Other Birds

I was so surprised by this book because the magic crept up on me in the most satisfying way. It wasn’t in my face with a wand at all but gentle and sweet and offered a kind of redemption for a group of lonely people all thrown together.

I lean toward books that have a really good plot but don’t make me worry endlessly till the last page. This one went even further and showed how a little magic mixed with ordinary people can heal a lot of those wounds in really wonderful ways.

Sarah Addison Allen is one of my favorite authors. Prior to Other Birds, which was released in 2022, her last book came out in 2015. But this was worth the wait!

Like most of Addison’s other work, this was a mash-up of genres, including coming-of-age, mystery, romance, and fantasy. It’s about love and loss as much as it’s about marshmallows (yes, marshmallows) and ghosts.

I was amazed at how Allen managed to pull all the threads of her story together in the end. 

I actually read Other Birds twice because I couldn’t bear to let go of these soul-satisfying characters. If you love it as much, do the same.

It’s filled with an endearing collection of broken misfits, all trying to survive in a world that doesn’t understand them. You will absolutely delight in their evolution.

I also loved the magical beings, the ghosts who understand the people they left behind but who are unable to save them, the invisible bird, Pigeon, and the magical Dellawisp birds.

If you believe that family isn’t necessarily made up of the people you’re related to… show more.

I was drawn to the setting and the plot of this book. The main character Zoey has inherited her mother’s condominium on Mallow Island off the South Carolina coast.

Zoey’s mother died when Zoey was a child, so she is anxious to make some connection with her mother by seeing what she left behind in a condominium the mother stayed in alone throughout her married life from time to time.

Since I was never close to my own mother, I wanted to go on this journey with Zoey who has a delightful, invisible pet, a bird named Pigeon. At The… show more.