Not quite what I expected really.

This is the story of Lauren, Kat and Flora - half sisters with different mothers and a shared artist father. The three girls have been brought up in very different ways but have had shared summer holidays at Rock Point in Cornwall - their father's home. Now, as adults, the girls are summoned back to Rock Point by the their father who has a great announcement to make. It has been twenty years since they were all last here for the eclipse, when they sat for their fathers most famous painting - Girls and Birdcage. However, secrets lurk around every corner - their fathers great secret, the secret trauma that haunts the girls - Lauren especially - and the secret someone who seems to be everywhere they turn...but who is and what does he really want?

This is an intriguing, slow burn of a novel. If you want something where you are taken on a breath taking whirlwind of a ride, this is not the novel for you. It crawls, occasionally painfully slowly, towards the big reveal of just what happened that long ago summer...and exactly where Gemma is.

I had worked out a few of the mysteries before we got to the big reveal but I did enjoy the description and the way the characters are built. All the main players are flawed in some way - Lauren is struggling with bereavement, Flora is trapped in a marriage that makes her unhappy, Kat is juggling a business that is struggling and even their father is haunted by demons and battling a range of issues.

I did enjoy the story but could have done with things coming to a head a little faster and then we could have explored the fall out a little more fully.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a gothic mystery. It is compelling and atmospheric. The setting is perfect. The story is told from a dual timeline. I became so attached to the characters.

I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

Now first up, this is the first book by Eve Chase I have read. it wont be the last!

Told across two timelines of 1999 and 2019 I found this a really compelling read. I did find it took a while to get t0 the whole mystery of what happened in 1999 and how it impacts the present day (2019) but at the same time it kept you reading.

This is is a story 0f three estranged half-sisters, Flora, Kat & Lauren who share the same father Charlie Finch, a renowned artist. One of his most famous paintings features the three girls with a birdcage.

Charlie has some news to share and summons the girls to Rock Point in Cornwall, their grandparents old home that which holds some very happy childhood memories but the girls are reluctant, what happened in 1999 to make them wary to revisit the past?

Every character within this tale seems to be holding their own secrets.a real dysfunctional family, trying to be normal! i absolutely loved the drip feeding of the sisters stories and characters. While each sister was dealing with their own issues throughout their lives, needing the support of their sisters but being to proud to reach out, they didn't realise that maybe the sisters also needed them.

At times it got a little confusing with the dual timelines and three POVs but once you get your head around it all the story is addictive.

With a gradual build up of tension this is a well paced, complex and well written story that keeps you on tenderhooks.

With thanks to netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for the ARC.

Thank you for providing me with an advance review copy of this book. Enjoyed reading, would recommend....

This is a very atmospheric novel about 3 half sisters who aren't really that close - their father summons them all to the family home that they spent every summer at when they were younger. Why did he ask them to come now when they haven't spoken for such a long time? All of the sisters reflect on an incident that happened when they were all there as children and how this has affected them throughout their lives. There are lots of secrets revealed throughout the book - I really enjoyed this mystery.

The Birdcage is another enthralling novel by Eve Chase who has a special talent for writing about the subtle relationships within families and creating interesting characters. Rockpoint is a grand old house in Cornwall where half sisters Lauren, Flora, and Kat spend their summers with their renowned artist father Charlie Finch. Set in the summer of 1999 around the time of a
Solar eclipse and in the present day the story tells of a tragic event in the past that has still not revealed all its secrets.
This book has a great mix of mystery, and intriguing relationships that keeps you guessing about what happened and who are the bad guys.

I really enjoyed Eve Chase's previous novel The Glass House so I had high expectations for this one which I am pleased to report were met. I loved the sense of mystery within the book and Chase is so good at weaving tension into her story which slowly builds throughout the story.
The Cornish setting was wonderful and Rock Point was like a character with it's many secrets. I could vividly picture the surroundings and it was the perfect setting.
Lauren, Kat and Flora were complex and interesting, I can't say that I liked all three of them but I do think that Chase did a very good job of showing the complicated relationships between sisters and blended families, it added a very interesting aspect to the book.
I would recommend this one, I was captivated by the story and struggled to put it down.

I got about 75% of the way through this but I just didn't have the stamina to continue as it felt like nothing was a going to happen. Sense of place was strong and I have enjoyed other books by this author but this one was just too much of a slow burn.

This story is packed with atmosphere, set on the isolated Cornish coast, Eve Chase captures the wildness and loneliness throughout the narrative.

Three half sisters have been called by their artist father, all three with different mothers they are very different characters, and there is plenty of conflict (and resolution!) throughout the story. The reunion gradually reveals a secret that has been kept hidden since they were children.

Plenty of twists, and the characters are engaging.

