John Crowley‘s latest novel is about Crows. One Crow, in particular — the one who invented the idea of giving Crows names so listeners know whom you’re talking about. Dar Oakley (for it is indeed he) learned human language, which is how humans can learn his story. I loved this book and want to tell everyone about it.  However, I am in no way qualified to write book reviews, so that’s not what this is. This is just a list of bullet points, vaguebook style, of things I remember from my first reading that might intrigue people enough to pick it up.

1. Know how David Copperfield is narrated in the first person, but the narrator isn’t born until the end of Chapter 1? Crowley tops that.
2. The first few chapters reminded me of Watership Down in the way the author teaches us all sorts of things about Crows seamlessly within the story line. (This book capitalizes animal and plant species; I don’t yet understand why.) The difference is that Rabbits eating is kind of cute, and Crows eating is decidedly not.
3. My favorite part is when Dar Oakley domesticates a medieval monk.
4. Crowley’s fantasy keeps up with the times. I noticed several places where the plot turns on facts about ecology or anthropology that were only established in the last few years.
5. This is not a fairy tale, much as it sometimes seems. It has a eucatastrophe, but it’s not at the end.
6. Crowley may be in a conversation with Neil Gaiman. There’s a reply to American Gods here, I think.