Book Review: Birdwing by Rafe Martin

Synopsis:

In a legend come true, young Prince Ardwin is cursed to live with a swan’s wing in place of his left arm. Under the watchful eye of his father the king his life is bliss, but when war threatens their kingdom, Ardwin flees to the far reaches of the country. Ultimately, he must make a decision about the path his life will take: should be lose the wing, and risk losing himself? Or keep it, and risk losing everything?

General Thoughts:

I’m a sucker for stories about animal people, and Birdwing far exceeded my expectations. It maintains it’s fairy-tale like aesthetic while still having an engaging plot, something that’s not always easy to do. This is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year, and it’s one that I will probably be thinking about for a long time to come.

Birdwing reminds me a lot of Summer and Bird, another fairy-tale like story about swans and ancient curses and children who have to deal with them. Summer and Bird was genuinely one of my favorite books at the time and still is, and I feel like a literary comparison of the two would be incredibly fun (but that’s a project for another day I’m afraid).

Liked:

-Ardwin: Extremely likable as an MC. He still has plenty of flaws (petty jealousy, acting out without thinking, etc), but overall I really think he made the book what it was.

-The swan wing: The way Birdwing addressed this was fascinating to me. It was not just a useless limb hanging around, but a living part of Ardwin’s body that seemed to have a will of its own.

-Side characters: Ardwin’s friends were also a delight to journey with. Although there were mistakes and disagreements, by the end of the book I still liked Stephen and Skye, which doesn’t always happen (sometimes there are betrayals, or a side character just becomes plain annoying by the end).

Disliked:

-I genuinely can’t think of anything off the top of my head that I disliked about Birdwing. There was a tiny bit implied sex-related things I was not fond of, but it was so miniscule that it really did not take away from my enjoyment of the book in any way.

Writer’s Notes

In my own writing, the MC of my novel is suffering a strikingly similar issue to Ardwin: being a winged boy in a world that is not designed for them. I will definitely be taking pointers from Birdwing about writing winged characters in non-wing-friendly settings: while I was aware that having wings was inconvenient for things like dinner parties and baths, I had not considered that they might have a mind of their own, and even cause injury to people around the character.

I also feel like Birdwing brings up a very interesting discussion about disability in YA literature. This book took a different approach than I did; in Earthborn, Rivi’s disability is not a main focus and no one is telling him to cut his wings off, but Ardwin actively has people out to get him for his differences, and trying to change him to fit their own agendas.

Overall Rating:

Birdwing gets an 8/10 from me. It has an extremely likable main character, an engaging plot, and a winged boy, what more could you ask for? The similarities to other works (mine and someone else’s) were also a pleasant surprise, and I’m just sad that this book is a standalone and not an ongoing series because I could read about Ardwin and his wings for days.