The prose is classic Gaiman, cheeky, brave, a little melancholy. The Chris Riddell illustrations are perfect.

This novel was striking, sometimes very hard and heart breaking, fascinating, and very well written. I was/am pretty unfamiliar with this period of time in Kentucky and the condition which causes blue skin - so this was educational and engaging. Our main character is gracious, humble, brave, and stubborn. I listened to this as an audiobook and the performer was very good. Her gentle accent and inflections really added to the story.

I read this as the author suggested in the prologue jumping back-and-forth between the chapters and keeping track whenever we skipped one and going back to read them at the end. This is definitely a twisting story of trauma and psychological damage. It’s very good but I definitely recommend you ensure you’re in a good place before you read it and be aware of drug use and LBGTQ+ related trauma.

Max’s advanced reading discussion group book, that we read together/individually so he had some extra support. You know, these flightless parrots are pretty wild. I got a kick out of this.

Eleanor’s Review: 10 stars! I love how the friends work together and they stopped the war. My favorite part was when they found the onyx and that Sunny’s mom got to be queen. In this book, Blaze was funny.

Max’s Review: 4.5 / 5 stars, it’s not my favorite of all of the wings of fire books but I still like it. My favorite character is actually Smolder because he’s smart and funny. Also if you really think about it, Flower ended the war.

I’m not much of a DC superhero comic reader but my brother gifted me this because he knows I love NK Jemisin’s novels. His instinct proved correct, while I’m not super into green lanterns, I really enjoyed this. Nuanced, socially relevant, and imperfect, complex, diverse characters. Also this art. Classic style but bolder and brighter. I love it.