I am obsessed with weird city history/rituals. My city, Ogden utah, has a few amazing stories, although no beast.
That is what hooked me here. I especially loved the part where our protagonist gets transported back in time and is witnessing a sacrifice. Oh and I loved the moms serving on the board and talking about big city decisions. Thanks for representing democracy and portraying involved civic minded moms. I like that we learn more about their childhoods too.

This book is adorable, creepy, and weird. I love it and I want to listen to it as an audiobook now. It seems like that would be a lot of fun.
I love the concept of time being all over the place. That was fun too.
I cried at the end.

A big thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollin's for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had such high hopes, but they just weren't met.

Book, Beast, and Crow by Elizabeth Byrne is a YA fantasy novel that was comped as The Hazel Wood meets Stranger Things. Anna Kellogg has always felt different. Growing up in Hartwood, New Jersey—where frequent disappearances are attributed to an urban-legend-like beast that dwells in the walled-in swamp at the center of town—can have that effect on people. But for Anna, it’s more than that. Since she was a child, she’s been plagued by episodes where she sees things others can’t see. Feeling different is one thing, but actually being different is another. If it weren’t for her best friend, Olivia, Anna’s not sure where she’d fit in. But any hopes of having a normal senior year come to a halt when Olivia is attacked in the woods, bitten, and left for dead by a whirling cyclone of claws, fur, and teeth. Though Olivia survives, a sinister entity makes it clear that the mark had been set on Anna…and the miss has set in motion a catastrophic shift that will change Anna and her friends’ lives forever.

This book had a lot of promise, but it didn't quiet meet the expectations it had set forth. Ie. It was a really cool concept, but the execution wasn't all that. There was plenty of talking animals, gods and goddesses and urban legends come to life. I feel like this book had too much infor-dumping and not enough of it all happening in scene. Regardless, it was still a decent read.

This book took me forever to read. I found it interesting as I was reading it, but it took me forever to get through. I thought the story was fine, but nothing spectacular.

I would say this is definitely more of a fantasy than a horror story. I didn’t think any part of the book was scary. There’s an alternate world/reality, banshees, talking animals, and beasts. The alternate world had a Narnia-like feel to it.

I liked the friend group in this story, and I especially liked the strong friendship between Anna and Olivia. I enjoy stories that feature female friendships.

I felt the ending was a nice and satisfying conclusion. Overall, this was a decent read that I would recommend to fans of YA fantasy.

1/5 Stars (DNF @ 13%)

TL;DR - Really poor execution of what started out as an interesting premise. Should have been exactly my thing, but the lackluster writing was too much of a deterrent.

Big thanks to HarperCollin’s Children’s Books, Quill Tree Books, and NetGalley for providing the ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review!

‘Book, Beast, and Crow’ by Elizabeth Byrne is a paranormal YA that promises to be a “spine-tingling, genre-bending novel” about Anna Kellogg, a high school senior whose best friend is attacked and left for dead by the town urban legend. I wish I could tell you more, because this sounded like exactly my thing, but I just could not make myself keep reading it.

The premise is very interesting - small town with its own mythology going back centuries, walking the line between conspiracy theory and actual supernatural shenanigans, cryptic old women in the middle of a swamp - but the execution is just *so* lacking.

The flow of the narrative is all over the place - paragraphs are a constant mishmash of points with little cohesion. It constantly feels like the author is bringing up something completely out of left field just to segway into something semi-relevant to the current situation so as not to be pure info-dumping, but it ends up coming across as disjointed and borderline-nonsensical, just jumping from point to point to point. And then most of it actually is straight-up info-dumping, like, characters overhearing all this worldbuilding and nefarious planning from the (assumed) antagonists, that said antagonists wouldn’t be discussing because they themselves are already aware of all of it. Just really graceless and heavy-handed, and not fun to read.

There’s also a lot going on with very little description, with so many things happening with little to no explanation or fleshing out. Maybe this was done to try to keep the pace quick to build suspense or something, but what it comes across as is minimum effort, bare-bones prose.

Overall, I just couldn’t see spending several more hours getting no explanations when needed and then gratuitous info-dumping in the cheapest possible ways.

Final Thoughts:

Really disappointed, because at first glance, this has the makings of a book right up my alley. Will not be purchasing a physical copy.

A strangely unique urban fantasy novel - an interesting concept that in the end was a bit lacking for me. The world, plot and characters all had potential, but fell short of expectations. Still a good book, but not a favorite.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the e-arc.

This book was truly fantasy from start to finish. It was full of talking creatures/animals, another world inside a world, goddesses/gods, and a teenage girl who feels like she doesn’t belong (which is something I feel like a good majority of us can relate to from our teenage years 🤷🏻‍♀️).

It had heart, it had love, it had some heart wrenching/shattering moments, it had a coming of age vibe to it with a tight knit friendship coming even closer. Friends working together to save another friend. Found family, I guess you could say?

Not only did I find myself rooting for these teens in a book, but I also found myself being able to relate to all 4 of them in one way or another, and found myself able to love each of them, and care about each character.

The way they all developed, especially our MC Anna was extraordinary, and heart warming. Seeing the person she became by the end of the book was truly amazing.

The ONLY reason I gave this 4 🌟 was because I found myself confused in some spots but that was likely a ✨me✨ problem because I seemed to have been unfocused in some areas of the book, so don’t let that deter you from reading this. It truly was an excellent, extraordinary experience, and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

I don't know how I feel about this book. On one hand, it's an urban fantasy reminiscent of The Village and Dwight in Shining Armor (don't at me, it's a good fantasy show to watch as a family). On the other hand, it just felt like an indie book to me. I'm not sure why. The dialogue and world building were both fine, but the overarching story and plotting just felt lacking.

This book felt like a middle grade adventure book while featuring strong language inappropriate for younger audiences. It just was a clash of opposites that fell flat for me, unfortunately.

The ending was... interesting. But I just didn't feel invested in the characters or story. I didn't feel like the stakes were real or pressing. It just didn't work for me.

That said, maybe I'm just not the target audience for this book. This book would be better suited for older teens or new adults who like urban fantasy thrillers/mysteries featuring a group of friends trying to save their world.

Content Warning: strong language (f***, etc.), half n*ked older woman (lots of emphasis on her bre*sts and their lack of perk), death, violence, manipulation

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review is voluntarily written and the thoughts and opinions contained in this review are my own.

Definitely quite strange and unique. I highly appreciate that in today's world of homogeneous fiction. I highly recommend this book.

The writing style in this just didn't work for me, meaning the MC's voice jarred to my ear. The premise seems fun as hell, with a good dollop of intensity added in, and the plotting isn't half-bad, but I found myself skimming because I didn't want to be in the MC's 'head', as it were, for that long.

Anna Kellogg has always felt different. Growing up in Hartwood, New Jersey—where frequent disappearances are attributed to an urban-legend-like beast who dwells in the walled-in swamp at the center of town—can have that effect on people. This book kept me on the edge of my seat.

If you want an easy fast paced good read for the spooky season pick this one.

Thank you to Harper Collins for the Arc.

the premise seemed really interesting right off the bat. however this just isn't for me. i couldn't connect with the characters.

Great original novel! It kept me interested right from the first chapter. The characters were multidimensional and the mysteries of the swamp and the supernatural occurrences were intriguing and interesting. The story unfolded in ways I didn’t expect which I really enjoyed. Well done!