Reviews with content warning for Death - Birds in the Mouth

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Birds in the Mouth by Samanta Schweblin

9 reviews

year23's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Hard book to read given recent events (particularly the story "Heads Against Concrete"). These are unsettling stories - some work better than others.

The first story felt so familiar - I swear I've seen it in movie/tv form. I'm curious to read this author's other novel Fever Dream after this. I think I wanted more from at least half of the stories, but in terms of grappling with the underbelly of humanity and nature, it's successful. The writing is accessible, immediately draws you in and creates a scene, vibe, and strong characters. I want to stay with it - explore the depths more of these little worlds the author creates, but again, not really a short story collection at that point.

Do check the content warnings.

Content Warnings

heidishartrandnewell's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

jtkerlin's review against another edition

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challenging dark

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

0.25

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feministmidwife's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Each story was fantastic and fantastical. The most intense dance of entrances and exits, of interrelatedness with nature and animals, and incredible portrayal of relationships and self that I've ever read. This is my second Samanta Schweblin book after Fever Dream, and she's absolutely a new favorite author. Can't wait to keep reading her work. The second story, Preserves, is one I will teach and talk about related to reproductive decision-making. Beautifully done.

Content Warnings

savvylit's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Schweblin is an absolute master of realism-rooted horror. In Headlight, a group of abandoned brides gather their rage. In Butterflies, a man idolizes his daughter's beauty to devastating effect. In Toward Happy Civilization, a man finds himself forced to live at a train station. Every single one of the stories in this collection is a bite-sized experience of discomfort. Highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys horror where the scariest thing is human nature.

One of the stories, The Test, is solely about animal cruelty. I personally had to skim it because I cannot stomach reading about that type of violence.

Content Warnings

books_onthe_ground's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This one was confusing for me because there were many aspects that I really enjoyed and many aspects that I didn’t. There were also many aspects that I didn’t understand. That might be because I don’t understand or really know if the Argentinian culture and it’s literature (though I’m very interested in it’s literature now especially after reading Tender is the Flesh which I adored.) Unfortunately I didn’t love this collection. It’s hard to judge a collection as the stories can differ so much so here are some numbers to help you see what my overall thoughts were. I think the Mode rating is a 3 stars. There are 20 stories out of those 20 I rated 19. I couldn’t give one a rating because I just didn’t know what rating fitted it. So out of the 19 I had: one 1 star, four 2 stars, seven 3 stars, five 4 stars and two 5 stars. Give or take a few .5’s that I’ve thrown around.

The main thing that REALLY let down the rating was the inclusion of the f slur (both the 3 letter one and the 6 letter) in stories 5 and 7. These were not needed. They added NOTHING to the story. It is a word I am sensitive to especially the 6 letter word and it did trigger me a bit to see it. That is a word I have bad history with and I don’t respect seeing it without reason and without warning. I have seen no evidence towards her being lgbt either so as far as I’m concerned she has no right to use those words. People, in my opinion, can write narratives different to what they know but within reason and I am highly against people using slurs that they have no right to use with the excuse of literature. You’re still saying a slur and it’s still offensive.

Moving away from that, some stories I really liked and others I found a little boring if I’m honest. A quote from J M Coetzee stated that her word is like “the Grimm brothers” and that she writes “darkly humorous tales”. The daily Mail described this collection as “an eerie blend of the supernatural and the all too real.” The daily Mail I agree with but I wanted MORE. I wasn’t creeped out or spooked at all. I didn’t get any shivers. Some had great atmosphere and there were a few that did border on creepy but were just too short to have much impact. The only exception being stories 14, 16 and 19. But I didn’t like waiting until story 14 out of 20 to get the eeriness I was promised. Many of the stories also just didn’t have a lot going for them in the sense of story, characters, or theme and I feel like even in a short story you need something, anything, to give you a reason to keep reading. I didn’t feel like this collection had a overarching theme or even genre as some stories just felt out of place. Do I regret picking this up? A little bit yes. More because I don’t have a lot of money so it’s sad that it went to something I didn’t love but that’s the gamble of books. Would I recommend this? No. However, I wouldn’t stop anyone from reading this. I would warn them of the slurs obviously but literature, at the end of the day is subjective and apart from what I’ve previously stated I didn’t find anything particularly wrong with this book so others might enjoy it for more than I did. Overall ending feeling as I closed the book was disappointment but not dislike.

Content Warnings

lain_darko's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

5.0

Mouthful of Birds is an unsettling collection with a wide range of fascinating characters, finely tuned to focus on misogyny and parenthood, life and death. Across many of the stories in this book, it feels like the characters are running towards something until suddenly they realize they’re running away from it instead. Either way, their desperation is palpable. The final story, "The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides," absolutely slays—it’s a brilliant, albeit disturbing, take on male violence and idolization. Published in Spanish over a decade ago—though, you’d never know it—this collection has never been more relevant.

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kelseyland's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Samanta Schweblin's stories are the creepiest kind of horror, the kind that magnifies and exaggerates the ugliness of humanity. These short stories are strange, surreal and haunting, the kind of thing that sticks with you for a long time after you've read it, for better or worse.

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