A powerful, emotional read about grief and loss that stayed with me long after the book was closed. I found this book utterly haunting and well written.

I enjoyed this book a lot. From the first chapter I was pulled into this mystery, and felt invested in the story and its well written characters.
Paced just fast enough and without being super predictable like a lot of mysteries. I found myself eagerly flipping the pages.

Blackbird is written in the present tense which immediately engages the reader. The prose is stunning and it's obvious the author is stylistically very talented. However, the plot was a little weak and rather predictable. I do think other readers will connect with this story more than I did though so I'd still recommend it.

This is a quick paced thriller, and one that I enjoyed despite both the synopsis and opening lines being misleading.

“On New Year’s Eve 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead.” I know writing craft books urge writers to pull in readers from the get go, but while certainly intriguing, the blackbirds are never mentioned again and are in no way connected to the story. Therefore, if you were expecting a paranormal, witchy sort of read, think again. This book is a straight up thriller - and a good one - if you don’t let unmet expectations spoil it for you.

Taking away the blackbirds, the story follows fifteen year old Alex and the search for her missing older sister, Olivia. As you can see, not such a snappy sounding read after all, but still one I enjoyed.

The book brings with it a huge emotional impact. The reader is taken through the devastation of loss and sees how it rips through a once happy family, and the stages of grief, depression and solitude that every family member experiences. I thought each element was done very well, and I found myself following along with the family’s ever growing urgency for answers.

The reader is also given snippets of Olivia’s view point, just a few scenes here and there which I adored. I liked getting to know Olivia’s character and seeing things from her point of view.

I found the detectives backstory a little heartbreaking but liked how it added another layer to the story. I also love how his first name is held back until the very end, and the friendship he and Alex cultivate is particularly moving. Their final scene together really choked me up, but made me smile.

However in terms of plot, the story was fairly predicable. Despite a few red-herrings, one scene about midway through the book cemented the culprit behind it all, and the ending, when it came, was swift and efficient. This really was a fast read and I devoured it in one sitting.

All in all, a nice book for a rainy afternoon. 3 stars!

Perfect, chilling read for those who are missing Pretty Little Liars being on the screen.

An incredibly written YA thriller fillled with twists and a peculiar setting. Although the climax was a bit disappointing, the plot kept me hooked throughout!

This book will leave you staring at a wall in shock. I am a huge fan of this young adult thriller.

Blackbird is a story told from the perspective of Ale. Alex’s older sister Olivia has gone missing and Alex is determined to find her. Alex thinks she knows everything about her sister but it is only when she starts looking closer at Olivia that Alex realises there is a lot she didn’t know about her sister.

This story is very well written. The story flowed amazingly and I put that down to the first person narrative that didn’t have any unnecessary commentary. Alex’s relationships start to fall apart throughout the book. Her family is also falling apart due to the stress of finding Olivia is putting on them all. Everything seems to be too much for Alex but she wants to know where her sister is and what has happened to her.

I really enjoyed the fact that throughout the book as the reader you feel like the only person that Alex can talk to and the only person who will listen to what Alex has to say. Alex’s needs and wishes become your needs and wishes and you cannot stop reading the book because you want to know the truth.

Blackbird was a book I just couldn’t put down. I was so intrigued throughout. The mystery in this book is so well hidden. It wasn’t until around 75% into the story that I worked out where the story was heading. Even then it was only due to a little hint hidden in the writing.

My only issue with Blackbird would in the last 20% of the book. I felt that was happened to Alex in this bit of the story was unnecessary for the plot to continue. I would have been a lot happier if the storyline with Inspector Birkins and Alex investigating has continued instead rather than adding this new storyline. This didn’t ruin the boo for me though.

N.D Gomes’ writing is amazing. I love her writing style and the way she has written this mystery. I really want to read more of her work in the future.

Overall, I was a big fan of this book. It is an unputdownable and suspenseful read. I loved how well the mystery was hidden. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of a good thriller book.

