The Birds that Fly at Dusk
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In a world where your life argues for you, carving out the possibilities for the world to come, three miserable people meet an angel in a coffee shop...
Creating a manifestation of one’s soul is the ultimate goal of many humans and demons in the world of Šehhinah. The only problem is, manifesting your soul means other people can see it.
Celyet left her home among the demons after her manifestation was desecrated. Ēshva has been hiding their manifestation for years ever since it nearly killed their friend. And Yairēn doesn’t believe she can manifest at all, convinced that her soul itself is worthless, as worthless as she is at being a trader in her family’s tradition.
In the city of Ākal-ne, high on the icy steppe, these three people's lives collide at a coffee shop—a shop owned by none other than the endlessly talkative, opinionated angel Jibril.
It might just be that these people are perfectly qualified to help each other, if they can bring themselves to let each other actually understand the souls they have irrevocably put into the world. And it might just be that Jibril has advice they need to hear. Ideas unheard of among angels or humans. Ideas about the full extent of what a soul can be.
Ideas even God Themself isn’t aware of.
The Birds that Fly at Dusk is the second book in Ivana Skye’s Šehhinah trilogy, an atmospheric, semi-utopian reimagining of Abrahamic mythology where everyone’s personal life is of cosmic importance.
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This book feels more like an interlude in the trilogy, focused more on further worldbuilding and setting up the premise for the next book. It's no less well-written however, and explores difficult themes with confidence (e.g. shitty parents, feeling that you are inherently doomed to hurt others, and self-hatred).
And of course, Jibril best angel <3
main characters: deeply sensitive clearly autistic demon girl (immense), traumatized self-hating barista (scrupulosity-pilled), self-loathing youngest daughter (recognizable), [these three have a polyamorous romance arc]. and the angel jibril (loud in every way, clearly based on the guy from the quran).
minor characters: shitty family members (ubiquitous), god (hot)
favorite chapters: "welcome to jibrew" "it's probably a pretty bad idea" "the impossible" favorite epigraph: I am more than I am
[spoilers]
I enjoyed the interlude-like focus of this book on developing and then revealing the concept of there being gods other than God, and the fact that simultaneously this is a) basically unheard of and unimaginable to the characters, too unheard of to even be taboo or silenced b) that God also doesn't know about this, c) this is a BIG deal that complicates the entire theological basis for the world d) but not because there's any convenient villains or antagonists to oppose it or try to maintain the status quo.....while the plot itself is largely relatable and more broadly appealing, the worldbuilding stuff that's set up for the next book is really allergic in a cool way to hitting any recognizable tropes at all, let alone in ways that basically anything else does (at least when it comes to writing from the USA or UK).
Despite having the best cover, this is definitely the weakest entry in the series. However I'm not really upset about that, the character of Celyet and the incredible worldbuilding/theology-related reveals and cliffhanger near the end that feels almost jarringly-good/complex compared to the rest of the book actually serves as a meta-level demonstration of this series's themes, and it kind of fits the structure of the series (the third book blows everything out of the water).
Celyet is one of the most relatable characters I've ever encountered specifically regarding an achingly profound and almost crippling hypersensitivity to the prospect of being misinterpreted and seen wrongly. I've never quite seen this depicted elsewhere, and the way it dovetails with the late-story reveal of What she is, is really thought-provoking for. I also enjoyed the depiction of Jibril the angel a lot, they are quite annoying, yet also touching and beautiful. And is much more edgy, daring, and abnormal than the fallen angel Lucifer from the previous book; though not nearly so much as G-d, or Tamar or Safirah the humans.