cupiscent 's review for:

Ghost Bird by Lisa Fuller

4.0

dark mysterious 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: Complicated

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This is creepy as heck, wildly atmospheric and really engaging with it. (Way too close to horror for me to pick up normally, but I figured since this was YA it couldn't get too awful...) Not the sort of story I'd usually go for, but I heard the author speak at a convention and was really interested in the own-voices First Nation Queensland mob element. Turns out it was even closer to home for me, set in a regional area not far from where I grew up - the settings described, from home to school and the bush surrounding, and the slang used, could all have been lifted directly from my own youth. (That made it all ring like a bell for me, but might also make it more difficult for foreigners, though I feel like everything is used in meaningful context that helps make sense of it.) The big strength here for me is a glorious emotional complexity to the whole book - from our main character's relations with and feelings about her twin, to the emotional repercussions of an unflinching finale. Nothing's simple, everything's twistily real, and the book is the richer for it.