The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore Pages: 320
Published by Thomas Dunne on September 15, 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Magical Realism, Romance
Source: eARC from Publisher
For twenty years, the Palomas and the Corbeaus have been rivals and enemies, locked in an escalating feud for over a generation. Both families make their living as traveling performers in competing shows—the Palomas swimming in mermaid exhibitions, the Corbeaus, former tightrope walkers, performing in the tallest trees they can find.
Lace Paloma may be new to her family’s show, but she knows as well as anyone that the Corbeaus are pure magia negra, black magic from the devil himself. Simply touching one could mean death, and she's been taught from birth to keep away. But when disaster strikes the small town where both families are performing, it’s a Corbeau boy, Cluck, who saves Lace’s life. And his touch immerses her in the world of the Corbeaus, where falling for him could turn his own family against him, and one misstep can be just as dangerous on the ground as it is in the trees.
Beautifully written, and richly imaginative, The Weight of Feathers is an utterly captivating young adult novel by a talented new voice.
The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore is a beautiful story in the young adult magical realism genre. The Weight of Feathers has been called The Night Circus meets Romeo and Juliet. Now I haven’t read the Night Circus yet (I know, don’t shoot me!) but I can totally see the circus meets Romeo and Juliet comparison. Throw a little magic in and you have it. I loved The Weight of Feathers so much. I was equally fascinated by the Palomas and the Corbeaus.
The story starts out with the Palomas, but then shifts for much of the book to the Corbeaus. At first, I started out on the Palomas side and then switched over to the Corbeaus camp, but I soon realized that there are no good guys and bad guys here. Just two families that each have a bit of their own special magic and each have a whole lot of judgment and confusion over what the other family has done. It was almost comical the way that they blamed the other family for everything. It all centers around one event that took me by total surprise near the start of the book. I really liked how everything fit together around this event.And I loved that the two families acts were so totally different. The Palomas have a water act and the Corbeaus have an act high up in the trees. The big difference in their acts, just served to justify to each family just how different they thought they were from the other. I can’t emphasize enough how fantastically executed this story is. It felt like I was reading something really special.
Author Anna-Marie McLemore did such a beautiful job with this story. The writing is moving and the characters will have you rooting for them until the very end. I was swept up in the magic of The Weight of Feathers. I think this is a book that will appeal to young adult and all ages of adults alike. (I was going to say old adults, but I thought better of that almost immediately.) I cannot wait to see what Anna-Marie McLemore will come up with next.
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I’m so looking forward to reading this one.
Great review. I just bought this book and can’t wait to read it.
I am really starting to love the fiction mixed with realism thing going on lately. It is so much fun and since I both loved Romeo and Juliet and The Nigtht Circus, I definitely need to read this! I love your description of everything Michelle!
Everyone is raving about this book, and I can’t wait to read it. I love magical realism and forbidden love. Great review!
The Hatfields and the McCoys came to mind for me. I like some magic thrown in with the “real”.
This one has been on my TBR. I am a romance junkie. Great review!
This sounds really good, putting it on the TBR list!
I have recently been hearing so many good things about this novel that I have just had to add it to my TBR. I am looking forward to trying it.
I don’t know how I missed this one. It sounds so good. I loved The Night Circus but found it jumped around a bit so listened on audio which made a huge difference.