Reiew - Blackbird by N.D. Gomes

Blackbird by N.D. Gomes
Published 16th November 2017 by HQ Young Adult
Goodreads Challenge - 75/50
Star Rating - ****

I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

My name is Alex. I am fifteen years old, and I don't know where my sister is. Or if she will ever come back.

On New Year's Eve 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead. The same day Olivia McCarthy went missing from a small coastal village in Orkney.

Now Her younger sister Alex is on a mission to find out just what happened to Olivia. But does she really want to know all the answers? 

My Thoughts

This was another really enjoyable YA thriller that read super quickly and kept me hooked until the very end. There's not much I can say about the synopsis that isn't detailed above without spoiling the book but we follow Alex as she strives to find out what happened to her sister on the night she disappeared. With the help of an unlikely friend, the lead detective on the case, she begins to discover more than she bargains for. 

First of all I want to say I really enjoyed how this story was written. I loved the first person narrative and the way the dialogue was structured. There wasn't any unnecessary commentary and I liked this, it really made the story flow. The whole book felt very stream of consciousness and it was quite metaphorical in places and this really immersed me in the emotions of the story. I loved the way this book depicted grief and the feelings of loss and I really felt Alex's desire to know what happened to her sister. Alex really sought attention and comfort from an outside figure to help her make sense of what was happening and this felt really real. She needed someone to talk to that meant something to her, not meaningless conversation, and this made her detachment from her friends much more understandable. She worked through her feelings in a way that made sense. It was nice to see this rather then see her go off the rails like so many young people do in novels like this.

The story kept me hooked throughout. I was intrigued and I needed to see where we were going to end up. I was completely in the dark with where the story was going until about 80% of the way through. At this point we were given a clue in one of Olivia's chapters and I was able to figure out the reveal. This didn't necessarily ruin the reveal for me but I think we could of done without the hint. The ending would of been more shocking had we not got this as I had absolutely no idea until this point. I was also a little bit iffy about the last 20% of the book. I didn't feel what happened to Alex necessarily needed to happen and I would of just liked the investigation to continue with Inspector Birkins and Alex. I feel it would of been nice to bring Alex's want to discover the truth to a head. That being said, this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story and I still had to keep reading to know what happened. 

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was a great suspenseful read and one of the more enjoyable YA thrillers that I have read in a while. I would definitely recommend it to fans of the genres. 

Overall Rating