Thankfully this was only 150 pages, because it was a struggle to get through. It felt all over the place to me.

It had great roots though. I just couldn’t get into it.

Veronica Roth has good stories, and this one is what I think is her best. I just wish that it were a full novel, because there's so many characters and creatures, and backstory, that the plot gets bogged down, and the characters get muddled together. Overall, GREAT vibes, fun time, I just with it had been given like 150 more pages to breathe.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an ebook for this from NetGalley to review..

Thoughts: This was a quick read that I somewhat enjoyed. Now that I am sitting down to write this review though I find myself struggling a bit to remember it. It's fairly forgettable. I did enjoy the inclusion of Russian folklore/mythology throughout. Previous to this I had read Roth's Divergent series and somewhat enjoyed that as well (I loved the first book but was struggling by the last book in the series).

Dymitr gets an enchanted flower and hopes to cut a bargain with Ala. He will help figure out to use the flower to cure Ala's curse if she will help him find Baba Jaga.

This is a shorter book and you can tell. I never engaged well with the characters and the world was hard to picture. The world was modern Chicago but with other races and a Holy Order that hunts down and kills those other races. It reminded me a lot of the world in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series.

I just now read the synopsis as I was putting together this review and it reveals what is a huge plot twist in the book. I am so happy I didn't read the synopsis before reading the book. That huge plot twist is one of the things I really liked about this story.

There are some good action scenes in here and I did really enjoy how the races are based off Russian folklore and mythology. I just felt like the whole book was a quick and unfinished glimpse into this world. Novellas can be written that really pull the reader in and this was not one of those for me. I finished it, I vaguely enjoyed it, and it is completely forgettable.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was decent. I liked the Russian mythology and it is a quick and easy read. I enjoyed the idea of the Holy Order and their painful swords and I always enjoy it when different races of cryptids are hidden in the modern world. The whole thing felt unfinished to me though. The world-building was incredibly thin and the characters were hard to engage with, they felt very stiff. I did enjoy some of the twists and turns which are completely spoiled by the synopsis (so happy I didn't read the synopsis until after I read the book). I think for now I will skip Roth's books. As much as I liked the first book in the Divergent trilogy, I just have found the other books I have read by her to be so-so.

This book was a DNF for me.

From the first chapter I had trouble keeping everything (plot and characters) straight and the book just seemed to bounce around more than I liked. I found myself confused and even though this book was short, I simply didn't want to spend so much time trying to keep everything straight. This book will definitely be great for some, but it was not for me.

What a quick and captivating read centered around regret, repentance and responsibility.
I enjoyed the romantic relationship and the way in developed organically. I admired the story of each of our three main characters and their drive.

Dymitr is a man with a heavy burden, and he hopes that by procuring a legendary flower and helping a cursed woman escape that which weighs her down, he'll also be able escape what troubles him. Set in Chicago and filled with the creatures of Polish folklore, this short book sets Dymitr and the cursed woman, Ala, on a one-night quest to save them both. There's not much more I can say about the plot without major spoilers, but I will say that it's an intriguing urban fantasy featuring creatures with which I wasn't previously familiar. It's definitely enjoyable, though I wish a few things had been fleshed out a bit more.

I was very excited to read this as I love reading lore from other cultures. However, I feel like it was just too short. We were dropped into the story and then it just felt like the scenes were rushed. I did like how all the characters were intertwined and the growth and internal battle we saw within Dymitr. I wish that certain points had been expanded on. If you are looking for a quick fantasy with slavic lore this would be a good read though.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for this digital arc copy, all opinions are my own.

What a gorgeous cover! This is my first by Veronica Roth since reading Divergent many years ago, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. This has some really lush lore inspired by Slavic folklore, but the story itself wasn't as gripping as I was hoping it to be.

Thank you Tor for the eARC!

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth tells of a road trip around Chicago to look for Baba Yaga. The characters motivations are a mystery, but since this is novella, you don't have to wait long to find out.

• urban fantasy
• Slavic mythology
• queer romance

Being a novella, sometimes the pacing is hard to get right. The pacing was perfect during the most important bits but other parts were confusing and it was hard to tell who was speaking. There were also a few unnecessary side characters (the sister for one) that didn't add anything to the story but just jumbled in more character names. I was satisfied at the story's completion but feel like this maybe could have worked better as a full length novel.

If you like gritty urban fantasy that almost has a Mafia feel to it, this one might be for you.

When Among Crows is a short fantasy read (under 200 pages) but it packs quite a punch! I really enjoyed the world that Veronica Roth was able to build and the story she was able to tell in such a short amount of pages. The story unfolds a mystery surrounded Dymitir, a human who has sworn to help his enemies, as he finds new friendships and possible love. Overall, it lacked the page-turning action I love in a fantasy book, but it was still a great story of overcoming what you were destined to be and creating a destiny of your choosing.

