In a Pennsylvania town where crime rarely happens, a thousand dead starlings fall out of the sky. Seemingly, this sets off a chain of events that will change the lives of many. This book is unfolded through the POVs of four different characters. We have Nate, baseball coach and adored teacher who probably pays a little too much attention to his students. His wife, Alecia (it was spelled this way in my arc copy), who is home tending to their special needs son, Gabe, while thinking her husband avoids the house. Her frustrations of having to hold herself together for her son's sake leads to instigating arguments with Nate. Then there's Bridget, also a teacher at the same school, closest friend to Alecia and a widow who may be the only one fighting for the truth. Lucia, an eccentric student, outcasted by her peers who call her a witch, accuses Nate of having an affair with her and then promptly disappears. Nate was the last one to see her but all evidence proves to Nate's guilt. With only one person by his side, can he prove his innocence (if he truly is innocent), save his marriage and reputation? And if he didn't have this alleged affair, then why is he being accused?

Under her twitter handle, Moretti says "best selling author of crap marriages & murder"... and she's absolutely right! Holy crap marriages in The Blackbird Season! Moretti is wonderful in the character building of this story. Even with the multiple view points and the flip from from past to present throughout the novel, I never felt lost. This isn't a book where you get one huge twist that makes you gasp and hold your chest. It's rather a more suspensefully nuanced psychological thriller that keeps you turning the pages as she brings the story full circle. This was the perfect read for what I needed at this time. She doesn't try to surprise you or catch you off guard. Instead, she slowly builds this world where none of the characters are likable, but you still want to sort of root for them. At least I did. There's a slight supernatural undertone which I also liked a lot. At the end of the day, this rule stands true - don't piss off a female... EVER.

For those who love that suspenseful thriller that might not keep you on the edge of your seat, but will definitely pull at your curiosity strings, this is something you need to pick up.

It's difficult to write a review when really your main gripe about the book is just that it wasn't what you expected. I had imagined that this book was going to be a taut mystery/thriller, and it's more of a domestic drama. There is an element of mystery as there is a disturbing allegation and missing person being investigated, but it's really more a story about boundaries and relationships, one of those "how well do we know and trust the people closest to us" types of stories. As a story about a town that's struggling, of the difficulties of being a teenager with few prospects in that type of setting, of marriage, family, and friendships, this book has solid footing. Kate Moretti's characters in The Blackbird Season are struggling with relatable, common problems, and their reactions and interactions all seem honest and believable.
Read this book as a character drama with a well drawn setting, instead of expecting a thrilling mystery, and you will likely find much to suck you in and enjoy.

It was both the author and cover that drew me towards this book, it has that ominous feel which peaked my interest. I read the author's previous book, The Vanishing Girl, in audio format and really enjoyed that one also (click title to take you to my review).

The Blackbird Season is a very character driven story. There are four different points of view, Nate his wife Alicia, their friend Britney and the troubled student Lucia. All flawed characters and at times unlikable to some degree, well I did feel for Alicia here but each seemed rather self possessed, which made the story work.

The author did a great job with their story lines, as the plot developed she unveils things at a pace that kept me glued to the pages, at the conclusion of each chapter I just wanted to continue reading wondering what the true story was. I was keep guessing as the twists and turns took place totally keeping me on my toes.

Taking place in a small town in Pennsylvania that thrives on rumors and gossip. The day it rained dead birds gives it a Gothic feel, setting the mood.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an advanced copy. This book releases next Tuesday and I highly recommend it.

A husband, a father, a teacher, a coach, and now a suspended teacher accused of having an affair with a student.

Did it really happen, though, or did Lucia make it up?

Nate was always involved with this students on a personal level and helped the ones who appeared to be in distress. Did this backfire on him?

THE BLACKBIRD SEASON is mainly about the characters and their lives after the blackbirds fell and after Lucia disappeared. Did Lucia have anything to do with the blackbirds falling from the sky or did the blackbirds have anything to do with Lucia's disappearance? Her fellow students do call her a witch.

THE BLACKBIRD SEASON is considered a thriller, but it didn't seem like a thriller to me. I saw it more as an investigation into people's lives and what some people have to go through on a daily basis or during a crisis.

