In 2019 my health started going down hill and I didn't take into consideration what that would mean for my book reviewing. Sadly, I've been trying to play catch up for years and it's been affecting my ability to keep up with present day tasks. So I greatly apologize for this but I am going to clear out all these older review books and focus on present day. I will come back and update this review if I end up reading the book, which is very possible as a lot of these books are still ones I would like to read, I just don't think the pressure looming over me is helpful. Thank you for giving me a chance to early read these books and I am so sorry I wasn't able to provide what was needed.

Circled back to this one with fresh eyes in the new year. Unfortunately it still ended the same way. I found the pacing to be slow / off and the extreme alcoholism throughout untenable. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

Little Bird is a whimsical yet poignant tale about learning to embrace the unexpected and opening oneself up to the connections we need—even if they come in the form of a talking skeleton. Fans of magical realism will find much to enjoy here, especially the book's message that family can take many forms, no matter how bizarre.

Thank you, NetGalley, for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book, and it was enjoyable enough for me to bring read in a couple of hours, however it just never captured me as much as I hoped. It’s branded as a horror book but it actually veers far closer to magical realism with no real horror elements to be seen, besides a skeleton.

Josie is a bit of a recluse. She spends her days working from home and her evenings drinking until she blacks out; her only friend is her chihuahua. So when mysterious vines begin rapidly growing in her back garden and a sentient skeleton starts telling her stories, she is more annoyed than perturbed that her quiet existence had been shattered.

The writing here is really strong and it was so easy to picture the craziness that goes on, but the story just never felt strong enough to support the writing or the concept. I liked Josie as a character, I really sympathised with her life of living easy instead of living happy and I was expecting some grand revelation at the end where she would turn her life around and open herself up to others and what we got… it was more of a fizzle than a bang. It left me unsatisfied, and while I could see how much thought was put into creating Josie, she never felt fully fleshed out.

It’s a unique and exciting concept that just didn’t hit quite as hard as I hoped it would but I would absolutely be interested in reading more from this author because the writing, itself, was brilliant and probably the best part of this book

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this sounded cool and weird, but unfortunately I didn't like it at all. It was very slow moving, character focused with little plot, repetitive and depressing. The main character basically drinks, is drunk or is recovering from having drunk too much for the majority of the time and it's not fun to read. I just didn't really 'get' it.

I don’t know if this is a new category but I would call this story a cozy horror. Is that a thing? Anyways whatever category this story is I absolutely loved it. It was weird, horror-ish and funny all at the same time. I didn’t like Josie the main character for most of the story, but that was the point. The plot was very original and a quick read. Will definitely look at reading other works by the author.

The cover definitely drew me to this book however the storyline not as much
I wasn’t bothered by Josie and her life/story, however skelly I wish we read more about.
Nice short read but nothing I’ll keep with me.

The skeletons in the closet have nothing on the one in your backyard - shame they also didn't deliver, at least not to the level I was expecting. I overall enjoyed it, but not something that i can rave about it. I read a lot of these books and this one simply was a 2.5, rounded to 3

First off, thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

This was not at all what I was expecting but I’m not mad about it.
This was a quick read. It was so different than anything I’ve read, that I couldn’t put it down.

If you are looking for something odd, funny, and unlike anything you’ve read then this is a must read for you!!

Dnf at 31%.
Why was this book marketed as horror? Unfortunately that was what drove me to this book and it was just not there. It's more like magical realism, which I'm not a huge fan of. The premise was interesting but as I was reading I started losing interest to the point where I was skimming. When Skelly the skeleton started the whole “let me tell you stories instead of directly answering your questions“ thing I knew it was time to put it down.
Not a bad book, but the synopsis at marketing was a bit misleading so I requested it thinking it was a completely different book.
On the positive side, the cover is stunning and the writing style is good.
It was just not for me.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

This one was weird and so much fun, I will always love an animal companion and Po was everything! I had a great time reading this, but it was quickly forgotten. I would definitely read from this author again.

