Review: Birdy by Jess Vallance
What: Birdy by Jess Vallance
Who: Hot Key Books
When: July 2nd 2015
How: A copy of this novel was provided by Hot Key Books for review.
A darkly compulsive tale of friendship and obsession.
Frances Bird has been a loner for as long as she can remember. But when she is asked to look after the new girl at school, the sparky Alberta Black, they soon become inseparable, doing everything together, and even creating their own sign of togetherness – a blackbird. After a while though, Bert wants to do things without Frances, and see other people without her there. And that won’t do…No that won’t do at all…
I really liked Birdy. I read it in one sitting, because the writing style was incredibly addictive, and I wanted to know the outcome of all the events that happened.
The main thing that drew me in when reading Birdy was the element of mystery. The novel starts off with Frances/Birdy writing about how something pretty big had happened, and that people had told her to write “everything” down “from the beginning”. I immediately wanted to know what the big thing was, and why Frances had to write it all down.
Birdy also had a wonderful case of the unreliable narrator. From the blurb of the book it sounds like Frances gets a little over possessive regarding her new friend, Bert, but when reading the book it doesn’t seem that way at all, really. Sure, there are moments when Frances is a little insecure and a bit overbearing, but nothing that really makes you think anything much of it at all.
To be honest, I felt quite a bit of sympathy for Frances. She had attached herself so thoroughly to Bert, so when Bert started to branch off and spend time with other people, I felt for the girl. She had pretty crappy social skills, and had never before had a close friend (or any friend at all).
The plot is a little bit slow at times because it has such a deep focus on the relationship between Bert and Frances, and little else. I think the inclusion of some other factors might have helped move it along, but the strong focus on their relationship was still quite intriguing.
The last few chapters are pretty high on the creepy factor. All this stuff goes down, and I wasn’t even suspicious of the perpetrator until it was way too late. And the chilling lack of remorse, or any kind of emotion at all was unsettling in the best kind of way.
The last sentence of the book actually had me laughing out loud because it was so unnerving and creepy, and such an awesome finish to the book, and I loved it.
Birdy was a really good novel that took me quite by surprise.
© 2015, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.
Oooh, colour me intrigued! I love mystery stories, and this one has this creepy vibe to go with it. I’ll keep my eyes out for this one. :D Great review, Chiara!
Yay, I’m glad you like the sound of it, Ana! :D It’s definitely got a creepy vibe, as well as a bit of an unreliable narrator.
Thank you ^.^
Ooh, I’ve seen the cover for this book around lately and it’s such an interesting cover.
I like the sound of this book. I haven’t really read many creepy books – not everyone seems to be able to pull off the creepy thing, so it’s good to hear that this author managed it.
I loooooove this cover! So pretty.
Yeah, she managed to pull it off pretty well, which I was super happy about!
Chilling lack of remorse and unseen ending are the two things that will definitely get me loving this story. The entire idea about writing a book from the POV of Frances is intriguing to say the least, because I don’t think any other books have explored that angle of a relationship between two friends – it’s always our protagonist who’s being stalked or obsessed about, so this is something new :) Lovely review, and an even lovlier blog.
Both of those are HUGE parts of this book, so hopefully you’ll like it if you ever get around to reading it, Madiha! :)
And yes, I think it’s interesting that it isn’t from the POV of the stalked person AND it has such a focus on friendships – two things you don’t see a lot in YA.
Thank you so much! :)
OOh unreliable narrator, you say? YESSSS *rubs hands together* I just really love reading books that make you wonder how much you should be trusting the main character, so I shall keep this one on my radar!
Lovely review, Chiara <33
TOTALLY UNRELIABLE. SO GOOD. I hope you like it if you ever get around to reading it, Mel!
Thanks, dear <3
Wow this book sounds creepy! I’ve been seeing so many ARC/new release reviews in the blogosphere lately with plots that go along the lines of an “unreliable narrator” and since reading Before I go to Sleep I’ve become obsessed, glad to hear you enjoyed this one!
IT IS CREEPY! :D And yeah, I am quite a fan of the unreliable narrator, because it messes with your emotions SO MUCH.
Creepy + unreliable narrator, color me intrigued! I also love the vibes I keep getting from the cover. I will definitely have to keep my eye out for it, and lovely review, Chiara!
Yay! I’m glad you’re interested in this one, Naban :) And I also love the colour. It’s the reason why I wanted to read the book in the first place. I hope you find a copy! And thank you ^.^