Kate Moretti | THE BLACKBIRD SEASON

Plot:

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.

Review:

Kate Moretti is an author who's novel THE VANISHING YEAR I had really enjoyed and my mind was blown away with how different and intricate this plot sounded. I loved the supernatural...possibility of the plot and it sounded like something right up my alley to read for my very first book club on Instagram!

The storyline to this one was really well-written. I thoroughly enjoyed the different character perspectives and the small glances at what life is like for the teenager that goes missing in this novel. One thing I loved about this was how Moretti threw in this sort of subplot with the birds. Small town with high drama and a missing teenager? I'm already intrigued! But, then to add this mystery of these birds all falling from the sky at once really bumped up the creep factor for me. Not only that, but I could feel this small town in the palm of my hands. I could smell what they were smelling, feel the weather, and hear those birds falling on the field. 

The characters to this one were all very fun and interesting to read. They are the type that you don't just read to get their thoughts on this missing girl, but you read to invest yourself into their lives and you enjoy every minute of it. These characters are so complex and unique that in my opinion, each one of them was a strong enough character to be the centralized character in their own novel. I especially liked getting to know the missing girl as a one-on-one versus just hearing the different things people said about her and relying on our key central characters to get a feel as to who this character was. I especially liked the way that Moretti played around with the dates leading up to the disappearance of Lucia and the falling of the birds.

Overall, I cannot say much more without risking spoilers. This read is fast-paced, excellently thought out, and deliciously creepy. I've been a fan of Moretti thus far and I don't see myself going anywhere. 

Rating: 4/5