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A review by aubreytherese
The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard
4.0
3.5 ⭐️ rounded to 4 ⭐️
For most of the time I was listening to this book, I kept thinking I was listening to a memoir, not a work of fiction. The sense of place was beautiful, the protagonist was interesting and likable, and the cast of characters were rich and varied — and yet, for me, something about the style of the prose just didn’t quite pull all these great elements together. The foreshadowing felt over the top at times, and yet there were other plot points that took me by surprise. Nevertheless, the rich imagery kept me moving through this novel, not really caring that much that I wasn’t sure where we were going most of the time. Perhaps this was intentional and meant to capture the feeling of just getting through life one day at a time after such a great loss.
For most of the time I was listening to this book, I kept thinking I was listening to a memoir, not a work of fiction. The sense of place was beautiful, the protagonist was interesting and likable, and the cast of characters were rich and varied — and yet, for me, something about the style of the prose just didn’t quite pull all these great elements together. The foreshadowing felt over the top at times, and yet there were other plot points that took me by surprise. Nevertheless, the rich imagery kept me moving through this novel, not really caring that much that I wasn’t sure where we were going most of the time. Perhaps this was intentional and meant to capture the feeling of just getting through life one day at a time after such a great loss.