Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
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| Blackbirds. Chuck Wendig (Angry Robot)By: Chuck Wendig Published by: Angry Robot ISBN: 0857662295 Author’s Website: Author’s Social: Twitter | Facebook Format of Review Copy: ARC Recommendable for people who enjoy: |
Synopsis (from Amazon):
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.
My Thoughts:
Lets talk about the world: Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig takes place across several states, right here in modern day United States. We find ourselves thrust into truck stops, dirty cockroach infested motel rooms, and bars. Its dark and its gritty. The world this story portrays is true to life for anyone who has a little “mettle” under their belt. Wendig definitely has a way with words, and you can almost smell the cigarette smoke coming off the pages while you read. The story may be fiction, but the places in it feel real.
Lets talk about the characters: I loved the main character Miriam. She has “the touch”, as in if she touches you skin on skin she will see when and how you will die. Constantly being on the move and “seeing” all this death has made her…well, to put it politely would be to say she may (or may not) be a little bitter. Ok, yea, she’s bitter. I love her. She has the “this is how it is so f*** it” attitude. I can relate. She tries to keep the way of the world from driving her into a pit of despair by using humor. As many of us proud sarcarsti-snarks do so well. Let your snark flags fly, people!
You can’t have all that snark running around in the universe unchecked, so Wendig gave us Louis. Awwwm sweet Louis! Omgosh. Poor guy. He was a freaknut for sure, to the EYES, but his heart. awww… I was leery of him at first, the way Wendig describes him – is kind of scary looking. But then we get to know him. **SPOILER** Poor guy, lost his wife and took to the road as a truck driver because he was riddled with guilt over it. **/SPOILER**
Ashley, was a douche. He is this guy, that basically blackmails Miriam to come along for the ride hoping to pick up some huge score in the end. Boy toy/blackmailer. Is that right? Yea, dirty hawt. That’s how I would describe him. LOL.
The antagonists in this story are CRAY CRAY! A kickass little militant bi-atch named –of all things- Harriet (Dirty Harriet, INDEED), a big yes man, and the king daddy himself freaks me out along the same lines as PINHEAD. *nods* Oh yea, you know who I am talking ABOUT!!!!! PIN-F’in-HEAD! Like if…if… Pinhead and Powder made a freaknut love baby – that would be Ingersoll. omgosh, I just got goosebumples! haha!
Lets talk about the plot: What the wha?! I loved this story! No kidding!
In this book, book one in what I believe is to become a series – We meet Miriam, and by gosh learn to love her and her little snarky ways. Miriam meets – and ends up being blackmailed by – a sexy dirty man who hopes to use her unique gifts to rip some people off. Along the way, we learn that Mr DirtyHawt has not always been such a charmer and he may or may not be dragging the wrath of all hell down on Miriam. You know, guilty by association and all that. Also, Miriam may or may not meet a true to life REAL nice guy. Only, when her gift pops up – she not only sees Mr Nicey croak, she sees him croak whilest saying her name. Youch.
Long story short: action, some drinks, some sex, some pining, some running, some escaping, some not quite escaping, some more action, some dying, some almost dying, some book burning, and WHAM. There ya go. Was that too spoilerish? Hope not. =D
In Conclusion:
This is a MUST read for all my “dark snark” loving friends out there! I enjoyed this book so much. It was dark, eerie, funny, shocking, and did I mention – snarky? In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I plan to pick up a copy to put on my bookshelf, because lets be real here… digital just don’t look as perty.
Mom Notes:
Contains: violence, sexual content, and language. Lots and LOTS of language.