Black Bird of the Gallows

Angie Dovage has a new neighbor. Reese Fernandez is good-looking, athletic, and is at the center of some odd going-ons. Angie is intrigued though he's really not her type and starts following him around, trying to understand the mystery. She finds more than she bargained for with paranormal happenings such as non-human beings and murders of crows.
I enjoyed this book so much. I thought it might be a YA story about the odd girl, the handsome guy, and the mean girl when I started reading, but it soon became something very different. The supernatural aspects were intriguing, drawing the reader into this world of the remnants of magic. The harbingers of death and the beekeepers were not something I've read about before and made this book show more truly unique.
Angie was so much more than the odd girl trope as was Reese much darker than the good-looking guy. The other characters supplemented the story perfectly. All-in-all, the result was a surprising and satisfying conclusion to a beautifully written story. show less

***This book was reviewed via Chapter by Chapter Book Tours and via Netgalley

Black Bird of the Gallows, by Megan Kassel, is a haunting modern-day fable. Millennia ago, magic existed, a force to be reckoned with. It was purged from the land, though, and man’s memory of what was faded. Humans have such short memories. Magic still exists, in small pockets of being such as in the harbingers, and the Beekeepers, and in abilities like seership and mediumship. But for the most part, notions of magic are scoffed at and treated as fiction or delusion.

Reece Fernandez move into the 'murder house’ next door to Angie Dovage. Her neighbors, a year plus ago, died in a terrible murder/suicide. The house stood vacant until the Fernandez's moved in. show more Reece seems to be a perfectly lovely young man, but strange things accompany him. Ravens and crows surround the house, and flock around him. A man with a shifting face shadows him. And he fears bees in a way not even the allergic do.

As unlikely as Angie finds it, Reece takes an interest in her. But the closer Angie grows to Reece, the more she notices the strange and unusual. A crow with one White feather a Shadows her, and leaves her little trinkets. One night, as she is leaving her job as a DJ, the mysterious man with the shifting face accosts her. After witnessing an accident and Reece’s bizarre reaction to it, Angie pushes him for answers. Nothing could have prepared her for the truth.

Reece is a harbinger of death. Once human, but now cursed to sense impending death and feed off the energy released by it. Both his human family, and the crows, make up his harbinger family, and Reece, too, has a crow form. They move place to place, wherever the magic tells them disaster will strike. War, natural disasters, large industrial accidents all draw them.

The mysterious man is Rafette, the Beekeeper who follows Reece's harbinger flock. Beekeepers were once human as well, warped by magic long ago and turned into hideous war weapons. Each has a hive of bees living inside them (Ew and wtf). These aren't your average honeybees. To be stung by one is to go mad, but they only sting those already unstable and disposed towards violence. As the harbingers feed off of death energy, Beekeepers feed off of chaos energy. For each, it is a matter of necessity, not pleasure.

But this isn't Angie's first encounter with Rafette, and members of Reece’s flock. Why are they here now, and why were they a part of her past? Disaster is looming on the horizon. Angie, and Cadence itself, will not emerge unscathed.

Can we talk about this cover? Absolutely exquisite! The cover is what first drew me to this book. I love ravens, and purple, so there we go! It fit perfectly with the story within.

I found the Beekeepers fascinating. Their history is so sad, as is that of the harbingers. Each created through magic as some sort of bizarre hybridisation. Each immortal or as good as. The harbingers can die, but 'respawn’ (as Reece put it) as a crow. After a time they can shift back to a human form but is always at a younger age. This tickles the edge of my memory, but I cannot recall where I read something similar. Argh! The harbingers also called to mind stories of Mothman, and the Silver Bridge collapse. I must say, I do wish they would have just used harbinger, instead of tacking on ’of death’ so often. I got it after the first two or three times. Harbingers foretell death. No need to say ‘harbinger of death’ over and over.

I loved the duality of the story. Part is man vs nature, which I love. The cataclysm in this book struck a little too close to home for me. Now I'm going to make sure we stock up on shelter supplies! The conflict between Rafette and Reece was so sad. I cannot see Rafette as a villain for wanting to end an eternal torment, despite his means of attempting it. Despair and desperation are powerful motivators, and as for his chaos sowing… it’s what he was designed for. The bees only sting the already unbalanced, so just maybe, sometimes by driving certain people, like serial killers, out into the open earlier than they may otherwise have exposed themselves he actually saves lives. I do wonder, though, why bees? It seems hornets or wasps would be a more logical choice.

Black Bird of the Gallows is a beautiful, tragic tale of ancient forces in the modern world. To me, it is a reminder that we should be careful playing with our science, and stop to think how future generations might be affected by our follies and errors.

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When a new family moves into the ‘murder house’ next door, Angie Dovage, 17 is intrigued by Reese, the oldest boy and not only because he’s good looking. For one thing, crows seem to be attracted to him and now one of them has started bringing her little presents. Then there’s his eyes that seem to become completely black at odd moments.

But Angie has a secret. At high school she tries to stay in the shadows but at night, she puts on a disguise and takes on the persona of a popular DJ at a local club. When Reese shows up, she is worried that he will recognize her. Later outside the club, Angie is approached by a strange figure. His face keeps changing shape as she watches, even morphs into her mother who died of an overdose, and show more bees seem to surround him, even crawling out of his mouth. When Reese sees this, he comes to her aid and it is clear that he knows this strange creature.

