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spookycakes 's review for:
Midnight at the Blackbird Café
by Heather Webber
Disappointed. I was so looking forward to reading this book. It has such high reviews, it's touted as a magical realism story about family that takes place in a little café in the south.
What I read: boring conversation in one location, transition to another location for more boring conversation over the same thing, followed by another transition to another location for even more boring conversation over, you guessed it, THE SAME THING! The whole town only talks about ONE TOPIC.
The family "drama" at the center of the story is so bland. There's more drama in the most vapid episode of The Brady Bunch! The characters centered in the conflict were just as flavorless as I imagined the cafe's menu. Anna Kate and Natalie come back to the town that's supposedly divided by the death of Eden and AJ 25 years ago - Anna Kate's parents and Natalie's brother. It seems like this is ALL THAT THE TOWN TALKS ABOUT even after 25 years! Yet these two aforementioned women come (back) to town and I guess there's a change of heart? It's hard to tell because the characters are so cardboard and spiritless. If there was a change in characters from the beginning of the story to the end, it's quite difficult to see.
Reading the summary of the book, you know straightaway that Anna Kate is going to stay in Wicklow and head the café - which she does effortlessly (including coming up with new recipes, tending and harvesting a garden, arranging the birders in town to camp on the property, etc etc etc) without any real conflict or difficulty. I guess this could be chalked up to the magical realism, but it comes across as limp storytelling. It could have been so much better. Yet Anna Kate deciding to stay and the whole town being supportive of her just like they have been the whole time is the big climax. Surprise?
And the magical realism is *there* I guess? It's not really woven into the story as an element so I don't really want to say it's magical realism but rather faux magical realism? I don't know. The pies that are made by the Callows that have the magical mulberries can cause deceased loved ones to deliver messages in your dreams - but only sometimes. No one really knows how it works, it's just plot-convenient really. That and it's very heavily implied that two characters can shapeshift into a bird and a cat. There's something there but it doesn't really have a worthwhile payoff. Just more blandness.
What I read: boring conversation in one location, transition to another location for more boring conversation over the same thing, followed by another transition to another location for even more boring conversation over, you guessed it, THE SAME THING! The whole town only talks about ONE TOPIC.
The family "drama" at the center of the story is so bland. There's more drama in the most vapid episode of The Brady Bunch! The characters centered in the conflict were just as flavorless as I imagined the cafe's menu. Anna Kate and Natalie come back to the town that's supposedly divided by the death of Eden and AJ 25 years ago - Anna Kate's parents and Natalie's brother. It seems like this is ALL THAT THE TOWN TALKS ABOUT even after 25 years! Yet these two aforementioned women come (back) to town and I guess there's a change of heart? It's hard to tell because the characters are so cardboard and spiritless. If there was a change in characters from the beginning of the story to the end, it's quite difficult to see.
Reading the summary of the book, you know straightaway that Anna Kate is going to stay in Wicklow and head the café - which she does effortlessly (including coming up with new recipes, tending and harvesting a garden, arranging the birders in town to camp on the property, etc etc etc) without any real conflict or difficulty. I guess this could be chalked up to the magical realism, but it comes across as limp storytelling. It could have been so much better. Yet Anna Kate deciding to stay and the whole town being supportive of her just like they have been the whole time is the big climax. Surprise?
And the magical realism is *there* I guess? It's not really woven into the story as an element so I don't really want to say it's magical realism but rather faux magical realism? I don't know. The pies that are made by the Callows that have the magical mulberries can cause deceased loved ones to deliver messages in your dreams - but only sometimes. No one really knows how it works, it's just plot-convenient really. That and it's very heavily implied that two characters can shapeshift into a bird and a cat. There's something there but it doesn't really have a worthwhile payoff. Just more blandness.