I received an ARC copy of this novel through NetGalley and thank them and the publisher, Penguin Michael Joseph UK, for offering me the opportunity to read it. This has in no way influenced the content of my review.
I read Chase’s The Glass House and was impressed by the story and the beauty of the writing, and I had to check her new book.
This novel is not a standard mystery/thriller book. Some reviewers place it in the contemporary fiction genre, and it fits there quite nicely. It is also a dual-time story, as the narrative alternates between the present (January 2019), and the past (1999), with the final chapters taking place later in 2019. It also has plenty of Gothic touches, not only because of the peculiarities of the house where the action takes place (Rock Point, in Cornwall, with its old kitchen, the artist’s studio, the conservatory, and the birdcage of the title), but also because of the rest of the landscape of the area, with the wild sea, the rocks, the caves, the moors, and an almost ghostly old cottage. Those landscapes and the setting are also protagonists in their own right. And Bertha, the African Grey Parrot, functions as a kind of Greek chorus, as it always manages to report the most significant phrases and statements she overhears, with a great sense of timing. The three Finch half-sisters (their father, Charlie, is a famed painter who loved many women, some at the same time) meet again in their childhood summer retreat, in 2019, twenty years after an incident there changed their lives forever. You will not be surprised if I tell you that there are secrets, lies, surprises, and emotions, and all the members of the family end up discovering many things, about themselves and the rest of the family, with the story coming full circle, in some ways.
What can I tell you about the story without revealing any spoilers? To start with, I can tell you that the story is exquisitely written. The story is told from the points of view of the three sisters, Flora, Kat, and Lauren, although Lauren seems to be at the centre of the action and is the one who cannot fully remember what happened in 1999, during the momentous summer of the solar eclipse. She has recently lost her mother, as well, and this visit is particularly hard for her. As we get to know the three sisters and the rest of the characters, we realise that the other two sisters aren’t having the perfect life they appear to have from the outside, and the contrast is helped by the way the story is told, as it alternates between episodes from the past and the present. While the chapters set in the past are narrated in the first person, those in the present are narrated in the third person and in the present tense, making them easy to distinguish and giving readers a better insight into the minds, thoughts, and personalities of the characters. The author builds a clear picture (as full of art as the painting Girls and a Birdcage, which also features prominently in the plot) of the young girls, and the women they have become, making some of their actions, even the most horrific, if not justifiable, at least easy to understand. Are they likeable? Well, it depends on each person’s taste. I liked Lauren and Gemma, the daughter of their housekeeper and Lauren’s best friend, and I was also quite fond of the grandfather. Bertha is definitely a star. The rest of the characters I warmed to as the story moved on, and even Angie, whom the girls called “the Monster” not without some justification, might not be as dark as she appeared years back. There are gorgeous descriptions of the landscape, the weather, and the objects and sensations the place recreates, and the psychological make-up of the characters comes through on the page, as readers can see the actions of others through their eyes, and share in the jealousy, exhilaration, suspicion, menace, fear, threat, self-doubt, love and hate they experience.
There are some elements typical of thrillers and mysteries as well (anonymous threatening notes, strangers carrying warnings, phone calls and letters left answered, drawings kept hidden, old mementos that reappear at the most inconvenient of times, children that go missing, a car chase...), but, in general, the story is a pretty slow burn, and the mystery element is not the main draw of the story. Most readers are likely to have their suspicions about what might be behind the lost memory, and anybody good at reading between the lines will see the final twist coming. That does not mean the ending does not work. It is, perhaps, a bit too nicely tied, and too good to be true considering all that has gone on, but most readers will enjoy it.
This book reminded me of a Danish movie called The Celebration (Festen), although this is much more restrained, and the secrets are not quite as damaging or shocking, the family reunion and the reluctant confessions are part and parcel of the action. The setting and some of the scenes brought to mind the way Emily Brönte turned the moors into a dramatic character in Wuthering Heights. If you enjoy stories of dysfunctional families with complex structures and plenty of secrets, set in isolated and atmospheric areas (Cornwall in particular), dual-time novels, female protagonists, have an interest in painting and art and appreciate a beautiful narrative that takes its time to build up its characters and to reveal the events, you shouldn’t miss this one. If you prefer fast-paced stories, do not appreciate birds, hate insta-love, and do not like tightly-knit endings, this might not be for you. I recommend it, nonetheless. Eve Chase is an author to follow.

A brilliant read and one I really enjoyed. The characters are loveable and varied, the plot is one that is engaging and medium paced. I found myself completely drawn into the story and enjoyed the writing style.

The Birdcage is an emotional, dual-timeline, coming-of-age, family drama.

