Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig (2012)
Hits a nerve
Book cover blurb
With one touch, Miriam Black will know how you’re going to die. This is not a talent but a curse. Miriam’s been running away from everything and everyone, grifting off the lowlifes to empty their wallets as they die and living on for another day, until she meets Louis. When she shakes Louis’s hand, Miriam knows he’s going to die with her name on his lips.
Miriam’s never tried to alter what she sees, preferring to move on to the next victim, but Louis will die because he met her. Forced to care in a world she sees only through the lens of death, Miriam is going to try living.
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My Review
I had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this book, or more accurately the characters, but I think I was supposed to. They are all pretty nasty buggers.
First off, this is a fantastic book. Exceptionally written with just the right amount of everything it needs to keep you involved and invested. I assume that's why this is quite a short book, at 276 pages. There is no padding in here, there are a couple of small incidences I questioned while reading but it would be pretty damn petty to criticise those, and I even came around to justify Wendig's reasoning for including those segments the further I read.
The main impressions left with me from this book are distinct and very individual characters, you could even refer to them as caricatures, but in a good way. You really feel like you know these people, and some of them you really wish you didn't. Things get pretty twisted and sick in a very vivid way.
And speaking of the disturbing elements of this book takes me to the 'hate' portion of my love-hate view of Blackbirds. To simply say there's too much profanity and reference to sex doesn't really cover it. Believe me, there's a lot of it. The majority of my disturbance from this book comes from the lead character, who is female. And no, I'm not being sexist here, I know women use profanity and think about sex, but not in the way, or to the extent, Miriam does...at least I hope not. Now these things do have an effect on the story and the reader, and I do understand why Wendig chose to go down this path, and even though this is a fantastically written story those elements did still gnaw at me all the way through. Although Miriam did develop quite a bit towards the end and her thought processes seemed to become less dark by the time we reached the climax.
I'd love to read the rest of this series but I just don't want to have to read through the vulgarity of Miriam to this extent again, which is a shame because Wendig has a real gem here. If, in the following books, Miriam is more restrained please let me know and I might keep on reading.
My copy of this novel
Saga Press hardback edition.
Published in 2012
276 pages
ISBN 9781481456999