Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: September 26, 2017
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Pages: 352
Source: eARC from Publisher
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Goodreads Description
Known for novels featuring “great pacing and true surprises” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) and “nerve-shattering suspense” (Heather Gudenkauf, New York Time bestselling author), New York Times bestselling author Kate Moretti’s latest is the story of a scandal-torn Pennsylvania town and the aftermath of a troubled girl gone missing.
“Where did they come from? Why did they fall? The question would be asked a thousand times…
Until, of course, more important question arose, at which time everyone promptly forgot that a thousand birds fell on the town of Mount Oanoke at all.”
In a quiet Pennsylvania town, a thousand dead starlings fall onto a high school baseball field, unleashing a horrifying and unexpected chain of events that will rock the close-knit community.
Beloved baseball coach and teacher Nate Winters and his wife, Alecia, are well respected throughout town. That is, until one of the many reporters investigating the bizarre bird phenomenon catches Nate embracing a wayward student, Lucia Hamm, in front of a sleazy motel. Lucia soon buoys the scandal by claiming that she and Nate are engaged in an affair, throwing the town into an uproar…and leaving Alecia to wonder if her husband has a second life.
And when Lucia suddenly disappears, the police only to have one suspect: Nate.
Nate’s coworker and sole supporter, Bridget Harris, Lucia’s creative writing teacher, is determined to prove his innocence. She has Lucia’s class journal, and while some of the entries appear particularly damning to Nate’s case, others just don’t add up. Bridget knows the key to Nate’s exoneration and the truth of Lucia’s disappearance lie within the walls of the school and in the pages of that journal.
Told from the alternating points of view of Alecia, Nate, Lucia, and Bridget, The Blackbird Season is a haunting, psychologically nuanced suspense, filled with Kate Moretti’s signature “chillingly satisfying” (Publishers Weekly) twists and turns.
My Thoughts
The Blackbird Season is the first mystery/thriller novel I've read, or at least that I can think of. This story takes place in Mount Oanoke, a small town in Pennsylvania. It is one of those small towns where everyone pretty much grew up with each other and they basically know everything about each other's lives. So imagine living in this small town where the only exciting thing to do is gossip and suddenly one day a thousand birds fall from the sky. However, that news is quickly disregarded when Nate Winters, high school teacher and baseball coach, is accused of having an affair with one of his students.
Early on I was drawn into the story. There was already a sense of what the story was going to be about based on the synopsis that's given. When the book opens up we are following Nate after what's already been revealed in the description then goes back to a previous point, leaving the reader to speculate what lead up to him being where was in the beginning. I really enjoyed this format because as more things were revealed I was able to form my own opinions while trying to figure out what actually happened and who was involved.
As can be expected with anything I read, there are things I didn't like. My main problem was the characters! I found that I didn't like most (if not all) of the characters. Every single character that was introduced had become complacent in their life and was unhappy. Instead of doing things that could improve their lives they only did things that made themselves and their families even more miserable. I'm sure they were meant to be unlikable characters but it's hard for me to stay engaged in a story when I don't like the people I'm reading about. It didn't help that I felt parts of the story weren't really important to the story line I was most interested in.
It was interesting to see the dynamics of Mount Oanoke and how everything changed throughout the book. Everyone pretends like their life is perfect and nothing is wrong even when everyone knows so much about each other. Nate was so well loved by most people in their community and I was surprised to see how quickly people turned on him when the accusation of the affair with his student came out. I was gripped by the mystery of Lucia's disappearance and everything that occurred after that. I had guesses of who might be involved but I wasn't completely sure until it was revealed. The Blackbird Season was a pretty solid mystery/thriller and I now want to check out more.
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