As the collections editor, Ellen Datlow, says in her introduction: "Birds are usually loved for their beauty and their song." But that is not the case in this collection of avian tales.
There are 16 short tales in Black Feathers, each of them giving you a peek at the "dark side to the avian." Most of the birds in the stories are corvids, which is the family of birds that include ravens, crows and even Jays.
In this collection, you will find people who can turn into birds. There are birds who help solve crimes and birds who sneak their own young into a human family.
Admittedly a couple of the tales left me confused, but I did enjoy the majority of the collection. Some of my favorite stories include
The Mathematical Inevitability of Corvids by Seanan McGuire in which a young autistic girl must count crows each day because the number tells her important futures, and if the numbers are wrong bad things can happen.
Pigeon From Hell by Stephen Graham Jones, in which a young girl finds herself being haunted by a young boys pet pigeon after a horrible accident.
The Crow Palace by Priya Sharma, in which a young woman finds herself back home with her sister after her father passes. She finds out after all these years that one of them does not really belong in the family.
I recommend this collection to anyone who likes a good scary story, and who is a fan of birds. It might make you look at our feathered friends a little differently.
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Black Feathers Dark Avian Tales: An Anthology will be available in February of 2017. You can pre-order your copy today from amazon in Kindle or Hardcover.
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I received an advance readers copy of Black Feathers from NetGally in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts on this item are my own.
