The characters from The Blackbird Season were dysfunctional but interesting. However, none of the characters pulled me into their lives and made me root for them. I guess if I had to choose one, Bridget would be the saving grace.

The Blackbird Season starts with the fall of a thousand starlings on the high-school baseball field. The little town of Mt. Oanake, P.A. is the setting for this grim occurrence. This coincides with the shocking news that a beloved teacher was having an affair with a student.

Nate Winters is married. His wife Alicia is a stay at home mom who takes care of their autistic child. Nate is the teacher in question. He's known for befriending his students and following them on social media. He takes particular interest in Lucia Hamm, a student who comes from a broken family.

Alicia is the frustrated wife. She's not working any longer and it's solely dedicated to her son. She's frustrated with Nate for not helping out. She's frustrated with how her life turns out. She was hoping for more. When Nate is accused, Alicia can't defend him. She has her own doubts.

Bridget Harris is Lucia's teacher. She's best friends with Nate and she is the only one who thinks he's not guilty. Bridget, a recent widow, knows she can't let it go despite not liking Lucia very much.

Lucia Hamm comes from a broken home. Her father is gone and her brother is an abusive junkie. Her only outlet is writing her thoughts and reading tarot cards. Her situation at school is not any better. She's bullied and called a witch.

It was hard to like Nate. He crossed so many lines a teacher shouldn't. He made mistake after mistake and when Lucia disappears, he didn't help himself by lying.

Lucia had a tough life but she contributed to her own school drama. There is one situation where she had all my sympathy but for the most part, I didn't like her.

My biggest problem was with Alicia. She was so frustrated with her own life that she never gave Nate the benefit of the doubt. She was first to write him off. Shameful, really.

Like I said earlier, Bridget was the saving grace. She was nice and was the only one looking for the truth.

I would categorize The Blackbird Season as a mystery more than a psychological thriller.

Cliffhanger: No

3.5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Atria via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

My thoughts: After reading Kate Moretti's last book, The Vanishing Year, I knew I had found an author I would keep reading. Her psychological thrillers have just that little something extra to set them apart - and believe me when I say you won't be able to think of anything else once you start reading them. I was completely entranced with this one and couldn't put it down until I finished it!

This book is chilling and haunting and I think what truly sets it apart is the way it's told. Being narrated by four different points of view and moving back and forth in time - all from the point of reference of when the birds fell - it's eerie to say the least! There are so many things going on that it will make your head spin, but at the same time, it totally sucks you in.

Between the birds falling out of the sky and the scandal between the student and teacher, it's hard to know what is really going on. What caused the thousands of birds to fall dead from the sky? Did Nate really have an affair with his student? This book takes on these questions and so much more. It tackles the bonds of a marriage and just how far a couple is willing to trust the other. It tackles friendship and the limits one friend is willing to go for another friend. It also tackles community bonds and just how strong those alliances actually are.

As the book progresses, I found my opinion on Nate's innocence changing. With each bit of new information given, oftentimes by the other narrators, this change would occur. But it was also the change of narrators that added so much life to this book. So much character development happens, yet we also see just how complex the relationships are amongst the different characters. And it is the different points of view that allow this to happen - we find out a lot about Nate from the other narrators.

I loved that the ending isn't quite what you would expect...I was really thrown by it and loved that I didn't see it coming. This book is full of surprises - both good and bad, and it kept me captivated from start to finish! I found it to be a good, slow-burning mystery and cannot wait to see what comes next from this talented author!!!

I decided to get a copy of this book after reading a couple of good reviews about it. Reviewers described it as unsettling and I get why especially after reading the book’s opening. The first chapter begins with thousands of birds falling from the sky in a small town in Pennsylvania. This incident is quite creepy and I tried to imagine what would happen if something like that happened in my country. However, the residents of this town soon forget the dead birds when a new scandal erupts. A beloved teacher is suspected of an illicit affair with his student.

The story is narrated through alternating POVs. The MCs are Nate (the teacher suspected of the affair), Lucinda (the student), Alecia(Nate’s wife) and Bridget(a teacher in the same school). The story goes back and forth through different timelines. Some sections cover the unfolding drama after the dead birds. Others take place before the bird incident. Others go further back a little. At first, these alternating chapters felt a little confusing. I usually don’t keep details of cheater headings. I am more likely to get the name of the narrator but exact dates don’t tend to stick on my mind. However, I eventually got the hang of it.

Recently I haven’t had much luck with slow burners but things did change with this book. There are chapters that I still felt moved too slow but the book managed to hold my attention to the end. They mystery of what happened to Lucinda kept me moving forward. I was also curious to find out whether or not Nate really was guilty. There were reveals that shocked me and other made me uncomfortable but all in all, the mystery was well built to the last page.

