All the Birds in the Sky

Book Title: All the Birds in the Sky

Author: Charlie Jane Anders

Date Started: March 6th 2016

Date Completed: March 11th 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Contemporary
Quality Rating: Two Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Two stars

Review:

Unfortunately I didn't finish All the Birds in the Sky because life is frankly too short to keep reading books that you're really not enjoying. For me, it was dull, slow, at times annoying, and I couldn't see any original direction in the story, and I definitely wasn't happy with how some subjects were dealt with. To sum it up I feel like this book was trying too hard to be quirky in a reasonably predictable story.

All the Birds in the Sky didn't really read like an adult book. Aside from the fact it felt a lot simpler than some other older books I've read, I also got really lost on what I was supposed to take seriously and what I was supposed to take... sarcastically? I don't understand how I could have seen the book as anything but childish if I was supposed to take it all half-heartedly, but then I don't think I want to have taken the whole thing seriously either; some of the representations made me really uncomfortable, and if those are supposed to be serious representations I'm in an even worse place with this book.

On top of that I felt like the whole thing was trying too hard to be quirky. There are little on-liners everywhere (I mean everywhere - I could probably point out one a page if I had to), and they stick out so much I can't help but see them as forced. I can't decide whether it was supposed to be a little comedic twist (that I didn't really find funny), or if it was supposed to add to characterisations or what, but it definitely didn't fit.

The storyline was quite predictable and very focused on talking. For me, when I could tell what was going to happen, all these insignificant conversations became dull - especially when they're only really in place to draw attention to the protagonists. You don't really get the sense that anything else is really solid here away from the two main characters and antagonist: other characters are there just to add a characterisation to the protagonists, or to move their story on, or to present some sort of conflict to their story. They don't stand on their own as separate characters, or events, or even as systems in society really. Maybe this improved later in the book, but I got to a point where I really wasn't enjoying it enough to spend any more time on it (and it's not often that I give up on a book).

I found the characters of this book to be quite unlikeable, and not particularly interesting besides. If I look past the casually abusive parents, siblings, school children, teachers etc for a moment, the protagonists themselves aren't very nice either. (A little note: I really wasn't happy with how much emotional and verbal abuse was in this book and how dismissively it was dealt with. One of the reasons I stopped reading was that various issues like this were just being used too flippantly for me to be comfortable or focused on the story.) It's off-putting when you're reading a book about two people getting treated really appallingly but have trouble rooting for them because they're unlikeable or undeveloped themselves.

Anders takes her sweet time to get to the point. It doesn't help that the first hundred pages is children being teased and emotionally abused by their parents; then the next hundred is them as 'teenagers' (children still in my opinion) getting bullied and turned against by everyone. Unfortunately I had given up a few chapters into them being adults where apparently things start to happen, because absolutely nothing had happened yet, but they probably get ridiculed some more and then end up making everyone hate them but it's fine because they're together or something.

Overall All the Birds in the Sky feels kind of half-thought-through: there's some interesting ideas but they don't quite fit; a nice world but half developed; characters with potential but they're only there for the protagonists. It's such a shame because the synopsis was so interesting and the cover is to die for, but they just don't match up with the story inside.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27313170-all-the-birds-in-the-sky