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The Flight of the White Crow
One girl dares to stand apart
A life that’s not her own
Sixteen-year-old Fannilea was born to the Kaa, a secret tribe of crow shape-shifters, duty-bound by ancient laws to devote her life to guiding dead souls from this world to the next—no matter what it costs her.
Escape at any price—even death
Punished and shunned by her people for asking too many questions, Fannilea flees to the human world, only to find that the Kaa do not intend to let her go—ever.
A contract with a dark goddess
As Fannilea struggles to survive in her strange new life, the Morrigan offers her what seems like a way out. But is it?
Caught in an ever-growing web of lies and secrets, Fannilea faces the most difficult choices of her life—choices that will determine not only what kind of person she will be, but whether she lives to see another year.
A life that’s not her own
Sixteen-year-old Fannilea was born to the Kaa, a secret tribe of crow shape-shifters, duty-bound by ancient laws to devote her life to guiding dead souls from this world to the next—no matter what it costs her.
Escape at any price—even death
Punished and shunned by her people for asking too many questions, Fannilea flees to the human world, only to find that the Kaa do not intend to let her go—ever.
A contract with a dark goddess
As Fannilea struggles to survive in her strange new life, the Morrigan offers her what seems like a way out. But is it?
Caught in an ever-growing web of lies and secrets, Fannilea faces the most difficult choices of her life—choices that will determine not only what kind of person she will be, but whether she lives to see another year.
410 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2016
4 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Rachael Ann Mare
2 books11 followersRACHAEL ANN MARE is a writer who never wanted to live for duty. THE FLIGHT OF THE WHITE CROW is her first novel.
She blogs about motivation and inspiration for creative people at SpunkyMisfitGirl.com.
She lives in a dimly lit box (as one does as a writer in NYC) with the best cat in the world, Stinker, a.k.a. La Viejita, a.k.a. Da Stinks Putana, Duchess of Mare.
She blogs about motivation and inspiration for creative people at SpunkyMisfitGirl.com.
She lives in a dimly lit box (as one does as a writer in NYC) with the best cat in the world, Stinker, a.k.a. La Viejita, a.k.a. Da Stinks Putana, Duchess of Mare.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 25, 2016
A Life for Herself
The Flight of the White Crow is an excellent and thoroughly original novel telling the tale of Fanniilea—a sixteen-year-old girl of the Kaa, a group of crows who can shape-shift into humans and live only in duty to others, ferrying lost souls of humans to rest in the land of the dead. For the Kaa, there is nothing else in life, but Fannilea’s white color is as different from the black mindless Murder of crows as is her bright mind that questions everything, and her individualistic soul languishes for escape.
The author makes great use of the fantasy genre to not just express the difficult theme of the sacred right of living as a human for one’s own sake, but to show the even more difficult task of a crow-girl always among the unthinking Murder who wants to live as a human for her own sake when nearly all she knows is life amongst the duty-obsessed Murder and being a member of a group.
The novel enjoyably flies along as the author expertly executes an efficient and yet complex plot filled with surprises. To escape the Murder and secure a life for herself, Fannilea must meet the demands of a tricky contract from the tricky goddess of the Kaa. She must fulfill her demands in the human world before the end of the year, and only has a couple of weeks to do it or she must return forever to a fate worse than death, tied to the Murder and ferrying souls for the rest of her life. How is a crow to learn to live as a human in so short a time? Luckily, Fannilea has just the tool for survival: her always-thinking mind.
The plot is conveyed in concise prose and in a completely innovative and ambitious style, writing from the perspective of a crow trying to be human but with nearly all of her experience as a crow; she doesn’t think of walking down stairs, she thinks of it as hopping. And she lacks concepts for parts of the human world, yet the author manages to convey this crow-thinking with made-up phrases and feelings so one always knows what Fannilea means. The writing style only takes a few sentences for it to be as natural as human thought, and the style becomes a necessity of telling this story, immersing the reader in Fannilea’s mind and making one all that more supportive of her struggle. That it comes off as the thinking of an almost-human but is easy to read and never bogs down the action is an amazing achievement, and one of the strongest aspects of the novel.
As time ticks down for her contract the reader will be riveted to Fannilea’s relentlessly logical mind and her quest for a human life of her own as the stakes escalate. Can she survive the Murder who will do anything to stop her escape from the group? Can she outwit a cunning goddess and fulfill her contract? Will Fannilea live to see a New Year as a human making a life of her own? Find out in this remarkable novel!
The Flight of the White Crow is an excellent and thoroughly original novel telling the tale of Fanniilea—a sixteen-year-old girl of the Kaa, a group of crows who can shape-shift into humans and live only in duty to others, ferrying lost souls of humans to rest in the land of the dead. For the Kaa, there is nothing else in life, but Fannilea’s white color is as different from the black mindless Murder of crows as is her bright mind that questions everything, and her individualistic soul languishes for escape.
The author makes great use of the fantasy genre to not just express the difficult theme of the sacred right of living as a human for one’s own sake, but to show the even more difficult task of a crow-girl always among the unthinking Murder who wants to live as a human for her own sake when nearly all she knows is life amongst the duty-obsessed Murder and being a member of a group.
The novel enjoyably flies along as the author expertly executes an efficient and yet complex plot filled with surprises. To escape the Murder and secure a life for herself, Fannilea must meet the demands of a tricky contract from the tricky goddess of the Kaa. She must fulfill her demands in the human world before the end of the year, and only has a couple of weeks to do it or she must return forever to a fate worse than death, tied to the Murder and ferrying souls for the rest of her life. How is a crow to learn to live as a human in so short a time? Luckily, Fannilea has just the tool for survival: her always-thinking mind.
The plot is conveyed in concise prose and in a completely innovative and ambitious style, writing from the perspective of a crow trying to be human but with nearly all of her experience as a crow; she doesn’t think of walking down stairs, she thinks of it as hopping. And she lacks concepts for parts of the human world, yet the author manages to convey this crow-thinking with made-up phrases and feelings so one always knows what Fannilea means. The writing style only takes a few sentences for it to be as natural as human thought, and the style becomes a necessity of telling this story, immersing the reader in Fannilea’s mind and making one all that more supportive of her struggle. That it comes off as the thinking of an almost-human but is easy to read and never bogs down the action is an amazing achievement, and one of the strongest aspects of the novel.
As time ticks down for her contract the reader will be riveted to Fannilea’s relentlessly logical mind and her quest for a human life of her own as the stakes escalate. Can she survive the Murder who will do anything to stop her escape from the group? Can she outwit a cunning goddess and fulfill her contract? Will Fannilea live to see a New Year as a human making a life of her own? Find out in this remarkable novel!
Displaying 1 of 1 review