Lately I have been reading a lot of books set in memorable small towns. In this one, the town was Mt. Oanake. It’s the kind of place where nothing seems to happen and most people dream of leaving . I liked the setting since it added a creepy feel to the story. Abandoned buildings, dead birds dropping from the sky, close-knit but gossipy community are all factors that made me like this setting. The Blackbird season by Kate Moretti is not a non-stop action kind of book but it still has enough to keep readers turning pages to the end.I think fans of small-town mysteries will enjoy this one.

EXCERPT: 'He felt sick. No matter what happened now, everything had just gotten worse. All the pieces he'd been clinging to had flown apart, scattering what was left of his life in a million directions. He was in trouble, he'd been in trouble, but now he was more than in trouble, he was as dead as a person could be while still being alive. In one heartbeat, he envisioned Alecia and Gabe huddled together on the couch, himself in prison, a 20/20 special. ....He had no way of knowing that this moment would become the linchpin, the moment that all the moments after would hinge upon. The papers would call him a murderer; the police would come to him; his ex-friends, his gym buddies, the guys who knew him for God's sake; and say, Nate was the last one to see her alive, right? The last one is always the guilty one.'

THE BLURB: "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, Alicia, 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 Alicia 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.

MY COMMENTS: I struggled somewhat to become involved with this book. I didn't particularly relate to any of the characters, which is not necessarily a problem. But I was just over 40% into the story before I began to feel any kind of real interest, a spark, and that didn't last long.

The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti is told from four points of view, that of Alecia, Nate, Lucia and Bridget, which wasn't a problem.

The characters are well portrayed and rounded out. Nate’s life revolves around his baseball team and his students, with his wife Alecia and autistic son Gabe trailing somewhere behind in his priorities. He is not a bad man. He is very involved in the lives of his students, who both like and trust him. As do their parents. If he has a fault, it is that he is naive and can be arrogant.

Alecia's life is consumed by Gabe, their five year old autistic son. She is totally focused on finding a 'cure' for him, so that he can live a 'normal' life; so that she can live a normal life, so that she can be a soccer mum and one of the mums in the cliques at the school gate. She resents that she is stuck in the house every day while Nate is out there 'cavorting with his students' and monitoring their every move on social media. She resents that he seems to care more for them, than for his own wife and child.

There is a recipe for trouble to start with. Add in Bridget Harris, Nate’s coworker and colleague, who is still depressed following the death of her husband, struggling with her job and who has always had a bit of a thing for Nate. And Lucia, trashy, blonde, abused and considered wierd Lucia who is randomly accepted and discarded by her classmates on a whim, and who has only ever had one true friend, Taylor. But even that is changing.

I so wanted to be captivated by the 'haunting, psychologically nuanced suspense, filled with Kate Moretti’s signature “chillingly satisfying” (Publishers Weekly) twists and turns', but I wasn't. I regret to say that I didn't find it any of these things. Instead of suspense filled, I got angst filled. Disappointing? Yes, but if the book had been depicted more accurately, my expectations may not have been so high.

Thank you to Atria Books via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Therefore if you enjoyed the excerpt above, please go ahead and read this book. For an explanation of my ratings, please visit my profile page on Goodreads.com or my 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com.

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Kate Moretti, and Atria Books for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

Having no previous knowledge of Moretti’s work, I was able to read this novel without preconceived notions. It is worth noting, though, I did falsely presume the premise of the story that would develop. When thousands of starlings fall from the sky in the sleepy Pennsylvania town of Mt. Oanoke, everyone is left baffled as to what it might mean and how it could have happened. The reader may feel ready to synthesise a story that plays directly into this phenomena, but the narrative takes an interesting turn, plunging into more heartfelt mysteries. Told from the perspectives of a few characters and using flashback chapters, the reader is able to meet Nate and Alecia Winters, who are struggling through parenting their autistic son, Gabe. Nate is the high school baseball coach and a teacher with whom many of the students have a close relationship. When an allegation arises that a high school student, Lucia Hamm, and Nate are having a sexual relationship, the town splits as authorities try to decipher what is going on. Added to the mix is the role of Bridget Harris, Lucia’s creative writer teacher, who has come to learn some of her darkest thoughts through an ongoing journaling assignment. As the story continues, the reader learns that this ‘starling’ event proves to be the dividing line between Nate’s apparent ‘institutional assault’ of Lucia and the fallout that leads to the girl going missing. Alecia is torn and unsure whether to support her husband, seeking to juggle the pointing when she is out in public with the realisation that Gabe might never be the ‘normal’ child she seeks. Lucia’s disappearance turns into an even darker mystery, one that will make the massive avian raining event seem like a distance memory. Moretti draws on the dramatic development of small-town living to create this thriller that leaves the reader wondering how things will come together. A great read for those who enjoy a sense of surprise enveloped in a mystery fuelled by fractured relationships.

