And Then There Were Crows

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Pub Date 03 Jul 2018 | Archive Date 06 May 2019

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Description

 Urban Dark Fantasy, Filled with Angels, Demons, Biting Social Critique, and What Might Happen When You Find a Roommate on Craigslist


WITH AN ANTISOCIAL ANGEL AND A ROOMMATE WITH ASPIRATIONS TO ENSLAVE HUMANITY, AMANDA GREY GOES FROM A WOMAN WORRIED ABOUT HER OWN PERSONAL DEMONS TO HUMANITY’S LAST HOPE AS SHE FACES NEW YORK CITY’S DEVILS, CURSES, AND CULTS

New York City has always been a big fat sack of stress attacks for Amanda Grey. From turning herself into knots to evade rubbing ass cheeks with strangers on the train, to round-housing public bathroom door handles to stave off plague contaminations, Grey has always found the simple technique of avoidance best in dealing with NYC. What's always saved her—what’s always served as her bastion from the City’s bright lights and cat-calling construction workers—was the little one-bedroom apartment in Queens she’s shared with her parents. Of course, that’s all about to change.

When her parents go on an extended vacation and leave Grey to her own devices, she quickly manages to screw everything up, soon finding herself broke, behind on rent, and facing eviction. That’s how fast life in the city goes: One second, your biggest concern is rising Metrocard costs and avoiding eye contact with creepy looking children. The next, you’re nearly murdered by a man infested with demons, one of which you’ve rented your bedroom to, and before you know it you’ve set into motion the biblical apocalypse prophesized in the Book of Revelations—literally.

In Alcy Leyva’s debut dark urban fantasy novel, And Then There Were Crows [Black Spot Books, July 3, 2018] Grey goes from a woman concentrated on clamping down on her own personal demons to the woman responsible for recapturing the six Shades she’s unleashed on the city. To accomplish this, she must venture out into a society even more alien to her now than before—oh, and try to stay alive, too. She manages to survive by accepting the help of Barnem, a seraphim who just happens to reside in an upstairs apartment and also just so happens to be equally terrible at human interactions as she is. Oddly, the demon Grey now shares an apartment with also steps up to help her vanquish the Shades, though she can't be sure if it's out of roommate loyalty or a secret plot to enslave humankind. Probably the latter.

Together the unlikely trio faces a bevy of social demons, from navigating political warfare, to breaking the curse of infomercials, to figuring out exactly how Grey becomes the leader of a cult. For Grey, it becomes harder and harder to tell the difference between the ills of society and the influence of the Shades. She begins to notice that living with her social anxieties makes her more sensitive to the oddities around her, which, ironically, seems to make her the perfect person to deal with the world's mounting weirdness. As Grey comes to be part of a society that has accepted the strange ways we communicate with each other, she questions if the “social sanity” she felt excluded from her entire life ever really existed in the first place.

And Then There Were Crows is dark, satirical view of the apocalypse, where we find that the balance between good and evil, black and white is sometimes, well, a little more Grey.

 “At its core, And Then There Were Crows explores the ways our personal hells become public nightmares,” says Leyva. “Amanda Grey’s journey is bloody and violent, but it's also severely tongue-in-cheek. There are angels and demons—there's even a visit from the pope—but even armed with sarcasm and skepticism Grey finds it difficult to discern the demons she’s let loose from the ones here already. She is a flawed yet relatable character that has had a hard time saving herself and suddenly she has to save the world.”

And Then There Were Crows is also a love letter to the city I grew up in. New York can dazzle you with her lights and she can chew up and spit out even the most seasoned city dwellers. Though exaggerated, Grey lives by the prototypical New Yorker philosophy: ‘find a place with lots of sunlight, with at least a 1:4 rat to roach ratio, and within walking distance to a supermarket and/or train and/or bus.’ You never know what New York is going to throw at you, be it transit hikes, traffic on the George Washington Bridge, six-foot tall roaches, or demons hell-bent on world domination. It's just that kind of town.

 Urban Dark Fantasy, Filled with Angels, Demons, Biting Social Critique, and What Might Happen When You Find a Roommate on Craigslist


WITH AN ANTISOCIAL ANGEL AND A ROOMMATE WITH ASPIRATIONS TO...


