Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had some pretty darn strong reactions to reading this. I mean, I already know that Chuck Wendig writes some gritty and hard-hitting unlikable crap-like characters that wallow around in the muck and make even more of it, but that wasn't really where my strong reactions were coming from.

Or were they?

Let me back up. Reading this is like reading the lovechild of Chuck Palahniuk and Seanan McGuire. One half of it is an emotional and vivid supernatural UF ride with a strong female who is on the way to hitting bottom when we first get to know her, and the other half is Marla Singer.

She's WELL on the way to breaking the glass-bottom boat and going all the way through. And why? Every person she touches, she see's the moment of their deaths. Her coping mechanism went through the other side of drinking herself to death to making a sport of hooking up with truckers on the side of the road at 1 am just to combat the death that's always inside her.

It's dark and self-destructive and its hard to like her even if I feel some sympathy.

It gets easier and better as she tries to make real connections again and she's forced into fighting for her life as con men and murderous women and criminal organizations use and abuse her because at least she's not being so self-destructive. Others have that covered.

The best parts of this novel are the LANGUAGE. :) Such COLORFUL use of it. And the resolution is quite satisfying, too. The many, many descriptions of death, both foul and disturbing, were brilliantly depicted. The MC's viewpoints on EVERYONE comes through like a slap on the face, too.

I mentioned Chuck Palahniuk for a reason. It's almost a nihilistic sex-sport gothfest for con-men and women. It's also graphic as hell.

For those who like this kind of thing and like it SPICY, I totally recommend this UF. :) It's hard to like these characters, but I was absolutely entertained by them. :)

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