Quick Take
- Narration: Avena Mansergh-Wallace brings the dual heroines to life with distinct vocal identities, handling the emotional swings from tenderness to violence with real range.
- Themes: Vengeance and found family, power and vulnerability, love as transformation
- Mood: Intense and immersive, emotionally volatile in the best possible way
- Verdict: An ambitious sapphic romantasy debut with lush prose and genuine emotional stakes, best suited for readers who want dark fantasy that centers love without softening its edges.
There is a particular kind of reading experience I associate with romantasy debuts: the feeling of walking into a world that is still finding its edges, where the prose is sometimes breathless but the imagination is genuinely expansive. A Curse of Crows by Lauren Dedroog gave me that feeling. I started it on a grey Sunday afternoon, intending to sample a chapter or two. I was still listening four hours later.
This is the first book in the A Curse of Crows and Serpents series, published by Gollancz and narrated by Avena Mansergh-Wallace. It follows two women: Diana, whose prayers carry enough weight to move gods, and Aedlynn, a weapon forged in darkness who feels no pity, no guilt, and supposedly no love. Their stories converge in a realm where divine politics and mortal scheming collide in ways neither of them fully anticipated.
Our Take on A Curse of Crows
The comparison that keeps surfacing in reader reviews is ACOTAR and Throne of Glass, and it is not inaccurate in terms of scope and emotional register. What Dedroog does differently is center the sapphic romance not as a subplot or twist but as the emotional spine of the entire narrative. The connection between Diana and Aedlynn is, as one reviewer put it, "soft in places, intense in others, and refreshingly central rather than sidelined." For readers who have felt that sapphic fantasy tends to get marginalized in epic fantasy, A Curse of Crows is a direct corrective.
The world-building is ambitious. Gods and mortals operate in close proximity, divine bargains carry genuine consequences, and the political landscape of the realm is layered enough that the betrayals, when they arrive, feel motivated rather than convenient. Reviewers who compared it to reading an entire ACOTAR or TOG series in one book are responding to how much Dedroog packs into these fifteen hours without making the experience feel rushed.
Why Listen to A Curse of Crows
Avena Mansergh-Wallace is a significant asset here. The dual-perspective structure requires a narrator who can make two very different women audibly distinct: Diana’s voice needs to carry the vulnerability of someone whose power operates through prayer and faith, while Aedlynn’s needs the precision and control of someone who has weaponized herself against feeling anything. Mansergh-Wallace achieves this distinction without cartoonish exaggeration. The emotional scenes, especially as Aedlynn begins to crack, are handled with real restraint that makes them land harder.
Gollancz has given the production appropriate attention. At 15 hours and 42 minutes, the audiobook is a full immersion rather than a casual listen, and the sustained quality of Mansergh-Wallace’s performance over that runtime is impressive. First-time encounters with romantasy in audio form will find this a strong representative of what the format can do for the genre.
What to Watch For in A Curse of Crows
One reviewer gave it 3.5 stars with the assessment that it is an "ambitious debut with immense potential" and a note that the world-building occasionally overwhelms the character work in the middle section. That is a fair critique. Dedroog is clearly building a large canvas, and some of the political exposition requires patience. Readers who want a tighter focus on the romance at the expense of the divine intrigue may occasionally lose the thread.
The female villain origin story framing in the book’s subtitle is deliberate: Aedlynn is not a straightforwardly heroic character, and the novel asks you to hold moral complexity without resolving it neatly. Blurbers including Tessonja Odette and Mara Rutherford position this as high fantasy that earns its darkness, and on balance I think that characterization holds.
Who Should Listen to A Curse of Crows
Dark fantasy readers who want sapphic romance at the center of an epic story rather than relegated to its margins will find this debut exactly what they have been looking for. The scale and emotional intensity suit listeners who enjoy multi-day immersive reads. Readers with limited tolerance for political world-building or who want lighter romance fantasy without moral ambiguity should look elsewhere. If ACOTAR or The Cruel Prince were formative reading experiences for you, A Curse of Crows is a natural next listen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is A Curse of Crows a standalone or does it end on a cliffhanger?
It is Book 1 of the A Curse of Crows and Serpents series. Reviewers describe a satisfying emotional arc within the book, but the story clearly continues and readers are eager for the next installment. Expect some threads left open rather than a fully closed ending.
How does Avena Mansergh-Wallace distinguish between Diana and Aedlynn vocally?
She uses clear tonal differentiation, with Diana carrying more warmth and vulnerability and Aedlynn a controlled, measured quality that softens as the character develops. The distinction is consistent across 15 hours without becoming exaggerated.
Is the sapphic romance explicit or is it kept relatively restrained?
Reviewers describe it as intense but not graphically explicit. The romantic and emotional connection is central and developed throughout the book rather than treated as background. The tone leans toward epic fantasy romance rather than erotic content.
Is A Curse of Crows comparable to ACOTAR in terms of content and tone?
In terms of scope, emotional intensity, and dual-perspective structure, the comparisons reviewers make are fair. The main distinction is the sapphic romance at the center and a somewhat darker, more morally ambiguous treatment of its female leads. If ACOTAR is your benchmark, this is in that register.
