A lovely example of escapist fiction. I was truly transported to the world of The Bird King and enjoyed learning about Moorish rule in present-day Spain and all the cultural pieces. Unfortunately, the book lost me a bit toward the end, but the characters and setting were solid for the first 80 percent.

Set in 1491 in Granada, The Bird King is a historical fantasy book following the fall of the last Muslim emirate of Spain. Fatima is one of the many king’s concubines, she’s also a slave: her mother died while giving birth to her shortly after being bought off. She resents the way she’s treated by everyone, for most people, she’s nothing more than a beautiful thing, her worth is similar to the worth of a pretty chair. She knows she could be sold off at any moment if the king found a nicer looking toy to play with. Since she’s a concubine and a slave, she doesn’t have a lot of freedom. However, she’s not going to let that stop her from meeting her one and only friend, Hassan. He is the royal mapmaker and he has a very peculiar talent: he shapes reality when he draws.

Because of his powers, Hassan is seen as a sorcerer, he’s tolerated by the king because his tricks are the only reason the emirate is still standing. However, the Christians are now at the doors of the palace and the king doesn’t really care to protect Hassan anymore. Fatima isn’t going to let her only friend be killed off to appease the court. If saving him means giving up everything she knows, she’s going to do it, no matter the cost.



The moment I heard about this book, I knew I was going to read it. I love historical fantasy books and the setting was very intriguing! I thought the descriptions were wonderful, I could picture the various places, the characters and the tension perfectly. I really liked the scenes set in Granada but I loved the setting at the end of the book even more. I won’t talk about it in details because it would spoil the intrigue of the book but it was a fantastical place full of wonders!

I also loved the characters, Fatima is fascinating, she isn’t a likable character but she doesn’t have any reasons to be either. She was ignored and hated by a lot of people in the palace and, because of that, she can sometimes appears rash and selfish. However, she’s a complex and layered character, I loved slowly discovering her personality. She’s full of contradictions but she’s not stupid by any means. She made the most of each moment she had as a slave: she speaks different langages, she’s educated and she’s interested by the world outside the palace. She’s also very fierce and she wants to protect her friend as much as possible.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Hassan because he spent a lot of his time complaining but he was also interesting. He and Fatima were very different but they a great dynamic, you could see their friendship on the page, I especially enjoyed the stories they tell each other about The Bird King, the uncompleted poem they heard about when they were children. I also liked the fact that their relationship was strictly platonic, Hassan isn’t into women so he doesn’t see Fatima as a pretty thing.

However, as much as I was really interested by the characters and the setting, I really struggled with the pacing of the book. I like slow character-driven stories, like The Dollmaker by Nina Allan, however, as much as I like them, this was sloooooooow. More than half of the book is about Fatima and Hassan being pursued by their enemies and it didn’t held my attention for long. I found myself reading and re-reading the same parts because my brain wasn’t focusing at all. After a while, I started to skim the descriptions to only read the dialogues. The descriptions were nice but not particularly interesting or relevant to the plot during this part of the story.

It was a bit frustrating because I loved a lot of aspects but the pacing didn’t work for me at all… However, I think I have an unpopular opinion on this one, I read a couple of reviews and no one seems to find the pacing weird. If you’re intrigued by this book, don’t let my review deter you! It had very interesting elements and themes and even if it didn’t end up working for me, I could see a lot of people liking it. I would still read other works by G. Willow Wilson.

The writing in this was lovely and I adored the concept, however I struggled with the pacing enough that I ended up DNFing the book. I might pick it up another time, but for now, I just was slowing down too much to continue!

The worlbuilding in this story was solid, highlighting and adding even more depth to both Fatima and Hassan's characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This sounded so promising, I was dying to get it and o might have been a bit too enthusiastic? It's a historical fiction, with magical elements, a lot of religious references and overall way too slow for the already slow and time-consuming-to-build plot. I enjoyed it but it took a while to get through it.

I love magical realism and historical fiction! I've been a fan of Wilson on a professional level for a while, though I had not read anything she had written prior to this novel aside from a few issues of Ms. Marvel. I'm not a comic person but the character and the writing drew me in enough to give it a shot! Thus, when I read the description for The Bird King, I was instantly hooked and knew I had to read it. And boy! It did not disappoint! I really enjoyed the story and the characters and was fully drawn into the world. It's a bit on the long/slow side, but not too much so that it impacted my enjoyment of the story as a whole. In fact, sometimes I'm even a fan of that slowness. I love a good and intriguing novel that also spends time to develop the characters and world well.