Little Bird is the book you wish you had on hand the last time you found yourself in the aftermath of a great loss. I initially wanted to read Little Bird because of that gorgeous cover and it was wonderfully fitting that I finished this book at midnight. Horror readers will likely think this one is a little tame, but this is the perfect book for those looking to dip their toe into horror without having to sleep with the light on.

Josie’s struggle with despair (and her... “coping mechanism” of hiding from the work and drinking a lot) will feel familiar to anyone who’s found themselves stuck deep in a well of grief and routine. The appearance of Skelly on her throne of vines pushes Josie to make connections with other living things besides her trusty dog, Po. Skelly and Josie’s overbearing new neighbor pick apart her hardened isolation and start to make all of us wonder, what does it mean to heal and move forward after loss? Told in flashbacks, drunken memories, and conversations, we get to learn more about why Josie has convinced herself that all she needs are Po and her often surly client base in her life.

I found myself oddly rooting for the sentient skeleton in this book. Skelly’s appearance is certainly not random and her stories and observations about humanity are not ones to miss. I rounded up to five stars because of how this story stuck with me – the vines wove into my life too.

I loved the beginning of the book. I liked the main character and felt intrigued by the premise of a skeleton appearing in the garden with a secret mission for her. I even enjoyed the somewhat drawn out back-and-forth between the two of them, but unfortunately I did not feel like it paid off. The book quickly veered into aimless philosophical territory and in the end I was not at all clear on what message the author was trying to communicate. I love an existential book that invites reflection but this one was too confusing.

I'm a huge fan of weird books, but not books that are weird just for weird's sake. I feel like this book was trying far too hard to be weird....and it succeeded, but there was little else there. The premise is sound. The cover is excellent. The writing was confusing. It was short enough so I finished it, holding out hope it would work for me in the end, but I was left shaking my head and wishing for more.

Too many horror elements and commentary I could not sadly follow.
I am not the audience for this I presume but I am happy I was given the opportunity to expand my reading horizons.

This book is very good to get out of a reading slump, because of its length and writing style. The characters are really relatable and the story is very catchy, told in only eight days.

I have mixed feelings about this one.
I didn't love it, but I certainly didn't hate it either.

For starters, I snatched this book up before reading the synopsis because the cover is simply stunning. This probably is a good example of don't judge by the cover blah blah blah. While the cover is a solid 5, for me, I feel like the story (especially its ending) fell a bit flat.

The characters are interesting, fairly humorous, and, for the most part, entertaining. I believe I saw the book marketed as horror, and it's just not. Perhaps, if I decided to revisit with a different mindset, I might be able to enjoy it a bit more. All that aside, it's a cute but also a bit sad story. Little bird was just not what I was expecting at all.

If you're looking for a short and quirky book, then I do think it may be worth picking this book up. If you are a die-hard horror fan, you will be extremely let down.

As always, thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review

This was whimsical, weird and understandably scary. If you wake up to a skeleton and your backyard covered in vines you have to ask yourself is this real or how much did I drink last night. I absolutely loved how you never really got to know if this was Josie's delusion or if it was reality. I get that this is not a book for everyone, but for me it was absolutely perfect. The mix of Skellys wit and unapologetic honesty and Sues persistence and intrusiveness is what you need when you're in a bad spot. This is a book I can't stop thinking about.

I admit I had a hard time with this book because it was so different from what I expected, and a lot of things were hard to understand. However, the author’s style kept me going and also because I was curious about what would happen after this, and this other thing, and so on.

Josie was a complex character with different layers, different emotions, reactions, and way too human. Her grief, her feelings, her thoughts, even more her insecurities, were so real at times I was marveled. There were scenes that I had to pause at because they were too much, but in a good way.

There were others that felt… strange. Some dialogues didn’t seem realistic, felt forced or rushed, and the explanations for what was happening to Josie are so hidden it was frustrating to keep expecting a clear, direct answer. I had to stop at the end of the book to make sense of it all.

However, I enjoyed it and it’s a type of fantasy that I’m eager to try again. The author has a nice style, interesting worldbuilding method, and appealing characters. The execution wasn’t what I expected, but I was able to appreciate this book for what it is: a healing dark fantasy easy to enjoy.

https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/2023/06/resena-review-little-bird.html