Addressing teenagers and their behavior was a major theme as well.

The book has four main narrators, and we hear from each one and how each one is connected to each other and to the situation.

The intrigue for me was in the behavior of the characters. The characters did grow on you toward the end as you became familiar with their lives instead of feeling annoyed with them.

Nate seemed to be too helpful for his own good.

Poor Alecia was so overwhelmed with her special needs child and had no clue about anything her husband, Nate, did.

Bridget, still mourning the loss of her husband, seemed genuine and a bit shaky about the situation Nate was in since he was a good friend.

Lucia was a troubled teenager with a bad home life and a teenager who needed attention and got attention in the wrong way.

The flocks of blackbirds seemed to serve as the background for the ominous situations that occurred in the small, gossip-ridden, mill town of Mt. Oanoke, Pennsylvania.

The book kept my interest because I wanted to see what happened to Lucia and if Nate would be found innocent. The suspense definitely was not edge-of-your-seat.

If you enjoy digging into the lives of folks and their emotions along with a lot of questionable choices, THE BLACKBIRD SEASON should be a good read for you.

Let me know what you think of this book. I started out with a rating of 3/5, but raised it to a 4/5 because the ending was suspenseful.

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher and Net Galley in return for an honest review.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception. - Aldous Huxley

This is a mystery/drama that takes place in the very small former paper mill town of Mt. Oanoke, Pennsylvania. It has all the pieces to make it a great book but it just didn't work well for me.

It is told in four points-of-view. There is Alecia, the wife of Nate and the mother of Gabe, a boy with autism. There is Nate, teacher and coach who is accused with sleeping with a student and, after her disappearance, possibly harming her. There is widowed Bridget, a fellow schoolteacher with Nate. And finally there is Lucia, teenager with a very troubled home life that some people consider a witch.

One of my problems with the book is that I didn't like or empathize with any of the characters. None of them.

Another problem is that it was difficult at times to keep track of who was telling the story, especially between Alecia and Bridget.

This was an okay story about the boundaries teachers need to set for themselves - knowing and understanding their students but not crossing into impropriety.

It is also a story about husbands and wives, families, and friendships.

I just didn't feel any real momentum about the student being wronged or being missing in the story. It was well enough written, I guess, as a character study but not as a mystery, which is what I thought I'd be reading. There is a mystery here but it seemed very low-key, almost an afterthought.

I received this book from Atria Books through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.

The Blackbird Season is a rich, gripping thriller set in a small town that is dying a slow death after the major employer, a paper mill, shuts down. The setting adds to the bleakness of everyday life in Mt. Oanake, Pennsylvania. The story is both modern and classic. In some aspects it feels like an old Hitchcock movie, but there are also very current themes such as inappropriate student-teacher relationships. Interestingly the story is written in a third-person narrative with four different points-of-view.

The four main characters tell this dark story, and each of their perspectives gives readers some interesting insight. However, it is unclear if any of these narrators are reliable. Nate, the golden-boy teacher and baseball coach, is accused of having an affair with a student. When she subsequently disappears, he is then suspected of fowl play. His narration is the most suspect. He vehemently denies the affair, but he gets caught in foolish lies. His behavior, including his connection with students on social media, once made people think he was a highly involved teacher; now it makes the same people question his ulterior motives. Alecia, his wife and mother of their autistic child, tells the tale of their home life. Parenting a special needs child is exhausting. Alecia is high strung, and she throws time and money into a myriad of treatments and therapies that mask her denial of her son’s limitations. She paints Nate as a self-absorbed egotist who ignores his responsibilities as a father. In doing so, she inadvertently shows herself as being shrewish and high-strung. Bridget is the “bridge” between Nate and Alecia. She is Nate’s co-worker, and while she steadfastly defends him publicly, she desperately continues to look for proof that he truly is innocent. Bridget is Alecia’s only friend, and both remember fondly their days of couple dating before children. Yet, Bridget appears to have a bit of a crush on Nate--as if she has always longed for his attention, even while her husband was alive. She is one of the most interesting, layered characters in the entire book. The final narrator is Lucia. She is the student with whom Nate is allegedly having a tryst. Is she a neglected daughter and bullied student? Is she a practicing witch, as her classmates claim? Is she victim or villain?

