Normally, I don’t mind a split narrator situation, in fact I often write stories that way myself, two different perspectives can add a lot. Blood, Metal, Bone had a mid-size cast of characters, and two very different narrators. The Storm Crow, on the other hand, had action and tragedy strike quick, so not only was I invested in the narrator and what was going to happen to her from the get-go, but the inciting action set my expectations within the first fifty pages. I found the pacing to be almost agonizingly slow, which does not bode particularly well, especially in the YA genre, where I expect to be grabbed early on.

Neither of which happened for me with this story. Setup is important for any novel, of course, but when you have less than 500 pages to tell your entire story from start to finish, the action needs to start early or the characters have to make you care early on. Blood, Metal, Bone is a standalone novel, which in my opinion means that the story should waste no time in grabbing your attention. I’m going to compare the different aspects of both of these stories and then give a final score to each at the end. My first book of the year was Blood, Metal, Bone by Lindsay Cummings, and the next books I read were The Storm Crow and The Crow Rider by Kalyn Josephson. But sort of in a whirlwind, I read three books at the first half of this year, and I have two more to read for my book club, so I’m consolidating these first few reviews this year into a comparison, because I could not have felt more differently about the first book I read vs the duology I read back-to-back. But when I have the time, I always want to keep up this blog because I so enjoy sharing the books I read out into the world. Happy new year everyone! I know I’ve been absent for a few months now, but I had a crazy-busy end of the year.

The storm crow book