In any hierarchical society, someone is always at the bottom. In Fie’s world, her people are so far down that they’re hunted for sport. They’re only tolerated because they’re immune to the Sinner’s Plague. If the Crows don’t take the dead away and burn them, the plague will wipe out whole towns. Little wonder, then, that Fie burns with an unquenchable anger at the injustice of it all. But a strange turn of fate at the beginning of Margaret Owen’s brilliant novel, The Merciful Crow, offers a chance to change everything—but only if Fie can keep a naive prince alive long enough for him to take the throne.
Fie has learned the ways of the Crows at her father’s knee since she was small and her mother was murdered by one of the roving bands of aristocrats that murder Crows when the fancy takes them. She knows how to build a pyre. She knows how to get her people’s fee from wealthier, more privileged folks who can’t wait to see the back of the Crows. She also knows how to pull magic out of bones and teeth to protect herself and her fellow Crows. She’ll need all of these skills—and her mile-long pragmatic streak—to fulfill her father’s promise to Prince Jasimir. In exchange for helping the prince escape the palace and find allies who might help him take on his murderous step-mother, Jasimir has promised to stop the persecution of the Crows.
Keeping that promise means a long, difficult, dangerous road for Fie, Jasimir, and Jasimir’s bodyguard, Tavin. I pitied the sheltered prince (though I was irritated with his naivety almost as much as Fie was). It’s a miracle he doesn’t die of pure shock when he sees what life is really like in his future kingdom for the Crows or when his friends turn coat on him. He has a lot of growing up to do. Thankfully, he does as the trio gets further and further away from the palace. Fie, on the other hand, almost has to do the opposite. Where the prince has to learn to be more cautious, Fie has to learn how to trust others for once. It’s hard to say who has the bigger challenge.
The Merciful Crow was, for all the near misses and barbed dialogue, a breath of fresh air for me. So many fantasy novels are derivative of Tolkien or Jordan or Rowling that I find books that manage to do something new with the genre deeply refreshing. Also, I love a female protagonist who spits nails. I went out and bought the next book in the series as soon as I finished this book because I have to see what happens next.