Thank you to HQ Young Adult, Netgalley and N.D Gomes for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted badly to like this book.But after finishing There’s Someone Inside Your House and finding it okay at best I couldn’t find it in me to power through another book that I knew I wasn’t going to love.

It took me 10% to confirm the idea I was going to DNF this book.

I was somewhat interested in why so many birds had dropped dead. I was interested to find out what had happened to her sister.

But, put simply, I couldn’t engage with the text.

After a week passed without me evening bothering to look at it I moved it to my DNF shelf.

Blackbird is a heart wrenching book about loss and grief, and I found it so difficult to put down. The writing is simple, easy to get into and skillfully shows the emotional impact of the story. This review is going to be really vague because I don't want to spoil anything.

For most of the story we follow Alex as she deals with the disappearance of her older sister. Alex and her sister are really close, so she is very effected by what is happening, and her emotional journey over the course of the book was really well written and believable. She struggles a lot over the course of the book, it feels really genuine and I found myself rooting for her as she searches for answers of her own. 

Occasional chapters from Olivia's perspective covering the months leading up to her disappearance were really effective. They build a sense of tension and dread, knowing what is about to happen to her. This also gives nice insight into who she is as a character, outside of how Alex views her, making her seem more real, and less of an idea.

I really liked the relationship that developed between Alex and the lead detective on the case. It was good that he was an adult that Alex could discuss and process her feelings with safely while her parents were dealing with their own feelings. He's haunted by his own past, and Alex is able to relate to that, and I really liked how they seemed to understand and support each other.

Alex grows up really fast over the course of the book, she is understandably traumatized, which creates a divide between her and her friends. She gets very frustrated that her friends don't seem to understand what she's going through.

The story is set in a small, close-knit island community which adds to the atmosphere and mood of the novel. The only slight drawback of this is that due to the limited possibilities, I did guess one of the plot twists about halfway through the book, so it's wasn't a huge shock to me. That knowing didn't taint the finale however, which was incredibly tense that I felt like I couldn't read quickly enough. 

Over all Blackbird is a really well written young adult mystery novel, with a carefully crafted emotional weight that really drew me in. This is the sort of book that will easily keep you reading late into the night in search of answers and closure.

Blackbird by N. D. Gomes sounded so interesting, and I've been in a bit of a mystery phase lately, so I was so eager to read it. However, I'm sorry to say it was a huge disappointment.

Blackbird is billed as a murder mystery, and that's true in the fact that Alex's sister Olivia is murdered, and no-one knows who did it. But when it comes to genre, this book is not a mystery. There are no twists and turns. There aren't lots of suspects and numerous theories and there is no second guessing. This book is mainly about how Alex is dealing with her grief that not only is her older sister, who she idolised, dead, but that she was murdered. There is the possibility I may have enjoyed Blackbird more had it not been billed as a murder mystery. But probably not, because Blackbird is very, very slow.

For most of the book, Alex is obsessively harassing Detective Inspector Birkens, who has the patience of a saint. The police need to get on with their job and try to find out who killed Olivia, but she turns up either at the police station or at Birkens house almost every day. I get that she feels like she needs to do something, that she can't just sit around waiting, but at the same time, she's probably holding things up. And nothing really happens. Oh, she manages to get some information here and there that is helpful to the police, but nothing that leads to major strides in the investigation. It's just slow and samey for most of the book.

And the killer was predictable. The one person - the only person - who says something a little suspicious is the one who did it. Sure, what they said could have been innocent enough, but when you know there is a killer on the loose, as a reader, you notice these things. And it was just so predictable.The police had no suspects. There wasn't anybody else who was behaving strangely, or saying weird things. Of course it was them. There was no shock whatsoever. And really, because Blackbird is so samey, I didn't really warm to Alex much. So when she found herself in danger, after working out who it was, I didn't really care. And even if I did, those moments when things are dangerous only lasts a short while, and then it's over.

