When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

Jacket Cover Text:

WE BEAR THE SWORD, AND WE BEAR THE PAIN OF THE SWORD

PAIN IS DYMITR’S CALLING. His family is one in a long line of hunters who sacrifice their souls to slay monsters. Now he’s tasked with a deadly mission: find the legendary witch Baba Jaga. To reach her, Dymitr must ally with the ones he’s sworn to kill. 

Pain is Ala’s inheritance. A fear-eating zmora with little left to lose, Ala awaits death from the curse she carries. When Dymitr offers her a cure in exchange for her help, she has no choice but to agree. 

Together they must fight against time and the wrath of the Chicago underworld. But Dymitr’s secrets-and his true motives-may be the thing that actually destroys them. 

When Among Crows is swift and striking, drawing from the deep well of Slavic folklore and asking if redemption and atonement can be found in embracing what we most fear.

Back of Book Text:

Step into a city where monsters feast on human emotions, knights split their souls to make their weapons, and witches always take more than they give.

Including reviews from authors Leigh Bardugo, Rebecca Roanhorse, Cassandra Clare, CJ Leede, J.R. Dawson, Holly Black, and Olivie Blake.

Review:

There were elements I enjoyed within Veronica Roth's novella When Among Crows, published May 2024. Namely, the story uses Slavic mythology and established Fantasy tropes to raise questions of destiny, identity, and belonging. As a medievalist, the depictions of a Holy Order of Knights made me think about chivalry differently, and the backbone of Slavic legendary material provided a fantasy realm I, as a medievalist raised on Western (read: British) models of fantasy, found largely new.

As I made my way through this novella I was already thinking a good deal about souls, bodies, and identity because of my current obsession with Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series. Further, the very title of the novella is introduced in the forward as part of a Polish saying translated to English: when among crows, you must caw as one. Starting the text with this gloss provides insight not only into the title, but evokes questions of what may be hidden and/or disguised. In a world where the monsters live among humans, characters like Ala must "pass" well-enough to avoid the dangerous attention of monster-hunters, the Holy Knights.

Of course, the tension in the novella arises from secrets kept and hidden truths. This is where Roth loses me. The setup between this textual information and the summary provided on the book jacket introduces a dark and dangerous world set in Roth's home city of Chicago, where I also spend a decent amount of time. While a novella by its very nature must move through plot elements and world-building details at a quicker pace than other literary mediums, the summary provided does a great deal of the heavy lifting establishing narrative tension. I'm worrying that Dymitir will betray Ala because the book jacket warned me he might, not because the text built up that fear.

I wanted to explore the idea of knighthood in this world much more deeply than we were afforded the opportunity within the text. While the idea of a Knight binding his soul to his sword is incredible because it reinforces the ideal of chivalry with the martial weapon knights become synonymous with, exploring this connection is saved for Dymitir's narrative reveal near the novella's climax. Additionally intriguing, Knights must house their swords in their own spines, resulting in a painful experience to draw and sheathe their weapon; the longer they go without drawing their sword, the more painful it becomes. This cycle of pain, reinforced in their spoken mantra "we bear the sword, and we bear the pain of the sword" thus requires consistent and frequent use, rewarding those who seek to slay their enemies constantly in a circle of unending violence.

Ultimately, When Among Crows is a fascinating examination of Slavic mythology set within the North side of Chicago. Inspired by The Witcher 3 during writing, Roth's work reflects interesting ideas of chivalry and mythology that I found enjoyable but ultimately disappointing. Generally, fans of authors who appear on the jacket cover will enjoy this text, and if you've enjoyed other Veronica Roth works in the past I think this text holds great potential for many other readers.

This Reminds Me:

• Chicago's North Side
• Slavic Mythology
  • Baba Jaga
    • Come on, she lives above a Harold's Chicken on the North Side, how can it get any better than that?
• Witcher 3
• Knights Templar
• Authors Katherine Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale), Seanan McGuire (Discount Armageddon) and Naomi Novik (Uprooted)