Mission: Books 4/25
More reading bingo adventures.
A Book with a One-word Title: Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
Miriam Black knows when you will die. Still in her early twenties, she's foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, suicides, and slow deaths by cancer. But when Miriam hitches a ride with truck driver Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be gruesomely murdered while he calls her name. Miriam has given up trying to save people; that only makes their deaths happen. But Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim. No matter what she does she can't save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she'll have to try.
I saw this recced somewhere, and thought it sounded interesting, I also fell in love with the cover of the book. It's a pretty dark story, that doesn't shy away from its violence and gore, but it works for the story it's telling. Miriam is not a nice person, she's hard, she's cynical, she's foul-mouthed and seriously damaged by her own power. She's a sharp-edged pov to be in, and at times it feels like it's trying too hard. But I found the book easy to read, it never sinks too deep and forgets to be a story. No one except Miriam gets much character development, and there are more than a few instances where secondary characters feel like they're there to provide things for the main character or story, rather than to be a character in their own right. It's tough to watch Miriam make the decisions she does, to go for the things that'll hurt her every time, especially because it often feels like she does it because she thinks she deserves them. But there's the constant feeling that she's a survivor under everything. She comes across as someone I wouldn't want to be around, but I'm still going to root for, right to the end.
A Book with a One-word Title: Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
Miriam Black knows when you will die. Still in her early twenties, she's foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, suicides, and slow deaths by cancer. But when Miriam hitches a ride with truck driver Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be gruesomely murdered while he calls her name. Miriam has given up trying to save people; that only makes their deaths happen. But Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim. No matter what she does she can't save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she'll have to try.
I saw this recced somewhere, and thought it sounded interesting, I also fell in love with the cover of the book. It's a pretty dark story, that doesn't shy away from its violence and gore, but it works for the story it's telling. Miriam is not a nice person, she's hard, she's cynical, she's foul-mouthed and seriously damaged by her own power. She's a sharp-edged pov to be in, and at times it feels like it's trying too hard. But I found the book easy to read, it never sinks too deep and forgets to be a story. No one except Miriam gets much character development, and there are more than a few instances where secondary characters feel like they're there to provide things for the main character or story, rather than to be a character in their own right. It's tough to watch Miriam make the decisions she does, to go for the things that'll hurt her every time, especially because it often feels like she does it because she thinks she deserves them. But there's the constant feeling that she's a survivor under everything. She comes across as someone I wouldn't want to be around, but I'm still going to root for, right to the end.