My Takeaway

"Where did they come from? Why did they fall? The question would be asked a thousand times…"
Kate Moretti, The Blackbird Season

The Blackbird Season has been receiving lots of buzz and I was expecting to love it, but the book just didn't quite do it for me. I felt the plot moved too slow and it was more of a mystery than a psychological thriller. I was never at the edge of my seat and the ending was not as exciting as I like. The story revolves around several scandals in a small town in Pennsylvania. It involves the mysterious death of a thousand blackbirds, a marriage in trouble (husband accused of having an affair with one of his students), unstable teenage relationships, and the case of a missing girl no one seems to care about. There is definitely a lot going on in this town and Moretti does a nice job at capturing the main characters perspectives and rationale. Although this wasn't the suspense thriller I was expecting, Moretti is a great storyteller and I would certainly give her books another try.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Turned out this was not a good fit for my reading tastes - no formal review published, no stars assigned.

Due to Netgalley rules - one star assigned so review can be completed - not a valid rating for the book.

3.5 stars

This was an atmospheric psychological suspense thriller about a high school student who goes missing and the teacher who becomes the number one suspect. The author, Kate Moretti, did a fabulous job creating a vivid picture of the unthriving small town devastated by the mill closure years prior. The after effects lingering years later – on the people, on the buildings, on the overall attitude of the gossipy, close-knit community. The abandoned mill seemed to be a haunting character itself – hiding secrets and lies within its broken, run-down structure.

I enjoyed the way the story was revealed through four characters POV’s. The chapter changes of narration kept a refreshing feel throughout the novel. The slower paced storyline kept me intrigued for the most part, but my connection to the book wavered near the end.

What I enjoyed most about this story was getting a glimpse into the life of a mothers love, struggles and commitment to her young autistic son. My heart broke for Alecia, Gabe’s mother, whose entire world revolved around monitoring, scheduling, organizing and tracking Gabe’s growth, development and progress through therapy, meetings, organized play, doctor appointments, etc. I could feel Alecia’s stress and overwhelming sense of exhaustion. She was a wonderfully dedicated mother and by far my favourite character.

I was satisfied with the ending, but wished for it to have happened a bit differently. Throughout the novel, there are some good twists and turns, but overall the book lacked a “wow” factor for me. I would recommend it if you are looking for a more relaxed and slower paced suspenseful mystery.

A big thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and Kate Moretti for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

The Blackbird Season is a dark, slow-burning, eerie, haunting, suspenseful psychological thriller with some great elements to make it a haunting read. A dying town where people know everything and will turn on each other without a care, an abandoned mill haunted by the loss of jobs and hope, dead birds, and a missing girl. We both really enjoyed those haunting elements to the story and found them to be unique and suspenseful.

The Blackbird Season is a story of jealousy and obsession that explores the bonds of friendship, and marriage and the cruelty of teenagers. Kate Moretti does a great job bringing some layers and depth to this story of a missing girl where all eyes point to her teacher by adding a well-developed plot with his strained marriage to his wife and their son who has special needs. The dynamics and desperation of the dying town add to the depth of the story and allowed us to see how easy they can turn on each other.

Kate Moretti cleverly had us guessing with whose truth is the truth and whose perception is the truth leaving us guessing throughout the story. She paces this all very well and we both didn’t figure the twists out until the very end. I won’t say much about how we felt about the ending as it would give too much away however overall we were satisfied.

Thank you, NetGalley, Atria Books and Kate Moretti for a copy to read and review.

Our full Traveling Sisters Review can be found on your sister blog:
https://www.twogirlslostinacouleeread...

3.5 stars

As the story opens, Nate Winters is a popular math teacher and baseball coach at Pennsylvania's Mt. Oanoke High School. Nate - a married father - takes a real interest in his students, and has helped some of his players get college opportunities. The town's goodwill for Nate goes down the tubes, though, after thousands of blackbirds plummet to their death in Mount Oanoke. As the strange phenomenon is being investigated, a slew of reporters descend on the area - and one snaps a photo of Nate hugging a pretty student outside a cheap motel.

