Review: A Feather So Black

A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
Oh my goodness. So much potential, but just not good. I was looking forward to reading this fantasy based on Irish mythology, but to say it fell flat would be a bit of an understatement. The protagonist Fia felt like a naive cliche. She was a petite hardened "weapon" forged by the machinations and tortures of the people who raised her (and those are not my words, those are the kind of florid words used in the story, over and over again). Yet she was also ridiculously clueless. She was susceptible to manipulation from everyone around her. I figured out ALL of the "bad guys" literally as soon as they were introduced. Yet Fia believed everything every one of them said, often to the detriment of herself and those she was trying to "save." I couldn't connect with her and it got to the point where I felt like she was an overly dramatic teenager.
The pacing of the story was also really hard to follow. I really didn't understand the rules or "guidelines" of the quest that Fia and her childhood love Rogan were on. Things were explained, but they didn't feel logical or organic, just like awkward machinery stuck in to move the plot along. Things got repetitive and, as a result, boring, very quickly. The little snippets of action and storytelling that happened when the two were allowed(?) to go to Tir na Nog were much too few and far between. After about the 3rd time, I got tired of our two characters, who were supposedly on this great quest, just contenting themselves with spending a few hours a month on their actual "quest" either at a party or trading cryptic riddles, and then going back to the real world, having accomplished pretty much nothing. And then literally just "hanging out" for another month. The manner in which Fia and Rogan spend their time when not in magical fairy land felt strange and tacked on at first, and then as their relationship "matured," felt just out-of-place at best, stuck on as salacious filler at worst.
I could go on and on, but I won't. The lack of backstory into Fia's magic other than the fact that nobody, including herself, really liked it. The total lack of time or character development spent on Eala, who could have been a much deeper and truly fascinating character. The way the reader was told so many plot points instead of allowing things to unfold organically. The choppiness of Fia's forays into Tir na Nog and her time spent with Irian. The dialogue that moved from the formal language of the fae and royalty to current slang. The way Irish mythology was stuck in jarringly with unexplained terms or names, instead of woven into the story. The huge plot holes...
I am really sorry. I know a lot of time and research and effort was put into this book. And I appreciate that--it does show. But I needed and was expecting much more, in terms of character development, plot, and pacing. This has ended up being one of those books I feel like I wasted my time reading. I absolutely do not care what happens to any of these characters in book two.
If you love flowery, over-the-top descriptions of the mystical lands of the fae, stereotypical heroines, heroes, villains, and love-interests, and books that try really hard to be "epic" while ignoring plot-holes, organic logic, and character development, then maybe this is the book for you. It was not the book for me.

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