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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
I loved this story. I could very much relate to the main character. A bit of humor, and a unique storyline. Look forward to more by this author, for sure
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Excellent example of an author relying on a thesaurus to sound smart.
Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC.
Well I wanted to read this because of the cover and the title.
I thought this would be like the old movie Little shop of horrors.
But this was not at al what I expected. I have no idea what I read or what it was about. I'm totally fucking clueless.
I have a hard time getting why people rated it so high on goodreads, have I missed something???
Well I wanted to read this because of the cover and the title.
I thought this would be like the old movie Little shop of horrors.
But this was not at al what I expected. I have no idea what I read or what it was about. I'm totally fucking clueless.
I have a hard time getting why people rated it so high on goodreads, have I missed something???
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In the spirit of honesty, I feel bad rating this book so low. Everything about it is so appealing on the surface—the premise is engaging, the idea of a mysterious plant skeleton is right up my alley, the cover is gorgeous, and the sense of boundless grief and hollow stagnation that haunts Josie throughout the story is deeply beautiful and sorrowful.
The problem is that the story doesn't seem to exist much beyond the surface. It's advertised as a horror novel about found family, but it's neither of those things. It certainly doesn't feel like horror, and I wouldn't call Josie's relationship with Sue and Skelly a "found family." It also doesn't really seem to be about anything at all. Josie spends a full 80% of the book ignoring and/or arguing with the obvious plot hook growing in her backyard, and only engages with it because she believes its existence threatens her dog. She also spends that time lamenting the broken, toxic relationships in her life while doing very little to either mend them or cut them off, all while indulging in what she repeatedly acknowledges to be an unhealthy and unsustainable coping mechanism. It would have made for an excellent short story, but the fact that it's a novel means that it's a bit lacking at the end of the day.
I think I wanted this to be a book about grief, and I'm disappointed that it isn't. It has all of the pieces, and even the potential to use the sentient vines as an excellent metaphor (an ever-encroaching creature with a mind of its own that threatens to suffocate you despite your best efforts to keep it at bay? Yes please!), it just...doesn't. And if I'm wrong and it is a story about grief, it's a rather depressing one.
In short, LITTLE BIRD is a mediocre novel that simply didn't live up to its fantastic potential. It's not enough to deter me from reading more of Meuret's work in the future, but I can't blame anyone who DNF's this one after a few chapters.
In the spirit of honesty, I feel bad rating this book so low. Everything about it is so appealing on the surface—the premise is engaging, the idea of a mysterious plant skeleton is right up my alley, the cover is gorgeous, and the sense of boundless grief and hollow stagnation that haunts Josie throughout the story is deeply beautiful and sorrowful.
The problem is that the story doesn't seem to exist much beyond the surface. It's advertised as a horror novel about found family, but it's neither of those things. It certainly doesn't feel like horror, and I wouldn't call Josie's relationship with Sue and Skelly a "found family." It also doesn't really seem to be about anything at all. Josie spends a full 80% of the book ignoring and/or arguing with the obvious plot hook growing in her backyard, and only engages with it because she believes its existence threatens her dog. She also spends that time lamenting the broken, toxic relationships in her life while doing very little to either mend them or cut them off, all while indulging in what she repeatedly acknowledges to be an unhealthy and unsustainable coping mechanism. It would have made for an excellent short story, but the fact that it's a novel means that it's a bit lacking at the end of the day.
I think I wanted this to be a book about grief, and I'm disappointed that it isn't. It has all of the pieces, and even the potential to use the sentient vines as an excellent metaphor (an ever-encroaching creature with a mind of its own that threatens to suffocate you despite your best efforts to keep it at bay? Yes please!), it just...doesn't. And if I'm wrong and it is a story about grief, it's a rather depressing one.
Spoiler
To end a story with a depressed, alcoholic protagonist essentially choosing to commit suicide and become a literal hollow semblance of her former self who can never truly die is a rather striking choice. It ends with a semi-optimistic tone, but even the argument that Josie has transcended and moved beyond her grief simply feels like fast-forwarding a character arc that wasn't really present through the rest of the book.In short, LITTLE BIRD is a mediocre novel that simply didn't live up to its fantastic potential. It's not enough to deter me from reading more of Meuret's work in the future, but I can't blame anyone who DNF's this one after a few chapters.
This was spectacularly odd. A charming exploration of grief and loneliness that I frankly couldn’t put down. I’ll keep an eye out for this offer in the future.
This book was not what I expected at all. This book is tagged as "horror," but I don't really think that's true. There is a talking skeleton, yes, but this book is much sadder than it is scary. It kinda gave me Pan's Labyrinth vibes, like in how it could be listed as horror, but the fact that it contains elements of horror doesn't really make it so. I might suggest cataloging this as magical realism or character driven, because this story is mainly about the development of the character Josie. We see that on the surface she is successful, but as the book progresses we get a look at all of the things she's struggling with and how she turns to some rather unhealthy coping mechanisms.