The student, Lucia Hamm, is a striking 18-year-old senior, with long white-blonde hair, black-rimmed eyes, and luscious red lips. Nate claims he was only helping a pupil in need.....a girl who couldn't go home. Lucia's mother ran off long ago, and her father left when the paper mill closed and he lost his job. Since then Lucia has been living in squalor with her violent, drug-addicted brother Lenny. When Lenny burns Lucia with a cigarette and hits her one too many times, she walks out for good.

After the 'hug photo' hits the newspapers, Nate claims that Lucia called him for assistance, and he got her a motel room for one night - sending her to a shelter the next day. Nevertheless, Nate is suspended from his job pending an investigation.....and it doesn't help that Lucia'admits' they had sex. This news spreads through town like wildfire, making Nate a pariah among Mt. Oanoke parents.

Nate hopes his wife, Alecia, will be more understanding - but she's not. Alecia is exhausted from caring for the couple's autistic, five-year-old son Gabe, and already believes Nate is more attentive to his students than his child. So when Alecia finds a sexy photo of Lucia on Nate's phone, and discrepancies in his story, it's the last straw. She throws him out.

The only person on Nate's side is his colleague, English teacher Bridget Peterson. Nate and Alecia were 'couple friends' with Bridget and her husband Holden, until Holden died of cancer a year ago. This was shattering to the widow, who's been grief-stricken and distracted ever since.....especially at school.

Lucia is in Bridget's creative writing class, and the girl's journal suggests she has serious problems. Moreover, many fellow students call Lucia a witch and avoid her. Bridget thinks Lucia isn't being entirely truthful about Nate, and sticks up for her friend as best she can.

Soon after the 'photo incident' Lucia vanishes, and things go from bad to worse. The Mount Oanoke detectives seem to think Nate is involved in her disappearance, and the coach becomes more isolated than ever.

The story is told from the alternating viewpoints of Alecia, Bridget, Lucia, and Nate, switching back and forth from 'before the blackbirds fell' to 'after the blackbirds fell.' We see what each character thinks and does, and learn something about their motivations.

I was especially moved by Alecia's sections, which detail the difficulties involved in raising an autistic child: the need for constant attention; the meltdowns; the soiled pants; the lack of speech; the rigid routines; the numerous (expensive) therapies; and so on. Alecia is overwhelmed, and it's hard to see how she copes. This situation would put a strain on any marriage, especially when hubby doesn't help much at home.

As for Lucia, she's in dire straits. The troubled girl has been living in poverty since the paper plant closed, and has little hope for a better future. When Nate is kind to her, and expresses interest in her well-being......well, let's say Lucia develops high hopes.

In fact, there's an atmosphere of desperation throughout Mount Oanoke, where many young people long to get away, but don't see how - since money is scarce and college is costly. This drives a lot of the behavior in the tale.

In Nate's chapters, we see how hard he tries to understand and assist his pupils, going so far as to follow them on social media.....a big no-no for teachers. One has to wonder about Nate's judgement here. Furthermore, the coach gets over-invested in boys who are offered baseball scholarships for college, which clouds his thinking.

The 'sleuthing' sections of the story belong to Bridget, who thinks the Mount Oanoke detectives are biased against Nate. Bridget sets out to clear Nate's name, and gets some help from uniformed cop Tripp Harris - a long-time friend of the Winters' and Petersons. There's some attraction between Bridget and Tripp, which should appeal to romance lovers. :)

The story's climax is believable, fits the plot, and explains everything.

I enjoyed the book, which provides a realistic look at high school culture; a marriage in crisis; a grieving widow; and a town in decline. The characters are well-rounded and compelling, and I was interested in all of them. All in all, a good mystery, recommended to fans of the genre.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Kate Moretti), and the publisher (Atria) for a copy of the book.

