Book Review! Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

Cover by Joey Hi-Fi
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There is no one out there like Miriam Black, and not just because she knows from the moment she shakes your hand exactly how you’re going to die. It has more to do with the fact that she’s an unbreakable survivor, a cynical, slightly twisted woman dredging her way through the roughest people to try and survive in a world where all she sees of people is their deaths.

Blackbirds is like the ‘Breaking Bad’ of literature, it’s gritty, intense, and in your face abrasive, but it draws you in with a weird seduction you just can’t ignore. Diving into the mind of Miriam Black is like jumping down the rabbit hole, but Alice cackles like a banshee and wields a knife. It’s the intensity of the book that grabs you, draws you in, and holds you down for every gut wrenching turn of the page.

This is not a story for people who want nice characters. This is not a story for people who despise vulgarity, or dislike profanity. It’s a violent, dirty, foulmouthed adventure.

Honestly, I was afraid I’d hate it, but there’s something inside Miriam, a real person hiding behind that waving middle finger. Someone who wants deeply to have a real connection to the world, but is endlessly battered by the stream of death visions she can’t escape.

Blackbirds is a story of a woman trying to survive her own curse, while at the same time desperate to find a way to beat it somehow. It’s hard to make friends when you already know, in intimate detail, how their last moments will feel. It’s even harder to gain a person’s trust when they don’t want to believe what you’ve seen.

Miriam’s been doing her best to keep people out of her heart and out of her life since death started to play its moving picture show inside her head. Unluckily for her, she knows something’s going to change when a stranger she meets dies saying her name.

All it takes is one vision and Miriam’s stuck on a path carved by fate, and no matter what direction she runs, and what sort of people she runs into, she can’t shake her feet from that road.

Ultimately, there is only one question Miriam wants to answer. Is there any way to cheat death? If Miriam isn’t careful, the death she’s getting closer to is her own. 

Blackbirds is a fantastic read. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read, and as I delved carefully into the first gritty chapter I felt, for a moment, afraid to go on. Like Alice, I glanced back before sliding down the rabbit hole, but once I got into the tale I was hooked. Miriam has a grit I can respect, she might flip you off, and curse you out fluently and vehemently, but once she finds that you don’t scare off that quickly, you just might see there’s more to her than even she wants to look closely at.

Beyond the heroine, Chuck Wendig weaves an intricate plot about the questions of death and destiny, choice and predetermination. Miriam’s no sweetheart, but the specter of Death that haunts her dreams is an even bigger dick. Even as Miriam fights to rip her feet from the trail laid out for her, Death walks beside her, appearing in visions and dreams, taunting her every choice.

The images in the writing are powerful, and some of the visuals linger long after. I have a very different perception of ravens now than I ever did before.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and more than just being deeply affected by this book, I have to praise the writing. The imagery and craft is phenomenal, especially for the first book in a set. Chuck Wendig has honed his skills and delivers Blackbirds in a way that is powerful, flawless, and damned impressive writing.

For this Blackbirds earns the coveted 10/10. A+ Rating.

There’s only one thing I can say to top that off. The second book, Mockingbird? It’s just as good.

This is How I do It: Book Reviews

Just a quick note before I launch my first real Book Review here on site. Basically I've done reviews where I just spew a squeegasm onto paper and tell you all how awesome the thing is.
However now I plan to do things a little differently. I'm trying to focus on providing a review with good presentation that gives you a snapshot of the book without spoilers, that highlights my experience of the book, while still allowing for your own interpretation. I refuse to put spoilers in my reviews, because I hate tripping over them when I troll the web for new material.

At the top and bottom of each book I'll give a "Grade" this is my personal subjective opinion on where the book ranks in a 10 out of 10 scale. This hinges on a lot of things, an authors past works, my expectations of the novel, writing craft, and whether the overall story grabbed and held my attention.
There will glowing reviews, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't love reading and want to share my passion, but in fairness there will be critical reviews and yes, even the dreaded Bad Book Review.

I'm also toying with the idea of a semi-frequent post titled 'Calling to the Carpet', a chance where I will tackle with blistering honesty a particular book failing. I'm reserving this for sections where the writing just didn't stand up, when the craft fumbled. I don't like to focus on the negative, but I think we can all remember at least one time as a reader when  a book failed so dramatically that we actually felt betrayed. (This happens much more often to me at the movies!) These moments deserve at least an accounting, and even if nothing ever comes of it, at the very least there will be those of you who empathize and appreciate the vicarious venting.

That said, let's move on to our first Book Review in the new system, a book I've reviewed before, but I liked it so much I wanted to kick off the new review section with a real winner.
Head on to the next post for "Blackbirds"!

Sharing what's in my Brain...

I've recently had a lot of 'don't wanna edit'-itis and coupled with a neurotic little voice that says "Don't post that blog post! It's not been revised!" Things are sort of stalling on my end. At some point I will either embrace the editing process, or I will just flat out post what I've written first draft and call it good.

Confession: I never learned to edit in school. Never. Being labeled 'gifted in English' plus having a keen eye to which courses would require the least amount of effort, I found myself skating through writing assignments by just writing a draft, doing a copy edit for spelling, and turning it in. My school ethos was in a word, lazy. I even wrote an entire persuasive essay on the topic of nature v nurture completely from my own conjecture, I lost points for not having a bibliography, but the meat of the article was deemed wholly sound.

Thus, I am a spoiled brat who left school convinced of my writing skills, and now that I am facing the 'real world' of writing, I realize how very, very wrong I was. Rewriting is vital, editing is essential, and embracing the truth of "No first draft is perfect" is something that is profoundly improving my writing.
Sadly, I'm still lazy. Overcoming my inclination to take shortcuts, especially on a blog of 'unofficial' writing, is warring with my perfectionist's desire to present really well written, smooth flowing, impressive writing.

