I have a history of issues with Mark Lawrence’s books. His worlds are detailed, his writing is sharp, but I often felt like IIm watching from the outside. I'm impressed, but not really pulled in. Daughter of Crows changed that, at least a little. This book is dark, kinda poetic and surprising. The Academy of Kindness trains women to be Furies, tools of revenge, and the world feels both real and also brutally and morally messy. Rue, the old assassin who now knits, surprised me. I didn’t think I’d care about her, but her dry humor, toughness, and the way she carries her past made me keep reading. The crow by her side is a great add-on. But there’s a catch. The violence is hard to take. Especially now I don't want to read about violence against kids. I tried to get past these passages quickly. I liked all the themes and adored the writing style, but still I felt that distance. I respected Rue, but I didn't feel for her as much as I should have. Still, this is the first Mark Lawrence book that worked for me. I'm hopeful now for more. 4/5 stars Thank you to @netgalley and @harperfiction for the eARC. #DaughterOfCrows #Bookstagram #NetGalley

I really struggled with this book. It felt as if the author wanted to make it an "intellectual read" and has overdone it. There are dozens of POVs, half of them are doing nothing for the story, different names are describing the same person and every time I got back into the story there was some weird change in person or timeline that again bored me senseless. I liked the idea of the kindnesses being women trained as assassins, and I enjoyed the story immensely when it had its dark academia vibes and the politic intrigues. Literally that made me read the whole book and not dnf half way through. I can't even say what could have been different for me to like the rest of this book, because even after I took a two days break to think about my review I'm still confused somehow. Yes, the book had an interesting baseline story that would have been enough to make it an excellent epic fantasy but for my taste it was just too slow and with too many different storylines for no reason. Thats why my rating is a three star one with a huge tendency to two stars. Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC