Reviews

This was pretty good! Allen never disappoints when it comes with storytelling, and she's one of the insanely few authors that I read purely for the story and not the characters. Her writing is solid, beautiful, and full of wisdom without coming across as pretentious or overly wordy, her characters are pretty solid as well even if I don't connect with them, and the endings are always satisfying. I was so glad when she came out with a new book since I'm still recovering from a year-long reading slump and this has aided significantly in my recovery. While I didn't like it as much as her other works (The Peach Keeper will probably always be my favorite) but its still Sarah Addison Allen doing what she does best--tell a compelling, emotional, well-written story. This was a great read and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a strong, emotional, magical realism story discussing abandonment, neglect, and the difficult process of letting go.

mepresley's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A novel that manages to be simultaneously very dark and also very hopeful and touching. Told in third-person narration, we move among the perspectives of various characters: Zoey, Charlotte, Mac, Oliver, Fraiser, Lucy, Lizbeth, Camille,

and Paloma.

The plot is basically a found-family narrative. Before Zoey came to Dellawisp, an apartment complex in Sweet Mallow, South Carolina, she was very lonely and untethered. Similarly, Charlotte, Mac, and Fraiser were essentially isolated, trapped in their pasts. Zoey manages to bring them all together.

Mallow Island is like its own character. I loved the setting. And the dellawisps, the unique birds which gave the apartment complex its name. They were so mischievous and animated.

The novel had a similar feel to Allen's Lost Lake and also to TJ Klune's Under the Whispering Door. I saw another review that compared Other Birds to Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is spot on. From my review of Remarkably Bright Creatures:

Fantastic POV characters.... Really sad, sweet novel, and just extremely well written.... Maintains a good pace--you want to know what happened/ what is going to happen--and yet takes its time to explore setting and character. Even after you know where the novel is headed, getting there is lovely. At this time in my life, I appreciated the themes of loss, grief, and how we take control of our lives and make them worth living, even in the face of massive trauma and uncertainty.