This novel which I was happy to read is full of teenage angst, the need to feel you belong and the lines that are blurred from young adult to adult. When a student points the finger at the good guy teacher everyone loves, for an alleged affair, or possibly rape lines get drawn. Who is on whose side? When that same girl disappears, who really is on the hook? A look at human relationships of love, mistrust and heartache for the adult characters and quite possibly the young adults as well.

Lucia is a strange girl. The kids in her school call her a witch. They think she caused the thousands of starlings to fall dead from the sky. And she’s starting to believe it too. We all become what people expect us to be.

Nate is a caring teacher, sometimes to a fault. He spends little time with his wife and autistic son — instead monitoring his students’ online activity, often knowing what drama will unfold before it happens. His over-involvement in their lives becomes his downfall when a reporter “catches” him outside a motel room with Lucia. He believes he’s innocently helping her escape an abusive household, but Lucia has other ideas.

Then Lucia goes missing. Loyalties are tested, relationships doubted. And the day a thousand birds fell dead from the sky is almost completely forgotten about in the scandal that follows.

You know how in literature class they make you write a book report on theme? If I had to pick a theme for this book, it’d be “blurred lines”. Nate blurred the lines between mentor and friend to his students, enough that a young girl was hurt over a misunderstanding of intention. Andrew blurred the lines of consent with his Periscope video of Lucia saying yes, though she was too inebriated to understand what she was agreeing to. And everyone in this novel blurs the lines of friendship; Alecia and Bridget with their tenuous hold on one another, stretched thin through the trauma of Bridget’s husband’s death and Alecia’s son’s disability, held awkwardly together through the common link of Alecia’s husband Nate, Bridget’s colleague and friend; Lucia and Taylor with their love/hate friendship, closest friends yet biggest rivals. Blurred lines of superstition and science with the falling of the birds. By the end, we’re left with an abstract painting of tragedy, with splashes of repressed emotions and drama.

This was not the high stakes, atmospheric thriller I was expecting — at times it even dragged on a bit — but what it ended up being was done exceptionally well: An extraordinarily realistic depiction of a marriage on the rocks, a scandal in a small town, the ambivalence of teenage love and friendship, and the tragedy of a missing girl who not enough people care about enough to even have a productive search party.

4/5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley, publisher Atria Books, and author Kate Morettti for the ARC of this book.

For an in depth discussion of this novel, please visit my blog at https://greykatreviews.wordpress.com/2017/10/16/discussion-the-blackbird-season/

Kate Moretti is quickly becoming an auto buy author for me. I loved her novel The Vanishing Year, so I was incredibly excited to get my hands on a copy of her newest novel The Blackbird Season. This novel has a little bit of a different feel to it, but it was equally as addicting. I had a physical copy as well as an ebook, so I was constantly reading it whenever I had a free moment.

The characters in The Blackbird Season are a little difficult to pin down. By this, I mean some were difficult to trust, others were difficult to like, and then some were just difficult to understand. I liked that aspect of the novel, but it made it a little harder to get truly invested in the novel.

I loved that Moretti used different narrators throughout the novel, it really added to the intrigue and left the reader constantly guessing. All in all, the novel was fast paced and had a lot of twists and turns, but I had a hard time really connecting with the characters. It was full of suspense and thrills and I would recommend it to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers. Thank you to Atria and Kate Moretti for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Teacher and baseball coach Nate Winters is the town sweetheart, he and his wife, Alecia, who quit her job to take care of their son are well known and respected. That is until a journalist who has been reporting the dead starlings caught Nate with a student in front of a motel. Troubled student Lucia Hamm admits they were having an affair, bringing his marriage and reputation to the brink of collapse, then the unthinkable, Lucia disappears. All town’s eyes are on Nate.

Nate swears he is innocent, Alecia doesn’t know what to believe anymore and Bridget, Nate’s coworker and mutual friend is trying really hard to prove his innocence, but she may be discovering things better left unknown.

