Guest Review of Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel

Black Bird of the Gallows
Black Bird of the Gallows #1
by Meg Kassel
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Genre: YA Paranormal / Urban Fantasy
Pages: 300
Add it on Goodreads
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece – and he’s not human.

What’s more, she knows something most don’t. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death. 

I was really surprised that, in a book centering around death and this horrible catastrophe that’s going to hit Angie’s town, it was still a love story. Right away, you see that Reece doesn’t know what disaster is coming and he says flat out that he can’t stop it. He’s just there to feed off the death, honestly. Sounds bad. So you come to terms with the fact that part of the book is going to be about this horrible tragedy. How is Angie going to survive it? Is her family going to survive? What’s coming?

The funny thing is, that’s not really what I focused on.

I saw the budding love story. You wouldn’t think it would be possible but Reece is actually a decent . . . what do I call him? Semi-human? Used to be human turned harbinger? I loved the snarky attitudes between them and the clashing at the beginning. That always makes for an interesting love story. It’s not like she swoons and falls madly in love with him right away. Believable.

I also liked Angie’s strength. She’s been through hell and back with her mom and the drugs. But she’s not shriveled up in the corner, unable to cope with her life. When you see her in the beginning, she actually seems pretty happy. She’s got a good life with a dad that loves her and dotes on her.

I was surprised by the ending, as well. I didn’t think there was a way for the author to spin this book so that you didn’t close it going “what just happened?” Everything wrapped up in a way that I could be okay with. It was actually a really good ending.

About Meg Kassel 

Meg Kassel is an author of paranormal and speculative books for young adults. A New Jersey native, Meg graduated from Parson’s School of Design and worked as a graphic designer before becoming a writer. She now lives in Maine with her husband and daughter and is busy at work on her next novel. She is the 2016 RWA Golden Heart winner in YA. 

 

 

To read more reviews like this one, visit the book blog  Ginger Mom and the Kindle Quest