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snipinfool's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
CW: Sexual assault of minor, mental illness, drug abuse, emotional abuse
Zoey arrived on Mallow Island the summer before she was due to move into her college dorm in nearby Charleston. Her mother died twelve years previously and left Zoey a condo at The Dellawhisp. She hoped to find some items there that would spark memories of her mother, as she had few items that belonged her. The Dellawhisp had five units. Two belonged to estranged sisters, one to a man who worked late nights, and one to a woman who was an artist. Three ghosts were also living there as well. The condos were run by an elderly man who had been working there since it had been renovated many years before. The residents knew little about each other despite most living there for a considerable number of years. Zoey didn't know anyone in the area so she made it a goal to try to get to know her neighbors and hopefully become friends.
This was a heartwarming story about found family. Each of the residents was lonely, but for different reasons did not seek out those close by. Zoey became the one who brought them all together. Their life stories were interesting and varied. I love stories where people who are very different in background and experiences find a common thread and become close friends. It gives me hope that we can all find a connection with someone we thought to have nothing in common with. I will be keeping this story in my heart for a long time.
Zoey arrived on Mallow Island the summer before she was due to move into her college dorm in nearby Charleston. Her mother died twelve years previously and left Zoey a condo at The Dellawhisp. She hoped to find some items there that would spark memories of her mother, as she had few items that belonged her. The Dellawhisp had five units. Two belonged to estranged sisters, one to a man who worked late nights, and one to a woman who was an artist. Three ghosts were also living there as well. The condos were run by an elderly man who had been working there since it had been renovated many years before. The residents knew little about each other despite most living there for a considerable number of years. Zoey didn't know anyone in the area so she made it a goal to try to get to know her neighbors and hopefully become friends.
This was a heartwarming story about found family. Each of the residents was lonely, but for different reasons did not seek out those close by. Zoey became the one who brought them all together. Their life stories were interesting and varied. I love stories where people who are very different in background and experiences find a common thread and become close friends. It gives me hope that we can all find a connection with someone we thought to have nothing in common with. I will be keeping this story in my heart for a long time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Child abuse
haileybones's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
There is a magical quality to Other Birds that adds to its sweetness -- and its sadness. I liked the story and characters and especially Mallow Island, but the handling of the characters felt a little off to me. They're all dealing with some element of loss, abuse, family, identity, and/or learning how to move through the world and, despite all their personal tragedy and reluctance to process it, they're very self-aware. I think that narrative choice serves the themes and fairy tale vibe of the story, but it comes at the price of some of the authenticity or subtlety or something. It still emotionally connects (I cried more than once), but it was because the author has a talent for profound sentences more than me feeling something for a character. I also noticed the two most prominent black characters fell into some racialized tropes, which made me a little uncomfortable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Child abuse
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Sexual assault
milojean_reads's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Drug use
Minor: Pedophilia, Incest, Child death, and Sexual assault
heyshay07's review
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Sexual assault
njhokie14's review
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse
emtees's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was a sweet, light but really enjoyable book. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting but I loved it.
The story follows Zoey, a young woman who moves into an apartment she inherited from her late mother on Mallow Island off the coast of South Carolina. The Dellawisps, as the building is called, is small and home to a quirky assortment of neighbors. Zoey, a lonely and somewhat quirky girl herself (she is accompanied at all times by an invisible bird), dreams that living in her mother’s old home will allow her to finally know the mother she lost as a child. There are hints of some mysteries in the mother’s background, and so I assumed the book would focus on those mysteries and on the relationship between Zoey and her mother, but those ended up being less central to the book than I thought. Instead, this is really a book about how finding happiness in the present is more important than digging up the secrets of the past.
