[Book Review] Song of the Dead by Sarah Glenn Marsh

The Dead must stay buried.

Karthia is nothing like it used to be. The kingdom's borders are open for the first time in nearly three hundred years, and raising the dead has been outlawed. Odessa is determined to explore the world beyond Karthia's waters, hoping to heal a heart broken in more ways than she can count. But with Meredy joining the ocean voyage, vanquishing her sorrow will be a difficult task.

Despite the daily reminder of the history they share, Odessa and Meredy are fascinated when their journey takes them to a land where the Dead rule the night and dragons roam the streets. Odessa can't help being mesmerized by the new magic--and by the girl at her side. But just as she and Meredy are beginning to explore the new world, a terrifying development in Karthia summons them home at once.

Growing political unrest on top of threats from foreign invaders means Odessa and Meredy are thrust back into the lives they tried to leave behind while specters from their past haunt their tenuous relationship. Gathering a force big enough to ward off enemies seems impossible, until one of Queen Valoria's mages creates a weapon that could make them invincible. As danger continues to mount inside the palace, Odessa fears that without the Dead, even the greatest invention won't be enough to save their fates.

In this enthralling, heartrending sequel to Reign of the Fallen, Odessa faces the fight of her life as the boundaries between the Dead and the living are challenged in a way more gruesome than ever before.
 

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 Reign of the Fallen Review

This is a sequel, so I may have spoilers about the first book, so if you haven't read the first book get I have my review above for you to click on! Go read these two books and come back so we can discuss! Although I plan on being as light with the spoilers, I was super vague with my review when I got the ARC, so I'll link that review right here. I am always a little more cautious with ARC reviews, so in this review I will be a little more detailed without any actual story spoilers. This duology (ugh, I need more and I'll never shut up about it) means so much to me. Song of the Dead is a perfect sequel and I already am planning scheduling in my re-read.

"I'm Odessa of Grenwyr. And I bow to no man."

Although the plot is amazing and I'll get to it in a moment, it's the characters that mean the most to me when it comes to this story. I am so attached to our characters and I love them so much. Odessa and Meredy are maybe my favorite book couple ever, I love their animal companions Nipper (the troublemaker baby dragon) and Lysander (a protective but softy grizzly bear). One of my favorite tropes is found family, and our gang of characters in this duology is one of the best. I genuinely feel like they're this chosen family all having each other's backs and having all this history between them. Jax, Valoria, Kasmira, Simeon, Danial, and our new additons, Karston and Azelie. I would have honestly loved to get to know Bryn and Sarika more also because not only are their mage powers so cool but I loved this group of badass women fighting for Queen Valoria.

Like I said, the plot is amazing and so well done. I loved being able to travel around parts of the world that Sarah Glenn Marsh created and honestly I want more of exactly that. We do end up back in Karthia, which was expected because I know we weren't done with the characters we grew to love in book one, but the traveling part of the story line was really great. It's where we meet Nipper, who I love so much! The books in this duology do have a more character development pace to them, but when the action hits it's incredibly well written and can be a roller coaster. I personally prefer books that focuses more on characters than plot so I had no issue with this and I think it's the reason I feel such a connection the our characters. I know it's a preference thing, some readers prefer more action than character development, so I thought I'd quickly mention that here.

"But I've faced death before. I won't let it render me helpless again." 

I love Sarah's writing style so much. I think she not only creates characters and relationships between those characters so well that they are fleshed out and as real as they can be, but she also writes with so much emotion. I think the emotional aspect of her writing style makes it hard not to fall in love with everything and everyone she writes about. In Reign we get a lot of moments where the plot is surrounded by themes such as grief, loss, depression, which sounds dark (which at times it can be) but it's also got its light themes like love, family/friends, support, and healing. Song has some of the darker aspects that come and go, just how grief does, but there is also so much more of the light. We see our characters learn to pick themselves off and live again. I think that those themes and topics make this duology such a powerful one.

Although I plan on being the most annoying fan-girl I can be towards Razorbill to get them to let Sarah write more books in this world (which she has stated she wants to so badly, we just need to make a stink about it to show we as readers are interested in more) I plan on supporting Sarah throughout all the books she writes. I think that she and these books are being slept on and I need more people to get their butts in gear and read them! However, even if we don't get any more books in this world, I have no doubt every single thing Sarah writes next will be worth the wait and support. I want to thank Sarah and Razorbill for allowing me to be on the Sparrow team and an extra thank you to Sarah for putting me in the acknowledgments of this book. It means so much to me but mostly because these books mean so much to me.

"After all, we Karthians love a good party."

Overall, I highly recommend this book to everyone who is into fantasy books or want to read more books with bisexual/queer characters along with characters that are people of color. We have bisexual necromancers, other queer characters, an amazing diverse cast of characters as a whole, themes that I mentioned above (grief, loss, depression, anxiety, healing, growth, chosen family, friends, etc), dragons and temperamental grizzly bears, and a beautifully written story. I love that there are so many types of mages/powers and if we do get more books in this world I hope Sarah expands on all the different mage types because learning about more in Song was so much fun. This is a series I feel like I will never shut up about and I'll be re-reading over and over again forever. I cannot wait what Sarah has in store for us next!

Thanks for reading!