The story layout was very interesting. With each new bit of information revealed by one of the characters, my opinion changed about Nate’s innocence, who might be causing all the problems, and whether or not Lucia had runaway or died. In addition to the use of different POVs to add dimension to the story, the timeline of the story rocks back and forth with the raining of starlings as the fulcrum. Bits of narration happen before or after the town suffers a plague of birds falling from the sky in the middle of the high school baseball game. This very eerie occurrence adds greatly to the creepy feeling of the book, and the event not only puts everyone on edge but it seems to make them more susceptible to irrational thinking. Her classmates call Lucia a witch, and the townsfolk are on a witch-hunt to find Nate guilty of statutory rape and perhaps murder. The inclusion of tarot card reading was interesting only because of the number of times someone dealt a card with a blackbird on it (not only because the town suffered a plague, but also due to Lucia’s obsession with blackbirds). There was insufficient explanation as to why both Lucia and Bridget read tarot cards, so its inclusion in the story didn’t add more than a little reminder about the creepy bird plague.

Overall, I found The Blackbird Season to be a compelling page-turner. It is heavy on the development of characters with interesting backstories and complex relationships. There is enough mystery and twists to keep readers turning pages. The story and setting ooze desperation, bleakness, and the cloying claustrophobia found in a dying town. The short chapters make for easy reading. The secret lives of high school students might be the most frightening aspect of the book!

4.5 stars

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.

My Thoughts: The alternating perspectives of Nate, Alecia, Bridget, Lucia…and others reeled me into The Blackbird Season, a dark tale that probes beneath the surface of small town life in Pennsylvania.

Could the golden boy Nate have crossed some lines while dealing with his students? Could his desire to help them have drawn him into a dark place? And what is behind his almost obsessive need to be liked by everyone?

As a result, I found myself not really liking Nate, who always seemed defensive and did not prioritize his family at all. However, there was also the possibility that more was hidden beneath the surface, and that others bore a great deal of responsibility for what happened to Lucia.

Bridget, of course, was his biggest supporter and the friendship that Alecia had once felt for her began to fizzle. How could Bridget blindly believe Nate when the evidence suggested otherwise?

And what was Lucia’s game? She seemed broken and who wouldn’t empathize? But her seductive, weird behavior bugged me. I don’t automatically believe the stories teenage girls tell. But it was also possible that some of what she said was true, even if there were lies and manipulations involved.

What would happen before the truth finally came out? I couldn’t stop reading, waiting for it all to unravel so we could see and understand. 5 stars.

***My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the Advanced Reading Copy of this novel. The author was new to me. I thought the plot and pacing were quite good, and I didn't see the ending coming at all, so kudos for that. Unfortunately, I really was disappointed in the ending, I didn't really feel like it gave closure for me. I found many of the characters really unlikeable, or else too pathetic for me to feel much connection to them. And lastly, I still don't necessarily understand why the title is what it is. I understand it's tied to an event at the start of the novel, but I just didn't see how the title fit the book.

I featured this book here: http://www.bethfishreads.com/2017/09/7-thrillers-mysteries-to-read-in.html

II read an ARC of this book through NetGalley. It was a good book with some surprises. I loved "The Vanishing Year" by Kate Moretti and was really looking forward to this one. The main theme of this book is a mystery revolving the disappearance of a troubled high school girl. There are other concurrent themes, ie. the difficulties of raising an autistic child, small town life, high school bullying, etc. The novel is atmospheric and brooding at times. There is also a mystery concerning hundreds of birds that fall dead from the sky at a high school baseball game. That foreshadowing is relevant because that is the beginning of trouble for the high school baseball coach and his family.

Mysterious and engaging. The characters were lacking in depth but the plot makes up for it

The Blackbird Season is the story of a town that fell victim to the recession after the closing of a paper mill and now several years later is torn apart by scandal. It focuses on a handful of main characters who are very well-developed with distinct stories and personalities. I enjoyed Moretti’s writing style – that is what kept me reading. I hated some of the characters - but I was supposed to mostly - but the development of the characters with the alternating points of view kept me intrigued.