Shortly after Zoey moves in, one of her neighbors dies, and Zoey takes on the job of cleaning out the woman’s apartment on behalf of her son. Lizbeth, the dead woman, has her own secrets, and part of the book is about unearthing the story she always wanted to have told. She isn’t the only one with a hidden story; all the residents of the Dellawisps, living and dead, have things in their pasts that they alternate between pushing away and desperately needing to face. But that, too, isn’t really the point. While all the mysteries are answered in the end - and Sarah Addison Allen is very good at mysteries, seeding them into the story in such a way that you only realize where the plot is going just before it arrives there, and yet you can’t claim the answer wasn’t in front of you the entire time - by the time they are addressed, they don’t feel like the most important thing. Instead, the book is really about the relationships that form between Zoey and her neighbors. It may seem a little silly, “the real point was the friends we made along the way,” but this book sells that idea beautifully and sincerely. It’s one of the nicest takes on the found family trope I’ve read recently. The Dellawisps just feels like a place you want to live, and as short a timespan as the story takes place in, I ended it fully convinced that the bonds that had formed during the story would last.
Other Birds is magical realism, which is a genre I sometimes have trouble with; as a hardcore fantasy fan, I don’t always enjoy how light a touch this genre has with its fantastical elements. But the magic is beautifully woven into this story. Zoey and several of her neighbors are haunted, not just by their pasts, but by the supernatural, but even these hauntings have a gentle, almost homey feel to them. This is, technically, a ghost story, but there is nothing frightening or dangerous about it.
The story follows Zoey, a young woman who moves into an apartment she inherited from her late mother on Mallow Island off the coast of South Carolina. The Dellawisps, as the building is called, is small and home to a quirky assortment of neighbors. Zoey, a lonely and somewhat quirky girl herself (she is accompanied at all times by an invisible bird), dreams that living in her mother’s old home will allow her to finally know the mother she lost as a child. There are hints of some mysteries in the mother’s background, and so I assumed the book would focus on those mysteries and on the relationship between Zoey and her mother, but those ended up being less central to the book than I thought. Instead, this is really a book about how finding happiness in the present is more important than digging up the secrets of the past.
Shortly after Zoey moves in, one of her neighbors dies, and Zoey takes on the job of cleaning out the woman’s apartment on behalf of her son. Lizbeth, the dead woman, has her own secrets, and part of the book is about unearthing the story she always wanted to have told. She isn’t the only one with a hidden story; all the residents of the Dellawisps, living and dead, have things in their pasts that they alternate between pushing away and desperately needing to face. But that, too, isn’t really the point. While all the mysteries are answered in the end - and Sarah Addison Allen is very good at mysteries, seeding them into the story in such a way that you only realize where the plot is going just before it arrives there, and yet you can’t claim the answer wasn’t in front of you the entire time - by the time they are addressed, they don’t feel like the most important thing. Instead, the book is really about the relationships that form between Zoey and her neighbors. It may seem a little silly, “the real point was the friends we made along the way,” but this book sells that idea beautifully and sincerely. It’s one of the nicest takes on the found family trope I’ve read recently. The Dellawisps just feels like a place you want to live, and as short a timespan as the story takes place in, I ended it fully convinced that the bonds that had formed during the story would last.
Other Birds is magical realism, which is a genre I sometimes have trouble with; as a hardcore fantasy fan, I don’t always enjoy how light a touch this genre has with its fantastical elements. But the magic is beautifully woven into this story. Zoey and several of her neighbors are haunted, not just by their pasts, but by the supernatural, but even these hauntings have a gentle, almost homey feel to them. This is, technically, a ghost story, but there is nothing frightening or dangerous about it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Child abuse, and Addiction
Minor: Sexual assault
Several characters have child abuse and neglect and/or addiction in their backstories, which is discussed frankly in the present. There is brief mention of child sexual abuse in one character’s backstory.hippiekender's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
I adore the found family aspect of this book. It’s devastating that they all felt so unloved as children, but I’m so glad they all found each other at the Dellawisp. I was so invested in finding out their back stories and rooting for all of their happiness.
The “ghost stories” were interesting and unique. I enjoyed the history and point of view each one offered.
The “ghost stories” were interesting and unique. I enjoyed the history and point of view each one offered.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse
Minor: Violence, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault
i_readsandbujos's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, and Drug abuse
Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse
torturedreadersdept's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Incest, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Child abuse
jla's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I can't figure out why the author chose to have so many older men preying on young girls but then mention that the young girl was aware she was being manipulated. The lack of commentary on these toxic relationships was at odds with the underlying message of the whole book, which seemed to be that love can and should be given without expecting anything in return. </Spoiler>
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Sexual assault