There is a great feel to this novel and Moretti’s writing, as it pulls the reader in from the outset. Without being able to compare it against some of her other work, I am left to offer my own independent sense of how things developed. While the seemingly core event, the starling mass death, opens the novel, it can soon be seen to take a backseat to the dramatic development of the alleged sexual relationship between Nate and Lucia. Moretti builds up all the characters, both central and surrounding, to reflect the news of this event, but also fleshes out a strong backstory to individualise them. Woven throughout the novel is the angst felt by teenagers as they grow into their own personalities and the struggles of trying to raise a child who does not fit easily into society’s notion of normalcy. However, there is also the exploration of a couple torn apart because of their diametrically opposed interests in the family dynamic and the ‘third wheel’ friend/teacher, who is able to glimpse into the struggles of the student mind and the pain of seeing a colleague lose his way in his broken marriage. In essence, it is placing love in its various forms under the literary microscope. The mystery, which develops throughout the novel, is less the birds than the disappearance of a young student, one who has an agenda to divorce herself from the world and struggles to accept that she is not the most important person to the man she adores. Moretti ties things up effectively and yet tosses a curve at the end, leaving the reader wondering how it all developed and what could have happened to precipitate such a drastic outcome. A novel that forces the reader to play an active role and choose sides, Moretti is surely an author who deserves much attention by those who enjoy the genre.

Kudos, Madam Moretti, for taking me on this journey. I was left wondering throughout, both as it relates to the starlings and the larger town crisis.

The day a thousand dead starlings fall on a high school baseball field in Pennsylvania, a chain of events begins that changes everything for the small town. Nate Winters, the baseball coach, is caught on camera, in an embrace with student Lucia at a local motel. When she disappears, he becomes the prime suspect. His wife Alicia doubts him and she is so wrapped up in her autistic son that she really can’t see past anything else. Lucia had a horrible family life and was called a witch by a lot of the kids in school but why would she suddenly leave and why not clear Nate’s name? The only person who seems to believe Nate is Bridget, a fellow teacher and good friend who has her own issues with Lucia. She just might find the answers in Lucia’s journal. Can she find out in time to change the course of what’s going to happen?

This book will definitely draw you in from the get-go. How many stories start with birds, tons of birds, dropping from the sky? Is there some kind of magical voodoo going on? You will have to read and find out. These characters are not the most likable. They all have their tics and secrets and sometimes I wanted to shake a few of them but that is what keeps you reading. How easy would it be for them to be black or white instead of shades of grey? Bridget was my favorite, I will say that. Nate, probably my least favorite because he was so hard to read. Another character summed him up nicely when she said he wanted to be liked by everyone. He did walk a fine line between appropriate behavior with a student and not appropriate behavior. It is a good suspenseful story with a thoughtful look at morals . The ending was really good, fit perfectly.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.

In a small Pennsylvania town, a thousand dead starlings fall from the sky, landing on the baseball field. The town is in an uproar, wondering what caused the birds to die, and fearing for their safety. The dead birds are the biggest news to hit town for years. Until a reporter sees everyone’s favorite teacher, Nate Winters, embracing bad girl student Lucia Hamm in front of a no-tell motel.

Despite Nate’s denials, he’s soon being investigated, and Lucia adds fuel to the fire by claiming they are having an affair. Nate’s wife, Alecia, wonders if her husband is telling the truth. With the whole town hurling accusations, other rumors start to surface about Nate. Then Lucia disappears, and Nate is the only suspect. But there’s more going on in this small town than meets the eye, and with only one person on his side, Nate may never find out the truth.

The Blackbird Season was not what I expected at all. The portrayal of small-town life is so vivid and realistic, with the gossip and back-stabbing and secrets. As someone who grew up in a small town, this felt completely believable. I spent most of the book wondering, like the characters, if Nate was guilty and just what Lucia was hiding. There are a lot of twists and unexpected turns in this novel, and it’s a riveting read.

(Galley provided by Atria Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

Mt Oanoke, PA, is a dying mill town where nothing much happens...until the day that hundreds of blackbirds fall from the sky and popular high school teacher and baseball coach, Nate Winters, is accused of having an affair with a student.

Nate is the kind of teacher who deeply cares about his students--did he take that caring a step too far with the troubled Lucia Hamm? Does he have some kind of savior complex? His wife, Alecia, doesn't know what to believe and asks him to move out so she can have the time and space to sort it all out. She has her hands full with their special needs son, five-year-old Gabe. Their marriage has been a bit rocky of late, with Nate feeling neglected, as if they are now merely parents instead of being the intimate, loving couple they once were. Has he sought love elsewhere?

When Lucia goes missing, Nate is suspected of doing away with her. Bridget Peterson, the Winters' friend and Nate's fellow teacher, is determined to find out the truth but can one ever know 'the deep down truth' about anybody?