Plus there are the blackbirds. The blackbirds that died, that have absolutely nothing to do with the story whatsoever. The story is set in Orkney, the blackbirds died in America. There is no link, it's just something that happened. Something that is unimportant, and has no real explanation either. And it's used as a strapline. Here's me thinking that maybe there's going to be a supernatural element to the story. Nope. The blackbirds have no part in this book. The only reason I can think that the book is called Blackbird is because of the coincidence of the birds dying when Olivia disappeared, and because Olivia wanted to escape Orkney - she felt trapped on the island, and wanted to free, like a bird. But that is it. The birds don't mean anything.

This book was such a huge disappointment. No mystery, and very, very slow.

Thank you to HQ Young Adult via NetGalley for the eProof.

Very quick read and a gripping YA thriller, I didn't guess the murderer straight away but about two thirds of the book in I started to get a suspicion which turned out to be correct. Like others have mentioned I did think the blackbirds would have more of a connection to the actual story but it didn't bother me too much.
Aside from being a thriller, its also a book about grief. The loss that Alex feels after her sister goes missing is very real and heartbreaking to read, she adored her sister but also lived in her shadow and she feels like her parents must wish it was her who went missing instead which of course wouldn't be the case but I imagine is a very common feeling to have.
All in all, a good YA thriller which I would recommend to anyone into that genre.

This book is a beautifully written, heartbreaking story of how a teenage girl copes in the aftermath of her adored older sister’s disappearance. Whilst the mystery of what happened to Olivia is a theme throughout the book, it is not the most important one for me. Instead, it is a story about how a family claws their way slowly back from the brink of self-destruction, and how a younger sister who worshipped her sibling adjusts to becoming the only child. As all of Alex’s relationships break down around her, the friendship she forms with DI Birkens is particularly touching as they slowly help each other find their way home.
Gomes’ descriptions of Orkney draw you in and really make you feel that you are right there on the island. Alex’s love for the island is clear from the outset, whilst Olivia’s feelings of claustrophobia, both at being trapped on the island, and in the choices she has made, is almost palpable from the short entries told from her perspective. These extracts also provide some valuable details that only Olivia would know, and show just how much she was hiding, and how badly she wanted to reconnect with her sister.
Although initially I did not see the connection between all the blackbirds falling from the skies of America at the same time a young woman disappears on Orkney, as the story unfolded and Alex’s description of how the birds in the sky reminded her of Olivia’s dancing, the symbolism of these two unrelated events became clear.
I did work out what the situation behind Olivia’s disappearance was before it was revealed in the book, but I do not think that writing a great mystery was what the author had in mind. This book goes much deeper than that, and it will be a while before the emotions of the story really leave me.

Having read 'Dear Charlie' last year I was excited to read the latest book from Gomes. That being said, 'Dear Charlie' dealt with the very sensitive but also specific idea of a school shooting in America, so I was intrigued to see what the focus was for 'Blackbird'.

Initially I found the book quite slow. It didn't have the opening impact of  Gomes first novel, and whilst I know books are like children and shouldn't be compared, I sometimes can't help it. However it didn't take too long before I was not only engaged by the story but desperate to finish the book and find out what happened to Olivia.

Although I had my suspicions for a while, and they were eventually proven correct, this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story at all.  Narrated primarily by Alex, the narrative has an almost stream-of-consciousness feel to it at times and this really helped me to get under her skin.  Obviously she is trying to deal with an incredibly difficult situation and I really appreciated the way she would flip between seeming older and more mature than her 15/16 years and then at times would show a vulnerability that reminded me she is just a child.

I also loved the beautiful and, at times, haunting descriptions of the remote Orkney Island where the book is set - a far cry from the American suburbs of 'Dear Charlie', another reminder of the versatility and talent of this author.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be keeping an eye out of ND Gomes next novel.

This was another really enjoyable YA thriller that read super quickly and kept me hooked until the very end. There's not much I can say about the synopsis that isn't detailed above without spoiling the book but we follow Alex as she strives to find out what happened to her sister on the night she disappeared. With the help of an unlikely friend, the lead detective on the case, she begins to discover more than she bargains for.

