I’m really looking forward to the next book about Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. And after a way, I wish it had been already a complete series; because then, I would know how much I can enjoy.
For the time being, I’m waiting for the fourth book, and I can reassure you that the previous three were absolutely magnificent.
Morrigan Crow has everything Harry Potter lacked, from style and pace to handling the question of diversity and politics.
It’s homely where Harry Potter is folksy. It’s deft where Harry Potter is awkward. And there is the same sense of magic and youth which has drawn people to JKR’s series.
It’s so good in its genre that I don’t even know which aspects of those books I should mention in the first place.
Well, I’m aware that to some people, this may sound like a Potter’s rip-off: the story of a neglected girl who is given a loving foster family and starts attending an extraordinary school, while fighting a villain who is more similar to her than she would like to admit. But neither Morrigan is Harry and nor the villain, Ezra Squall, is Voldemort. He’s more a greedy capitalist than a terryfying sorcerer, but the sense of terror is always there, always being reminded to us. And I think that the way he’s described matches our time better. He instills fear but there are also more human aspects to his personality, and over course of the books, he grows more complex, and it comes out that there are things about which he does care. It’s refreshing, especially that Morrigan Crow is on that brink between YA and children fantasy, and in kids’ books, villains aren’t that nuanced, usually. There is a pattern to Morrigan’s encounters with Squall, but I think that it is still more complex than in Potter’s case.
And Morrigan herself is just so believable. Maybe it’s easier to me, to associate myself with her because she is a girl—but there is something cheerful and defiant in her personality which makes her a more vivid character than Harry Potter was. Especially that Morrigan is more cursed than chosen, and that Ezra Squall can be both her foe and her master. And school structures surrounding her aren’t as obvious as those at Hogwart. The authorities of Nevermoor aren’t all like benevolent Dumbledore; they are politicians, after a way, and they can be cynical at one point and supportive at another. And we see all this in a closer scale than the manipulations of Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter. Which, speaking of politics, is telling of the way in which Townsend handles public issues in her series. You can find metaphors of intolerance and racism there, of Covid situation, of pandemics, of linguistic changes concerning minorities, and it’s all just so deft and up to date. The things like why you should call others the way they want to be called, and why doing otherwise is rude, is explained very naturally and without moralising here. And the metaphors Townsend uses for nationalism, racism, and wingnuts, are just great.
In her books, the question of racism isn’t about humans, but about animals and humans; there is a clear distinction between ordinary and sapient animals, and the social changes connected with it have been recent to Morrigan’s world, as we learn. And people are of very diverse ethnic backgrounds in this series, not only your English-like folk. They are Black, Asian, Indian, and they are represented with no tokenism, unlike in Rowling’s book. And the fact that Morrigan at first dislikes and then befriends two of the main characters of colour—Cadence and Jack—isn’t a sign of crypto-racism. When representation in your universe is so vast, you can introduce dubious PoC characters. Because they are, you know, complex human beings just like anybody else. To Morrigan, they are who Hermiona and Ron are to Harry. So, honestly, I think that we don’t need a Black Hermiona since we have Cadence:).
And, really, this diversity extend to the other layers of the series. Unlike in Harry Potter, where LGBT characters are merely hinted or proclaimed post-work, here lesbian women are represented through Miss Cheery, Morrigan’s tutor, and Roshni, her girlfriend a librarian. And yes, it’s a story between a Black and an Indian woman. No, there is nothing tokenistic about it, so please don’t make nasty jokes about Black lesbians.
Not to mention that Townsend has so many ideas that I’m still impressed with. Giant cats, magic treated like electricity, carnivals, opera, talking animals, living streets, time-travels, vampires, holograms, curses, witches, conscious buildings, steampunk vibes… And there’s much more to it! While in Harry Potter, some elements were somewhat cheesy, the whole thing about castles and English magic, here were’re more into a city landscape, and yet there is the same wondrous sense of something quaint and old-fashioned. And honestly, I don’t even mind that wer’re never told where Nevermoor is, and where the adjacent Republic is, and why people from Scotland or India, or people with perfectly English surnames (are they British, Canadian, Australian, American? Well, I don’t care, actually) live there. I don’t need such details while the inner world of the setting is thought-out so well. Oh, did I mention that there are also dragons there, and elvish speech, and zombies, and libraries evoking alternate worlds? I didn’t? Well, there’s just so much to Morrigan’s world, and I simply cherish it! You can see some references to Terry Pratchett, or to Harry Potter, or even to The Magicians by Lev Grossman, but Jessica Townsend is so creative that all this looks like a homage or resourceful reshaping of certain tropes, not like a rip-off. And, honestly, in the way how she describes eccentric characters, I feel more Pratchett than Rowling here, and I’m glad with it. For instance, Jupiter North, Morrigan’s mentor, has all that Dumbledore lacked as your Gandalf-esque figure and all that Sirius Black lacked. He is funny, he is cheerful and busy, and it’s one of but numeorus examples how Townsend’s characters do not fall into easy cliches. I mean, really, I prefer reading about eccentric travellers from reading about school directors or banned aristocrats.
So, as you can see, if there are any clear thoughts on Morrigan Crow in my head, then they are like, “You must read it!”. Which I highly recommed you to do. It isn’t because the series is about a girl, and not about a boy. It isn’t because Jessica Townsend hasn’t come out to be a TERF so far. It’s because Morrigan Crow is good on its own merit.
Left Hand of Fiction 