All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

From Goodreads:
Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn’t expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during middle school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one’s peers and families.

But now they’re both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who’s working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world’s magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s ever growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together—to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.

If Wes Anderson ever made a movie based on a book, I could very easily see him adapting this book. It's creative and imaginiative and just the right amount of quirky. Not so much that it's off-turning. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and took my time with it, because it is not a book that you should read in one or two sittings over the span of a couple of hours. This book demands that you savour it, and savour it I did. 

This is the first Charlie Jane Anders novel I've read, and it won't be my last. I loved everything about this book. It was funny, it was clever, and it was just so weird in the best possible way. But as weird and quirky as it was, it was also very real. Anders utilizes the idea of magical realism in this book a lot, and it works well for the story she is telling here. I could very easily imagine these events happening, even the magic-y stuff, since I am a believer in magics both small and big, noticed and unnoticed. The magical realism adds another level of charm and quirkiness to this book that just makes it that more compelling and readable. Like I said earlier, this book demands that you take your time with it, or at least, it made that demand of me. I read this book in little bits over the course of four days. 

This book makes the claim that it is about love, life, and the apocalypse. It absolutely is. While it's an odd combination, Charlie Jane Anders' writing style makes it work really well so that it is realistic and compelling. Her writing style is unlike anything that I have read before; it's almost as if the narrator is having a conversation with the reader and uses terms such as "And then Patricia was like ..." which is very true to life. I loved seeing a departure from more aloof (for lack of a better word) narration style that you sometimes see in books like this. Her writing style added so much to the charm and quirkiness of the book. The writing style in All the Birds in the Sky was such a huge added bonus for me, and if it had been anything other than what it is, I probably would have enjoyed it less than I did. 

The characters were well fleshed out and relateable. I feel like after reading 432 pages, I could very easily tell you about Patricia and Laurence and what makes them tick. I loved that the love in this book was both romantic love and platonic love. The characters in this book are very well-developed which is great because in order for a novel like this to work, you need to have compelling characters in order to tell the story correctly and in a unique way. The characters also brought a lot to the table, and also upped my enjoyability of this novel. Nothing is worse than a magical realism novel with less than compelling characters. Even the side characters were well-developed and interesting. I could read entire novels about the side characters that show up in this book.

All the Birds in the Sky is one of the most unique, charming, and quirky novels I've ever read. It has great characters, a compelling and interesting story, and a great and unique writing style. It is just the right amount of weird that it works and I'm so glad that it is weird and quirky because if it was anything else, this book wouldn't have been so enjoyable. I loved this book so much. I'm giving All the Birds in the Sky 5/5 - I can't wait to see what Charlie Jane Anders does next. 

Wild Fell by Michael Rowe

From Goodreads:
The crumbling summerhouse called Wild Fell, soaring above the desolate shores of Blackmore Island, has weathered the violence of the seasons for more than a century. Built for his family by a 19th-century politician of impeccable rectitude, the house has kept its terrible secrets and its darkness sealed within its walls. For a hundred years, the townspeople of Alvina have prayed that the darkness inside Wild Fell would stay there, locked away from the light. Jameson Browning, a man well acquainted with suffering, has purchased Wild Fell with the intention of beginning a new life, of letting in the light. But what waits for him at the house is devoted to its darkness and guards it jealously. It has been waiting for Jameson his whole life - or even longer. And now, at long last, it has found him!

It's a sign when it takes four days to finish a 180 page book. 

The one thing I keep coming back to when I think about this book is how I wish it were longer than 180 pages. 

I went into this book thinking that most of it would take place at the haunted house and it would be about an old haunted house, that the main character/narrator has to find the hidden meaning behind. It is ... for the last 50-ish pages (not counting the prologue). Most of the story is devoted to his upbringing, his strife-filled childhood and early adulthood, and his relationship with his father. That being said, I did really like the writing style that author Michael Rowe has in this novel. It had a real page-turning quality that I enjoyed. While I did take four days to finish this relatively short novel, whenever I was reading this book, I found I could not put it down. There are some really chilling moments during the "formative years" section which Michael Rowe does well. 

I did enjoy reading about the main character Jameson "Jamie" Brown and his upbringing. He is no stranger to strife. I found him to be mainly sympathetic, but I found my sympathy for him waning by the end of the novel. I had so many unanswered questions about Jamie and about the other characters that are briefly featured in this novel. The main reason I wish this book was longer is to see more of the supporting characters and more of the creepy "mirror-friend" that shows up in his childhood, and then again at the very end. I wanted to see more of Jamie's relationship with his father, and I especially wanted to see what led him to look for the haunted house and eventually purchase it, despite the lunatic real estate agent. 

 The haunted house in question, however, doesn't show up in present time until near the very end, and then it is rushed and filled with cheap, cliche scares that can easily be found in a B-grade horror movie. I feel as though it was really rushed at the end. And it featured some of the most squirmy and squickish moments I've read - and not in a good way - about 30 pages before the ending. It would have been nice if the book were longer so that there was more set-up, explanation, and more of a cohesive conclusion that wraps things up more coherently. 

Wild Fell is ultimately a mish-mash of great and OK at best. The writing is great for the majority of the book, but sort of falls apart in the latter section of the novel as it is reaching its close. While there are some chilling and creepy moments in the beginning and middle sections, and some in the concluding section, the conclusion was unfortunately kind of sloppy and rushed with some REALLY squicky and squirmish moments near the end. It would have been much better had Wild Fell been even 50 pages longer to have more of a set-up that would play into a better pay-off. I was looking forward to this book, but I was ultimately disappointed. I'm giving Wild Fell a 2.5/5 - it had some great writing and the "Jamie's Childhood" section was really well done, but it just fell apart and was super rushed at the end; I am positive that I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it had been slightly longer than 180 pages