This is my conundrum, and I managed to write most of a blog post about it. (This is also a first draft, forgive my ramble.) Yet, rather than letting my blog sit vacant and dull, leaving you all to question my absence, here are some of the things I've gotten involved in recently, and I'm delighted to share.

First off, I kicked in my own meager donation to the massively successful charity crowdfund event for Jay Lake. Even though the original small goals were met right away, the event is still ongoing and every bit of your help goes to help a fellow writer.
http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/sequence-a-science-fiction-writer/38705

Additionally, even if you don't donate, the link includes a list and links to all the silly whimsical rewards performed by other writers including Seanan Mcguire, John Scalzi, Pat Rothfuss, and Neil Gaiman. Plus many more! These are all fantastic, (esp Scalzi's Bob Dylan impression.). They also give you the impression of a group of people who care a great deal about each other, willing to embarrass themselves, and have a good time doing it for the sake of a friend.

Other things I've been doing is reading some more very excellent books. Despite the fact that I read very quickly, it's not always easy for me to sit down and just read, so I've only read two new books this month.

"Discount Armageddon"  by Seanan McGuire was a truly amazing delightful read. I bought it on release day and had it perched in my "To Be Read" pile for far too long.
This is the first in Seanan's new Incryptid series, and reading it means diving headlong into a fantastic spin on reality where all the monsters are real, but much more likely to be your eccentric neighbor than something out to maul you in the woods. Sure, some monsters are just plain deadly, and some monsters don't have enough intelligence to try to adapt to a modern world, they'd rather keep stinging, biting, and eating any human that stumbles into them.
I'll have a more in depth review to come, but I highly recommend it. My favorite part was the best choreographed fight scene set to music I've ever read. Utter GOLD.

"Dead to Me" by Anton Strout is the first book in the Simon Canderous series, and while I'm still a few chapters from the end I'm really enjoying the ride. I picked up this book mostly because I've been so impressed by Anton on a personal level. He's a fun guy who isn't afraid to tweet about the crazy that goes into the writing process, and he's very connected to his readers. Plus, he's let me give him a hard time. He and his wife are expecting TWINS this summer, so if ever there was a man who could use your book sales Anton is worthy.
More than just the author, I'm enjoying the book itself. Simon is a guy trying to improve himself and find a good standing in a strange and dangerous career where stopping a zombie uprising has it's own set of forms that must be filled out in triplicate and signed before you can even think of going home to wash off the gore. It's the weird and wild as controlled by a government bureaucracy. The tightly controlled filing and organization is a little similar to Myke Cole's Shadow Ops, and the adventures in dark New York City alleys is a perfect complement to "Discount Armageddon".  I can almost imagine Simon meeting up with Verity one night. Hopefully without someone getting shot or punched!

That's what I've been up to, and with all this talk about "Dead to Me" I want to go finish reading! Stay warm this winter!
Liz

A new post! Surprise!

Okay, glancing over my past blog entries, and this blog is starting to make me look bad. I mean look, all these promises and not nearly enough follow through. This blog is fast becoming the ink and cyberspace equivalent of "Top Gear" (UK). Ambitious... but rubbish.
(We're going to blame the blog for all of this. Not the author. The author pretends to deny any responsibility for inconsistencies posted here. These aren't the blog post's you're looking for. Look over there!)

All the silly glib humor stated, I have to admit 2012 was a hell of a year. Started out badly, hit some higher points near the middle, then crashed and burned quite thoroughly. Nationally we had fires, and hurricanes, shootings and a wild drama filled election. Personally, I dealt with depression, a few months of fantastic productivity and wild ideals, followed by one of the worst crashes I've had in years. I still have mixed feelings discussing all of this, but I feel better when I'm honest, and I'm pragmatic about my failings. Living with depression can sometimes feel like living with an exposed 'self destruct' button and the faster life goes and the more expectations you build for the future, it's all too easy to slip and hit that button, then it all goes sideways.
I've been thinking I'll write more on that later. To reassure you, don't worry, I'm doing much better now. It can be hard at times, but I find it easier to talk about when I'm feeling better, and while I can't promise to be better 'forever' (no one can), I'm always optimistic about the future.

Now more good news! My husband and I had always planned on having two kids, yet life and certain matters of biology conspired to thwart my best efforts. (I may be a tiny bit of a control freak) Thus we aspired earlier in 2012 to accept being parents to an only child, and make plans for all the freedoms that would bring... And Fate, quite loudly, began laughing.

I'm delighted to announce, I'm now expecting a baby this summer. My husband and I found out just before Christmas, and got to enjoy telling our family the good news over the holidays. This may mean that I don't quite get my novel revised and ready for submission quite as soon as I hoped, but I'm more than happy to wait the extra time since our family will finally be complete.

My daughter, who's almost six, is excited to be a big sister and has gotten to practice mothering on her toddler cousins. She's getting smarter and more considerate every day. However, she insists she won't be changing any diapers. Man, kids these days!

So in summary, I have NO idea what my future plans for this blog will be, and at the risk of Fate mocking me again, I'm pretty much going to play things by ear without confining myself to any big commitments. I do hope to post on the blog with semi-regularity, and I've had a lot of fantastic dreams and plot bunnies sprouting up so maybe I'll even find ways to titillate you with new writing.

That's my big announcement! Happy 2013 everyone!

P.S. Another brilliant writer I've come to know, Anton Strout, will also be celebrating the birth of twins this year. I think we need to set up a Baby's of Writers Photoblog or something. WE WILL RULE YOU ALL WITH CUTENESS! If you want in let me know.