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Review: Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig
Jul. 31st, 2014 01:56 pmI read this book when it first came out, and was simultaneously entertained and vaguely unsatisfied. Having just read it again, I think I can better articulate why.
Miriam Black is a great character - lean, foulmouthed, street-smart road trash, a self-described vulture using her psychic abilities to pick enough meat off of corpses to continue her drift along the air currents of America's highway system. However, upon first meeting her (and throughout much of the rest of the book), she's locked in an unacknowledged but clear downward spiral, so wrapped up in self-loathing and pity and hatred that she can't connect to the world around her. While this is hardly surprising, given her history, it also makes it difficult for the reader to connect with her, which is a bit problematic.
Then there's Ashley Gaynes, her paramour/psychic pimp/partner-in-compulsive-dysfunction. I get how their connection is supposed to work; relationships can be thanatic just as much as erotic, based around how two people's respective neuroses reinforce rather than alleviate each other. But those relationships have a chemistry to them - a dark, gripping, addictive chemistry that twists your perceptions and your will to its own destructive-yet-perversely-gripping ends - and I never felt any of it between these characters.
Actually, I'd say chemistry - and the character development necessary for it to work - is probably the book's weakest point. Much like the main character, the narrative tap-dances right on the border between "lean" and "anorexic". In some ways that works to its advantage, as things move along at a snappy pace that matches the snarky, immediate sort of voice in which it's written. But it's also a liability, in that none of the characters aside from Miriam get a whole lot of dimension.
Still, there's a lot here for people who prefer their urban fantasy/horror dark and creative; the descriptions, the themes, and especially the imaginatively profane one-liners that Wendig's become known for are all worth your time. And when Miriam decides to (in the words of thousands of religious billboards) Choose Life, she becomes downright compelling. I'm interested to read the next book, just to see where she goes from here.
Miriam Black is a great character - lean, foulmouthed, street-smart road trash, a self-described vulture using her psychic abilities to pick enough meat off of corpses to continue her drift along the air currents of America's highway system. However, upon first meeting her (and throughout much of the rest of the book), she's locked in an unacknowledged but clear downward spiral, so wrapped up in self-loathing and pity and hatred that she can't connect to the world around her. While this is hardly surprising, given her history, it also makes it difficult for the reader to connect with her, which is a bit problematic.
Then there's Ashley Gaynes, her paramour/psychic pimp/partner-in-compulsive-dysfunction. I get how their connection is supposed to work; relationships can be thanatic just as much as erotic, based around how two people's respective neuroses reinforce rather than alleviate each other. But those relationships have a chemistry to them - a dark, gripping, addictive chemistry that twists your perceptions and your will to its own destructive-yet-perversely-gripping ends - and I never felt any of it between these characters.
Actually, I'd say chemistry - and the character development necessary for it to work - is probably the book's weakest point. Much like the main character, the narrative tap-dances right on the border between "lean" and "anorexic". In some ways that works to its advantage, as things move along at a snappy pace that matches the snarky, immediate sort of voice in which it's written. But it's also a liability, in that none of the characters aside from Miriam get a whole lot of dimension.
Still, there's a lot here for people who prefer their urban fantasy/horror dark and creative; the descriptions, the themes, and especially the imaginatively profane one-liners that Wendig's become known for are all worth your time. And when Miriam decides to (in the words of thousands of religious billboards) Choose Life, she becomes downright compelling. I'm interested to read the next book, just to see where she goes from here.
