A review by drakoulis
The Language of Seabirds by Will Taylor

4.0

First of all, the title is one of the best I've seen in relation to what it means. I assumed it was a reference to some important scene with seabird sounds in the background, but it's not that. You'll get the meaning when you read the book.

This is a middle-grade story, taking place during the 2 weeks Jeremy spends in a small Oregon town with his recently divorced dad and his uncle. The exact timeframe of the book is a bit vague: there seems to be no internet, but there are text messages. And there are a lot of magazines around. So early 00s? The whole atmosphere and vibe could easily be 70s or 80s though if there wasn't the technology to show it's actually later.

It's a very sweet and fuzzy story: from the moment Jeremy meets Evan, to the growing realization of his feelings, his fear of whether Evan feels the same and what if someone finds out, the enthusiasm, the anger, the softness.

The adults of the story are either downright horrible (Jeremy's dad) or negligent. 13 year old boys working in the family business? Doing chores like cleaning the roof? This is something I only expect to see in books taking place several decads earlier in the past and I'm a bit baffled on how normalized it was in this book.

I have a huge complain that left me a sour aftertaste: the ending.

Spoiler

Given that the whole story took place in a brief period and there was an unavoidable separation in the end, I expected an open ending. The boys are also really young, so it would be a bit ridiculous to have a "we stay together forever" insinuation. But it's equally ridiculous and frustrating for me to have an ending focused on "goodbye", "maybe we won't meet again", "who knows". Not only it's something I hate , but it's downright unrealistic. Two boys who said "I love you" for the first time, who had their first boyfriend, their first crush will not just let go of it. Hell, most wouldn't let go their friends grow distant without trying. The ending could simply be "I will text you every day", "I will come and visit you and you will come visit me" and it would be perfect. Instead, we got this really unsatisfying ending with sad vibes.

. That's the only reason this book isn't a 5-star.