A review by cgreaderbee
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

4.0

WHAT did I just read???

This was one strange, non-conformist little book. It contained aspects of sci-fi, dystopian, fantasy, magical realism ... I definitely didn't know what to expect going in, and I'm still left wondering about it having come out the other side.

Spoiler

The beginning of the story introduces the reader to the two main characters as children: 1. Patricia - a lonely, outcast of a girl who speaks to a bird one day and learns she's a witch, and 2. Lawrence - a boy probably too smart for his own good, who while not building time machines and super computers, is unfortunately bullied. The strange friendship these two develop as kids paves the way of their future, both as individuals, and as the tumultuous dynamic duo they are destined to become when they find one another in young adulthood. There are forces much greater than either of them at play, and yet, when the world is coming to an end, it would seem Patricia and Lawrence are the only two capable of coming together to stop it. (That is, before they nearly destroyed it themselves.)

I'm not even sure what more to say. The more I think about the book to write this review, I am overcome with how many different things I could actually talk about. There were so many threads and emotions and messages surging through the story ...

So I'll just say this: If you're looking for something new and different, surprising and challenging, I'd recommend this book to you.