One For the Blackbird, One For the Crow - Olivia Hawker - A Short Summary & Review
One For the Blackbird, One For the Crow - Olivia Hawker - A Short Summary & Review
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review
A short summary:
In One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, Olivia Hawker sets her novel against the stark, isolating landscape of 1870s Wyoming Territory. What begins as an affair between neighbors ends in gunfire, leaving one man dead and another imprisoned, and two families forced into uneasy coexistence on the open prairie.
With their fathers removed, the burden of survival falls to the women and children. Harsh weather, dwindling supplies, and social isolation demand cooperation, even as grief and resentment simmer beneath the surface. Told through multiple perspectives, particularly those of the children, the novel explores forgiveness, loyalty, and the painful complexity of frontier morality.
Winter in Wyoming is not sentimental. It is brutal, indifferent, and unforgiving. The land itself becomes both antagonist and teacher, stripping away pride and forcing an uneasy interdependence between those left behind.
My favorite quote from the book:
Questions to ponder while reading:
My review of the book:
This is a story that tests the bounds of credibility, and yet somehow keeps you turning pages.
Beulah, in particular, struck me as deeply strange. Her emotional responses feel elusive, almost unreachable at times, and I found myself trying to decide whether that distance was intentional restraint or simply implausible characterization. The adults often operate in moral gray spaces that require a generous suspension of disbelief. And yet. I could not put it down.
Hawker’s prose is spare but evocative. The Wyoming prairie feels vast, cold, and spiritually weighty. The novel leans heavily into atmosphere and emotional undercurrent rather than plot twists, and that restraint gives it a haunting quality.
The children’s perspectives are arguably the novel’s strongest element; their observations carry clarity and honesty that the adults lack. Through them, the book asks uncomfortable questions about forgiveness: What does survival demand? Is reconciliation born of virtue or necessity?
Even when I found myself skeptical of character choices, I remained emotionally engaged. And that, frankly, is what matters most. A novel does not have to be perfectly plausible to be compelling.
This is not a neat or comforting frontier tale. It is somber, morally tangled, and intentionally slow, but undeniably absorbing.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
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