Shade of Wings by Pam McGaffin
Genre: Animals, Young Adult
Pages: 296
Published: on 26th May, 2026
Format: Paperback
Source: Gifted
Add to Goodreads
Book Synopsis:
Four-year-old Duncan needs to hurry up and find a mateโat least, according to his sister, Cloud. But she doesnโt know about the mistake thatโs preventing him from leaving their family to start another.
Though heโs the eldest, Duncan doesnโt see himself as a father. Yet thatโs what he must become when both his parents die of the mysterious illness thatโs killing crows across New York City. He devotes himself to caring for his siblings, including three fledglingsโbut he soon discovers he canโt protect them from the โblind death.โ
Meanwhile, a zoo pathologistโs worst fears are realized. It starts with dead flamingos. Then critically ill New Yorkers start showing up in hospital emergency rooms.
Some blame the crows.
Book Review
*I received an ARC copy of this book, but all opinions are entirely my own and honest.
I’d never heard of this author before until Mindbuck Media Book Publicity kindly reached out to me asking if I wanted to read an upcoming release.
This book is about the effects of the West Nile virus on the bird populations of New York in the summer of 1999, but told through the eyes and words of a crow. I’ve never personally read or know about the West Nile virus so this book was interesting to read. I thought it was a unique idea to write from the crows perspectives. I like how the crows, and other bird species within the story, were given emotions, and complex thoughts. This created a human-like sense of connection between characters, and made the book all the more impactful.
Although I enjoyed the writing, my main issue was the constant shifting in POVs. It made it quite tricky to keep up with who was speaking or doing things in certain chapters. Having different POVs was a good choice as we could read from different perspectives but sometimes I felt the storyline might’ve flowed better without so many shifts. I also personally would’ve liked a little more insight from the humans as well as the crows.
The pacing overall was okay throughout and again it was interesting to read about something I have not looked into before. It was great to learn that Dr. Byrne and Maddy were based on real people! The author was actually able to speak with the real Dr. McNamara for this book as well. This book is immersive and I was happy with how it ended. This book is not my usual read and I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards it. Saying that, I definitely think there are people out there who would probably get more enjoyment from this than I did. I am however glad that I read this book as sometimes it’s good to try things out of your comfort zone!
Leave a Reply