The Blackbird Season has several points of views (Nate, Alecia, Lucia and Bridget), but it would have benefit from less. The real story is happening from Lucia and other student’s side and we barely got to witness that, instead we focus in the crumbling of a marriage and what other people perceive from Lucia. Nevertheless, it was intriguing trying to figure out who was telling the true in this student/teacher relationship (to me Nate and Lucia are both unreliable narrators).

I could say that I sided with the wife, but the more reasonable characters were Bridget and that one cop who was all “give me evidence and then I judge for myself”. Alecia has points because she really was trying hard for her son who has autism, sadly she was a mess in everything else (she was in denial with her son’s condition, although she was way better than Nate, trying to “fix him” no matter what the specialists and doctors said to her and I feel she never really changes that much).

The Blackbird Season is a slow paced mystery novel, almost but not quite a psychological thriller (with four different perspectives from lonely, complicated people). Just forget anything to do with the title, loose those mystery/supernatural expectations and you will enjoy it.

Great mystery with so-so characters. I would place this more in the suspense than thriller category. I would have liked a few more twists and turns, but overall a good read. The end left a little to be desired, but I had this one guessed fairly early on. 3.5/5

The description of this book is what caught my attention. A teacher accused of having sex with his high school student, a thousand starling's falling from the sky and a missing girl...
The story is told from alternating views of Nate, the teacher accused of having an affair with Lucia, his student. Lucia is living with an abusive brother and is barely able to cope with life in small town Pennsylvania. Alecia is married to Nate and is now consumed by her autistic son who demands most of her time and attention. Finally Bridget, is the best friend and fellow teacher who is the only one that truly believes Nate is innocent. She has her own demons and struggles to connect to Alecia who questions why her husband would be so involved in his students lives.
I was riveted to this book. The suspense built up slowly, but the writing was so enjoyable. I was disappointed in the books abrupt ending. Wish their had been an epilogue to tie up loose ends. However, the book was a thrilling mystery. I received a complimentary ebook from Netgalley.com in exchange for a review

Last year, I read (and loved!) The Vanishing Year by Kate Moretti, so I was thrilled to find out that her sophomore novel, The Blackbird Season, would be releasing come September! I had absolutely no expectations going into this book; truthfully, I loved The Vanishing Year so much that I didn’t even read the synopsis of this book. I figured that if Moretti wrote it, I would be interested. I was right! Moretti was able to weave a pretty stellar, mysterious novel within these pages. One that left me binge reading late into the night.

This story surrounds high school teacher, Nate Winters as he is accused of having an affair with a female student, Lucia Hamm. As Nate’s life spirals and Lucia goes missing, Nate is the only suspect. As his wife, Alecia begins to question his situation, his only ally comes in the form of a co-worker and creative writing teacher, Bridget, who realizes the only way to save Nate’s reputation could be using Lucia’s journals.

Though marketed as a psychological thriller, I didn’t find that this one fit that bill in the traditional sense. When I think of psychological thriller, I think of a fast-paced, on the edge of your seat, mind-bending plot filled with unreliable narration and lots of “WHOA” moments. In this case, I felt Moretti created more of a slow-burning mystery. What happened to Lucia? Who is telling the truth? What is the deal with all these birds? For me, this absolutely worked.

Generally speaking, choppy and disjointed narration usually gets on my nerves, but, somehow, Moretti manages to make this style of narration easy to follow and completely addictive throughout the plot of this tale. I was on the edge of my seat as I devoured each chapter (both and back and forth in time) and tried to figure out what the true happenings were and what motives the characters were acting with. Each character gets a distinct POV and I loved hearing the story from each of their perspectives. I found this to be incredibly interesting.

One of my largest gripes to this story was the situation with the birds. At the beginning of the story, we are told that thousands (hundreds? millions? Who knows) of blackbirds have fallen out of the sky and into the town. People are horrified by this phenomenon and experts are called in to test the town’s water and air, looking for reasons and possible side effects of this occurrence. I waited for the entirety of the book for this to be made clear. And, alas, there was never really an explanation. The birds were more of a metaphor or a representation and I just wasn’t about that. Personally, I felt like I needed an explanation.

