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avacadosocks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Colonisation, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gore, and Body horror
Minor: Suicide attempt and Sexual content
s_teichman's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma and Body horror
Moderate: Colonisation
Minor: Cannibalism
bookgrrl's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The last 1/4 of this book broke my heart
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Colonisation
ostenreal's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Body horror, Murder, and Suicide
ekami's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
jaredt's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
An unexpected and well explored journey over the years.
This is quite a creative take, dealing with the nature of space travel and the years that could be lost to it. Lots of buildup, backstory, and lore woven together to make all the pieces fit. After the first chapter I knew it was going to be a special, different kind of story than what I'm used to in the genre.
We meet lots of folks, and no matter how long they're in the pages, their roles carry weight, they feel like they have their own stories, and it's just what bits we get to see.
I will say this story, because of the way it is structured, probably won't be for folks that want a more typical 'we are going to follow this group of folks and ONLY this group and see how their stories end'. Everything is intertwined, and there are main characters that carry most of the way, but not everyone stays together, and its just by nature of the universe this story lives in, and the amount of years we follow through. The ending packs a weighted punch, but isn't needlessly punishing.
Overall, this is a story I really enjoyed, and think it is one that I will grow to love even moreso over time.
This is quite a creative take, dealing with the nature of space travel and the years that could be lost to it. Lots of buildup, backstory, and lore woven together to make all the pieces fit. After the first chapter I knew it was going to be a special, different kind of story than what I'm used to in the genre.
We meet lots of folks, and no matter how long they're in the pages, their roles carry weight, they feel like they have their own stories, and it's just what bits we get to see.
I will say this story, because of the way it is structured, probably won't be for folks that want a more typical 'we are going to follow this group of folks and ONLY this group and see how their stories end'. Everything is intertwined, and there are main characters that carry most of the way, but not everyone stays together, and its just by nature of the universe this story lives in, and the amount of years we follow through. The ending packs a weighted punch, but isn't needlessly punishing.
Overall, this is a story I really enjoyed, and think it is one that I will grow to love even moreso over time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Murder and Child abuse
Minor: Sexual content, Genocide, and Body horror
In relation to body horror,booksthatburn's review against another edition
It starts with a character whose limb difference is medically corrected in the first paragraph, this made me uneasy, because it allows for a bunch of ableist situations without actually having the character be physically different. I gave it a bit longer but never recovered my good will, I don't like this.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol and Ableism
Minor: Excrement, Body horror, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Drug abuse, and Medical content
internationalreads's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
caseythereader's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? No
5.0
- I do not know how to properly review THE VANISHED BIRDS, a book that burrowed deep into my heart right from the opening pages.
- Yes, it is an inventive adventure across time and space, but it's also a tender exploration of trauma and of found family.
- Also, it doesn't say it in the synopsis, but queerness is quite embedded in this story, and in such a loving way.
- Yes, it is an inventive adventure across time and space, but it's also a tender exploration of trauma and of found family.
- Also, it doesn't say it in the synopsis, but queerness is quite embedded in this story, and in such a loving way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Violence
graculus's review
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I went through quite a phase of not giving books 5 stars because I suspected I wasn't going to want to re-read them, but for The Vanished Birds that seems a little unfair - it's definitely true that I'm unlikely to return to this book but I can't help but recognise the quality of the writing involved and give it the rating it deserves.
It's based on a number of stories woven together, starting off on a planet being exploited for one of its resources, visited every 15 years by a ship to take away the shipments of a purple seed it produces. We start with the measuring of those visits through the lifetime of one of that planet's people, visits which are mere months apart from the point of view of the ship's pilot. That planet is also the place where one of our other characters first appears, as a child appearing from nowhere, taken on board the ship as a favour to a dying friend.
The other main story line involves a woman who was instrumental in the creation of much of the technologies on which everyone relies, relentlessly reliving a failed love affair through the bodies of multiple individuals who are paid to change their appearance, and who believes that abilities like the child's are the next step forward on a technological basis. In the end, she pays the captain to keep the child and bring him up, suspecting he has this ability even though nobody has ever seen it.
The Vanished Birds is very much a story about found family, both one that falls apart early on as they can't cope with the strangeness of the child in their midst, and another one which forms despite the fact they've been thrown together solely for the purpose of keeping that child safe while also monitoring his abilities. The author is also not scared of killing off characters but it doesn't feel gratuitous, just part and parcel of everything going on within a realistic story line. Matters come to a head, abilities are uncovered but there's also a resolution, which is not that usual a thing in a genre full of trilogies and series. As a first novel too, it's pretty impressive, so I can't wait to see what this author does next.
It's based on a number of stories woven together, starting off on a planet being exploited for one of its resources, visited every 15 years by a ship to take away the shipments of a purple seed it produces. We start with the measuring of those visits through the lifetime of one of that planet's people, visits which are mere months apart from the point of view of the ship's pilot. That planet is also the place where one of our other characters first appears, as a child appearing from nowhere, taken on board the ship as a favour to a dying friend.
The other main story line involves a woman who was instrumental in the creation of much of the technologies on which everyone relies, relentlessly reliving a failed love affair through the bodies of multiple individuals who are paid to change their appearance, and who believes that abilities like the child's are the next step forward on a technological basis. In the end, she pays the captain to keep the child and bring him up, suspecting he has this ability even though nobody has ever seen it.
The Vanished Birds is very much a story about found family, both one that falls apart early on as they can't cope with the strangeness of the child in their midst, and another one which forms despite the fact they've been thrown together solely for the purpose of keeping that child safe while also monitoring his abilities. The author is also not scared of killing off characters but it doesn't feel gratuitous, just part and parcel of everything going on within a realistic story line. Matters come to a head, abilities are uncovered but there's also a resolution, which is not that usual a thing in a genre full of trilogies and series. As a first novel too, it's pretty impressive, so I can't wait to see what this author does next.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Body horror, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma