Black Wings Beating

From the Publisher:

The people of Uztar have long looked to the sky with hope and wonder. Nothing in their world is more revered than the birds of prey and no one more honored than the falconers who call them to their fists.

Brysen strives to be a great falconer—while his twin sister, Kylee, rejects her ancient gifts for the sport and wishes to be free of falconry. She’s nearly made it out, too, but a war is rolling toward their home in the Six Villages, and no bird or falconer will be safe.

Together the twins must journey into the treacherous mountains to trap the Ghost Eagle, the greatest of the Uztari birds and a solitary killer. Brysen goes for the boy he loves and the glory he's long craved, and Kylee to atone for her past and to protect her brother's future. But both are hunted by those who seek one thing: power.

In this first young-adult fantasy novel in a trilogy, Alex London launches a soaring saga about the memories that haunt us, the histories that hunt us, and the bonds of blood between us.

My Thoughts: 

This book has been on my "read later" list on my Kindle for months and yet when I finally decided to read it, I just devoured it. It is my kind of book with fantasy types of quests, as well as YA characters who must try and save their communities with help from other YA characters and despite their present but not present parents (or dead and still haunting them). I know YA  researchers have looked into the different ways that parents are not present in many YA books, and I don't want to go into another essay on that, but it seems to be a formula that YA readers look for and expect in this category of fiction. The post modernist social constructs of "family" and the immense agency that YA characters are given in these books (Catcher in the Rye, The Outsiders) seem normalized now and readers want to suspend their disbelief. It is one of the charms of being a YA fiction reader. This also has an LGBTQ character and love triangle, but that too seems normalized, so although it is labeled as LGBTQ, like multicultural YA couples, it's not a thing. Love is love. 

What makes this one interesting is the concept of the raptor birds who almost take the place of "dragons" in this genre in that they are elusive, they are the key to winning and the best trainer is best because of some ancient and as yet untapped ability to connect and communicate with the animal (in this case, birds).

I also enjoyed the complicated relationship between the twins, mostly because I have twin grandkids. The dynamic between twins is always unique even over mere siblings and this book captured it well. Add to that adventure, love interests, betrayal and just the first leg in the journey (the hunt for the ghost eagle) and London has done a great job of reeling in and engaging the reader. 

So why did it take so long for me to pick this book up? After all, this is my preferred genre, it is fast paced and grabbed me right away (once I started reading). 

I did not pick this book up because I don't like the cover. It looks more like a horror cover, even a psychological thriller cover than a YA girl power, fantasy/romance/adventure novel. The cover for me conjures plague, Hitchcock's The Birds, Amityville Horror (the scene with the flies) and for some reason ebola. Maybe the whole plague, bird mites horror for me. It is just personal past trauma, but I am sad that I did not get beyond the cover because I was missing out on a great read.

Red Skies Falling, book 2 in this series comes out in the beginning of September 2019, so it will definitely go on my TBR list, even though I still do not like this next cover. 

A digital copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review.