Overall, if you enjoy a tightly woven plot with multiple characters and a compelling mystery, I think you will enjoy this book. It really reminded me of Everything You Want Me To Be by Mindy Mejia. They both had that small town mystery vibe.

The Blackbird Season is one of those books that had me gripped from the first page, there was something mesmerizing about this one, I was completely caught up in the lives of the residents of Mount Oanoke, Pennsylvania. I was so curious about the starlings and wondered how this bizarre event would tie into the story, almost as much as I was wondering what happened to Lucia…

This is told from four different perspectives and shifts back and forth over a few weeks. I don’t think any of the lead characters are super likable and their reliability is questionable, but I found myself relating wholeheartedly to Alicia. Her five year old son is autistic and I found myself nodding my head vigorously anytime she talked about her hopes, fears and worries for her son. Being a special needs mom to a kiddo with autism is the biggest challenge (and biggest gift!) I’ve ever faced in my life and Moretti captured the constant daily struggles absolutely perfectly, a truly accurate portrayal, bravo! While I made have had the strongest connection with Alicia all of the characters are extremely well crafted with strong, distinct voices.

The setting and overall mood is fantastic, there is a mystical, otherworldly vibe right from the start. There is an ominous feeling surrounding this bleak town creating an atmosphere that was haunting and even sinister at times. Mount Oanoke is a small town full of secrets and that will always grab my attention, and on top of that Moretti is a really outstanding writer. This has a slower pace with a steady buildup and while it doesn’t have many edge of your seat moments, the ending did ramp up the tension and intrigue, I was very engrossed. The Blackbird Season is an intelligent mystery with an eerie energy, this would be a fun one to add to your October TBR, it’s totally perfect for a fall read.

Maybe the publisher description led me to expect too much, or perhaps my standards for mystery-thrillers are simply much higher than they were before after reading so many fantastic novels in the genre this year. Whatever the case, The Blackbird Season just didn’t do it for me. To use one of my favorite phrases, everything about this book was “aggressively mediocre”—the mystery wasn’t too mysterious, the thrills weren’t that thrilling, and overall nothing about it really stood out.

If only the story had been as intriguing as the blurb promised. In the quiet mill town of Mt. Oanoke, Pennsylvania, the opening day of the high school baseball season is suddenly interrupted when a thousand dead starlings started raining from the sky. No one knows why it happened, but the disturbing phenomenon will soon also herald a series of unexpected events that will turn this small community upside down. It all begins when popular teacher, baseball coach, and—by all accounts—happily married husband and father Nate Winters is accused of having an affair with a student. The teenager in question is Lucia Hamm, a troubled loner whose white hair and obsession with death and the occult have led her classmates at school to nickname her the town witch.

Nate, however, is insistent on his innocence, claiming that he was simply being concerned with the wellbeing of his students, helping Lucia through some problems at home. His only crime is caring too much, he protests, and that everyone has merely gotten the wrong idea based on some blurry photos and vague text messages. But his wife Alecia Winters is not so certain. She knows beneath the “nice guy” façade, her husband is hiding many secrets, like the fact that he follows his students anonymously on social media, or that he can be an insufferable flirt. Their marriage is also on the rocks, worsening as Nate is suspended from work due to the investigation and Alecia is close to a nervous breakdown trying to care for their autistic five-year-old son. Then the unthinkable happens. Lucia disappears without a trace, and suddenly the allegations of rape turn into accusations of murder. As the whole town turns their backs on Nate, only one person has faith that he is innocent—Bridget Harris, a creative writing teacher at the school and also Nate’s trusted friend, who believes she has the evidence that would exonerate him.