The story is told from multiple points of view while skipping back and forth across the timeline of the case. Kate Moretti does an excellent job of building suspense and getting into the heads of her rather unlikeable characters.

Coincidentally, this is the second newly-released book about a beloved teacher being accused of improper behavior with a student that I've read this week, the other being The Best Kind of People. That book focuses mainly on how the accusations tore up the lives of the accused's family and friends. In both cases, there is a rush to judgment, a taking of sides, ignoring the belief in the concept of 'innocent until proven guilty.'

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

THE BLACKBIRD SEASON by Kate Moretti is edgy and current with startling twists. Exactly what I expect from this author, who is fast becoming a reading obsession.

This eerie story takes place in a small town in Pennsylvania where the teachers are too close to the pulse of teenage angst. Is it a misunderstanding, or will they go one step too far? When one thousand starlings fall from the sky, is it a sign of what is to come, or just a physical reaction to something explainable?

High school math teacher and baseball coach Nate Winters is the golden boy of his small town. His seniors are hopeful for college scholarships and Nate is known to go the extra mile for them. Nate has ample opportunity to earn the love and admiration of most of his students and their families.

Nate’s techniques may be considered unethical by some, but he feels that following the lives of his students on social media is how he keeps them on the right path. Nate is loved by everyone. He feels the need to be friends with his students, hoping they will come to him when they need help. But who will protect Nate when accusations fly?

Nate is married to Alecia and they have an autistic five-year-old son, Gabe. Alecia’s whole world is Gabe’s condition, hoping to help him improve with the latest therapies. When Nate is suspended during an investigation of a rumored impropriety with a student, Alecia kicks him out and his friends doubt him. Nate is lost in a world looking to persecute him.

The reader follows along in four characters’ point of view (POV), while the suspense intertwines within their lives like a snake waiting to squeeze the life out of them. Nate and Alecia have their issues with each other and the frenzy that follows Nate’s troubles. Bridget, another teacher and their best friend, is trying to recover from the death of her husband. Tripp is a police officer but also their friend, which puts him in more than one sticky situation. There are students who play a vital role in their lives, some of them very creepy, as well as the expected police and detectives investigating the allegations. The whole town is incensed with the assumed vulgarity of the situation, so there’s no telling what each of them will do.

Even though I wasn’t as enthralled with this book as much as the author’s novel THOUGHT I KNEW YOU, I still enjoyed it immensely. If you love thrillers that aren’t too gory but are bursting with psychological suspense instead, then Kate Moretti may become your go-to author. I can’t wait to read more of her backlist. My rating reflects how this novel made me feel in comparison to the only other book I’ve read by her. If I’m comparing it to other authors I’ve read this year, Kate Moretti’s style is exactly how I like my thrillers and it would be rated higher. I always feel invested in her characters whether I like them or not.

This is the kind of book that can confuse the heck out of me because of its multiple POV switches. The switches are well marked at the beginning of each chapter, as well as giving a timeline so you know whether you’re going backward or forward from the day when one thousand starlings dropped dead from the sky. I caught on eventually, even though this isn’t the style of book I read often. Those POV changes are perfect for giving this novel a keen edge. You’re never quite sure which character is guilty and who will be the one to figure it all out.

What I loved most were the students. They added intriguing uncertainty and made me wonder what really happened. Their “coming of age” is probable which makes this novel disturbing but gripping. There are references to violence against a female student so if this is a sensitive trigger for you, you may want to avoid this book. Not always easy to read, THE BLACKBIRD SEASON might be closer to reality than most of us want to know.

Eerie with a favorable amount of backwoods references and creepy buildings that intensify the suspense, THE BLACKBIRD SEASON is an edgy and clever whodunit. A tightly woven thriller, Kate Moretti leaves the reader no time for breathing or sleeping until you’ve reached the end.

Review by Dorine, courtesy of The Zest Quest.

The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti is a highly recommended mystery/drama.

When a thousand starlings fall out of the sky, dead, on the town of Mount Oanoke PA during a high school baseball game coached by Nate Winters, it seems to be the beginning of things that are going to go wrong for the popular math teacher. A reporter in town investigating the mysterious die off of birds has seen Nate embracing Lucia, a high school student, While Nate has been, according to him, helping the young woman, his wife, Alicia, has been at home struggling to take care of their 5-year-old autistic son, Gabe.

Alecia's friend and Nate’s coworker, Bridget Harris, is a creative writing teacher at the high school and knows both Nate and the girl. She has witnessed some suspect actions, but she is also trying to keep an open mind. When the girl, Lucia, goes missing, Bridget tries to find her and enlists the police. But the police are seeing only one suspect in her disappearance, Nate, and the fragile bonds between husband and wife and friends is near a breaking point as the town seems to rally against him.

