Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez, Garcia Gabriel (Pearl Ruled)
The Shore of Women by Sargent, Pamela – read
When Will There Be Good News? by Atkinson, Kate – read (No Review)
The Book of Joan by Yuknavitch, Lidia – read (No Review)
Out of mesopotamia by Salar, Abdoh
In Search Of The Lost Chord: 1967 And The Hippie Idea by Goldberg, Danny read (to do list)
To Hold Up the Sky by Liu, Cixin
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by O’Connor, Flannery- read (No Review)
The Wives of Henry Oades by Moran, Johanna- read (No Review)
Spirits and Thieves by Rhodes, Morgan – read (No Review)
The Rush’s Edge by Smith, Ginger – read
The women’s revolution, Russia 1905-1917 by Cox, Judy – read
George Orwell Illustrated by Smith, David
Marx’s Capital by Smith, David -read
The Fire Next Time by Baldwin, James – read
Sex in the world of myth by Leeming, David Adams Read
The goddess by Leeming, David Adams
The conspiracy trial of the Chicago Seven by Schultz, John
A People’s History of the United States by Zinn, Howard – reading
The Weight of Ink by Kadish, Rachel – read
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Clarke, Susanna
Thinking in Pictures by Grandin, Temple
My Beloved World by Sotomayor, Sonia
The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut, Kurt
Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology by Reynolds, Richard – read (No Review)
The Relentless Moon by Kowal, Mary Robinette
The Language Of The Night by Le Guin, Ursula K.
Trapped in the Mirror: Adult Children of Narcissists in Their Struggle for Self by Golomb, Elan
Watchmen as literature by Van Ness, Sara J.- read (No Review)
Parable of the Sower by Butler, Octavia E.
Junk City by Boilard, Jon -read (No Review)
The Music Book by Osborn, Karen – read
Back to the wine jug by Taylor, Joe
Watchmen by Moore, Alan – read (No Review)
The Nickel Boys by Whitehead, Colson – read
The Water Dancer by Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Dark mirror by Gellman, Barton – read (No Review)
Playing in the Dark by Morrison, Toni
Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene by Ehrman, Bart D.
Berkeley at War: The 1960s by Rorabaugh, W.J.
Things that can and cannot be said by Roy, Arundhati – read
Cinderella Liberator by Solnit, Rebecca – read
Berkeley: The Student Revolt by Draper, Hal – read
The Books of Earthsea by Le Guin, Ursula K.
Robert Duncan in San Francisco by Rumaker, Michael -read (No Review)
History as mystery by Parenti, Michael – read (No Review)
Feminisms redux by Edited by Warhol-Down, Robyn and Herndl, Diane Price
American Audacity: In Defense of Literary Daring by Giraldi, William
A Book of Book Lists by Johnson, Alex – read (No Review)
Becoming Superman by Straczynski, J. Michael
Howl on Trial by Morgan, Bill and Peters, Nancy Joyce – read (No Review)
Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the Nineteenth Century by Franklin, H. Bruce
Legends edited by Silverberg, Robert – read (No Review)
Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Calvino, Italo
Why I Read by Lesser, Wendy
Side Life by Toutonghi, Steve – read (No Review)
This is how You Lose the Time War by El-Mohtar, Amal and Gladstone, Max
The Future of Another Timeline by Newitz, Annalee – read
Gideon the Ninth by Muir, Tamsyn – read
Sixteenth Watch by Cole, Myke – read (No Review)
The City In The Middle Of The Night by Anders, Charlie Jane – read
The Lost War by Anderson, Justin – read (No Review)
Small days and nights by Tishani, Doshi – read
The Shadow King by Mengiste, Maaza – read
Mickey Mouse: From Walt to the World by Deja, Andreas
Tag Archives: Saga Press
Review: Blackbirds / Mockingbird
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| Title: Blackbirds Author: Chuck Wendig Published: 2012 ISBN-13: 978-0-85766-230-9 Publisher: Simon & Schuster |
Title: Mockingbird Author: Chuck Wendig Published: 2012 ISBN-13: 978-1-4814-4867-3 Publisher: Saga Press |
I like my protagonists dark and flawed, and Miriam Black is as flawed as they come. I wouldn’t want to be me if my super power was being able to know how the person whose skin I’m touching is going to die and when. That’s agony.
In Blackbird Miriam earns her living by hitching rides and ripping off the drivers. Until she gets saved by Louis, a truck driver who rescues her from four college boys bent on having the good time they think Miriam is offering.
She’s convinced there’s no way to change what she sees, and that makes her even more bitter. What’s the point of knowing if you can’t do anything about it? She’s tried before. But now that she’s met Louis and knows he’s going to die in 30 days saying her name, she has to try again.
And wow, get ready for a tough ride. Blackbirds is rough, coarse and thrilling. Wendig pulls no punches in setting this world up. Miriam isn’t likeable, but she is understandable. And the questions brought up by having a power like hers is fascinating.. Then there’s the question of who is worth trying to save, and who gets to make that decision. There’s some true existential stuff going on in this book.
If Blackbird is about changing the destiny of one man, Mockingbird is about changing the destiny of many. It’s about catching the serial killer preying on the girls who go to school in what is essentially a private, upscale juvenile detention center. And the truly dark secret of this school is shocking, yet unsurprising.
Just as dark as Blackbirds, and possibly even more terrifying, Mockingbird has Miriam confronting her power, her past and the lives of others more deeply than before. How does one come to grips with all the destruction she’s had wreaked upon her and has caused?
Chuck Wendig has joined Richard Kadry in my list of favorite urban fantasy writers. They’re as terrific as their characters are bleak.