Blackbirds | Chuck Wendig | Review

Blackbirds | Chuck Wendig | Review

• Wednesday, 3 July 2013

“She thinks, I want an orange soda. And I want vodka to mix into the orange soda. And while we're at it, I'd also like to stop being able to see how people are going to bite it. Oh, and a pony. I definitely want a goddamn pony.” - Chuck Wending, Blackbirds

Blackbirds by Chuck Wending is a story about a girl named Miriam Black who can by a simple touch see how and when people are going to die. She has seen how hundreds of people are going to die in accidents, illness and suicides.

Miriam is getting used to seeing how people die and has learned that there’s nothing she can do to change the future. But one day she meets a trucker called Luis and when she touches his hand she sees him getting tortured to death while he’s calling her name. This time Miriam realizes that she has to try to do something...

I feel so conflicted about Blackbirds. First of all I loved the general story line. A girl who can see how and when people are going to die? That sounds pretty fascinating and interesting to me. But be aware, there’s a lot of swearing and violence going on in this novel. Don’t get me wrong, I usually don’t have a problem with swearing or violence, but even I felt that there was a bit too much of that stuff in Blackbirds. There’s a difference in using swearing and violence for a purpose and just simply overusing it. In the first half of the book this disturbed me quite a bit. Yes, I understand, Miriam and her fellow characters are the swearing and violent types. But I kind of felt that was the only thing there was to them. Sure, they all had a troubled past and everything, but still? Do people really talk like that? But in defense of the book I have to say that in the other half of the book both the characters (especially Miriam) and the story-line grew on me and I quite enjoyed the ride. That makes it extra sad that all the swearing, violence and weird sex dragged this book down for the first 150 pages because this could have been pretty darn good.

So, let's wrap it up: I didn't fall in love with this novel, but Blackbirds was an interesting and exciting story. It would definitely have deserved a higher rating with a bit less of the stuff mentioned above and I have to say that I’m pretty interested in reading Mockingbird (the sequel to Blackbirds). I’m sensing that we might get to see more of who Miriam really is in that book. Because to be honest, in the last 20 pages I kind of started liking the girl! 

So my rating for Blackbirds is going to be 3/5 stars. I do recommend it if you think that you’re okay with A LOT of swearing and violence. If you’re sensitive to that kind of stuff, this is not the book for you...

This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here.