Cover Image: Little Bird

Little Bird

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Member Reviews

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

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This one was weird and so much fun, I will always love an animal companion and Po was everything! I had a great time reading this, but it was quickly forgotten. I would definitely read from this author again.

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Little Bird is the book you wish you had on hand the last time you found yourself in the aftermath of a great loss. I initially wanted to read Little Bird because of that gorgeous cover and it was wonderfully fitting that I finished this book at midnight. Horror readers will likely think this one is a little tame, but this is the perfect book for those looking to dip their toe into horror without having to sleep with the light on.

Josie’s struggle with despair (and her... “coping mechanism” of hiding from the work and drinking a lot) will feel familiar to anyone who’s found themselves stuck deep in a well of grief and routine. The appearance of Skelly on her throne of vines pushes Josie to make connections with other living things besides her trusty dog, Po. Skelly and Josie’s overbearing new neighbor pick apart her hardened isolation and start to make all of us wonder, what does it mean to heal and move forward after loss? Told in flashbacks, drunken memories, and conversations, we get to learn more about why Josie has convinced herself that all she needs are Po and her often surly client base in her life.

I found myself oddly rooting for the sentient skeleton in this book. Skelly’s appearance is certainly not random and her stories and observations about humanity are not ones to miss. I rounded up to five stars because of how this story stuck with me – the vines wove into my life too.

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I loved the beginning of the book. I liked the main character and felt intrigued by the premise of a skeleton appearing in the garden with a secret mission for her. I even enjoyed the somewhat drawn out back-and-forth between the two of them, but unfortunately I did not feel like it paid off. The book quickly veered into aimless philosophical territory and in the end I was not at all clear on what message the author was trying to communicate. I love an existential book that invites reflection but this one was too confusing.

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I'm a huge fan of weird books, but not books that are weird just for weird's sake. I feel like this book was trying far too hard to be weird....and it succeeded, but there was little else there. The premise is sound. The cover is excellent. The writing was confusing. It was short enough so I finished it, holding out hope it would work for me in the end, but I was left shaking my head and wishing for more.

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Too many horror elements and commentary I could not sadly follow.
I am not the audience for this I presume but I am happy I was given the opportunity to expand my reading horizons.

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This book is very good to get out of a reading slump, because of its length and writing style. The characters are really relatable and the story is very catchy, told in only eight days.

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I have mixed feelings about this one.
I didn't love it, but I certainly didn't hate it either.

For starters, I snatched this book up before reading the synopsis because the cover is simply stunning. This probably is a good example of don't judge by the cover blah blah blah. While the cover is a solid 5, for me, I feel like the story (especially its ending) fell a bit flat.

The characters are interesting, fairly humorous, and, for the most part, entertaining. I believe I saw the book marketed as horror, and it's just not. Perhaps, if I decided to revisit with a different mindset, I might be able to enjoy it a bit more. All that aside, it's a cute but also a bit sad story. Little bird was just not what I was expecting at all.

If you're looking for a short and quirky book, then I do think it may be worth picking this book up. If you are a die-hard horror fan, you will be extremely let down.

As always, thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review

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This was whimsical, weird and understandably scary. If you wake up to a skeleton and your backyard covered in vines you have to ask yourself is this real or how much did I drink last night. I absolutely loved how you never really got to know if this was Josie's delusion or if it was reality. I get that this is not a book for everyone, but for me it was absolutely perfect. The mix of Skellys wit and unapologetic honesty and Sues persistence and intrusiveness is what you need when you're in a bad spot. This is a book I can't stop thinking about.

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I admit I had a hard time with this book because it was so different from what I expected, and a lot of things were hard to understand. However, the author’s style kept me going and also because I was curious about what would happen after this, and this other thing, and so on.

Josie was a complex character with different layers, different emotions, reactions, and way too human. Her grief, her feelings, her thoughts, even more her insecurities, were so real at times I was marveled. There were scenes that I had to pause at because they were too much, but in a good way.

There were others that felt… strange. Some dialogues didn’t seem realistic, felt forced or rushed, and the explanations for what was happening to Josie are so hidden it was frustrating to keep expecting a clear, direct answer. I had to stop at the end of the book to make sense of it all.

However, I enjoyed it and it’s a type of fantasy that I’m eager to try again. The author has a nice style, interesting worldbuilding method, and appealing characters. The execution wasn’t what I expected, but I was able to appreciate this book for what it is: a healing dark fantasy easy to enjoy.

https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/2023/06/resena-review-little-bird.html

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Well that was weird.

Josie is a bit of a recluse--she hides away in her house, drinking too much and working at a job that she doesn't really like. When a new neighbour moves in, Josie is quite annoyed by her. Especially when she keeps coming over and won't go away. Suddenly that's the least of her worries when odd things start happening, including but not limited to an actual talking skeleton in her backyard. Life is about to change for Josie in a big way!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book,.

