Plague doctor, meets magical people, meets class struggles, meets racial-like group divides; The Merciful Crow successfully merges many different topics and ideas into an actually fun read. Fie is a Merciful Crow, and a future chieftain of her group of crows. She is loyal, dedicated and always puts her Crows first. They are the lowest caste in their society, and they go from place to place in poverty, collecting those with the plague, as they are immune, mercy killing them and burning their corpses to prevent the spread of the plague. It is a thankless and reviled but much needed job. When collecting the dead of the highest class, those of royalty, Fie and her clan get sucked into a battle to save the throne and ultimately save a hunted prince and his brother like Hawk guard. Why? Because if they succeed, the prince is sworn to save and protect the hunted and hated Crow caste.I enjoyed reading The Merciful Crow. The world building was really well done and I found myself believing in the magic in the universe. The teeth magic that Fie uses was believable and didn't reach a point of being overpowered, which I find authors often struggle to avoid with magical powers. I also enjoyed the loyalty Fie displayed, and the author avoided a lot of pouting and having the character making dumb-out-of-character choices to forward the plot, and Fie was allowed to stay consistently loyal and rational at the same time. All in all, I really enjoyed The Merciful Crow and I give it the rating of FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE STARS!!!
*Advanced Readers Copy Review*
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