The story is told from the perspectives of each of the three sisters – Lauren, Flora and Kat – in the ‘present-day’ narrative and the flashbacks to 1999 are told from Lauren’s first person viewpoint. The language is evocative and conjures sensually vivid images that brought a lot of nostalgia with them.

The plot is all about memories, secrets and hidden truths; the masks we wear, even for our loved ones and to ourselves; about imagined comparisons to the lives of other people and about sisterhood. The reader is pulled from chapter to chapter, chasing the different stories and conflicting perspectives to try to piece together the full picture of what the pivotal event was from years before and how it all happened.

After so much angst in the unravelling of the tale, I particularly liked the gentle, hopeful ending, and that feeling is what I carried away from the book, along with a wistful nostalgia for my own Nineties teens.

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

The cover is what initially drew me to the book and its contents were just as great. I’d not read books by this author before but would love to read more

Three half-sisters, an artist father, a crumbling house on a cliff in Cornwall and a mystery event in their past which no-one discusses. ‘The Birdcage’ by Eve Chase is about fractured families, the unity and division of a shared secret and the need to acknowledge the past in order to face the future.
Told in two timelines – 2019 and 1999 – the story unfolds slowly and takes a while to settle down. The story of the mystery is a long time coming. Three half-sisters – Lauren, Flora, Kat – are summoned to their father’s summer home in Cornwall. Artist Charlie Finch has a chequered history with women, demonstrated by assorted female nude sketches his daughters find in his studio. Charlie is cagey about the reason for summoning them to Rock Point; is he ill, dying, retiring, moving house? As well as trying to work out what’s going on with their father, the three sisters must also unravel their own demons. Lauren is mourning the death of her mother Dixie. Flora, accompanied by two-year old son Raff, struggles beneath the suffocating control of her husband. Kat’s relationship has broken up and her business is in trouble. Add in Charlie’s art studio assistant Angie, former cleaning lady Viv and a mysterious stranger who walks a black dog on the nearby cliffs, and there’s a lot going on.
Everything hangs on an incident twenty years earlier. In 1999, the three teenage sisters are gathered at their grandparents’ house Rock Point for summer with their father who is painting in his studio. The sisters live with their mothers and see each other rarely. It is the summer of the total eclipse of the sun on August 11, a true event. Chase makes much of the strange atmosphere that day, something in the air, the sense that something was going to happen. The story takes a while to get to the secret which is at the root of the constant sibling sniping and jealousy, but this is a journey the sisters personally must travel in order to understand how it made them into the complex adults of 2019.
By the end of the book I still wasn’t one hundred per cent clear which mother belonged to which daughter. The timeline jumps around and many peripheral characters are mentioned lightly and either never or infrequently appear at Rock Point. The final section, after the big reveal, takes a long time to wrap up. Curiously, the Cornish location is incidental. Rock Point, which could be situated on an isolated cliff anywhere, is the strong point. With its idiosyncratic furnishings, aviary of birds, creaks and rumbles, what secrets does this house have to tell?
An atmospheric read – weather plays a big part plus anonymous notes, a dark stranger, talking parrot and slashed car tyre – and the 1999 eclipse at its heart.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

This was much more slow paced than my usual reads and I found myself getting a little bit bored, however I did enjoy the different timeframes which changed things up a bit and the plot was quite interesting

This is a story written from different viewpoints and set in Cornwall. The narrative jumps from the past to the present, slowing the pace. Though the characters are well written, it is a disappointing read.

Three half sisters all very close in age are connected by their artist father. He is a disarming free spirited portrait artist splitting his time between his London studio and his studio in his parents windswept cliff edge house in Cornwall. The Cornwall house is where he spends his summer with his three daughters often painting portraits especially his numerous nude models who it would appear do more than just sit for their portrait to be painted.
The story begins when all three sisters return as adults back to the house for the first time since they were children. They each reflect on an incident that happened the last time they were there during the solar eclipse of 1999 that had a lasting effect on them all and an unknown who clearly doesn't want them to be there.
It is an atmospheric book with twists and turns with a current day resolution.
A book whose title that didn't grab me but the story drew me in wandering what really did happen that day.
For readers of general fiction
With thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for this preview read in return for an honest review.
#TheBirdcage #NetGalley

A book that will transport you to lazy Summers in Cornwall but with and underlying gothic setting. Perfect for a slow read curled up with a cuppa. Don't expect a fast-paced book, this isn't one of those, but the slow burn and gentle ups and downs kept me hooked.

I always love Eve Chase’s books, and she’s really done it again with this one. A richly written family drama about long-kept secret and the complex bond between half sisters. The descriptions are gorgeous and the intrigue keeps you gripped. Hard not to race ahead as you are so eager to find out what happened that fateful summer, and why the sisters are still keeping secrets twenty years on.