I picked this up after reading Paper Fury’s review, because this sounded right up my alley … and I was not disappointed!

You know, I keep saying I really don’t read romance, and then I read romance and enjoy it? So I’m thinking maybe I don’t read so much adult romance? I don’t know. I’m all sorts of confused.

Black Bird of the Gallows does a really good job of mixing a tough heroine and a secretive love interest without falling into all the trope traps that make me twitch, and the result is actually a really sweet romance that I enjoyed.

 

 

❧ I got aaaall the creepy vibes from this, and it was glorious!

I knew from the moment that the new guy moved in next door (you know, into the murder house) that this would be good times. That’s right, the murder house, where the husband came home and suddenly slaughtered his family for no reason. I am probably more okay with this than I should be, but I thrive off creepiness.

I was immediately hooked early on when the new guy, Reece, starts acting all shady and tells her to stay away from the bees.

The new guy’s bad news, obviously. Aren’t they all? The same applies for bees. Yeah, yeah, good for the environment, flowers, nectar, yada, yada. They are creepy insects of pain and death. AND IF YOU THINK I’M WRONG, HA, YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING WITH THIS BOOK, SO I REST MY CASE.

❧ This is dark in all the right ways and makes you question what’s more important: who you are or what you are?

Reece just happens to be a harbinger of death.

Angie just happens to be the daughter of a drug addict who overdosed.

The man with the ever-changing face just happens to be … well, creepy, but that’s not his fault, either, is my point.

All the lead characters are undesirable things. Pretty sure we can all agree on that. None of which they had any say in becoming. Yet, how much does that actually define them?

There was an underlying theme, which I LOVED, of how much you let your circumstances define who you are versus becoming the person you want to be.

In the end, they’re all trying to overcome their particular circumstances in order to become the sort of people they want to be, regardless, and I found that plight relatable. I mean, there are some things in life you can’t change. Like the fact that you can’t eat cake three times a day. Or bacon. Or the fact that we don’t all have pet dragons. Or Pokemon. Wow, what are we even doing with our lives?

❧ HARBINGERS. OF. DEATH. Need I say more?

Probably not, but I will anyway. Kessell actually plays on the myth of crows being harbingers of death in a really unique way. Yes, there’s a murder of crows, and they’re aptly named. Yes, they foreshadow death. BUT THERE’S SO MUCH MORE, GUYS.

The world-building and paranormal creatures in this are unique, and for a change, these paranormal beings aren’t touted as something good that the heroine might eventually seek to become one.

Ain’t nobody sending in applications to be a harbinger of death, okay? They aren’t inherently bad, necessarily, but they’re not glorified, either. They just … are. It’s a fact of life, and a bit of a crappy one, and they don’t always appreciate what they are, but they can’t change it, either. So what can you do?

❧ There’s really no bad guy here, and I kinda ended up feeling bad for the antagonist? Is that supposed to happen in books? Because I loved it.

I mean, if there were a villain in this book, it’d really be circumstance, because everyone’s a victim of that.

A lot of people do not-so-great things in this book. There were so many instances of gray characters. But regardless of what they did, their motives made sense. I had no trouble understanding any of their actions, including the antagonist. Especially the antagonist.

❧ I really wasn’t a fan of high school drama in high school and, wow, nope, nothing’s changed there.

Oh, the pettiness and cliques and silliness that goes on amongst teenagers. I’m not saying this part was necessarily inaccurate, but it wasn’t something I could relate to, and it came across to me as kind of flat and uninteresting. But I’m also old and I never was one to tolerate the drama.

I can see this part being a big hit for the target audience, and I also realize I’m not that target audience. But since this is my review, I’m mentioning it anyway, because it bugged me.

❧ Over-protective dads annoy me in the best of times, but over-protective dads that are sometimes … not … really confuse me?

Angie’s dad doesn’t seem particularly worried about Angie taking care of herself under most circumstances. Actually, she seems alone for most of this book. I mean, she’s not a little kid. She’s out late, she’s going to clubs, etc, and this is all just kind of fine?

But under no circumstance should a boy show interest in Angie or should Angie show interest in a boy, because obviously, that’s not permitted.

I mean, you know, except for the one boy that’s her best friend, which is I guess is okay because they’re not actually interested in dating each other? I don’t even know. I never got a good feel for her father as a character, and I just didn’t understand the things that pushed him into over-protective dad mode versus the things that didn’t.

❧ Okay, I lied, there were some tropes that irked me a bit.

The romance was a bit whirlwind, and how much of that you can chalk up to teenagers and their hormones, I don’t know.  It wasn’t insta-love, but it was insta-attraction, and it’s partially explained from Reece’s perspective, but not Angie’s, even though she was the point of view character.

This is maybe more of a personal thing, but I like slow-burn romances where the characters actually have a relationship before deciding they’re in love.

Although, at the same time, towards the end especially, the romance was extremely sweet and they made one hell of a team, and I’M SO CONFLICTED.

There’s a few other really typical YA romance tropes in the book that I wasn’t completely on board with, but I can’t really mention them because of spoilers. But they did definitely stand out for me as totally predictable plot points, including the ending.

❧ Not gonna lie, the ending was a tad confusing, mixed with wait, what just happened?!

The world-building and lore in this book is top-notch, but it felt like it fell off towards the end. The climax is everything you could hope for, the final conflict, etc. I was all in! But the resolution? Meh. I was expecting a little more in terms of the world-building and how everything happened. It felt a bit easy, without any real explanation or weight behind it, and I was a little confused about the outcome and why.

Have you read Black Bird of the Gallows yet? What are some YA romance tropes that you love seeing?