#icara

I genuinely read these books back in like 2021 when they first released in the Scholastic book fair that was hosted via my school. I literally told myself when entering the fair, “If I see a book with bird people or birds, I am buying it and reading it”.

I just wanted to read something self-indulgent without having to worry about what people thought. I loved birds at the time (still do! Take that stinky middleschoolers!), but I was bullied constantly for it… so, I wanted to have a personal book I could enjoy in my alone time without being judged.

And then I FOUND IT.

It was like FATE.

I saw the cover and was so scared one of the mean people who knew about my interest in birds would see me holding it. I genuinely shoved it under my arm and bought it to the checkout counter without even having to read the synopsis. It was under my reading level and I knew that. But I saw the cover and knew, this was the book.

After I read the first book in the series, I got HOOKED. Bought all the other books SOOO quickly.

After finishing the series, I thought, naively, “wow, this is going to be my niche little hyperfixation nobody will know and understand, and I will ultimately be the only person I’d ever know to have read it. It’s a shame this book Dosen’t have a community or whatever, cuz I would love to see what others thought of the book!”

BUT IT DOES EXIST.

ON THIS WONDERFUL WONDERFUL PLATFORM.

I mean, I should KNOW that Tumblr is the ultimate meeting grounds of niche fandoms but…

OH MY PEOPLE… YOU EXIST AND I AM SO HAPPY

I need to talk to you all NOWWW… oh my god I need to reread this book series don’t I. I need to again get mentally ill over bird people right now don’t I.

My favorite character is Nox by far. God he is such an amazing little weirdo. I love him so dearly. I miss him so much guys.

UGHHH. UGH I JUST LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SERIES.

I need people to understand how much this means to me that there is even, even if it’s a small amount, of fans of this book series. It’s just AGHHHHH. This book was seriously such a comfort to me, like a little guilty pleasure for a person that was constantly made fun of for her childish interests. This book series means so so so so SOOOOOO much.

I felt the love that was put into it, the passion, the WORLDBUILDING? The REAL LIFE BIRD KNOWLEDGE?? THE DRAMMMAAA???

guess who it is….

oh look it’s the “doomed by the narrative” squad!! part of it anyway. icara and tanra corvain, underrated characters fr. lots of new textures to draw in this one, SO much stone and fire. we get some good descriptions of icara (and even a sketch by the author on her insta), so i had a good sense of what i was doing (note the comb, cracks in her arm, and earthstone pendant) but for tanra? ehhh not much. only a vague photograph of her and some deduction based on her family members. but tanra has probably been my favorite of these so far, why did no one tell me drawing middle aged people is fun?? look at those gray streaks!! this is after she gains phoenix wings, before she’s killed. i gave her similar fashion to nox, with a touch of southern jungles (her clay bead necklace and ashmark hair stick). also notice the crow feather on her necklace…. i have a hc that married couples wear each other’s feathers, so that’s jaff’s.