Books like A River of Crows — picked by fans

I love this book because it turns the biblical idea of good versus evil into something frighteningly human and tangible.

What stayed with me was not the plague or the supernatural elements, but how ordinary people reveal who they truly are when the world collapses. I felt constantly unsettled by how thin the line is between morality and survival.

This story made me reflect deeply on faith, corruption, and the fragile nature of civilization in ways that few novels ever have.

I loved this psychological thriller for its inclusion of ravens in the plot, its well-developed characters, and its all-too-real gut-wrenching situations. A pair of ravens are integral to this intense, dark and tragic story. We meet them on page one, in the abandoned mill where the main character, Ria, hides. Her “friendship” with the raven couple is realistic, based on mutual respect and the occasional feeding. The fact that Ria showed the sensitivity and patience needed to develop that relationship tells us she is relatively healthy. Until she isn’t. 

In the second half, Ria and two other troubled teens spiral from various traumas. At that point, the ravens become background to the plot but return in one heart-breaking, villainous moment further in. 

I loved how crows play an important role in this Southern thriller, first as witnesses, then as historians, and finally as heroes. In 1828, crows observed a mass murder that set in motion almost two centuries of witchcraft by a coven operating under the cover of a college sorority. In the present day, the main character, Annabeth, assumes the ever-present crows at her new college hate her when, in fact, they are watching over her. Finally, crows play a major role in the climax. 

I loved the supernatural aspect of the crows, which is based in the natural world, and how this very enjoyable, eerie story wrapped in witchcraft has elements of coming of age, family trauma, and Native American mysticism.

“This was the fourth dead raven to appear on Sophronia Carver’s front path in as many weeks.” So begins this historical mystery. A series of dead ravens deposited on a young widow’s front stoop and an injured, rehabilitated raven taking flight bookend this period piece set in 1846 Maine. 

In a plot heavy with Edgar Allen Poe references and influences, the ravens reflect all of the birds’ many incarnations. The Widow Carver understandably sees the raven carcasses sent to scare her as sinister symbols and purveyors of doom. By the time the mystery is solved, malevolent intentions are thwarted, and true love has triumphed, the raven is finally seen as a noble, stately creature—a conclusion that I, of course, loved.

I thought I knew a lot about crows, but this book showed me otherwise.

From the first page, “I spill across the sky like ink—fill the night with jagged cries. I have one thousand eyes…” I was mesmerized by the storyteller, a murder of crows speaking directly to me.

The illustrations are just as absorbing as the narrative as crows huddle and act together to scare off predators through a long, cold winter night. An amazing true story! Plus, the info about crows and how smart they are in the back matter (like how they use tools) adds even more to the coolness factor.

Love love LOVE this book! 

I don’t read very much fiction (although I want to read more!) but I thought it would be interesting to check out some novels where animals are main characters.

I read several, and this is the one I still think about all the time. The main character is a crow and although the book is a fantastical mytho-poetic adventure through time and space, it is also a wonderful exercise in cross-species empathy.

While you are reading, you really feel like you understand what it means to be a crow. It really stuck with me; I found it really rich and wondrous. 

These twenty-two, well-crafted flash fiction stories illuminate a wide array of family situations and humanity by exploring both mundane and extraordinary moments. This collection manages to be funny, quirky, and poignant, while examining the foibles of family life and relationships with a particular focus on the roles of women and girls.

In recent years, nothing has gripped with me a child-like sense of excitement and wonder like The West Passage. I read fantasy as much for the experience of wonder as anything else.

As a child, I daydreamed constantly about fantastical worlds and strange planets, and I want fantasy to transport me back to that imaginative mindset. But that isn’t all it has to offer. Every page is packed with strangeness and mystery but also rich with its characters' emotional lives and psychological foibles. I was delighted and intrigued from page one.

This is the first in the Nell Ward Mystery Series where, unusually, the main character and amateur sleuth is an ecologist.

What I enjoy about this book is how the author cleverly uses the skills of an ecologist to solve the mystery and thereby draws a parallel with CSI techniques. We also learn a great deal of fascinating ecological detail (particularly about bats and badgers) and environmentalism tangentially to the storyline, which certainly adds another layer to the reading experience and this is what has stayed with me.

Give me a mystery with a fast-paced narrative and an interesting hero or heroine, and I’m hooked. This mystery, the first in a series, ticks all the boxes. When Maddie, an autistic dog handler and rumored animal psychic, discovers a dead body, she tells one reporter, "The crows told me where to look.” With that line, the book takes off down a path with many twists and turns. I fell in love with Maddie, the quirky and courageous heroine, but what resonated with me most, as one of five sisters, is the relationship between Maddie and her big sister Kenzie. The two are tight. Kenzie sees it as her role to nurture and corral Maddie in equal measures, forever trying and often failing to get her to act “normal.” Maddie chafes under her guidance but adores her. The strong and often complicated bond between sisters is vividly depicted here. I… show more.