All the Birds in the Sky

I really enjoyed this story, especially the character of Patricia. I found her character arc fascinating. I also enjoy a story where I can see some of the ending coming, but then, in a twist, it doesn't work out exactly as I thought it would.

Alyssa Bresnahan is the perfect narrator for this book, particularly for voicing Patricia, with all her neuroticism, and the birds, with all their singlemindedness. Patricia and the birds are, to me, the core of this book.

The story is a quirky coming of age story that continues on into the struggles of young adulthood. Our misfit protagonists in junior high manage to end up where they wanted to be, and, in many ways, they are still misfits trying to forgive themselves and, in the process, finally reconcile with who they really are. Although Patricia and Laurence are the protagonists, I feel that Patricia is written more fully than Laurence. This may be because the author is female and just couldn't fully inhabit the thoughts and motivations of a male character as well as she could a female.

I received this book in the dead tree format as a birthday gift, but I already had bought the audiobook. I am glad that I listened to the audiobook version first. I think I'll regift the other.

All the Birds in the Sky is, broadly, a novel about the conflict between science and magic. Less broadly, it's a novel about growing up, love, empathy, hubris, mistakes, and the desire to do good.

The story is told mostly from the perspectives of the novel's two main characters, Patricia and Laurence. The overarching plot of the novel may have some awkward twists, and its resolution may arrive a bit abruptly, but it generally works well anyway, considering the novel's focus on the character's individual experiences, and how their relationship plays into the larger events.

Genre-wise, the novel is a blend of science fiction and fantasy, and tone-wise it is a blend of serious and whimsical. While the plot does go to some dark places, the book's writing tends more towards wistful than grimly dark. The style may seem a bit weird, but it works with a story that is overall a bit weird.

Overall, an enjoyable book.

The feel of this book was, to me, a bit jarring. The omnipotent narrator's tone would occasionally "skip", like an edgy teenager reciting a serious story, but flubbing a line once in a while and filling it in however she could. Sometimes this really worked for me, and added a levity to the story that even the funnier moments couldn't capture. Other times, it was discordant and 4th-wall-breaking, and felt like the author had written all these beautiful paragraphs of prose, but then stuck them together with cheap string and putty.

The story itself was actually quite nice, and the twists and turns felt surprising and fresh. I never felt like I was reading some recycled trope or overdone idea, and I think that's why the erratically peppered incongruities in the narration patter bothered me so much: I wanted to lose myself in this really interesting worldbuilding, but I couldn't stay in it long enough to get fully immersed.

A frustratingly delightful, or delightfully frustrating, read.