

Margaret Owen is talented in her storytelling she grabs the readers' attention with betrayal, suspense, and a bit of disturbing imagery, but she doesn't stray from humor throughout The Merciful Crow.

When it comes to dealing with the bodies of royalty, she demands payment in Phoenix teeth – which obviously become immensely useful during her mission, seeing as her caste is constantly hunted and killed by a group that just happens to have permission from the Queen to do so. Now how does she acquire teeth, you may wonder? Remember how she is responsible for delivering mercy to the sick? Well she might just snag a tooth or two while doing the deed. Phoenixes can control fire), but while Crows were born with no Birthright, Fie is unique in that as a “witch” she can summon powers of any caste as long as she has a tooth from a person belonging to that caste.

In any case, people have magical abilities or “Birthright” based on their caste (i.e. While there certainly is a “slow burning” romance, there is no love triangle, and the main character does not end up with the Prince (this is not a spoiler but an early reveal tips readers off to this fact). However, Fie doesn't agree without securing something of value for her people that will last generations.įans of The Hunger games will find many similarities in The Merciful Crow – an angsty teenage heroine who finds herself in the middle of a plot to overthrow the current system, various populations where some groups are more privileged than others, and an evil ruler with terrifying groups of powerful people in her corner. But when the Prince and his body double fake their own deaths to overthrow his stepmother the Queen, Fie and her clan have no choice but to escort them to safety for them to achieve that goal.

slicing their throats and disposing the bodies) to which they are immune. The Merciful Crow duology entails a world where population groups and occupations are based off of bird species, and her clan's job as Crows is to deliver mercy to anyone touched by a contagious plague (e.g. Fie is a teenager set to become the next Chief of her clan, following the footsteps of her mentor and father figure.
