The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore

Author: Anna-Marie McLemore

Publication Date: September 15th 2015

Number of Pages: 320

Genre: Young Adult, Romance

Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

For twenty years, the Palomas and the Corbeaus have been rivals and enemies, locked in an escalating feud for over a generation. Both families make their living as traveling performers in competing shows—the Palomas swimming in mermaid exhibitions, the Corbeaus, former tightrope walkers, performing in the tallest trees they can find.

Lace Paloma may be new to her family’s show, but she knows as well as anyone that the Corbeaus are pure magia negra, black magic from the devil himself. Simply touching one could mean death, and she’s been taught from birth to keep away. But when disaster strikes the small town where both families are performing, it’s a Corbeau boy, Cluck, who saves Lace’s life. And his touch immerses her in the world of the Corbeaus, where falling for him could turn his own family against him, and one misstep can be just as dangerous on the ground as it is in the trees.

Oh this book was just so beautiful! I loved the mix of magical elements and a bit of Romeo and Juliet feeling. The Palomas and the Corbeaus are two families of traveling performers, once only rivals now enemies. Each family thought that the other was dangerous because of the black magic they used and that touching one could mean death.

Lace knew the danger of touching a Corbeau. Her abuela said she’d be better off petting a rattlesnake.

There is also the problem that each family blamed the other one for an accident that happened more than a decade ago were a person from each family died “because of black magic”. So you see, with all the hate and desire for revenge every person from one family has against the other,it would be almost impossible for Lace and Cluck to fall in love. Yet it happens.

The book was slow at first and I was tempted to stop reading it since I just couldn’t seem to be able to advance at all. But at this point I’ve found a lot of books with slow starts that become interesting as they progress, and by the time I finish them I’m glad I decided to continue reading them. So learning from past experiences I decided to continue for at least a few more chapters, and luckily I decided that because this book was worth it.

Although to be honest I was hoping magic would play a more important part in this book (considering that I absolutely love fantasy), but I will tell you right now that the magic kind of takes a secondary role in order to give more space to the romance. Not that I didn’t like the romance between Lace and Cluck, but it would have been better if the magical aspects were as important as love.

Her mouth found the things he’d always been but had not been allowed to be, everything in him that was dangerous and passionate

And talking about love, I liked the way the romance developed in this book. It started subtle yet became profound as the book advanced and it was perfect. Lace was afraid to get too close to Cluck because of her family’s warning and there was also the hate she carried toward his family for what she thought they did to hers, but as she gets to know him she realizes that he isn’t at all what she thought a Corbeau would be like. I just really liked them together and the way each one made the other change positively. Lace helped Cluck become stronger and he helped her become more confident.

Finally, I loved the small bits of both Spanish (for the Paloma family) and French (for the Corbeau family) that were thrown here and there during the extent of the book to remind you of the heritage of the main characters. Words like abuela, la tromeperie, escamas, will pop randomly yet you shouldn’t worry if the words are important in any way then it will be translated in some point. Bonus points to this book for teaching me a few words in French!