In this character-driven drama, the story is told from the point of views of Nate, Alicia, Lucia, and Bridget. This helps keep the reader guessing and ratchets up the suspense as more clues are discovered and more information comes out. Moretti is an excellent writer and handles the transition between characters beautifully. Of the characters, though, Bridget is the only one I even remotely cared about. Everyone else resembled a caricature rather than a real person.

The ending was good for me, although I did struggle a bit with getting there. I must admit I am becoming a wee bit tired of this plot (male teacher/female student dead) and adding annoying characters to the well-worn path didn't help me traverse it. What did help propel me through the novel was the quality of the writing and looking at the plot from the different character's points of view.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Atria Books.
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Kate Moretti returns following The Vanishing Year, landing on my Top 50 Books of 2016, with her latest THE BLACKBIRD SEASON – a scandal rocks a town with dark chilling secrets. An emotionally charged exploration of a family and community in crisis.

Haunting, complex, twisty, mysterious, and suspenseful — Moretti style.

The whodunit suspense will keep you glued to the pages. The excellent writing, well-developed characters, and crafty plot will keep you entertained and absorbed.

“The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying." —from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Wallace Stevens

Nate Winters and his wife Alecia are well respected in the small quiet town of Mount Oanoke, Pennsylvania. A dying mill town, the people living in this small community have their struggles. Baseball is one highlight of their town.

Nate is a math teacher and baseball coach, well loved by all. A hero to many. Alecia, a former career woman, is now a stay at home mom with their 5-year-old autistic son, Gabe.

Things are quite tense in their relationship, marriage, and household. Of course, with Gabe, her plate is full. Alecia is consumed with his care and often resentful of her husband who spends time at school and on the ballfield helping others.

She is miserable, bitter, angry, and sad. She has little time left over for her husband with a special needs child. Her only friend is Bridget.

Told from alternating points of view: Alicia, Nate, Lucia, and Bridget.

Bridget is a creative writing teacher at the school and a co-worker of Nate. She believes in him. She lost her husband to cancer the previous year. They had all been good friends. Of course, as teachers of high school students, a difficult task; there is always drama—they are self-absorbed glued to their phones, or bullying someone.

Lucia is a senior at the high school. She is an eccentric teen, loner and everyone thinks is weird. A witch? A difficult childhood. She is in a writing class led by Bridget. Bridget feels uncomfortable with Lucia. She has no friends. She writes of death and dying.

“Lucia tackled pain and death clinically, a biology lab dissection. She sees birds. She says they come to her and she knows bad things will happen.” Entries in her journal.

She is exotic with unsettling beauty. Crazy white hair, black-rimmed eyes, and red lips. She has a brother, Lenny, and dropout and a father Jimmy who had skipped town. Is she evil? She has obsessions with blackbirds, ravens, and crows. She reaches out to Nate for help.

How could this pillar of the community— father, husband, teacher, leader, and friend —Nate, find himself in trouble? He would be fired. Everyone would call him a murderer. They would accuse him of an affair. OR a student who came on to Nate and he rejected her —set out for revenge?

A thousand starlings fell from the sky. Not fluttering to the earth, but plummeting. Hard and fast in the middle of the third inning of the opening day at Mt. Oaknoke High field.

Then the pandemonium. A cloud of blackbirds, thousands of them. The entire thing lasted less than three minutes. 911 was called, and everyone wondered where they came from. Why did they fall? What did it mean?

After the falling which everyone thinks is a bad omen, everything bad begins happening. Nate is accused of having an affair. A motel. A reporter. He is fired. Did Nate have a flair for girls in need or was he innocent? A girl goes missing. Fingers are pointed.

A marriage and a town are torn apart. However, is Nate to blame or someone else? Is he being set up and if so whom? Is Lucia a victim or menace? An intriguing character.

A slow-burning gripping tale, both haunting, spellbinding, and disturbing.

A cautionary suburban crime story sprinkled with supernatural elements. The unsettling atmosphere gives a strong sense of fearful apprehension or darkness lurking. Foreboding, suspicion, and unease —a feeling that something bad will happen; a dark cloud.

What lies beneath those dark clouds?

Moretti delves deep into the lives of these flawed characters. Loss and danger—an ongoing theme. From the loss of a spouse, marriage, love, job, trust, and a town. From teens to adults. Bullying. Everyone has an opinion. With an array of emotions. Jealousy and obsession.

Marriage, parenting, infidelity. Expectations. The wide variation in challenges, strains, and strengths of a special needs child with autism; the complex developmental disability, and the caregivers. The strains it can bring to a marriage.

Guilt or Innocence. Good or Evil. Black and white magic. From malicious acts to loyalty and friendship. Self-discovery or destruction. Denial or obsession. A compelling complex book of contrasts, relationships, and expectations with shades of gray.