The Blackbird Season wasn’t terrible, but for a mystery-thriller novel, it did fail the most important test of being exciting and fun. You can’t just throw together a bunch of good ideas and expect the magic to happen, there needs to be some follow through too, and this is where I feel the story faltered. For example, I was disappointed that the book blurb made such a big deal out of the mass death of starlings, which in the end turned out to be a peripheral event and played no essential role in the plot. Ultimately, it felt like a distraction to divert from the uncomfortable truth: that this story is just not that interesting.

On top of that, the pacing was sluggish and the characters were either too bland or too unlikeable to care about. Eventually, everything took on the feel of a made-for-TV drama, from the predictable small-town dynamics to the superficial protagonists with their perfunctory and clichéd flaws. First off, we have Nate, an all-around nice guy who is also incredibly naïve, to the point where actual uncertainty is created about his motives because you’re always thinking to yourself, “Surely no one can be this big of an idiot!” Too bad this was not the kind of suspense I was looking for. Next is Alecia, who I feel for because of her struggles as a mother with a disabled child who doesn’t get as much support as she needs. That said, she’s also so petulant, shallow, and bitter that it’s hard to relate to anything she says or does. I know that unlikeable character are pretty standard for the genre, but wow, this book was taking it to a whole other level.

The format also didn’t really work for me, though to be fair, I am often conflicted when it comes to narratives that bounce back and forth between past and present. I might have been more forgiving if the story hadn’t been such a slow-burn to begin with or if the mystery had been more compelling, but at the end of the day, the shifting timelines and changes in POVs only served to drag the pacing down some more. The final nail in the coffin though, was the ending. Predictable and anticlimactic, it didn’t leave me satisfied at all.

It’s lamentable, really, how much more The Blackbird Season could have been. It was not at all what I expected when I picked it up, feeling in the mood for a psychological thriller and hoping that this one would be a fast-paced heart-pounding read. At least the writing was fantastic, and I took no issue with Kate Moretti’s prose. To her credit, I had a pretty good idea of what she was trying to accomplish, but unfortunately it just didn’t quite happen for me. Hopefully, others will have better luck than me with this one.

I enjoyed this book. The concept was relevant to current events, and the concept of the starlings falling and referring to the book as before or after the birds fell gave it a different feel. I like how the book switched perspectives, but I did think the flipping through time, present and past, got confusing. Overall, it was an enjoyable story that moved quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Moretti, and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review The Blackbird Season.

I thought this book was alright, but I agree with the reviewers that are of the opinion that it doesn't live up to the hype. I've been hearing about it for months and months and was excited to read the book, but when I had my copy in front of me I had a very hard time getting into it, right from the start and that never really changed.

Publication: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Atria Books
Source: Publisher.

REVIEW:

Married couple, Nate and Alecia have a good life. Living in a small Pennsylvania town, Nate is a math teacher who also coaches basketball and Alecia takes care of their 5 year old autistic son. By all accounts, they have a seemingly perfect marriage. But things aren’t always as neat and tidy as they seem on the outside. And once the blackbirds fall to their death on the baseball field, things are never the same again.

This book made me feel like I was living in Mount Oanoke. The author did a really good job of capturing that small town feeling. And in a small town where everyone knows everyone, your reputation can be everything. Nate holds on to his reputation with pride. People respect and admire him. That is until he is accused of having an affair with Lucia, an 18 year old student, that soon goes missing afterwards.

But Nate wouldn’t do such a thing would he? And even if he did have an affair with Lucia, that doesn’t mean he hurt her….Right?

Told from multiple POV’s, The Blackbird Season will have you second guessing Nate’s self-proclaimed innocence and the townspeople around him.

The Blackbird Season is a compelling book that slowly pulls you in page after page and leaves you wanting more. It was a fun and immersive read. I liked how the mystery and suspense gradually builds, the more I delved into the story. I have been a fan of Kate Moretti, every since I read The Vanishing Year. She has such a way with words and unique characters/situations. I look forward to her next story.


