Other Birds

What a sweet story!

Sarah Addison Allen has reminded me once again why I love Magical Realism so much. How can I not love a book whose main character has an invisible bird named Pigeon and who resides in a condo complex with several ghosts and some curious little turquoise birds called dellawisps? It’s not really a question, because of course I’m going to love that!! Like TJ Klune, Allen captures the human spirit so well in a way that both charms and makes you feel for all the characters, while gently giving focus to some pretty heavy topics - in this case childhood trauma and healing old wounds.

Nineteen-year-old college student Zoe Hennessy has just inherited her late mother’s Mallow Island condo off the coast of South Carolina, managed by friendly but mysterious, Frasier, and is a new neighbor to four other residents of The Dellawisp: executive chef Mac, henna artist Charlotte, resident busybody/hoarder Lizbeth Lime, and Lizbeth’s estranged and reclusive sister, Lucy Lime.  At first glance, they’re a rag-tag group with little in common, but after an event happens that slowly draws these residents closer together, you see just how similar they really are. It’s the newly formed friendships and each character’s gradually revealed backstory that give this book its heart and depth, and by the end I loved all these characters.

Zoe is an energetic ball of charm who’s determined to bring these virtual strangers together, if she can get her often petulant invisible bird, Pigeon, to stop interfering. It’s sweet to watch her friendship with Charlotte grow and, in turn, their friendships with Mac, though the Lime sisters are another issue.  I cheered for each character as they confronted the traumas of their past and opened their guarded hearts to each other. The budding romances were also handled with a light hand, so they felt very pure and sweet!

My main difficulty with the story was that it was a bit heavy-handed on the bad parenting theme, which made it a little less believable, but then again, Frasier did say the residents were picked for a reason, so I guess the similar backgrounds were intentional? The ending went a teeny bit OTT for me as well. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this, I love her writing, and there were some fabulous unexpected twists that I didn’t see coming! I highly recommend this lovely story and I’ll definitely watch for more from this author!

★★★★ ½ 

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and author Sarah Addison Allen for this ARC to honestly review. It’s due for publication on August 30th, 2022.