"Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!"
Book Details:
Author: Katherine Addison
Series: Standalone
Genres: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Alternate History
Page Count: ___
Publisher: Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books
To be Published: 23 June, 2020
Blurb:
This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.
In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent.
Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows.
My Review:
~~~May contain spoilers~~~
4/5 stars.
As someone who hasn't read Sherlock Holmes stories much except a few popular stories now and then, it took me a bit of time to realize that I was probably reading a Sherlock Holmes fanfic. A read of the A/N at the end of the book confirmed my doubts. I'm someone who tries to maintain as much distance as possible from fanfics and I can actually count on one hand, the number of fanfics I have read (2-3 max including this).
(I wish that I would’ve know that this was Sherlock Holmes fanfic before I went into it.)
Still The Angel of the Crows does not disappoint.
Dr. Doyle was a flatter character compared to Crow but he was definitely an interesting character There were some revelations about Doyle that seemed to come out of nowhere and I actually had to turn back the pages to see if I had missed any telling clues.
The character of Crow normalizes so many oddities of Sherlock Holmes' character. The behaviour and actions of Holmes that appeared weird in him as a human, appears to be the consequence of a general confusion in understanding of human nature by an angel.
I feel the friendship between Crow and Doyle is quite cute but not well explored. They balance each other out quite well.
Anyways, he take on genders was one of the bestest parts of the story. I am stopping myself from revealing more about it because it's definitely something that the reader should get to know on their own.
The problems I had with this book:
It had too many plots running at the same time. The case of Jack the Ripper, is the main thread which ties all of the separate cases the characters handle. I would have loved for the author to focus on fewer stories for the sake of better reading. I felt a bit lost at times. Maybe a Sherlockian reader would have an easier time reading this book.
I wish that the supernatural part of the book was explored a bit more because it certainly, was one of the best parts of the whole story. The concept of Nameless and all that habitation stuff, I would've liked to know more about them. Since this was an alternate history world and things were so different from normal world, it would've been better for the author to explain the things a more as they left me confused at times.
Also, I would've preferred if the deductions were a bit better explained.
I hope that there are more installments in this story that expand this Alternate London world and fill in more details about our odd investigating duo.
Final Thoughts?
Goodreads Review Link
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3379127251?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1