A Note From the Publisher

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alcy Leyva is a Bronx-born writer, teacher, and pizza enthusiast. He graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. in English (Creative Writing) and an MFA in Fiction from The New School. His personal essays, poetry, short fiction, book reviews, and film analysis have been published in Popmatters, The Rumpus, Entropy Mag, and Quiet Lunch Magazine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alcy Leyva is a Bronx-born writer, teacher, and pizza enthusiast. He graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. in English (Creative Writing) and an MFA in Fiction from The New...


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Average rating from 33 members


Featured Reviews

So, despite my five star rating, this may not be the book for you.

You have cursing (lots of it), gruesome violence (lots of it), just general weirdness (a whole freaking lot of it), and snark (pretty much the entire book).

Added to the above mentioned virtues (lol - no, not vices), you've got a rocking adventure of a story that made me smile more than once, laugh out loud (literally a few times), and snort unattractively (many, many times).

I loved our main character. Somehow, our author managed to make her snarky without making her sound like a teenager. D was beyond awesome and even the Pope made me laugh. (Note: if you can't take a rather tongue in cheek view of religion, you might want to skip.)

My first reaction when I started reading it could best be described as a rather stunned what-the-heck-am-I-reading expression, but the book quickly became just pure fun.

So, probably not for everyone (because severed body parts), but definitely for me!

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I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Good: Um, everything. Grey, the main character is a young woman coping with mental illness, but not in the sad-but-pretty way I usually see depression and anxiety portrayed. She's kind of a mess. And I someone with those same issues, I can seriously relate and loved the way Leyva wrote her. And, when she accidentally kicks off the apocalypse, she doesn't always handle it well, but she learns to confront her problems, albeit with a potentially unhealthy level of violent rage.
The side characters are also great, each with their own distinct personality. I especially loved Petty, because loving your sibling fiercely and also really wanting to strangle them is another thing about Grey that I can relate to. Grey's demon roommate was my second favorite, but to get into why would bring up too many spoilers.
The snark was also great.
The Bad: The story tends to get a little tangled up at times, but in like a quirky and endearing way. That's really all the bad I have.
The Verdict: I absolutely loved this book. The style reminds me of Neil Gaiman a bit, which is, of course, high praise.
Read this if you like shows like Supernatural and books like American Gods.
Warnings: There is a lot of violence, a fair amount of language, and a heaping ton of sacrilege.

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I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading And Then There Were Crows.  Part satirical urban fantasy, part black comedy - the end of the world begins with a Craigslist ad for a roommate.  In this case roommate from hell is an accurate description.  Amanda Grey has agoraphobia and panic disorder.  Dealing with the everyday is hard enough, but now she has shades trying to kill her, a disturbing excuse for an angel blaming her for the oncoming apocalypse, and a new neighbor trying to be her friend.  Odd things are happening in New York, and somehow it is up to Amanda to save the day.

Amanda isn’t the most likable heroine, but she is perfectly believable as a young woman with serious anxiety issues. Her main methods of coping are avoidance and driving people away by being unpleasant.   But she is the perfect heroine for this unique novel and difficult to classify novel.

My only complaint is that there are times when the novel drags.  Otherwise it is an excellent and unusual read.

4 / 5

I received a copy of And Then There Were Crows from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

— Crittermom

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Do NOT read this book in public. You WILL get odd looks when you inexplicably burst out laughing at random moments. Trying to explain those moments to other people...can be difficult. Don't ask me how I know this. I just do. Anyway...

The world is ending, and it's all Grey's fault. All she did was run out of money and put an ad on Craigslist for a roommate. No big deal. Well, when that roommate happens to be a Shade host that tries to kill her 5 minutes into the story, things get complicated. Throw in an anti-social Seraphim, a crazed TV show host running for mayor, the pope, and some cultists...there's a big chance Grey won't make it out of this intact.

I loved this book. I went a little outside of my norm for this one and I am 100% glad I did. Started it late Wednesday night and finished by Thursday. Dark humor is a steady lifeline throughout the book and it makes the story move quickly.

