Ever since she was a baby, Zuli has lived in the tree that holds the souls of dead birds. It’s an idyllic existence — surrounded by beauty and the love of her spirit parents (and the concern of a slightly fussy alive owl called Frowly), she spends her days clambering around the tree and chatting with the souls of dead birds before they head off to be born again the lives of new bodies. When the souls of birds stop coming home to the tree, Zuli is determined to set out into the world to find out why.
If you’ve read Marjorie Liu’s wonderful adult comic with Sana Takeda, Monstress, you’ll already be familiar with her knack for lush worldbuilding, moral dilemmas, and road trip banter. Zuli is a gem of a heroine, and her newness to the “real” world makes her an ideal reader stand-in for this road trip. Some things Frowly knows and can explain to her, like the fact that birds and humans have bones (“I’d rather not think about it,” he says), or what hunger and thirst might feel like. But though Frowly once lived in the real world, he’s been absent from it for generations. His memory is patchy, and of course he’s missed out on years of history.
Of course, if you’ve read Monstress, you also know that two things she is very good at are found family and road trips. (If you know me, you may also be aware that I LOVE ROAD TRIPS. I would go on a road trip right fucking now. I would hop in a car this instant minute with just a backpack and a fully loaded e-reader. I don’t even care.) So naturally, Zuli acquires a second real-world explainer in the form of goblin scavenger Orien. He also has an animal sidekick, because that is what the people want. Honestly, nothing made me want to spend time in middle grade — a genre that forms an insignificant portion of my reading diet — as much as the presence of animal sidekicks. Please drop some recs of books with animal sidekicks in the comments. I always forget how much I like them.
When I was rereading Orien’s opening scene in preparation for writing this review, I was freshly delighted with Liu’s craft. Orien is an immediately recognizable character – the rogue guy who helps Our Heroes reluctantly — of a type that you’re never not going to be excited about. But Liu weaves in the worldbuilding seamlessly around Orien’s introduction. He mentions a winged people called the Siric, who lived high in the mountains. “If you have wings,” he says, “you live as high as you can.” When Zuli asks where Orien’s mountain is — he has wings, after all — he says, curtly, that he’s not allowed to live anywhere high, then changes the subject. In the next two-page spread, Frowly is anxiously warning Zuli about all the terrible things goblins do to other winged creatures. Has he ever seen goblins do any of those things, Zuli asks. “No,” says Frowly. “Not that I can remember.” It sets the scene wonderfully and tells us a lot about Orien’s past and present.
(As a small note here: The goblins of Wingbearer obviously do not eat children, and I’m sure the arc of the comic as a whole will be about how goblins have been wronged, and ultimately they will get to live in a lovely high place where they can use their wings to fly anywhere they want. Even so, I really would prefer that the stereotypes of fictional goblins should avoid alignment with antisemitic conspiracy theories, not only because antisemitism is on the rise globally, but also because the alignment of goblins with Jewish people is of long standing. We were, like, just having this conversation about the Gringotts goblins.)
Zuli and Orien are just the right pairing for a book like this. Orien is street-wise and a little cynical, while Zuli possesses the kindness, optimism, and confidence that come from having always been loved. In any given encounter, Orien and Frowly are the ones advocating for caution or schemes, while Zuli is the one who thinks that Just Telling the Truth will net them the best results. Each side is right about half the time. Sometimes Zuli’s sweetness is enough to carry the day, and other times it’s the exact quality that makes people think they can take advantage of her. She’s right often enough that she leaves in her wake a stable of variously dependable allies who can pop back up later on in the way of all good quest stories.
Though Zuli doesn’t begin her quest with a high level of interest in Where She Came From and Who She Is, those questions are at a constant low hum throughout the story. We get hints early on that she’s connected to the Siric — a winged people commemorated in ruined statuary — but Frowly isn’t eager to talk more about them, and Zuli of course doesn’t have wings. If you’ve read a book before, and I HAVE, MY FRIENDS, it’s obvious that Zuli’s identity will prove to be central to the mystery of what’s happening to the birds. From a starting point of complete trust in Frowly and the guardians of the tree, Zuli slowly begins to question what she’s been told (or rather, not told) about herself. It’s one of those tropes that’s kind of inexhaustibly good and pleasing, the beloved child being forced to reckon with her parents’ imperfections as she goes out into a world beyond them. This first volume leaves us on a cliffhanger that answers a big question while leaving the reader with about fifty more.
I can’t close out this review without a few words about Teny Aida Issakhanian’s art because whew is it gorgeous. Every panel is a swirl of colors and light, and Issakhanian has a knack for when to slam an emotional moment with a close-up on the characters’ faces and when to zoom way out and give the reader a sense of how massive this world is and how tiny Zuli and Orien are within it. If you’re in the market for a good fantasy road trip / coming of age story that’s also a visual pleasure, Wingbearer is absolutely your guy. I can’t wait for the next volume, or for my niece and nephew to get old enough that I can give them this book for their birthdays.
(Please do not ask me any follow-up questions about how many gifts I have on tap for these kids when they get just slightly older. Those would be rude questions. Also, I don’t have to answer you. So there.)