Angie starts following Reese trying to discover his secret. Eventually, as their mutual attraction deepens, he tells her his story. He and his family are harbingers of death, and have come to town ahead of a huge disaster. And the strange man at the club is a Beekeeper. They follow harbingers although the two supernatural beings are not friends: harbingers follow death but the Beekeepers seem to exist only to create terror and mayhem.

Black Bird of the Gallows is a YA paranormal romance by author Meg Kasse, a genre I usually avoid. However, when I read the publisher’s blurb. I was intrigued and decided to give it a shot. And I’m glad I did. Not to say it’s perfect – there was for example the ubiquitous mean girl, a trope that seems to be mandatory for this genre and at least in this case, doesn’t seem to add much to the story. But I found the harbingers and the murders of crows that seem to accompany them interesting. And I have never heard of the Beekeepers or seen anything like them anywhere else. It was this originality that kept my interest throughout wondering where Kasse would take the story and wanting to know the outcome.

Thanks to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less

Thank you so much to Entangled and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this AWESOME paranormal treat by Meg Kassel! Wow, this was so different from anything else I've read lately and I really loved Meg Kassel's originality in creating this supernatural world and plot elements.

Angie hasn't had the easiest past with a neglectful mother, and now lives with her father. When a new family moves in next door, into a house where there was a grisly murder, she's immediately curious about their teenage son, Reese. Of course, as we can expect, things don't turn out to be quite what they seem with Reese, and Angie soon finds herself drawn in to a super-creepy world inhabited by crows and beekeepers.

I loved the chemistry between Reese and show more Angie. Angie is independent enough that her entire life doesn't go by the wayside over Reese, and their outlook on the reality of what's going on makes their relationship refreshing and enjoyable. The paranormal side of what's going on is at times... well... creepy. I don't want to give too much away. But definitely not straight up Edward Cullen "you're my heroin" romantic. And I was completely okay with that because I liked the way it added conflict.

This was very well-paced, and the world-building was nicely done, too. Just a very enjoyable read.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author.

Please excuse typos. Entered on screen reader. show less

I've read the books in this series out of order, and it turns out to have been a Very Bad Idea, because where this book should have been tense, I was all 'hah! I know what is going on here!'. It is also the case that this is not as strong a story as Keeper of the Bees - the writing isn't as tight, and the plot not quite as well knitted together - but I probably wouldn't have noticed that as much if I'd read them the other way round. Having said that, I may not have ever picked up Keeper of the Bees if I had read this one first, because it has a couple of plot points that I really wish I hadn't had to encounter (see the content warnings)

Light on the horror, heavy on the teen romance.

content warnings contain spoilers:

So many details, I'm show more not going to capture all but the ones that bothered me the most. What looks like a school shooting incident, but the shooter is outside the school and is killed by the police with no indication that there was anything concerning about that. The implication that a semi-immortal 'fell in love' with a six year old. The one note teenager who seems very Spoiled Rich Girl, until they get a walk on part in the disaster, with the implication that they have been raped. show less

3.5 Stars

“I hold my breath and watch the crow glide away. It melts into the blackness, silent as a ghost. Lonely as the night.
Dark as a boy’s eyes.”

Black Bird of the Gallows is such a unique fantasy story! (and I think it’s a standalone too) We follow Angie Dovage as she gets to know her new neighbor, Reece Fernandez in a town that’s primed for disaster. With the town’s crow and bee populations increasing, Angie thinks Reece might have answers. The atmosphere is dark and the world building is fantastic, Black Birds of the Gallows is a reading experience you won’t soon forget.

Things I Liked
I really love all the mythology we get in the story! We learn so much about the Harbingers and the Beekeepers; we get their origins,how show more they live, what their life is like, and I LOVED it all. It was so unique and really kept me turning the pages. I was hooked!

I also really enjoyed the creepy vibe the story has going on. There’s just a really great atmosphere to the story that is dark and gritty and a bit dangerous. The story does not shy away from danger and aggression. And really tries to hook you with mystery in the beginning of the story. The overall vibe makes this a seriously perfect book for fall.


Things I Didn’t Like
I was completely satisfied with the world building in the story, it just felt like it took a little too long to get to get to all the fantastic world building. We really get most of the world building at around the halfway mark. I definitely would have been hook into the story quicker if I got some worldbuilding in the beginning.

I thought that Kiera really lacked depth. She was just another incarnation of the bratty mean girl. She never really seemed like a character to me, so her semi resolution with Angie didn’t carry much weight.

Even though I didn’t connect with any of the characters, the world building made this book unforgettable. This is such a unique concept that stands out in a sea of paranormal creature books. It was so easy to read, and I just can’t get enough of the mythology. Black Bird of the Gallows is a strange but compelling tale of bravery, sacrifice, love, and tragedy.

I received a copy of the book from Entangled Teen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

A gripping and fascinating urban fantasy. The tension level, nicely done unveiling of plot elements and mix of terror and romance all contribute to a great read for teens and adults alike.