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Thank you to NetGalley, Black Spot Books and the author for the opportunity to read this ARC. Albeit I got round to it a little late. I requested to read this book based on the cover. I am happy to say I always judge a book by its cover and I have read some wildly different and fantastic books by doing this. This book certainly fits in the wildly different category. I’m not sure what I expected going into this story, but it certainly wasn’t what I got…

We meet Josie, recently divorced and grieving the death of her father. She keeps a strict routine or so it seems initially. However as the plot unfolds we meet Shelly and Sue, we discover Josie has an issue with alcohol and thus the introspection begins. What I did not expect was the story Shelly was wanting, and the ultimate ending.

The writing is established, with a plot that builds and builds. For me, I don’t feel there was a lot of depth however with the characters and so I was not as invested as I would like to be. However a nice read and still enjoyable.

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Little Bird by Tiffany Meuret was completely bizarre. SOS she need a friend, rehab, another drink, or an exorcist of some sort? It was a very original ride in to the surreal. I truly enjoyed the book and highly recommend for drinkers, or those going through grief. I don’t suppose we’ll be “saved” that way though.

Very interesting concept. I was provided this book to provide an honest review. All opinions are mine.

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Wow. Just wow! This book was so different but in the BEST way. This was an incredibly creeping and unnerving tale of found family and grief and fear and man was it a journey. Using alcohol and isolation as a coping mechanism in the way she does it is clear that Tiffany writes from her heart and truly knows her characters. This definitely falls into the magical realism realm of literature as well as horror. I can't wait to read more from this author.

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A weird and wonderful new Dark Fantasy with themes of belonging and found family. Magical and whimsical at times, this was a delightful novel to get lost in! A Gothic story woven with emotion perfect for fans of The Locked Tomb series and The Book Eaters.

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A freshly divorced lady grieving her father's death hides herself in her home. her only respite is her pet dog, Po.
She wants to mind her own business but an awfully talkative borderline annoying neighbour keeps her up. A snarky skeleton has taken up space in her backyard. And her backyard suddenly is flourishing but not with beautiful flowers but with mysterious vines.
What the hell is happening And what would Josie do?

The first thing that grabbed my interest was the cover. Then I started reading, my eyes slowly widened, I did some double takes here and there and kept reading until I finished it.
I love the banter between Josie and the skeleton who calls her to call herself Skelly. A very different and unique book. Short read and I love the horror even though it did not scare me much. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

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Little Bird is a beautifully poetic story with highlights of magical realism and a main character who is very relatable.

Although listed as horror, it really isn't. It's a story of grief and survival. It's weird and funny and just a good read.

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This one was a struggle for me. I loved the concept and the cover, there were quotes I liked about loneliness and grief but the book as a whole just didn't hit the mark.

I found all three characters infuriating and whilst there were moments that their wit made me chuckle, mostly I was irritated by their inability to give straight answers to any question. I wanted to love it, but I had to drag myself through the last couple of chapters as I had completely lost interest in whether the characters have an arc at all.

I also think publishing it as a horror is a mistake, there isn't any fear or even creeping dread past the first chapter. A bit like a movie that reveals the monster to early and you spend the rest of it underwhelmed, once the "horror" is revealed here it becomes harmless.

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Confession: I am 100% embarrassingly late in reading this and writing this review. Before the book was published I received an electronic arc of this from Netgalley. I accidentally let it expire. I then purchased the book when it came out so I could still review it. It took me this long to get around to it. But I have finally read it and it was 100% one of the best books I’ve read so far this short year.

This book is a hilarious, sad, beautiful, and well written exploration of grief, sadness, loss, self destruction, and how someone can self destruct and practically not notice. The protagonist Josie is still grieving the death of her father and her divorce and has isolated herself with her stay at home job and is self medicating with alcohol. The arrival of a jungle of vines and a talking skeleton in her backyard upend her world and her life.

I love Josie. The character arc she goes through over the course of the book is amazing. She is a profoundly broken person and watching her come to terms with that was fascinating. Skelly is a great character and foil for her. Her wit and sarcasm were great to read but she also managed to be supporting at the same time. The ending is heart wrenching imo.

I absolutely loved this book. There is a lot of discussion of heavy topics (alcoholism, divorce, cancer, death, anxiety, depression) but I still highly recommend this for fantasy fans. (I see this tagged as horror but I personally don’t see it as that.)

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A skeleton appears in a woman's backyard bringing stories, out of control vines, and an important message. Honestly, I did not enjoy this book at all. I think it had great potential, especially for dealing with grief, but it fell very short. The characters, especially the main character, was very flat. This book is categorized as horror, but besides a skeleton, named Skelly, showing up in the backyard...there really isn't any horror elements at all. The story itself is very strange and it was difficult to keep engaged and focused on reading it. It was very flat.
One positive would be the cover of the book...it's what drew me to the book in the first place.

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