(As a note, I will be using they/them/their pronouns to refer to the author in this review. They realized they were NB this year and I respect them.)
I had read Anna-Marie McLemore's Blanca & Roja earlier for my book club and I liked it well enough, but I wasn't blown away. One of the main reasons I was looking forward to reading it was that their language was supposed to be lush and beautiful, I was thinking something like Catherynne Valente's prose. But I had bought all their books because I was very into the idea of magical realism.
I have a lot of free time on my hands lately (please don't ask), and I decided to revisit their works, this time with their earlier novel. I was expecting the same topics they usually wrote about, for the novel to include queer characters, but this one didn't, which disappointed me.
In this novel, we have the Palomas and the Corbeaus, two traveling performing families each using different skills. The Palomas don tails and swim, presenting themselves as mermaids to the towns they visit; the Corbeaus wear giant wings and climb trees, walking the branches as easily as breathing.
Each family also has their distinctive marks about them: The Palomas have escamas in certain places, but do not show them off to the patrons of their shows because they are a gift from the river goddess. The Corbeaus have feathers growing out of the back of their heads.
(I'm gonna stop right here and say that you could remove this element from the story and it wouldn't lose anything. Aside from a few times where Lace is trying to fit in with the Corbeaus, her escamas don't really serve a purpose. She thinks about them quite a bit in the beginning of the novel. While Cluck's feathers are more important to the story, they don't come up that often in the middle chunk of the novel.)
So we have Lace, who's just being allowed to join the Palomas' river shows, and Cluck, who's horribly abused by most of his family because his feathers are black with a tinge of red. And they meet. I'm sure you can guess where this is going.
But, by God, was it beautiful. I know I said their prose didn't catch me with Blanca & Roja, but here it was lush, beautiful, enchanting. It was so pleasing to read a book written like this. I do have to admit though that I would pick the book up, read it in chunks, and then put it down for days. Probably more to do with my current situation than interest in the novel, but yeah.
Also, I feel like the book dragged a little after Lace left her family? I'll get into that later.
Back on topic. The Palomas and the Corbeaus have been feuding for a few decades, since a mysterious event at the lake in the town both families are performing in killed a member of each family. Until this event, it was a friendly rivalry, after it became a blood feud.
The night the novel begins, Lace goes into town to get something to eat and notices her cousins beating up a local boy. She pulls them off him, helps him up, and he follows her to the store. Later that night, she notices black feathers with red shot through.
Even later that night, the plant in this town has a meltdown due to a problem Cluck's grandfather warned them about decades ago, and it begins raining acid. As Cluck is attempting to help save another member of his family, he finds Lace with her clothes burning into her body and decides to help her. As she's laying in the hospital, she finds out he's a Corbeau and furiously sends him away. When she recovers, her family finds a feather burned into her forearm and decide to disown her, leading Lace to join up with the Corbeaus, undercover, for some work.
It's a bit predictable, though I kinda enjoyed the romance here. Neither character felt like they had already fallen in love with the other before the story started. Cluck comes to realize he loves Lace over the course of the story, and Lace realizes that Cluck is different than his family.
I'm gonna end this by asking what time period this book takes place in. It felt very 50s-60s, but then there were things that felt present day...
It's a lovely book and wonderful introduction to McLemore's works, so I highly recommend it.
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Top reviews from other countries
KnobblyKnees
I think younger readers would love this but sadly I found it a bit unsatisfying ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2017