First of all I want to say I really enjoyed how this story was written. I loved the first person narrative and the way the dialogue was structured. There wasn't any unnecessary commentary and I liked this, it really made the story flow. The whole book felt very stream of consciousness and it was quite metaphorical in places and this really immersed me in the emotions of the story. I loved the way this book depicted grief and the feelings of loss and I really felt Alex's desire to know what happened to her sister. Alex really sought attention and comfort from an outside figure to help her make sense of what was happening and this felt really real. She needed someone to talk to that meant something to her, not meaningless conversation, and this made her detachment from her friends much more understandable. She worked through her feelings in a way that made sense. It was nice to see this rather then see her go off the rails like so many young people do in novels like this.

The story kept me hooked throughout. I was intrigued and I needed to see where we were going to end up. I was completely in the dark with where the story was going until about 80% of the way through. At this point we were given a clue in one of Olivia's chapters and I was able to figure out the reveal. This didn't necessarily ruin the reveal for me but I think we could of done without the hint. The ending would of been more shocking had we not got this as I had absolutely no idea until this point. I was also a little bit iffy about the last 20% of the book. I didn't feel what happened to Alex necessarily needed to happen and I would of just liked the investigation to continue with Inspector Birkins and Alex. I feel it would of been nice to bring Alex's want to discover the truth to a head. That being said, this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story and I still had to keep reading to know what happened.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was a great suspenseful read and one of the more enjoyable YA thrillers that I have read in a while. I would definitely recommend it to fans of the genres.

Blackbird begins with one of the most evocative sentences I've ever read:

"That was the night that five thousand blackbirds dropped dead from the sky just before midnight"

Then we learn it is also the night that Alex's sister Olivia was killed. Alex is feeling lost, alone and inferior to her sister. She feels like everyone wishes she had died instead. Her parents are wrapped up in their own grief. One thing I loved about this novel was the portrayal of a family's grief: each member is grieving in a different way and we see how Olivia's death impacts on her family.

Blackbird is written in the present tense which gives an immediacy to the story. There are a few chapters narrated by Olivia too and these are especially chilling.

The ending is extremely clever and although it surprised me, looking back, the clues were all there.

Perfect for anyone who enjoys murder mysteries and explorations of grief.

Blackbird by N D Gomes is a book that will leave you physically shaken. It plays on your insecurities of safety and is a perfect Young Adult thriller.

The story I told from the perspective of Alex. Her older sister has gone missing and she is determined to find her. However, it is only when looking closely that she realises that there were things she didn’t know about her sister at all.

Her relationships start to fall apart in her dogged need to uncover the truth. Her family are falling apart and Alex is feeling the weight of that burden. It is all too much for her. But she needs answers.

What makes Blackbird so readable is that you feel like you are Alex’s only confident. The first person perspective and the breakdown of all her other relationships makes you, the reader, the closest thing to Alex. Her needs become your needs and you are constantly turning the pages to get to the truth. It is a book worthy of the moniker “unputdownable.”

Blackbird is a classic mystery/thriller in the style of Anne Cassidy. It is perfect for young fans of the genre who love getting stuck into the “whodunnit” of a story.

Blackbird by N D Gomes is available now.

For more information regarding N D Gomes (@nd_gomes) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding HQ Young Adult (@HQYoungAdult) please visit instagram.com/hqyoungadult/.

I thought this was a great book, which effectively communicated Alex's feelings of grief about her sister's disappearance. I worked out who the killer was before the reveal, but this did not detract from my enjoyment of the book - the relationship between Alex and the DI is more important and written well.

This book definitely didn't disappoint as a mystery book. It had me guessing throughout as to just what happened to Olivia, and there was a great reveal at the end of the book. This book is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, and you definitely connect with Alex as a character when you read the book. I loved how it showed that different people grieve in different ways, as it shows you little windows into other peoples grief over Olivia's disappearance as well as Alex's, such as her parents', her friends, and her ex boyfriends. Definitely a book to recommend.

It had me hooked from the first page. This is a book full of twist and turns. It had an unexpected ending. I didn’t want to put it down.