RATING: 3 out of 5

It's just another day in Mount Oanoke, Pennsylvania when the birds start to fall. Hundreds of dead starlings, dropping from the sky during a baseball game. It seems like the birds started it all, but really the secrets and lies began much earlier. Nate Winters, high school teacher and baseball coach, is beloved in the town. That is, until a reporter, in town to cover the birds, catches Nate hugging a student at a local motel. Suddenly, the birds are forgotten, and the story becomes much juicier: Nate; his student, Lucia; and their supposed affair. Lucia fuels the fire by affirming the affair and suddenly Nate and his wife, Alecia, are swept up in the story. The only who believes in Nate's innocence, even a sliver, is his friend and co-worker, Bridget. As Lucia's creative writing teacher, she has unique insight into the girl's mind. But when Lucia suddenly goes missing--with Nate as the prime suspect in her disappearance--not even Bridget may be able to save Nate. But is there more to Lucia's disappearance than an affair with her teacher?

Wow, I was really impressed by this novel. It's a complicated novel that is just as much a character-driven study as it is a mystery. It's incredibly well-written, and Moretti expertly embodies the voice of each of her characters, from beleaguered Alecia, who is worn down from mothering her autistic son, Gabe; to the cast of teenager characters; to Bridget, who lost her husband to cancer a year ago. It's so well-done that often with each chapter (which skip from various points of view -- Bridget, Kate, Lucia, Nate, etc.), I found my myself veering between whom I preferred or believed, constantly second-guessing my allegiances or what happened. This is very rare for me: typically I find my "person" in a novel and stick with them, no matter what.

But here, I was confused, wondering. Was Nate really a cad, who cheated on his wife every second he got, or was he the sweet, affable teacher and baseball coach that the whole town admired and adored? And Alecia--was she more than just a weary mom, broken down by years of staying at home with her autistic son, Gabe, unable to give to anyone beyond him? Did she push Nate away, into the arms of others? Or was the truth more complicated that all of this? I have to hand it to Moretti--she was excellent at creating confusion and doubt. In addition to different perspectives, the novel shifts in time (before the birds fell, after the birds fell, before Lucia disappeared, etc.). It's a little tough to keep track of, but it also keeps you on your toes and always wondering, as you piece various parts of the puzzle together.

For me--even more than the mystery of what exactly happened with Lucia--the strength of this novel was the writing and the characters. I felt for them, even when I was frustrated with them. Moretti captures the angst and meanness of high school extremely well, portraying the cliques of a small town quite superbly. (I was reminded of WHEN WE WERE WORTHY, which I just finished.) I loved the juxtaposition of this being a small town, so the idea is that everyone knows everyone and everything, and yet there are so many secrets, so much unknown. Being a witness to Alecia and Nate's marriage is amazing-- you see firsthand how the events affect them and how they've reached this point. It's an incredibly realistic portrayal of marriage and of motherhood.

As you probably tell, I just really liked this novel. It's very well-written, with quite compelling characters. I worked out some of the plot, but it didn't stop me from reading at all. I think some of the emphasis on character development slows the story at places, but not in any detrimental way. This one will make you think, as well as intrigue you with what happened to Lucia. Quite worth the read. 4+ stars.
It's just another day in Mount Oanoke, Pennsylvania when the birds start to fall. Hundreds of dead starlings, dropping from the sky during a baseball game. It seems like the birds started it all, but really the secrets and lies began much earlier. Nate Winters, high school teacher and baseball coach, is beloved in the town. That is, until a reporter, in town to cover the birds, catches Nate hugging a student at a local motel. Suddenly, the birds are forgotten, and the story becomes much juicier: Nate; his student, Lucia; and their supposed affair. Lucia fuels the fire by affirming the affair and suddenly Nate and his wife, Alecia, are swept up in the story. The only who believes in Nate's innocence, even a sliver, is his friend and co-worker, Bridget. As Lucia's creative writing teacher, she has unique insight into the girl's mind. But when Lucia suddenly goes missing--with Nate as the prime suspect in her disappearance--not even Bridget may be able to save Nate. But is there more to Lucia's disappearance than an affair with her teacher?