Amanda Grey's growth as a character is beautifully done. She starts as a young woman with severe social anxiety--just the act of meeting a roommate seems enough to send her into a panic attack which is a running theme throughout the book. We see glimpses into the mind of a person with severe anxiety who pushes herself through it, forces herself to interact with "people" despite her aversions and grows into a person willing to die to fix her mistakes.

Given the cast and situations, this book reminds me a lot of "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. The style of humor is very similar so if you enjoyed that one, you'll likely enjoy this as well. It's not the book for people who take their religion seriously, or who are easily offended by language or violence as it has a lot of both.

Overall: definitely recommend (and have recommended to like-minded friends).

**I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Although I enjoyed the blurb, I'll be honest and admit it was totally the cover that drew me to this one. I have a thing for corvids to begin with, but the cover and title were a definite advantage for me picking this one up.

It took me longer than I thought to read. The beginning is great and it hooks you, but soon I got tired of the endless metaphors and similies. Don't get me wrong, some of them were very clever and funny, but after the hundredth one it got tedious. I ended up putting the book down a few times. I did pick it back up and in the end finished the novel.

In the first half of the story our protagonist asks several times how she could screw up so badly, which is irritating because none of it is her fault. A couple of times the author lost me since I've never lived in, nor visited, New York city. His familiarity with the location is obvious but skipping over the details of where they were didn't detract too much from the story. There were a couple of places that only made sense after finishing the book that probably could have been given a bit more oomph had the narrator pointed out their strangeness at the time. (mild spoiler: Mandy breaks her wrist and binds it with ducktape, to keep the "loose bone from sliding too much" but no mention is made of pain or the weirdness of the lack thereof.)

One thing Leyva did in excellent fashion was describing Mandy's mental health. As a sufferer of anxiety and depression I found myself wishing I could fist bump this novel in solidarity several times. This passage is especially resonant:

"The point, Barnem, is that sometimes I feel fine and sometimes I feel broken, less than, possibly dead. Sometimes I hear so many damn voices in my head that I forget what mine sounds like. Sometimes I get so angry that I want to tear my flesh up to let out the pressure. Sometimes I fall so deep into my own head that I don't eat or shower for days."

In the end I found this to be an entertaining read with a few standout passages, an interesting if not wholly original plot, a cast of sympathetic characters, and an abrupt ending that is disappointing though not unexpected.

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This was a pretty fun read. I mean, the amount of sass and snark in this book was off the charts. Leyva should probably be writing for Deadpool. Just sayin’.

The book starts off with our main character, Amanda Grey, trying to find a roommate so that she doesn’t lose the family apartment while her parents are on vacation. Grey is an anti-social weirdo who would rather punch you in the face and run away than talk to you. But she sucks it up and goes to Craigslist, cuz she’s gotta save the only home she’s ever known. And this is how her own personal (and literal) hell begins.

I actually related to Grey in a lot of ways cuz I also deal with GAD and panic attacks. When you deal with shit like that, it is a lot harder meeting new people and hiding out in your room is really appealing. It was cool seeing Grey grow as a person and learn to overcome some of that through the loyalty she felt towards her family. She learned that she can trust people when they say that they care and that she can depend on others (so it’s not the end of the world if she opens up a little bit. That’s what the demons are for). And of course she does all of this while being sarcastic as hell. Her inner monologue was hilarious and I wish I could think up amazing comebacks like hers.

I liked all the secondary characters as well (except for one, but I guess that was fine cuz they turned out to be a real dick anyway). Grey’s demon roommate, D, was probably my favorite. Even though he doesn’t talk for like the first half of the book, his mannerisms were enough to endear him to me. I even came to like Grey’s kid sister who also got a bit of development as well.

The plot was a roller coaster of gore and sarcasm. It was gross (in a good way), but also comical so it made all of the crazy stuff happening really entertaining. I feel like it would be a real awesome horror movie, like on the same level as Evil Dead. It has that same combination of disturbing and ridiculous. My only critiques are that the story lagged a bit in the middle and the plot got a little fuzzy, but the beginning was strong and the last third of the book really picked up. I felt like the fight scenes could also be finessed a bit cuz I found them a bit confusing at times. But overall, it was a really cool and funny read and I’ll be looking for a sequel.