The symbolic meaning of blackbirds is eternally linked to the "dark vs light" phases of the moon similar to the character’s lives. Blackbirds and birds of black or dark colors are special among their airy clan as they are symbolic of mystery, magic, secrets, and the unknown.

The blackbird teaches you how to acknowledge your power and use it to its fullest. While the crow or blackbird can play the trickster, they are usually benevolent and bring news of good passage and protection.

The condition of the town with its ups and downs and tragedy, as well as the claustrophobic, toxic, bleak, and creepy outlook— also parallels to the character’s lives. Would make for an ideal selection for book clubs and further discussions.

Fans of Jodi Picoult, Heather Gudenkauf, Paula Treick Deboard, T. Greenwood, and Lisa Scottoline’s One Perfect Life (also set in Pennsylvania), will enjoy this emotional thriller.

THE BLACKBIRD SEASON also gave me the chills (psychologically) as so, when watching The Birds, (a 1963 American horror-thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock) as a child—this one did give me nightmares for weeks.

Would love to learn more about the author’s inspiration for this unique book. Hats off to the author for courageously tackling this storyline with so many moving parts. Hint: (an interview Q&A is in order).

A very special thank you to Atria and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy. 4.5 Stars

Have also pre-ordered the Audiobook narrated by Cassandra Campbell (My favorite narrator), Gibson Frazier, Joy Osmanski, Rebekah Ross. Look forward to listening!

JDCMustReadBooks

The Blackbird Season begins with an eerie event that seems like an omen to the townspeople of Mount Oanoke – a harbinger that seems fulfilled when popular high school math teacher Nate Winters is accused of having an affair with Lucia Hamm, one of his students. Even his wife Alecia doesn’t know whether to believe him, though she is so exhausted by working with their son Gabe who is autistic, she doesn’t really have time to think.

Two people instinctively believe Nate, his friend Tripp, a local police officer, and his colleague, an English teacher named Bridget. Both are friends of Nate’s who just can’t believe it. There’s some damaging evidence arising from Nate’s efforts to help Lucia who was being battered by her heroin-addict brother and living rough at an abandoned mill. He rented a motel room for her on a cold night before urging her to go to a shelter. When Lucia is missing and Nate is the last to see her, things look grim.



The Blackbird Season is a fair mystery. We get all the clues and when we discover the facts, they make sense. The overall mystery meets the requirements of a fair story and is resolved. That part is almost beside the point. Sure it has to happen, but the heart of the story is exploring friendship, marriage, and community. The fractures in Nate and Alecia’s marriage were there before there was a hint of suspicion.

I admired the harsh reality of being the mother of an autistic child portrayed in this book. Not many novels will talk about how gross it is dealing with five-year-olds who shit their pants and flat out say, that’s a lot more shit than when babies do it. The impossible challenge of trying to make her child more “normative” is making Alecia lose herself and her marriage. There is some real authenticity to this part of the story that makes me believe Moretti knows some people and isn’t just drawing on research.

The story is very readable and fast-paced. I read it in two sittings and was completely engrossed. I like most of the people, though I don’t think Nate Winters is as good a teacher as he thinks he is. He transgresses the norms of teaching and thinks that makes him a better teacher, but it does not. It made him vulnerable, but it also prevented him from following the Mandated Reporter law that applies in Pennsylvania as it does in every single state and U.S. territory.

In fact, it seems all the teachers at Mount Oanoke fail their students and in particular, fail Lucia. A student comes to school with cigarette burns and bruises and not one person calls child services? Everyone knows the father has been gone for two years and no one calls child services? What is wrong with these people? It does not matter that when this happens Lucia is eighteen, they note she is still an institutional minor when accusing Nate, but not when it comes to physical abuse? This is not just incompetence, this is criminal neglect on the part of every school employee. Nate is the worst because we know he is aware of it and tries to deal with it by finding her a shelter, not by alerting the authorities. The others seem to close their eyes, to choose not to see. Nate sees, and still fails her.

This book is well-written and I was interested in the story. I liked Nate’s friends and even liked Nate. I don’t think kindness is a pathology. I cared about the people. But it does have a few plot devices that I dislike. False rape allegations are vanishingly rare, but they seem to happen far too often in fiction. Police taking her allegation seriously is equally unrepresentative of reality. I am not fond of the Evil Lolita trope and wish the story had taken another turn because Moretti is a good writer.

The Blackbird Season will be released September 26th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley

The Blackbird Season at Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint
Kate Moretti author page

The Blackbird Season was my first read by Kate Moretti courtesy of NetGalley and Atria Books. 4 stars for me and I'll be looking for more from this author.

The story grabbed me right from the beginning when we see Nate in his car, he stops because he sees "her" but he says he can't let her in his car. What is this all about? That's what is going on in my head. So the story goes a little back and forth in time and each time it references "the day the birds fell" or this many days before the birds, etc. And the birds by themselves are a strange event. Out of the blue all these starlings just fall from the sky. What a crazy thing.

