Name: Other Birds
Rating: 3.984848484848485 (33 reviews)
ISBN: 9781250019868

Sarah Addison Allen

A Novel

Other Birds

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Stories aren’t fiction. Stories are fabric. They’re the white sheets we drape over our ghosts so we can see them.

Zoey had a vague sense that her mother had been a great fabricator, as if to her there was no veil between what was real and what was not. It all existed together.

Zoey had spent too much of her life as an outsider to ever think of running to anyone when she was afraid. It wasn’t that she was particularly brave, she just didn’t want the disappointment of being turned away. But right now she felt a painful longing for something she couldn’t name.

“In all my years, I’ve never encountered something that didn’t mean anything.”

It was an odd feeling, when she really thought about it, not having anyone in the world who knew everything about you and loved you anyway.

History is known for sugar-coating. Sometimes it’s the only thing that can make it palatable.

He was secure in the knowledge that when a reader falls in love with a book, they have no choice but to fall in love with the author, too.

Zoey was uneasy with the thought of untold stories. What happens to them? Where do they go? If you never share your stories with at least one other person, does that mean they weren’t real, that they never really existed?

We all want to think we’re worth the trouble.

“Does it ever feel to you like the best things go away too fast, and the worst things never, ever leave you alone?”

Not everything has to be real to be true.

Good twists throughout. Sometimes difficult to tell who is speaking

Lauren Piper

Such a beautiful book, has an amazing balance of poetry and suspense 

McKenzie Ives

I used to love Allen's books when I was in high school, but it's been ages since I've read anything by her. When I saw this as a BOTM pick, I knew I had to grab it just for nostalgia sake. Unfortunately, the whole thing was a bit of a mess. Nothing about the characters or the plot kept my attention. I remember loving Allen's use of magical realism, but even that felt flat and boring. There were some twists thrown in that you could tell were supposed to be shocking, but didn't have much of an impact. Maybe my expectations were too high, but it wasn't my favorite.

Heather Harrington

Certain books come to you at just the right time, and it’s like getting a hug. Other Birds is that book for me.

Zoey has gone to Mallow Island to live in a condo she inherited from her mother. She’s lonely, but determined to make friends. When a neighbor dies on her first night there, a series of events is set in motion that helps the residents in her building begin to help one another heal.

This is a book with some magical realism, including ghosts. Not usually my thing. But it’s a well-written, delightful, and filled southern charm.

Cheri McElroy

Certain books come to you at just the right time, and it’s like getting a hug. Other Birds is that book for me.

Zoey has gone to Mallow Island to live in a condo she inherited from her mother. She’s lonely, but determined to make friends. When a neighbor dies on her first night there, a series of events is set in motion that helps the residents in her building begin to help one another heal.

This is a book with some magical realism, including ghosts. Not usually my thing. But it’s a well-written, delightful, and filled southern charm.

Vilandra

There was nothing really wrong with this book - it’s a nice little book, the writing is good. I just wasn’t blown away by it.

nini!

REVIEW:

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If I could describe Other Birds in a word, it would be warmth: this book brims with it, nestled in the wonderfully soft setting of Mallow Island, among the dellawisps and the spun-sugar air and the candy-colored buildings. The main character, Zoey, moves to her mother's condo in the Dellawisp the summer before college starts, where she meets a misfit cast of characters, each with their own eccentricities and tragic pasts. Other Birds soars in the atmosphere and the lightness it has even when discussing heavy topics, but it also falls startlingly flat in other, more essential aspects.

The main thing that drew me away from this book was the plot — or lack thereof. There is little driving the story forward, and the result is a narrative that meanders from character to character without truly committing to anything of substance. Seemingly unrelated issues are connected at the end, but with little satisfaction; the climax's grand villain is one we never met prior, the mysterious Roscoe Avanger's identity is revealed and then rushed past with no ramifications, Zoey's tumultuous relationship with her mother, despite being referenced so often, gets a few pages at the end for resolution and nothing else. The characters are given the same treatment: at first, charming, but often underdeveloped to the point of becoming dry. Even when given backstories of severe neglect or religious cults or angry, bitter families, the characters themselves aren't interesting enough to dwell on or flesh out. Even Zoey felt startlingly forgettable in her own story.

I think the premise of Other Birds is a good one, but the book fell short of what it promised not just in its summary, but throughout the developing story. 

WRAP-UP:

+ Pros:

— atmospheric setting
— comforting writing

+ Cons:

— plot that quickly becomes boring
— dry/uninteresting characters

FINAL RATING: 2.5/5

Other Birds A Novel

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