I enjoyed this book okay, but I'm not sure I really understood it, nor did I really get what the author was trying to do. Maybe it just wasn't for me?
I enjoyed this book okay, but I'm not sure I really understood it, nor did I really get what the author was trying to do. Maybe it just wasn't for me?
Confession: I am 100% embarrassingly late in reading this and writing this review. Before the book was published I received an electronic arc of this from Netgalley. I accidentally let it expire. I then purchased the book when it came out so I could still review it. It took me this long to get around to it. But I have finally read it and it was 100% one of the best books I’ve read so far this short year.
This book is a hilarious, sad, beautiful, and well written exploration of grief, sadness, loss, self destruction, and how someone can self destruct and practically not notice. The protagonist Josie is still grieving the death of her father and her divorce and has isolated herself with her stay at home job and is self medicating with alcohol. The arrival of a jungle of vines and a talking skeleton in her backyard upend her world and her life.
I love Josie. The character arc she goes through over the course of the book is amazing. She is a profoundly broken person and watching her come to terms with that was fascinating. Skelly is a great character and foil for her. Her wit and sarcasm were great to read but she also managed to be supporting at the same time. The ending is heart wrenching imo.
I absolutely loved this book. There is a lot of discussion of heavy topics (alcoholism, divorce, cancer, death, anxiety, depression) but I still highly recommend this for fantasy fans. (I see this tagged as horror but I personally don’t see it as that.)
This book is a hilarious, sad, beautiful, and well written exploration of grief, sadness, loss, self destruction, and how someone can self destruct and practically not notice. The protagonist Josie is still grieving the death of her father and her divorce and has isolated herself with her stay at home job and is self medicating with alcohol. The arrival of a jungle of vines and a talking skeleton in her backyard upend her world and her life.
I love Josie. The character arc she goes through over the course of the book is amazing. She is a profoundly broken person and watching her come to terms with that was fascinating. Skelly is a great character and foil for her. Her wit and sarcasm were great to read but she also managed to be supporting at the same time. The ending is heart wrenching imo.
I absolutely loved this book. There is a lot of discussion of heavy topics (alcoholism, divorce, cancer, death, anxiety, depression) but I still highly recommend this for fantasy fans. (I see this tagged as horror but I personally don’t see it as that.)
This is a weird little book. I mean, not weird on an Aliya Whitely level or anything, but still, a bit weird. In a good way. It definitely went in a direction I was not expecting, and I really liked where it did go. In a very small way it reminded me of [b:A Pocketful of Crows|34913762|A Pocketful of Crows|Joanne M. Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492725829l/34913762._SX50_.jpg|56176672] by Joanne M Harris, which is to its benefit since that happens to be a big favourite of mine.
As others have noted in their reviews, this book isn't a horror, even if it might look like it should be from the synopsis and cover. It's not a horror, it is quirky and weird and has the occasional moment of creepiness. But it is not scary, it's not gory, it's even really violent or anything like that. Perhaps the scariest thing in this book is its realistic look at the horror of everyday work-life and online-life and the life that is unfulfilled.
It was very much an enjoyable read with some very interesting ideas and concepts. Plus, sentient plants. Gotta love the sentient plants.
As others have noted in their reviews, this book isn't a horror, even if it might look like it should be from the synopsis and cover. It's not a horror, it is quirky and weird and has the occasional moment of creepiness. But it is not scary, it's not gory, it's even really violent or anything like that. Perhaps the scariest thing in this book is its realistic look at the horror of everyday work-life and online-life and the life that is unfulfilled.
It was very much an enjoyable read with some very interesting ideas and concepts. Plus, sentient plants. Gotta love the sentient plants.
I really wanted to love this book, and it was enjoyable enough for me to bring read in a couple of hours, however it just never captured me as much as I hoped. It’s branded as a horror book but it actually veers far closer to magical realism with no real horror elements to be seen, besides a skeleton.
Josie is a bit of a recluse. She spends her days working from home and her evenings drinking until she blacks out; her only friend is her chihuahua. So when mysterious vines begin rapidly growing in her back garden and a sentient skeleton starts telling her stories, she is more annoyed than perturbed that her quiet existence had been shattered.
The writing here is really strong and it was so easy to picture the craziness that goes on, but the story just never felt strong enough to support the writing or the concept. I liked Josie as a character, I really sympathised with her life of living easy instead of living happy and I was expecting some grand revelation at the end where she would turn her life around and open herself up to others and what we got… it was more of a fizzle than a bang. It left me unsatisfied, and while I could see how much thought was put into creating Josie, she never felt fully fleshed out.
It’s a unique and exciting concept that just didn’t hit quite as hard as I hoped it would but I would absolutely be interested in reading more from this author because the writing, itself, was brilliant and probably the best part of this book
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.