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Summary: Amanda Grey has unleashed seven shades from hell and one moved in with her; well she still needs a roommate.

Things I liked: Leyva has a way of writing that feels like you are having a conversation with him in a coffee shop. I personally enjoy this type of writing style. It puts you the reader into the author's headspace a bit. His characters are fleshed out and three dimensional. You don't know who are the good guys or the bad guys; which makes the story entertaining and keeps you guessing. The pacing of the story is fast and doesn't let up. You may get to take a breath here and there but the story just keeps coming. The writing is witty and intelligent...I found myself laughing out loud in many different parts of the story. I actually tweeted Alcy and asked what "ass plague" is. He so graciously responded.. (Thanks Alcy)!!

Things I didn't like: Honestly, there wasn't anything that I didn't like in this story.

Star Rating: 5 Go out and buy this book then buy the sequel!!

My Thoughts: Alcy Leyva is a great story teller. There is so much that is funny in this novel that yeah just yeah. Just read it. I want to talk about all the parts but alas no spoilers. If you want to read a fast paced, smart and witty story please with all that is bookish go out and buy And Then There Were Crows you won't be disappointed.

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ARC/e-book/ Absurd Fantasy: First, I want to thank NetGalley for letting me have an advanced copy of this novel in lieu of an honest review. This book will not come out for a while so no spoilers here. I will tell you how I felt about the book.

The book is written in first person, which is my favorite narrative. I like the character of Amanda Gray. I guess, because she reminds me of Meredith Gray on Gray’s Anatomy. She seems meek at first but since the first person places you inside her mind, you come to realize how snarky and passive aggressive she is.

This book is more like an epic novel and I hate to say probably about 100 pages too long. It wasn’t that there is a lot of filler; it is that the author roles three adventures to finally get to the end. Just when you think it’s over (and it can’t be because there is plenty of book left), it doesn’t wrap up the plot and keeps going. It’s like that stupid Batman movie with Heath Ledger as the Joker. You think it’s over and then Two-Face makes you sit through another hour. Luckily, this book doesn’t have the boredom of that Batman movie. It does have the absurdity.

This is an absurd novel. I saw some other reviews that said this book” wasn’t their cup of tea”. I really enjoy absurd novels to a point. If you like Christopher Moore, you will like this book. It is a dark comedy. Without giving anything away, I think the roommate and his evolution with all its grievances is the best part.

I did like this book a lot. It is a little too long, but it is pretty good.

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Funny, silly, and irreverent. The characters were a bit hard to relate to, but the plot is imaginative and the author does a great job of not telegraphing where the plot is going, which keeps things interesting.

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I received an ARC through Netgalley, so I’d like to thank Alcy Leyva and Smith Publicity for providing me a copy.

Amanda Grey lives in New York and does her best to avoid people and the outside world as much as possible. Until her parents go on a vacation and leave her to her own devices: thus she has no choice but prepare her own food, and face the reality of rent paying. On which her parents are weeks late. What does an antisocial girl do in this situation? Puts up a Craiglists ad looking for a roommate. Turns out this isn’t the most clever thing to do. She not only manages to end up living with a demon but also sets free a bunch of Shades who wreak all kind of havoc throughout New York City. Animal heads are being hung up on wires like lampions on a summer night, strange cultish groups appear, the Mayor’s brother who works as a Pirate Captain in a children’s TV show goes crazy and decides it’s time to “Make New York Nice Again”.

Not having any other chance she, her upper neighbour – who happens to be a Seraph – and the demon set out to fix the problem. If this wasn’t enough, Amanda’s little sister, Petunia shows up out of the blue after avoiding her family for years nursing her own little secrets, a cult serving the Darkness are bent on making her their goddess and the new guy in the building, Donaldson tries his hardest to raze Amanda’s walls to the ground. Which at one point in the story happens. Literally.

