A review by joreadsbooks
Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

While Fever Dream was a very enjoyable trippy eponym of a read, this collection fell a little flat for me. There were a few stand out stories that I greatly enjoyed (which I will elaborate on in a bit), most of them didn't snap in the way they needed to for me to be able to unabashedly recommend the collection. Three stories, however, stick out to me as great reads that I recommend checking out the collection if only for these:

• Mouthful of Birds
  • A young woman has a secret (she eats birds)
  • Unsettling with a natural depiction of a father-daughter relationship
  • CW: animal eating, gore, blood
• Heads Against Concrete
  • An artist struggles to connect with people and connects with art instead
  • Sometimes, he connects a little too much
  • Unsettling, committed to the bit, study of a deeply unlikeable character
  • CW: anti-Asian racism, misogyny, murder, gore, blood
• On the Steppe
  • A couple sees something and goes to dinner to people who might have seen the same strange thing
  • It's best to follow the rules of your hosts
  • CW: home invasion, discussions of divorce