama between her and Sayer than a natural plot regression. I dunno. I just couldn't muster any care or thought into these girls (Or their love interests - one of whom shows up, like, three or four scenes out of the ~500 page brick of a book).
The worldbuilding is also very lackluster. The descriptions, despite being very lengthy, felt so barren. I had such a hard time visualizing where the book was whenever the scene changes. Plus, the magic itself wasn't explained all that well? There's a lot of things we the reader learn alongside the girls because the knowledge was buried, but we're still given all this info through big, blocky paragraphs. It makes the whole reading tedious and not fun. There was some other things not explained well, like the religion (There were for main gods, but only one of them was driving the magical girl killing? How does that not become contradicting?) or the worlds outside Simta were like (Besides the fantasy Ireland, which one of the girls was from).
Also, the bird allusions got old so fast. They were unending; you could not go a page without something about flying away or being in a gilded cage. I get it, Armstrong, the need to lean as hard into the metaphor as possible, but I feel like some restraint was needed.
All in al, this was just a dud for me. I didn't even know a sequel was coming out in August until after I started reading this, but with it ending on such an uninspiring note, I will safely say I will not be continuing this series.
Despite the book trying so hard at showing its feminist themes, the three main girls are not only one-note but they don't change at all by the end of the book. The narrative was really pushing that these girls were destined to be together, a found family, if you will. But all their scenes together were forced, stilted, and they went nowhere because not one of them could properly trust the other. Matilde tries to make them bond through telling each others secrets, but they still keep a ton more that leads to some very bad things down the line. So much for 'sisterhood.' Additionally, Armstrong tries to tie Sayer's love interest(?) Fen to them over halfway through the narrative as the final element (The magic is based on the four elements - earth, air, water, and fire), but it felt more like a copout to make drama between her and Sayer than a natural plot regression. I dunno. I just couldn't muster any care or thought into these girls (Or their love interests - one of whom shows up, like, three or four scenes out of the ~500 page brick of a book).
The worldbuilding is also very lackluster. The descriptions, despite being very lengthy, felt so barren. I had such a hard time visualizing where the book was whenever the scene changes. Plus, the magic itself wasn't explained all that well? There's a lot of things we the reader learn alongside the girls because the knowledge was buried, but we're still given all this info through big, blocky paragraphs. It makes the whole reading tedious and not fun. There was some other things not explained well, like the religion (There were for main gods, but only one of them was driving the magical girl killing? How does that not become contradicting?) or the worlds outside Simta were like (Besides the fantasy Ireland, which one of the girls was from).
Also, the bird allusions got old so fast. They were unending; you could not go a page without something about flying away or being in a gilded cage. I get it, Armstrong, the need to lean as hard into the metaphor as possible, but I feel like some restraint was needed.
All in al, this was just a dud for me. I didn't even know a sequel was coming out in August until after I started reading this, but with it ending on such an uninspiring note, I will safely say I will not be continuing this series.