Jen reads... Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

I have followed Chuck Wendig's blog for a while now (fueled mainly by the part of me that secretly wants to be an author), and for the most part I really like it. A lot of what he says about writing makes sense to me. I like him in general, so I really really wanted to like this book, so I'm sad that I didn't. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I disliked it. Sigh!

The story is about Miriam, a woman who can see how people are going to die when she touches them. These visions, and the fact that she is unable to do anything to change what happens, have led to her closing off from the world and fueling herself on a diet of booze, cigarettes and sex with slightly unsavoury characters. She unwittingly gets involved in shady things, and the story follows her as she tries to find a way out, and to come to terms with her power.

I liked the idea of this book, and was excited about reading it, but honestly, I spent a lot of the first half considering stopping reading (something I rarely do). This may have been because I was reading it off the back of Fangirl, which I adored, so maybe I was bound to be disappointed, but that definitely wasn't the only reason. What I was expecting was a fun lightweight story based around an interesting premise, and I just didn't find it that fun. I did end up getting into it a bit more in the second half, but honestly, I just didn't care that much about it. 

I think one of the main reasons for it is that Miriam doesn't come off as particularly realistic to me. I know women who are as foul mouthed as she is, and likely to make the same kind of jokes, but something was just.. off about her. Like she had been written as a man, and just had her gender arbitrarily changed. At first I just accepted it, and figured there would be some reason, but when we finally learn about her upbringing I ended up more confused. I have a hard time believing that somebody raised the way that she describes in the book would end up thinking and talking like she does. I feel like the dialogue in particular could have done with being checked by a woman who actually speaks in that kind of way.

Maybe at the end of the day the book just wasn't for me. It seems like a LOT of people have really enjoyed it, so maybe it just isn't my thing (although most of the online reviews that give it high ratings seem to be written by men). I'm kind of curious to see whether I would enjoy the other books in the series more, but unless somebody hands me the other books in the series for free, that probably isn't going to happen. 

I didn't really have any other problems with the book other than that, but I think my issues took me out of the book so much that I had a hard time enjoying the plot. Oh, and this didn't bother me, but if you're thinking of reading the book, there is a LOT of gore, graphic violence and foul language (the last one is obvious if you've read anything on Wendig's blog!)

All in all, disappointing. Oh well. At least I like the cover??