A review by lindacbugg
The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore

3.0

I received an advanced copy of this from the publisher and I was so excited. Then I set it aside and promptly forgot all about it. Last week I figured it was about time I read this before the year ended. It had a great premise and the tag was guaranteed to draw me in--Night Circus meets Romeo & Juliet. Sadly, as much as I wanted to love this I didn't.

There is a great rivalry between the two families in this story but honestly it seems to be built on the shakiest of foundations and our two main characters have no first hand knowledge of exactly what transpired to make the two families hate one another, only rumors and conjecture. The fact that everyone is pissed at everyone else and know one will just come out and say why is super annoying! Also the fact that each family has one person that everyone obeys or else is so clique.

The feathers

Spoiler

the Corbeaus grow seem to serve no purpose--they don't use them in their act, they're not explained in any way in the story, they're just there.

Same for the mermaid birthmarks.

The big reveal at the end just seemed a little too obvious

Spoiler

and quite frankly I was pretty pissed Alain let Dax torture Cluck for all those years. Cluck may not have said anything but the scars and bruises and broken fingers were there. Nicole also treated him horribly and without love.

Not that I didn't enjoy reading it--it was well written and I want to read her next book. This one just wasn't the one for me.