The blackbirds definitely were one of my favorite things about the book and added something to the story to make it feel creepy. Dead blackbirds and tarot cards… *Shiver.* And they weren’t just a side-note; the blackbirds falling brought reporters to the town in the first place – which led to the scandal.

But the plot just didn’t do it for me. There weren’t a lot of twists or suspenseful build-ups like I was expecting. It was much more slow-burning. Even the reveal of what happened in the end was kind of gradual so that you knew it was coming. Maybe because I was expecting more of a twist and more of a conspiracy, the ending left me wanting and feeling like that’s it? There had to be more to it.

All in all, I would read another of Moretti’s novels because I did enjoy her writing, but I wouldn’t call this book a psychological thriller or a suspense novel like it is being marketed as. It’s more of a drama and a mystery – kind of in the realm of Jodi Picoult. In fact, now that I say that - that is exactly what this book is like. It is very similar to Picoult - and I also enjoy her writing but not always her plots or resolutions. So, that being said, I’d definitely recommend it if you like Jodi Picoult – it has a similar style of a slow-burning kind of mystery to some of Picoult's novels. And it also dealt with tough topics of ethics similar to her books. I wish that would have been more of my expectation going in because I probably would have enjoyed it more.

About: The Blackbird Season is a thriller written by Kate Moretti. It will be published on 9/26/17 by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 352 pages. The genres are mystery, thriller, suspense, and fiction. Please see below for more information about the author.

My Experience: I started reading The Blackbird Season on 8/28/17 and finished it on 9/13/17. Reading this book is a bit of a push for me. The actions were tame and the story was slow paced. The accusation of student/teacher relationship got my attention as well as birds dropping dead from the sky, but other than that, there isn’t much going on. I do like the reminder of not knowing the truth about people and how the stars shine on the popular while the unpopular is lost in the shadows. I like Bridget and how seeking the truth matter to her.

This book is told in the third person point of view, following Nate Winters, a high school math teacher and baseball coach. Another point of view is Alecia Peterson, Nate’s wife and a stay-at-home mom to their autistic 5 year-old son, Gabe. The third point of view is Bridget Harris, creative writing teacher at the same high school and friends with Nate, still coping with the death of her doctor husband Holden Peterson who died from cancer a year ago. This book started out slow and is a bored to read until 28% later. Change started to occur after thousands of black birds dropped dead from the sky. People in the small town are worried, businesses and schools closed for a week, Alecia has a breakdown, Nate transformed from everybody’s best friend to the most hated guy in town, and Bridget is going through the motions. Then Alecia was questioned by a local reporter about her teacher husband Nate and his affair with a student. The fourth point of view is Lucia Hamm, a senior at the high school, nicknamed “the witch” is a troubling student with a broken home life. Each chapter has a date so it switch back and forth to the past and the present. Nate is the kind of person that helps people even though his family is struggling with bills to pay, he would still help others who are more unfortunate than he is. Everyone loves him and he has many friends so when out of the blue he’s being accused of an affair with a student, no one knows who to believe. Then Lucia goes missing..

The mystery in this book lasts a long time. There weren’t much interesting actions happening. Mostly Alecia having trouble with her autistic son and Bridget’s losing herself, taking random turns. Each person’s view is a bit depressing and there isn’t anything interesting reading about them. This book talks a lot about the old mill, an added bored to the adults’ boring lives. I like the ending. I was able to guess who did it. If you are looking for a small town mystery, this book is for you!

Pro: mystery, third person point of view, cover,

Con: confusing when Alecia’s and Holden’s last name are both Peterson, slow start, too much focus on the adults’ boring lives and the mill

I rate it 3.5 stars!

xoxo, Jasmine at www.howusefulitis.wordpress.com

This book deserves an added sixth star. The characters were well developed and interesting. There was no obvious villain to hate, which shows the author's talent in crafting a well-rounded thriller that will make the reader think. The reader will want to race to the end while at the same time slow down to reflect on decisions the characters are making. This book would be a great choice for creative writing students to read and discuss during class.

