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kp_writ's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The kind of book that makes you feel like you accomplished something by finishing. And by that I mean it was dreadfully slow, and I had to work hard to keep my interest and understand the perspective shifts (that were confusing whether they happened chapter by chapter or paragraph by paragraph or towards the end even sentence by sentence). I'm very glad to have read it, and I think it's a book I may return to eventually for a reread, but it is not an easy read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Colonisation, Abandonment, Confinement, Death, Dementia, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Suicide attempt
malhale's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death
Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt
astroprojection's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War
Moderate: Blood, Dementia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Vomit
Minor: Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt
bookishplantmom's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I have pretty mixed feelings about this one. The story itself is really great and the writing is absolutely beautiful but they somehow don't go together...? Not to say that SF books can't have lyrical, poetic or literary value, obviously, but somehow here the stylistic choices the author made got in the way of the plot and of getting the know and love the characters. The choice to tell this tale from a 3rd person omnipresent narrator's perspective, which sometimes slipped into the characters perspectives, gave the story a fairytale/folklore tone but also muddied parts of the story. The plot here is rather complex, there is a lot going on with a lot of different characters across time and space. That alone is a great deal to keep tabs on with simpler writing styles. Add to it the 3rd person omnipresent narration as well as overlapping perspectives and goodness me it takes a lot of focus to stay with it. It was not *difficult* to read, but it commanded attention let's say. Since the writing style made it hard for me to connect with the characters I was more invested in the overarching plot than in their individual stories (except for Fumiko, she was fascinating). Unfortunately, the narration made the plot almost secondary to the writing so I was left feeling overall kind of meh about my reading experience. This is an amazing debut but some things just didn't land all the way for me in terms of the writing but the story itself was really very good!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma
Moderate: Child abuse
caseythereader's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
- I do not know how to properly review THE VANISHED BIRDS, a book that burrowed deep into my heart right from the opening pages.
- Yes, it is an inventive adventure across time and space, but it's also a tender exploration of trauma and of found family.
- Also, it doesn't say it in the synopsis, but queerness is quite embedded in this story, and in such a loving way.
- Yes, it is an inventive adventure across time and space, but it's also a tender exploration of trauma and of found family.
- Also, it doesn't say it in the synopsis, but queerness is quite embedded in this story, and in such a loving way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Violence
amandaquotidianbooks's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Large pacing and tone shifts, which made it difficult to connect with the characters. The story starts out fairly hopeful, but gets really dark. I enjoyed the subtle world building and that the homosexual and asexual representations was seamlessly integrated into the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Violence, Gun violence, Suicide, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, Torture, and Slavery
Moderate: Sexual content
graculus's review
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I went through quite a phase of not giving books 5 stars because I suspected I wasn't going to want to re-read them, but for The Vanished Birds that seems a little unfair - it's definitely true that I'm unlikely to return to this book but I can't help but recognise the quality of the writing involved and give it the rating it deserves.
It's based on a number of stories woven together, starting off on a planet being exploited for one of its resources, visited every 15 years by a ship to take away the shipments of a purple seed it produces. We start with the measuring of those visits through the lifetime of one of that planet's people, visits which are mere months apart from the point of view of the ship's pilot. That planet is also the place where one of our other characters first appears, as a child appearing from nowhere, taken on board the ship as a favour to a dying friend.
The other main story line involves a woman who was instrumental in the creation of much of the technologies on which everyone relies, relentlessly reliving a failed love affair through the bodies of multiple individuals who are paid to change their appearance, and who believes that abilities like the child's are the next step forward on a technological basis. In the end, she pays the captain to keep the child and bring him up, suspecting he has this ability even though nobody has ever seen it.
The Vanished Birds is very much a story about found family, both one that falls apart early on as they can't cope with the strangeness of the child in their midst, and another one which forms despite the fact they've been thrown together solely for the purpose of keeping that child safe while also monitoring his abilities. The author is also not scared of killing off characters but it doesn't feel gratuitous, just part and parcel of everything going on within a realistic story line. Matters come to a head, abilities are uncovered but there's also a resolution, which is not that usual a thing in a genre full of trilogies and series. As a first novel too, it's pretty impressive, so I can't wait to see what this author does next.
It's based on a number of stories woven together, starting off on a planet being exploited for one of its resources, visited every 15 years by a ship to take away the shipments of a purple seed it produces. We start with the measuring of those visits through the lifetime of one of that planet's people, visits which are mere months apart from the point of view of the ship's pilot. That planet is also the place where one of our other characters first appears, as a child appearing from nowhere, taken on board the ship as a favour to a dying friend.
The other main story line involves a woman who was instrumental in the creation of much of the technologies on which everyone relies, relentlessly reliving a failed love affair through the bodies of multiple individuals who are paid to change their appearance, and who believes that abilities like the child's are the next step forward on a technological basis. In the end, she pays the captain to keep the child and bring him up, suspecting he has this ability even though nobody has ever seen it.
The Vanished Birds is very much a story about found family, both one that falls apart early on as they can't cope with the strangeness of the child in their midst, and another one which forms despite the fact they've been thrown together solely for the purpose of keeping that child safe while also monitoring his abilities. The author is also not scared of killing off characters but it doesn't feel gratuitous, just part and parcel of everything going on within a realistic story line. Matters come to a head, abilities are uncovered but there's also a resolution, which is not that usual a thing in a genre full of trilogies and series. As a first novel too, it's pretty impressive, so I can't wait to see what this author does next.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Body horror, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma
perditorian's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Medical trauma, and Mass/school shootings
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