The story is told from our four main characters point of view, Nate, Alecia, Lucia and Bridget. So we have Nate Winters, a loved teacher and baseball coach who is accused of sleeping with a student. Said student, Lucia, disappears one night. Accusations are made that Nate has done something to her but also there's rumors she's just run off to be alone. She doesn't have a great home life and not many friends. Nate's wife, Alecia, wants to believe him when he says he had nothing to do with Lucia's disappearance but Alecia keeps finding so many things to make her question her husband. She's also struggling to care for their autistic son whom Nate doesn't seem to have much interest in. Bridget, who is their friend and also Nate's co-worker, believes him even though their are a few things she's unsure of. She tries to help him several times, even putting herself in danger. And Lucia, the poor lonely student to reads tarot cards and draws black birds that she sees, is she in danger or is she playing a game with everyone and hiding out.

Tensions build and the ending was not one I saw coming, yes a few parts of it I saw, but the main thing I missed until it was right there happening. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this opportunity.

The Blackbird Season pulled me in from the very first word, sentence, chapter. I was hooked. I usually read more than 1 book at a time and I was putting the others down so that I can get through this one cause it was just that good.

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.

The story was date from when the blackbirds fell and it would go back in the past and after the falling of the blackbirds. It was not confusing as I would usually find these type of books to me. The story was easy to follow, easy to read and get lost in. Kate Moretti writes so good that you cannot help but feel the story and the characters who are involved. Kate Moretti incorporated social media and a special needs child into the story which made it feel even more realistic for the readers to connect to the story and its characters. If you haven't added to your list of book to read and if you haven't pre-ordered yet (release date is September 26) then you should do it asap! You will not regret and you will thank me later.

Sincere thanks to Netgalley, Publisher Atria Books, and author Kate Moretti for the advance reader's copy of The Blackbird Season.

The Blackbird Season is a suspense novel about the disappearance of a high school student Lucia and a possible involvement of her math teacher and baseball coach Nate Winters, who may or may not have had an inappropriate relationship with her. This book was just OK for me. I found the pacing very slow and didn’t understand why some of the subplots were introduced because they had zero bearing on the story. There was a romantic relationship developing between two characters that lead to nowhere, also a supposed infidelity of one very minor character that wasn't at all relevant to Lucia disappearance. I kept scratching my head thinking what was the point of these subplots. I did like the mystery of blackbird's bizarre phenomenon and how it was tied to the story, it was unusual and interesting.

The mystery of Lucia disappearance was OK but it could've been done better, there was not a lot of surprise or suspense in this whole story for me. As I read The Blackbird Season I kept comparing it to Everything You Want Me to Be that came out earlier this year, because both these books have a similar premise: small town setting, disappearance of a high school student and her teacher's involvement, but I found Everything You Want Me to Be so much better and more gripping!

The Blackbird Season is a fast paced, suspenseful novel, with just a hint of the paranormal, which kept me reading well into the early hours. It is the story of a small town where connections between individuals are complex, and relationship boundaries between teacher and student as well as between police and suspect become blurred. Rumours spread like wildfire, intentions are misread and jealousy and obsession result in tragic consequences. Highly recommended. Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

From the synopsis, I was excited to read this one. The drama of an accused school teacher, a student that disappears and a small town - sign me up. This one didn't quite live up to the synopsis.

There just seemed to be a lot in this book and maybe a little too much. I felt like the author was trying to tackle too much in one book. There were a few bits and pieces that I would have omitted, so the central drama could have taken a bigger role.

I did like that the chapters were narrated by various characters. I always love when a book gives more than one character the opportunity to move the story along and tell their side of it.

I have to say that I was satisfied by the person who ended up being the culprit, which for me is a big deal when reading a book. Although enjoying the above two aspects didn't tip me over into the love factor for the book overall, but made me enjoy it a bit more.

This is only the second book of Kate Moretti's that I have read, I liked that one much more and am still interested in reading her back list and books to come.

Kate Moretti’s The Blackbird Season takes place in Mt. Oanoke, Pennsylvania. Mt. Oanoke is one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone else and where pretty much nothing ever happens. That is, until one day when a thousand dead birds plummet from the sky and land on the local high school baseball field. Since most of the town was there to watch their baseball team and beloved teacher and coach, Nate Winters, play, the rumor mill starts running rampant right away, as everyone tries to make sense out of what has happened. Some assume there is a logical explanation for the birds, while others see it is a bad omen, a sign of trouble to come.
Pretty soon, however, the mystery of the birds take a backseat when a news reporter prints a story alleging that Nate Winters is having an affair with one of his students, troubled teen Lucia Hamm. Without giving him a chance to prove that the story isn’t true, everyone in the town immediately turns on Nate. He goes from being the hometown hero to the town outcast and ultimately loses his job over the alleged affair. Lucia doesn’t help matters when she corroborates the story and tells everyone that she and Nate are in love, thus breathing even more life into this small town scandal and causing even Nate’s wife to question his innocence.
When, soon after, Lucia goes missing, all eyes turn to Nate as the most likely suspect and the reader is filled with questions:. Is Nate actually guilty of having an affair? If not, can he prove his innocence? What has happened to Lucia? Did Nate have anything to do with that since she made him look so bad? If the affair isn’t true, why would she lie about it?