I loved this book! I had previously read Kate Moretti's book The Vanishing Year and thought it was great. The Blackbird Season had a number of twists and turns that kept you guessing until the end. There were also a few different mysteries weaved together throughout the story. The story is told from a number of different character's perspectives and jumps around in time, Every time there was a cliff hanger it jumped to a new character and time which made it very difficult to put the book down. My one criticism would be that it was a little hard to keep track of the dates sometimes. Some chapters just gave a date when some said "3 days before the birds fell". I would have liked every chapter to have been labeled in relationship to the birds falling so it would be easier to follow - I found myself flipping back and forth to chapters to check dates too frequently.
The main characters have a son with autism which I didn't know before I read the book. My sister is autistic and I was a bit shocked at how accurately Moretti was able to communicate the emotions and tiny nuances that can go along with caring for someone with autism.
While some of the characters in this book did some things I didn't agree with all of the characters were well developed and I found myself rooting for them all to come out ok in the end.
I will definitely be recommending this book to others and will be buying it for my mom when it gets released!

I was expecting something a bit "more" from this novel -- I really, really enjoyed The Vanishing Year and so I was hoping for something similar along that vein. The Blackbird Season appeared to me as ambiguous and vague ... "did she or did she not," "did they or did they not," etc. At the same time, I wanted to know what happened, but I found it easy to put this one down and move on to some other activity. I was hoping for more action, a sweeping climax, more about the blackbirds, and this book failed to deliver on those points. However, it was fun to read an advance copy before its publication, so thank you, Netgalley.

The Blackbird Season explores the death of a school girl in a tiny town where nothing happens and everyone is deeply involved in each other's business. The School's Coach is suspected of being involved with the student and maybe even killing her, things of course goes downhill quickly.

This was a decent read, it could have been more thrilling. I felt like I could see the end of the book coming a mile away. The characters didn't do it for me, I felt they were a little underwhelming and I just didn't get into it as much as I wanted to. It wasn't as interesting, neither was I hooked.

Overall a decent beach read.

See link to goodreads review

This book was an advance copy I downloaded via NetGalley. This book has all the makings of a deeper intrigue; unlikable characters, small town society with layers and layers of issues.

The story is relatively simple, after a very strange incident that occurs in a small Pennsylvania town things start spiralling out of control. There are strange accusations flying around and everyone has their own burden to bear. Each of the strange ensemble is struggling with both inner demons ( not in the sense of actually requiring medical attention) as well as what fate throws at them.

The only reason I struggled with actually completely enjoying this book was the rapid change between the timelines and most of the characters all being annoying in their own way. The actual main story line in itself was very good but the bad emotions involved seemed to drag away the focus.

A troubled marriage, long-term but questionable friendships, a teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a student - all are things we hear about or encounter in daily life. These situations make up the basis for "The Blackbird Season" by Kate Moretti. All these things, and a flock of starlings falling suddenly from the sky with no explanation can make one wonder if witchcraft is involved.

Lucia has always felt different than other kids her age. A mother who left home when Lucia was little, a drunken father who disappears as well, and an abusive, heroin-addicted brother don't really add up to make a very stable or "normal" home life in the small Pennsylvania town where she lives. Lucia has one friend, Taylor, who has been by her side since childhood, but who is now also barely tolerating her best friend. Lucia is weird and freaky and on the fringes of the high school clique. Some people think she's a witch.

Nate, a high school teacher, and his wife Alecia, dealing with the struggles of an autistic child and their growing distance from each other and Bridget, their best friend, also a teacher and newly widowed, make up the main characters of the story.

Suddenly, Nate, the whole town's best friend and the school's best-loved teacher, is accused of the unthinkable - having a sexual relationship with the troubled Lucia. The town is divided in its loyalties, but surprisingly, most believe he is guilty.

Chapters in this book are written in alternating perspectives, which I appreciated, as it gave good insight into the characters, yet still left enough to the imagination that I wasn't completely sure how the story would end. I found only one character even semi-likeable, but that didn't ruin the story for me; it made it more intriguing.

Well-written and mysterious enough that I finished the book in less than 24 hours,

Spoiler: I do think some of the story was somewhat unbelievable in the police investigation of a teen's disappearance. The obvious location to look, the paper mill, was neglected by the police, and there was no mention of the obvious disturbance of evidence at the scene. These details didn't especially detract from the story for me, but were still glaringly obvious. I rate the book a 3.5 rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.