The Weight of Feathers
by Anna-Marie McLemore
Published on September 15th 2015
by Thomas Dunne Books
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Magical Realism
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Goodreads
Also by this author: When the Moon Was Ours
For twenty years, the Palomas and the Corbeaus have been rivals and enemies, locked in an escalating feud for over a generation. Both families make their living as traveling performers in competing shows—the Palomas swimming in mermaid exhibitions, the Corbeaus, former tightrope walkers, performing in the tallest trees they can find.
Lace Paloma may be new to her family’s show, but she knows as well as anyone that the Corbeaus are pure magia negra, black magic from the devil himself. Simply touching one could mean death, and she's been taught from birth to keep away. But when disaster strikes the small town where both families are performing, it’s a Corbeau boy, Cluck, who saves Lace’s life. And his touch immerses her in the world of the Corbeaus, where falling for him could turn his own family against him, and one misstep can be just as dangerous on the ground as it is in the trees.
Beautifully written, and richly imaginative, The Weight of Feathers is an utterly captivating young adult novel by a talented new voice.
I received this book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review.
This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
As I’m writing this, I’ve finished this book over an hour ago. I still don’t know what to rate it or how to review it. And that’s new to me, because normally it never takes me this long. I always know the rating instantly and the review follows. Sometimes I need a minute to catch my breath but I never struggle with it as much as I am now. So I’m just going to ramble in this review, trying to make sense of what I think about it.
The Weight of Feathers is about two families. The Paloma family and the Corbeau family. They’ve been rivals for generations, both families make their living as travelling performers in competing shows. The Palomas swim in mermaid exhibitions and the Corbeaus are former tightrope walkers performing in the tallest trees they can find. Lace Paloma has been taught from birth that the Corbeaus are black magic from the devil himself and touching one could mean death. But when a disaster happens in the small town where both families are performing, it’s a Corbeau boy named Cluck that saves her life.
I really don’t know what my brain is doing right now. I just don’t know what to say here. Okay, for starters… The writing is beautiful. It really is, but I was never fully immersed in the story. I loved the unique and original story and setting, but at the same time I felt confused by both. Is there really a curse or not? I also loved the characters, but never really cared about any of them. I didn’t get any feels, so the romance left me a bit cold too. That’s why I’m struggling at the moment. I can see how good this novel is. It’s a fantastic debut, really, but I just… don’t care. I think? It didn’t hook me. I didn’t get invested in the story or the characters and I don’t know why. This is really frustrating, guys.
I’m going to rate this three stars, but please don’t take that as something bad. Because the problem lies with me and I’m sure if you’re interested in reading it after reading the blurb, you’ll enjoy it a lot. I hope you do, because The Weight of Feathers is really good. It just didn’t really grab me like I hoped it would.
About Anna-Marie McLemore
I’m Anna-Marie. I’m a Mexican-American author represented by the fabulous Taylor Martindale of Full Circle Literary. My debut novel, THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS,a 2016 William C. Morris YA Debut Award Finalist, is out now from Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press. My second novel,WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS, will be released in October 2016, and WILD BEAUTY is coming in 2017.
My shorter work has been featured in The Portland Review, CRATE Literary Magazine’s “cratelit,” Camera Obscura’s Bridge the Gap Gallery, and by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. I was a 2011 Lambda Literary Fellow in Fiction (you can find my reading here). I live in Northern California with a boy from the other side of the Rockies.
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Sorry to hear that you never quite connected with the story or the characters, it happens to me quite a bit when the writing is too lyrical or prose like. The book sounds beautiful, though. So I will be checking it out!
Aentee at The Social Potato
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Yay! Hope you enjoy it more than me! 😀
This one seems kind of…odd. Mermaid exhibitions and tightrope walking families that are bitter rivals? Definitely interesting. The writing sounds like it was a positive but the rest seems a bit confusing. Magical realism and I tend to clash a lot, so I’m not sure this one would be for me. Nice review though!
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Yeah, you might want to skip it then. 🙂
Twitter: The Infinite Limits of Love
I completely understand where you’re coming from. I knew while reading the book that this wouldn’t be for everyone. The writing worked for me and I liked the magical realism a lot.
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Glad it worked for you then! 😀