Amanda is a strong protagonist. For a while I wasn’t sure if I liked her or not. She is an annoying smartass with a sharp mind and even sharper tongue who’d like nothing more than being left alone finally, to battle with her own demons in peace. Then I realized she is like me in some ways and started to understand her. Readers probably won’t like her much, but under all the snark and hard shell she is vulnerable and hungry for love. She is also an unusual MC because you don’t often find books with a character battling with mental illnesses – depression, panic attacks, etc. She has enough on her plate already and absolutely doesn’t need any more shit on top of it. Not that she has any say in the matter. So she puts herself together and faces whatever that comes to her way.

The demon – D. – and the Seraph – Barnem – are also interesting characters. Leyva plays with stereotypes here making Barnem antisocial, cynic, grumpy who doesn’t really care about humanity all that much. D., on the other hand although practically forces his money on Amanda and so tricks her into accepting him as a roommate, saves Amanda’s life on more than one occasion. My favorite character, however, is Donaldson. The guy is loyal to a fault and pretty hard to intimidate or deceive with harsh words sounding like threats but actually being part of a defense mechanism built up by Amanda as to not let anyone close to herself. Their banters are pretty funny no less than Amanda’s and Barnem’s.

The characters, the story has the potential. So why the 3 stars? While this book is enjoyable in a this-is-some-seriously-weird-shit kind of way, you can’t help but wonder how much better this could be with some more editing. There are some inconsistencies, the writing is sometimes uneven and sometimes it’s not clear what happens. It takes time to wrap one’s mind around the Shades and how they actually work – this part needs a better/clearer explanation. It’s also hard to decide if this book wants to be funny/parodic or takes itself completely seriously and falls somewhere between the too – not funny enough but also can’t take it seriously either even though Amanda’s character is meant to represent this balance. The end is a bit rushed and probably too much things are crammed into this book. It’s like the author wanted to squeeze in as many sub plots as he could but it has the opposite effect as he aimed for.

The other issue with this book is the usage of acronyms like fyi (sic!) and TBD (which I have no idea what it stands for, to be decided maybe?) in dialogues. No one uses acronyms while talking – OK some acronyms are used that way, but FYI? Weird.

All in all, Then There Were Crows is a fast paced, enjoyable read – if you have a certain kind of humor and don’t mind some violence here and there. This is a rather dark, horroresque urban fantasy with unique characterisation and promising ideas. With some improvements here and there (editing, writing – see my complaints above) this series can grow into something good and worthy of attention all fans of horror, dark fantasy, urban fantasy and everyone in between who like their story with a good measure of snark and violence.

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Imagine your parents would leave you alone for more than a month to go on a holiday and leave you alone with no money to pay the rent. What would you do?

This happens to Amanda Grey in Alcy Leyva’s debut novel, And Then There Were Crows. Amanda has no job and does not know how she can gather enough money to pay the bills. So she gets creative and finds herself a roommate. Life in New York is expensive enough so a lot of people are willing like to share costs, including demons.

But before they could discuss any details, the demon tries to kill Amanda and she ends up killing him, which is exactly how she started the Apocalypse. Still in shock she learns that her neighbour Barnem is a Seraph—an Angel who’s job is to save earth from demons and prevent the Apocalypse from happening.

All of a sudden Amanda has a social life she never had before with many demons interested in her company and annoyingly, an angel who does not leave her side. Plus there’s also a new neighbour by the name of Donaldson who is moving in and he’s pretty interested in her. Well, why not live life a little if your soul is already doomed to go to hell?

Alcy Leyva does an excellent job with his debut novel, which is the first instalment in ‘The Shades of Hell’ trilogy. The novel is filled with sarcasm, which is incredibly enjoyable, with the combination of the difficulties of growing up and taking responsibility of your own decisions. You can easily dive into the intriguing and unique story, which addresses a large array of topics including politics, religion, anxieties and mental health, and how life is for a lone wolf.

As for our main character, Amanda realises that the only hope for humankind is to stop the bad guys with the way it all started: with herself. It can be easy to identify yourself with Amanda—she has to take care of herself for the first time in her life and she doesn’t know how to do that. To make friends? Impossible! How do others do that? To even trust them is challenging when your own sister does not have your back.

