Where I Gritted My Teeth and Loved It

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a high-powered read. Amazing.

The story of Miriam, a damaged and angry young woman who sees death everywhere, is rough, and it is upsetting at times, and it is hard to read in places. But it's hard in a good way.

Miriam is smart and smart-mouthed, coarse and off-putting and desperately self-aware, and she is a fantastic character. She's just trying to survive in a world where she can't hide from the horrible truths she sees, but she doing a bad job of it. She can't stop people from getting hurt so she just gives up. Until she can't. That's where it gets really good.

The language here is challenging, the dialogue especially filled with crudities and ugliness that would be labeled "problematic" if it were coming from a real person instead of a character, and reading a lot of it is like falling on your hands and knees in broken glass. I'm not precious or pearl-clutching as a rule, but I found myself grimacing and wincing and making faces--and it's fantastic. The prose is brilliant. F'ed up, but brilliant.

The story is non-stop, rolling along like an action movie. It's a ton of fun.

Recommended.

View all my reviews