Review: Silverborn The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Title: Silverborn The Mystery of Morrigan Crow
Author: Jessica Townsend 
Series: Nevermoor #4
Genre: Middle Grade/Adventure/Mystery
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Publication Date: June 24, 2025
Edition: Ebook
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's | 

 

 

 

Synopsis: 

   In the magical city of Nevermoor, long-buried secrets are coming to light, and Morrigan Crow's life is about to turn upside down . . .
   When Morrigan is invited into Nevermoor's wealthy Silver District, she discovers a world of extravagance and a family mystery she's eager to unravel. She could never imagine where it will lead: a white wedding, a golden dragon and a red pool of blood.
   Embroiled in suspicion and danger, Morrigan leaps headfirst into a murder investigation, while also grappling with her ever-growing Wundersmith powers. And although her friends are there to help, she fears that could change if they learn she's keeping a terrible secret of her own.
   As shadowy forces awaken in Nevermoor, can Morrigan find a killer and solve the mystery in her own past . . . before the clock strikes midnight?

The highly anticipated fourth book in the award-winning Nevermoor series from one of Australia's best selling and most loved authors. Jessica Townsend weaves a spellbinding tale of magic and mystery in this thrilling new installment of the Nevermoor series.

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   I've waited so long to read this book, and it was well worth it. I love this series so much. I love the characters, and the setting, and the themes they cover. Morrigan is an easy character to like and want to follow. It is interesting that while in YA, there's a lot of female protagonists, in middle-grade for the past 15-20 years the ones that have been the most popular have male protagonists. I think there should be more of both for all demographics, but it is still nice seeing a protagonist for younger girls.

   Admittedly, I did forget some of the smaller details of the rest of the books in the series, but this book does a great job of catching you up to speed. It was easy to catch up and remember what happened with out slowing down the plot of this book, no forced expedition. I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to the plot of this book, I didn't have any clue what Sliverborn could mean before reading this book. It didn't feel that consequential at first, but the longer the book went on the more it became clear that it had a deeper connection to the more main part of the book. 

 

   The mystery did take a bit of a back seat for a lot of the book, and what filled those pages did slow the pacing down a little around the middle, and I did want to skim it at times. I didn't because I had faith that it would make sense later on. There were always unanswered questions about Morrigan's past that I wanted to learn, and some of those were answered in this book, and I hope more are in later books. I loved seeing Unit 919 become closer and more of a family unit in this book, I also liked that Jack got some more page time and that we learned more about him and his parents. 

 

   Something that I feel doesn't get talked about enough when it comes to this series is that Ezra Squall, the apparent main antagonist of the series, is really normal. He doesn't seem all that evil, and in some ways he's not as bad as the other residents of Nevermoor. It really does leave me questioning what his goals and motivations were before the start of the book. I do like that he doesn't appear to be a caricature of an evil-doer. Too many villains with out nuisance.

 

   I do hope that we don't have to wait nearly 5 years for the next book.