Listen. I could NOT wait to get my hands on a copy of this book. The synopsis, the cover, it just SCREAMED at me to read it right away!

And then I did get my hands on it. And the writing is just stunning....BUT it was so painfully slow. This is a book that I kept putting down and forgetting about it. Not because it was terrible...but I just couldn't bring myself to pick it up again knowing the pacing of it was so slow and I had to focus so much of my attention and patience to it.

Which is a shame...bc the setting was just beautiful with it dripping in middle eastern culture.

This book is a historical fantasy, set in 1491 in Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain.

This book was a wild ride, in mostly good ways. Warning: this book is a SLOW read, but worth it. The character development for Fatima, the main character, was carefully crafted with love. Fatima, a royal concubine, and her friend Hassan, a mapmaker, have such a loving friendship that is tested at points, the flaws revealed-- and they grow after learning these flaws! There are different types of magic and magical beings, some interesting and others mystifying. When the plot fell a bit flat, the writing kept me going, as well as the need to find out what happens to these interesting, complex characters.

This unassuming gem has one of the most interesting settings and worlds I've seen in a while - Spanish Inquisition, Sultans, djinns, magical powers and a fairy tale that might just be true of a magical land where one can be free? This was wonderful. I wished there had been more world building, but that would probably have made the story a lot slower, and I truly appreciated how quickly this read. It's full of adventure, fun, it's a bit dark but not too dark, and generally a really good time.

I loved that the villain was a woman working with the Spanish Inquisition, a lovely and sweet, righteous woman who believes she's working with the guidance of God, but the reality of who's whispering in her ear is quite something else. She was so great and ruthless, I adored the scenes where she appeared.

This book loves getting trope-ish things and turning them around, like the concubine who falls in love with the Sultan, or the friends who run from their oppressive homes and fall in love... don't expect that. It's a really good book with a great story that feels both original and comfortable in the way it's told.

I loved the djinns as well! They brought such vibrancy to the story.

I highly recommend this book! In the end I do wish there had been more world building and a little more character development, both things which are my personal preference when it comes to fantasy. But if you love fast-paced stories, adventure and a bit of darkness to your fantasy books, you'll love this! I can't believe this book isn't more hyped!

Great adventure fantasy! Really fun story and excellent characters. The ending was a bit odd - there were a couple of spots that felt like a natural ending, and then the actual ending was somewhat abrupt - but that doesn't take away from the rest of the book.

In 1491 Grenada during the rein of the last sultanate in the Iberian peninsula, a concubine named Fatima and a mapmaker named Hassan embark on adventure to escape persecution from the Spanish Inquisition.

Unique is probably the most overused word I’m going to use to describe this novel. I’ve been a fan of G. Willow Wilson’s work (Ms Marvel graphic novels) but considering historical fiction/ fantasy isn’t a genre I gravitate toward, i went in with expectations that were relatively low (only because again, not my “preferred” genre)

UM..... I don’t know why I thought she would let me down.

This novel was BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN. Do you hear me? BEAUTIFULLY! The way she put on paper, the intricate world she built, was MAGICAL. The characters were flawed but you couldn’t help but admire their strength and the true love they had for each other. The message of tolerance and acceptance and forgiveness among all of their companions in the novel, was just lovely.

The only critique I had was that the plot is a little slow paced, well constructed, very detailed, but slow paced at times.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for my complimentary copy of this BEAUTIFULLY written story

I didn't really get on with the pacing and the plot of the book. I had some issues with the totally serious storytelling in a YA book . I haven't posted my review anywhere else because the problem wasn't the book. It wasn't for me.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to read and review the ARC

Disclaimer: I will not be providing a link for the review since I didn't really like the book. i don't want to publish a negative review (I never do) in my blog or Amazon because I don't want to generate bad attention to the book. I found the pacing to slow and the plot a little bit boring. So much that It was really hard to finish the rest of the book.

At once magically ethereal and brutally real, this book defies classification. Wilson ties together folklore and mysticism with historical events in this dreamlike story that reveals itself in layers, never revealing too many steps ahead. Both dreamlike and nightmarish by turns, you will be mesmerized by Wilson's intricate storytelling.