LIKES
One of my favorite parts of The Blackbird Season is the way in which the story is presented. It’s a character driven mystery that is told from the alternating points of view of Nate, his wife Alecia, troubled student Lucia, and perhaps the only person in town who believes Nate is innocent, his friend and colleague Bridget. I liked watching the story unfold in this way because as each piece of the puzzle is revealed, you get to see not only how Nate keeps getting himself into situations that make him look bad, but then you also get to watch those who are closest to him, his wife and his best friend, and their changing reactions when more and more details unfold about Nate and Lucia. Then finally, you also have the perspective of Lucia and see some of her motivations behind her actions and why she keeps approaching Nate.
If you enjoy a suspenseful read, you’ll probably enjoy The Blackbird Season. Moretti writes suspense very well and so there are lots of twists and turns along the way as we seek to unravel both the truth behind the alleged affair and the mystery of what happened to Lucia. I liked that the story kept me guessing, so much so that I changed my mind about whether Nate was innocent or guilty every few chapters. From that standpoint, it’s a wild ride and a solid read.

DISLIKES/ISSUES
My biggest issue with The Blackbird Season was that this ended up being another of those books where none of the characters are very likeable or sympathetic. Since I typically enjoy books more when I can connect with at least one character, this made reading The Blackbird Season somewhat challenging. Nate Winters, in particular, just flat out got on my nerves. As a teacher, he should know better than to be creeping around on the internet keeping an eye on his students. Whether he means well or not, there’s no way that’s going to turn out well for him if other adults in the community find out. He’s one of those characters that just constantly makes bad choices and does stupid things that make him look guilty even if he’s probably completely innocent. If you’re being accused of sleeping with a student, for example, you don’t keep randomly meeting up with the student. The man just had no common sense and was infuriating because of it. I actually screamed at the book a couple of times because he was just so frustrating, lol.
I also wish the author had done a little more with the actual blackbird theme that runs through the book. The opening scene with all of the dead birds plunging onto the baseball field was fantastic and set an ominous tone for what I thought was going to be an atmospheric and creepy read, maybe even a bit supernatural, but then it just kind of fizzled and was mentioned occasionally in passing – that scientists were investigating the bird deaths, etc. Since more wasn’t made of it, it ended up just feeling unnecessary to the rest of the storyline and somewhat out of place, for me anyway.

FINAL THOUGHTS
If I hadn’t had the issue with not liking any of the characters, The Blackbird Season would have easily been a 4 star read for me. Even with not liking any of the characters, I was still drawn in enough by the mystery of the dead birds, the small town skewering the town hero over his alleged affair with a student, and that student’s subsequent mysterious disappearance that I just had to keep reading to find out what happened. If you enjoy a good mystery, I’d say The Blackbird Season is a good choice. If, like me, you just really need at least one likeable character, this book may or may not be a good fit. I hate to make the comparison since it’s so overdone, but if you enjoy books like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, you’d probably like this one too. If not, I’d probably say to pass on it.

RATING: 3.5 STARS

3.5 Stars → When hundreds of dead starlings fall out of the sky, curious reporters flock to the grim scene - a baseball field in a small, down-on-its-luck Pennsylvania town. The birds prove to be a bad omen for local high school teacher, Nate Winters. One of the reporters spots him with a student named Lucia at a seedy motel, and then Lucia disappears. His wife Alecia is already at her wits' end, and the accusations against her husband are too much to bear. It seems the only person Nate has to defend him is fellow teacher and friend, Bridget Harris, who's read Lucia's troubling journal in class.

The mystery about what happened to Lucia was an intriguing one. The story is told by Nate, Alecia, Bridget, and Lucia in alternating chapters. Other than Bridget, none of them were particularly likable, thought their predicaments held my interest. Something that was a bit jarring was how the dates/time jumped around from chapter to chapter. I had to go back several times to remind myself when something previous had happened. I think with four POVs the time jumps got confusing.

The setting of this book really stood out to me. The author captured the perfect dark and gritty atmosphere of a dying town with an abandoned mill. It gave me a feeling of unease throughout. I only wish the starlings had played a bigger part in the book. THE BLACKBIRD SEASON is a character-driven mystery with plenty of drama. Not a lot of big surprises, but it did keep me guessing.