Review: When Among Crows

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Veronica Roth has been on quite the kick of novellas (and shorter than average) novels these past few years, and now she's got one of her most densely packed novellas yet. Densely packed with Polish mythology - her mom's side of the family being Polish, she turned to them for more inspiration - and also borrowing on her experiences with chronic pain as she did when writing Carve the Mark, it's as meaty a story as any of us have come to expect from one of the best wordsmiths in the business. So meaty, in fact, that I wish Roth could've written a full length novel out of it - just like with Arch Conspirator last year, it feels like there's not enough space to really tell the story. But this one is somewhat of an improvement on last year's novella because it doesn't have more POV's than most people have fingers, and also because Roth not only draws on her culture, but also makes references to similar stories and myths in other cultures around the world. That, plus the modern Chicago setting, gives this book a certain Dresden Files vibe, which is always welcome when we're eternally waiting years for the next book in that series.

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