Wow, I was really impressed by this novel. It's a complicated novel that is just as much a character-driven study as it is a mystery. It's incredibly well-written, and Moretti expertly embodies the voice of each of her characters, from beleaguered Alecia, who is worn down from mothering her autistic son, Gabe; to the cast of teenager characters; to Bridget, who lost her husband to cancer a year ago. It's so well-done that often with each chapter (which skip from various points of view -- Bridget, Kate, Lucia, Nate, etc.), I found my myself veering between whom I preferred or believed, constantly second-guessing my allegiances or what happened. This is very rare for me: typically I find my "person" in a novel and stick with them, no matter what.

But here, I was confused, wondering. Was Nate really a cad, who cheated on his wife every second he got, or was he the sweet, affable teacher and baseball coach that the whole town admired and adored? And Alecia--was she more than just a weary mom, broken down by years of staying at home with her autistic son, Gabe, unable to give to anyone beyond him? Did she push Nate away, into the arms of others? Or was the truth more complicated that all of this? I have to hand it to Moretti--she was excellent at creating confusion and doubt. In addition to different perspectives, the novel shifts in time (before the birds fell, after the birds fell, before Lucia disappeared, etc.). It's a little tough to keep track of, but it also keeps you on your toes and always wondering, as you piece various parts of the puzzle together.

For me--even more than the mystery of what exactly happened with Lucia--the strength of this novel was the writing and the characters. I felt for them, even when I was frustrated with them. Moretti captures the angst and meanness of high school extremely well, portraying the cliques of a small town quite superbly. (I was reminded of WHEN WE WERE WORTHY, which I just finished.) I loved the juxtaposition of this being a small town, so the idea is that everyone knows everyone and everything, and yet there are so many secrets, so much unknown. Being a witness to Alecia and Nate's marriage is amazing-- you see firsthand how the events affect them and how they've reached this point. It's an incredibly realistic portrayal of marriage and of motherhood.

As you probably tell, I just really liked this novel. It's very well-written, with quite compelling characters. I worked out some of the plot, but it didn't stop me from reading at all. I think some of the emphasis on character development slows the story at places, but not in any detrimental way. This one will make you think, as well as intrigue you with what happened to Lucia. Quite worth the read. 4+ stars.

I was initially drawn to this because of the cover and the fact I wanted to try a new to me thriller author. When I started reading THE BLACKBIRD SEASON I thought there was enough potential in the storyline and it was catching my attention. However, I think I suffered a bit from questioning some of the things I was expecting this book to be and waiting for things to relate and not seeing that happen. I think it’s best to go into this book without having any preconceived ideas of what you think the story will be about and just letting the author dictate that pace.

Once I got over all that (maybe a little after the halfway point) I started to get invested in the mystery and wanting to solve it. So the main plot here revolves around Nate Winters, a baseball coach and teacher who is sort of a small town hero. A troubled teenage female student, Lucia, accuses him of having an affair with her and shortly thereafter she goes missing. Things quickly get complicated for Nate at work, with his wife, all around town. This is told in several different POVs and I enjoyed the change in narration and the perspective it gave us into the story. I wasn’t, however, a huge fan of the characters. I was annoyed with Alecia (the wife) for many different reasons, but mostly I kept getting annoyed at Nate because of how he acted in regards to his autistic son. It was as if he felt the need to compete with him for his wife’s attention and would get mad when his son was always the priority. It would just get on my nerves.

Overall, I think I lacked a bit of connection with the characters and with what I thought the story could be instead of what it was. But I still found this an engaging mystery and one I was happy I dug into. It may not leave me itching to grab the next Kate Moretti book that comes out, but I certainly will read more from this author.

Such a captivating and brilliant story!
The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti is a psychological thriller that is told from multiple points of view of the four main characters.

I have to tell you that this is one of the most interesting way telling a story.I loved it and I couldn't put it down.
The story was easy to follow and easy to read.I never get confused with anything.

I'm looking forward to read more books from this author.