Unicorns, pretty prose, battles: YA epic fantasy

[I received a free audio copy from the author]

Secret royalty, a mentally unstable companion that reminded me of Smeagol, epic battles, mysterious fae and a magical unicorn; this clean, YA, epic fantasy with multiple pov's has it all!

Favourites:
- Philosophic questions: as always in M.H.Woodscourt's books, The Crow King also addresses some difficult questions. Especially the question whether keeping one's promise of loyalty is warranted when the person we promised it to turns out not to be who we thought they were, and we don't know if their intentions are good, I found a particularly interesting. I haven't seen this one addressed a lot in fantasy books and it was a pleasant surprise with some additional questions I hadn't thought about yet. I enjoyed the depth.
- The baddies: I enjoyed getting to see some other sides of the (big) baddies. The antagonists weren't necessarily redeemed, but I like getting the tip of the veil lifted a little to see that even the antagonists tend to have some good intentions, whethr or not their execution and reasoning was terrible. The Crow King did a pretty good job with this.
- Description: as always, Woodscourt's descriptions were superb!
- Sassy side character: I won't give you any spoilers, but one of the young female side characters was great. I enjoyed her spunk!

What I missed:
- Narration: I'm afraid that I think I really would have liked this story a ton better if I'd read it instead of listened to it. The narration often fell flat for me, especially the first half. I often felt like the narrator didn't know the story well enough and although he did different voices and accents, he seemed to often make mistakes with which voice he'd start a sentence with, only to then switch. It often also felt stiff to me. Because of the narration I found it hard to concentrate on the story, even if this got better with his improved narration further in.
- Smeagol character: I don't want to name any names because of spoilers, but I personally struggled a little with the way the other characters dealt with this character. I understand that this character had a bigger role to play later on, I think that was clear from the start, and that's why he had to be kept around. But I found it hard to understand any rationalisation of keeping this character alive and not locked up since he was clearly a danger to those around him. I would think that the risks of him killing and eating another human being would outweigh any pity pleas, so I wasn't sure how to feel about this part of the plot.

Sexual content: none
Coarse language: none
Violence and gore: moderate
Trigger warnings: cannabalism, mild torture

Conclusion
I enjoyed my read, but I think I would have enjoyed it a ton more if I'd read the book, which is exactly what I'm going to do with the sequel! I'm looking forward to that one, though! If you like clean, YA, epic fantasy with fantastical worldbuilding, pretty prose and some depth, then I can recommend checking out The Crow King!

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