Scan barcode
A review by antimony
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
adventurous
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
i LOVED the beginning of this book. the first 2 parts were so fun. the writing style...the characters...the series of events..... like for example the school. which reminded me of the certain brand of middle grade books i used to love. i really enjoyed every time it was mentioned that all the school cared about was memorization bc it felt just like the humor in some kids' book set in an ambiguous time period where adventure runs rampant and school is soul-sucking. i adored page 45, where we first see the pov of theodolphous rose. the line (which im writing from memory, so bear with me when it isn't accurate) "in fact, patricia had been right about the man. his name was theodolphous rose, and he was a member of the nameless order of assassins." was just SO FUN.
things went downhill from there.
part 3. was not very good. it started strong, though not as strong as the first two parts. and it was ok. nice to see where the characters ended up. or something. but then they started to be a tad annoying, and then the timeskips began. these timeskips drove me mad. it was like we skipped the most convenient times to make things happen without having to be explained. like she wanted laurence and patricia to get together despite not really having chemistry? skip a few weeks and cut to them having sex (speaking of which.....i generally skip sex scenes, so im not really a good source for what's good or bad, but this one was pretty bad). the world is falling apart but you want to skip to the good part where it already has? cool! skip a few months and the collapse is no longer impending and you don't have to write anything actually falling apart. >:\
part 4 was a tad redeemable. things stopped making sense but i liked that laurence told isobel abt magic and lost his voice. this may seem strange of me but idk it was satisfyinf. i feel like some of the events were strung together nonsensically, and things happened to happen but they didn't fit together? if that makes any sense.
anyway. very strong start, which descended into something i did not like, which rose up to fizzle out and not quite be good or bad. points for the beginning & the writing bc i do like this style and i also like being nice.
things went downhill from there.
part 3. was not very good. it started strong, though not as strong as the first two parts. and it was ok. nice to see where the characters ended up. or something. but then they started to be a tad annoying, and then the timeskips began. these timeskips drove me mad. it was like we skipped the most convenient times to make things happen without having to be explained. like she wanted laurence and patricia to get together despite not really having chemistry? skip a few weeks and cut to them having sex (speaking of which.....i generally skip sex scenes, so im not really a good source for what's good or bad, but this one was pretty bad). the world is falling apart but you want to skip to the good part where it already has? cool! skip a few months and the collapse is no longer impending and you don't have to write anything actually falling apart. >:\
part 4 was a tad redeemable. things stopped making sense but i liked that
anyway. very strong start, which descended into something i did not like, which rose up to fizzle out and not quite be good or bad. points for the beginning & the writing bc i do like this style and i also like being nice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Death
Moderate: Confinement
Minor: War