The story evolves is incredibly fast-paced that just after three pages, you’ll find yourself already in the middle of the story and won’t realise how quickly you were able to get there! This story can be best described as a mix of Carrie Pilby and Dogma.

As for our author, Alcy Leyva lives in the Bronx, NYC, and he is a writer and teacher. He has a BA in English and Creative Writing and a MFA in Fiction from the New School. He likes to write personal essays, poetry, short fiction, book reviews and film analysis which have been published in Popmatters, The Rumpus, Entropy Mag, and Quiet Lunch Magazine. You can find Leyva on Twitter.

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***I received a free copy of this book from Black Spot Books and NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity.***

Amanda Grey needed a roommate so she placed an add on Craigslist. When a prospective renter showed up and tried to kill her she fought back and saved her own life at the cost of his. However, upon his death she unwittingly released the Shades inhibiting her attacker's body and they are pure evil.

Amanda is responsible for starting the apocalypse. She must try to stop the Shades that were freed to have any chance of saving the world. Then a new problem occurs. One of the Shades she released waltzes into her apartment with the rental contract from the guy she killed. She still needs a roommate. Even if it is a demon?

What comes next is a thrilling ride with a heroine dealing with social anxiety, everyday issues, and concerns suddenly becoming the MVP for the world. Throw in a lot of laugh -out -loud moments, "What just happened?" , no holds barred jokes and commentary, snark and sass, an interesting seraphim angel living upstairs, a romantic interest, a demon, a hoity-toity sister, and an evil cult or two and it just gives a hint of the fantastic story. There is also a good amount of cussing, violence and gore, too.

Are you still reading this review? Go get this book!

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*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Black Spot Books and Smith Publicity through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

A smartass main character.
A demon roommate.
An antisocial Angel.
Grouping themselves to try and save the world.

Indeed, "And Then There Were Crows" is a bizarre, yet interesting urban fantasy novel which takes readers to an adventure of saving the world from the apocalypse.

The story started when Amada Grey accidentally rented a room to a demon and unleashed six Shades from Hell. With the help of her upstairs neighbor, who turned out to be a seraphim, and her now demon roommate, this unimaginable trio are now responsible to catch the Shades while facing shenanigans of New York City.

The first reaction when I was reading this novel is, "What the heck am I reading?" It completely caught me off guard even when I read the synopsis. This is so far the weirdest book I've ever read. It has a lot of cursing, gruesome violence, and hilarious banters of the characters. Therefore, this book isn't for everyone. Luckily, this kind of weird is my thing.

The writing style and tone are simple and quite addicting. The plot is unpredictable. I honestly didn't know where the story was going and I can't even guess how the story would end. The curiosity built by the plot made me read the book until the very end.

For me, the best thing about this book is the characters. Amanda is a feisty and unusual protagonist. She is smart and has a sharp tongue and always want to be left alone to fight her own demons. She always pushes people who care about her away from her as her defense mechanism. However, behind that facade masked a girl who needs love and affection. Despite all that, she strongly faces whatever challenge to survive. Next are D and Barnem. Both are complex and gray. D is a demon but saves Amanda in times of perils. The motives of his actions are not clearly defined until the end of the book. On the other hand, Barnem is an angel who supposed to be helping humans. However, he doesn't really care much about humanity and just still helps Amanda to defeat the other demons.

The only issue that I have with this book is the thing about the Shades isn't explained well. It would have taken almost half of the book before I completely grasped about how the Shades worked.

Overall, "And Then There Were Crows" has interesting elements which makes it an enjoyable read.

I give this book 4/5 stars!

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I fell in love with the title. That’s it. But the plot was intriguing so I decided to give this one a try. And let me tell you, that it went well!
I enjoyed the reading, I enjoyed it a lot, even if the setting wasn’t of my liking, and the story wasn’t, at the end of the day, so intriguing. But I fell in love with the MC and the “WTF is this-ness” of the entire book, that I kept on reading and enjoying it because it was… well, it was… I don’t know which word use here. It’s original, it’s peculiar, it’s strange, in some part is genius, and for most of the time, it’s absurd. But not in a bad way. Absolutely not.

So, if you are in for a challenge, and you want to read about not your everyday heroine, well, that’s the right book for you!

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You will laugh with this book. That's a warning. If you like to read in public transportation, that is something that you may want to keep in mind.
There is pretty much something for everyone, a wild romp of a book that will keep you guessing right up to the end.

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Amanda Grey just wants to save her family home. Living in a small New York apartment, her parents not only left her alone, but left her an immense amount of money to watch the house while they're gone. As a twenty something year old woman, this shouldn't be a problem, after all she loves being by herself anyways. That is, until she gets months behind on the rent. That's when things start to pile up on her. It becomes just another thing to worry about, after attacking her, a man disintegrates into crows before her eyes.

She then meets a demon, and an angelic being, and must go off of her adventure to save the world before the crows can spawn worse things around the city. Although I like the characters and the idea of the story, I just couldn't keep my attention on it. The writing was great, I just think that they story wasn't as attention grabbing as I originally thought it was going to be.

I did, however, like how gory the book was. For a young woman, she gets jumped a lot by demons, and in the first person viewpoint, she must defend herself using whatever means necessary to protect the planet, and humanity as a whole. I liked that there was kind of a cult aspect to it, alongside the angels and demons, but like I said, I just couldn't get into it.

That being said, I do think it has the potential to have a lot of fans. Just because I didn't love this book specifically doesn't mean you won't. If you think you'll like it, definitely give it a try and check it out.

Thanks for reading!
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

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Sometimes things just grab ya by your ass...
Completely dysfunctional Bronx girl finds there are more sucky things to life than the life she had lived so far in her isolated world. This starts off simple with trying to scrounge up money for rent of her family's apartment she is suppose to be taking care of while her parents are away. There's a demon spitting crows that are spit out of the would be murderers mouth that answered her room to rent ad that she managed to kill before he killed her and the demon from one of the turned crows she ends up renting to. There a whack job angel that has been hanging around that doesn't seem like anything you would want from an angel then it goes from there. The author catches humanity at its worse in a laursonic manner to jab at the worse of New York superficiality One part perfectly represented what I find most loathsome about modern society and it could work as a real life situation anywhere in the country or world now. Situations have arisen that are identical with the same lack of concern outcomes actually causing death to people and animals just because people were more concerned with getting likes on social media. This excerpt stuck with me:
Behind him, a woman—her blood-soaked hair plastered to the side of her head—climbed out of the passenger seat and limped over to the hood. Her foot was bent off to the side, dragging along the concrete. She was sobbing. “Uh. Not really. But, Barnem―”
“Really? It’s like white people rapping and doing really bad Caribbean accents. Actually, never mind that, never mind. Don’t try to change the subject.”
The woman slid herself over to the driver’s seat. She started calling out, “Bailey, oh my god, Bailey,” as smoke crawled out of the smashed engine.
“Humanity’s been screwing this world up since the cave paintings which, in my opinion, and I’m allowed to have it, weren’t really that good.”
The bloodied woman banged on the window. A small crowd was gathering, but everyone was too busy choosing which filter would bring out the plight of the woman better.“But the Shades? The Shades are going to tear this place apart. If you haven’t been paying attention, they’re already at work, Grey, fucking up the already fucked up. They bring out the absolute worst in your people by hanging around. The animal carcass thing? Only petty stuff. Only one of them blowing off some steam. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
The woman snatched a selfie stick from a young couple trying to frame themselves correctly with the wreck and used it shatter the rest of the glass. Diving in to hug the man crumpled on the steering wheel, she checked his pulse and started screaming,
“And it’s because of you, Grey. All of it. No matter how many times you deflect or make jokes or polish it up with some half-assed philosophy of yours. You’re wrapped up in this now.”A news crew from the pet massacre swooped in alongside the car. They asked the woman how it felt to lose someone so close to her. She told them that he wasn’t dead. The reporter spun back to the camera and promoted a later segment about how nine out of ten women are in denial about failed relationships. I heard a vlogger nearby critiquing what she was wearing at the time of the crash.I watched as street performer started piling into the gawking sea of humanity to take advantage of the crowd, making it impossible for the ambulance to drive in.
But, the story is funny also anda good wild ride

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