The Bird King is a long chase between Fatima, concubine of the last sultan of Grenada, Hassan, the magical mapmaker; and the Spanish Inquisition. While beautifully written with distinctive characters, the story itself drags on too long and ends in an unpleasant manner.

There is a sense of magic and attempting to change one’s own fate—an endeavor which no one seems quite capable of achieving by the lackluster conclusion.

Wilson’s writing and the complexity of the characters and their relationships elevates the story above its plot. The backdrop of Grenada during the Spanish Inquisition was unique and interesting, but ultimately the story itself could not live up to its setting.

3.5./5 starts

I know that I am a little late to this review, but when your mental health tanks you kind of don't want to do anything.

I am going to keep this short and sweet and just list my likes and dislikes

LIKES:
1. Fatima: our mc who I found so incredibly compelling. She exudes a strong-will, loyalty, and fearlessness; yet, she also struggles w/ impulsiveness, selfish needs, and fickleness. In other words: she's a well fleshed out human being.
2. Historical background: the other did a good job of submerging the reader into the time period, I do wish that it had delved into that more, but I thought it was enough to get me interested in learning more.
3. Writing: G. Willow Wilson can write. A few months after I read the book I went back through to read my favorite passages and WOW. I had forgotten how lush and powerful her words were.
4. Hassan and Fatima: loved their friendship. There were some moments were I was confused and thought that there may be more to their relationship, but was glad to see a platonic friendship where they clearly cared about each other immensely.
5, Concubine privilege: This is the only book that I have read that has not written about concubines in a negative way. I liked that Fatima's privilege as the Sultan's consort was discussed.
6. Luz: our main villain. I thought that she was one of the best villains that I had ever read (up until the last third of the book where I felt the ball was dropped a bit). What is more scary than a person trying to destroy your culture and the life that you have always known.

Dislikes:
1. Plot shift: the first third of the novel is heavily historical fiction, but the last third leaned more towards magical realism. I had a had time visualizing what was going on and feel that I just didn't get it. Perhaps, I missed a plot point and simply didn't understand it.
2. Magic: hard to visualize and wasn't explained...at all.

I have a rule for myself when I read electronic ARCs (as was the case with The Bird King): if I absolutely love the title, I buy a copy in hardback, even though I've already read it. Partly, that's because I'm a re-reader of books. But it's also just part of my sense of fairness. If a book is good, I figure I've paid my debt for the review copy by writing a review. When I *love* a book, I want to give more than just a positive review.

The Bird King is one of those titles I'll be buying in hardback. It's a wonderful blend of so many different things—historical novel, magical realism, exploration of Christian/Muslim conflict, an exploration of many kinds of love—and does all of these well. Do yourself the favor of spending time with this novel. You'll have several kinds of experiences at once—all of them pleasurable.

G. Willow Wilson once again displays her wonderful ability to tell a story. The magical realism, the complexity of characters, and the epic style journey those characters complete makes this a definite must read for anyone that enjoys the art of story telling! I have recommended this book to numerous friends already!

DNF at 46%

I did not enjoy this book. I first read 35% of it in May but then I put it back down because I wasn't feeling it. So today I wanted to try again and finish it. However, I just don't like it. This (slow) book isn't for me and I don't want to spend another few hours reading it because I'm just not going to have a good time. I hate DNFing ARCs I get from Netgalley, but I just don't care enough about this one to continue. Sorry.

I honestly did not think I would enjoy this as much as I did. The historical elements were intriguing. And with a mix of magic and mythical creatures, I was just blown away.

This story is set in Alhambra in the era when the Spanish were conquering kingdoms. Fatima (sultan’s concubine) and Hassan (mapmaker) were forced to flee the country when the Spanish wanted to kill Hassan in exchange for a peace treaty because they believed that Hassan was a sorcerer.

Their journey of escape was an adventure which I enjoyed. Though there was violence and some sexual elements, it was not repulsive. There were also some tiny parts that represented the LGBTQ+ that were pretty interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed this book for its uniqueness. The whole story strike me as a little odd and dark but in a good way. It was also a pretty heavy read but that was kind of expected from an adult genre.

I would recommend this book to adults who enjoy historical fiction + fantasy + adventure.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Grove Atlantic through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.