I had a fun time with this one. I was unsure about it going in because I haven't found a Veronica Roth book that I have vibed with since her Divergent series but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It was fast paced and got right into the main plot with a prologue that draws the reader in. The stakes were laid out early too so you knew what you were going to get into. I enjoyed the polish folklore and the supernatural creatures were really fun to learn about. It was very cool to see this urban fantasy world where these species coexist with humans but the humans are unaware of them. There was an underlying m/m romance tone to it that I was loving and wanted more of. I would definitely read more from this world because there is so much more to explore.

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth was such a perfect read. It's by far one of the best books I've read this year and I cannot wait for everyone else to experience this. The writing was concise but beautifully done. It has a small cast of characters and they were all so captivating. The length of this book was also perfect. It's short but it's fulfilling. The worldbuilding is amazing considering how short the book is. Overall, a really delectable reading experience.

When Among Crows is a captivating dark fairytale that takes place in Chicago over the course of a few nights. Our cast of characters is small, our quest simple, and the world built with just enough detail to be intriguing but straightforward enough to not overwhelm the reader in less than 200 pages. I couldn’t put this book down and truly hope that Veronica Roth continues with this world or at least this type of storytelling because she struck gold.
I would highly recommend this to fans of One for My Enemy by Olivie Blake and the work of Holly Black.

Without a doubt, one of the best fantasies I've read in the past year. Despite being fewer than 200 pages, Roth packs a powerful punch, building an urban fantasy world that is fully captivating and original. I also absolutely loved how the author transposed elements of Polish folklore onto modern Chicago. (I'm such a sucker for the concept of traditional folk creatures following immigrants to new lands.)

The only thing that made me sad was that it wasn't longer -- the book was the perfect length for the story being told, but I loved the world and characters so much that I wanted to live with them longer than the span of these 176 pages.

This is the first book I've read from Roth since I was in middle school, and I'm incredibly impressed with it. (Which makes sense! I would sure hope someone grows as a writer over the course of a decade plus career!) Definitely planning to pre-order a copy of this book, as well as to order it for my library. Highly recommend!!

I had zero expectations going into this, and I was pleasantly surprised. The characters, prose, and setting were all spectacular. If you’re looking for a quick novella to read, this one is worth adding to your list.

What does it take to break traditional curses, curses of magic and curses of guilt?

Inspired by Slavic folklore and tales, we receive this book that is both blessed & cursed by magic, like many of the characters within it. It captures a unique atmospheric tone to its storytelling, and I found it captures the charm of Grimm stories in writing.
It had many characters holding their own burdens, and I loved the presence of magic creatures, but sadly, I didn't connect enough to the book. There was just one element that the writing didn't have, and it was the one that would usually have me obsessed with the world and story. I think it was a mixture of the pacing and how I wanted it longer to get more from how we got there (aka the beginning).

This is the first work I've read from Veronica Roth since I finished the Divergent series eleven years ago and I'm pretty impressed.

Some of the creatures in the novella are ones I've never read about before, and I'm eager for more Slavic mythology. I liked where the story went, and I felt fairly emotionally immersed by the end (a difficult feat reading something so short).

There was a point shortly before the end that I thought would have been a more satisfying end--novellas are a great medium to leave slightly unfinished and leave the reader with implications instead of concrete answers, and I would have been content with that in this case.

Content warnings: body horror, gore, sacrificial self-harm

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC!

A captivating story steeped in Slavic folklore. The world building/characters are phenomenal for such a short book. Everything was well written and tied together perfectly. I hope the author decides to write more from this world because I would gladly devour whatever she puts in front of me. My favorite book of the year so far!

I really had no idea how this book would play out. I've read Veronica Roth before and because of that, had reasonable expectations for this book, but the reality has been so much more impressive.

An urban fantasy set in modern day Chicago with a focus on Polish folklore and themes of belonging, regret, acceptance, family/found family, religion, and immigrant families, I found it to be a bit of an emotional reflection. Roth even managed to weave a beautiful romantic storyline in the most unexpected place.

I do wish this book were longer, or part of a series, but that's only because I loved the characters and world so much.

I feel as though this novella stepped deeply in folklore reminded me a great deal of the duology by Emily Tesh, starting with Silver in the Wood. While that was more enmeshed in Irish folklore, this one is Polish and it has one hell of a spoiler which I'm gonna try to avoid in this review.

The main character is a nameless man met by a leszy who bookends both sides of this novella. There is a test he needs to pass in order to gain the fern flower, a mysterious and mystical item that we are told he is pure of heart enough to earn at the end of the test.

But this is only the first part of the main characters plans, which then go on to involve Baba Jaga, strzygi and zmora, as well as of course the human people who try to kill 'creatures' like this.

There were a lot of elements to this novella that were covered in a relatively short period of time, but the turns of the plot kept me guessing around the romance subplot between Dymitr and Niko. This author really has so much imagination still up her sleeve.