“Exceptional…a deliciously sinister glimpse into the duplicity of small-town lives and the ease with which people turn on each other when tragedy comes calling. Moretti’s tale of jealousy and obsession is nothing less than dark magic. Witchery indeed.” –Kirkus Reviews, starred review Known for novels featuring “great pacing and true surprises” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) and … Reviews, starred review) and “nerve-shattering suspense” (Heather Gudenkauf, New York Time bestselling author), New York Times bestselling author Kate Moretti’s latest is the story of a scandal-torn Pennsylvania town and the aftermath of a troubled girl gone missing.
“Where did they come from? Why did they fall? The question would be asked a thousand times…
Until, of course, more important question arose, at which time everyone promptly forgot that a thousand birds fell on the town of Mount Oanoke at all.”
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.
Told from the alternating points of view of Alecia, Nate, Lucia, and Bridget, The Blackbird Season is a haunting, psychologically nuanced suspense, filled with Kate Moretti’s signature “chillingly satisfying” (Publishers Weekly) twists and turns.more
Small town secrets spell big-time trouble in Moretti’s newest nail-biter. In all her books, Moretti is skilled at assembling a great cast of characters and spinning a web around them, a web that you can see but never quite understand until the last twist in the silk has been spun. But in The Blackbird Season, Moretti takes her art to another level, ushering us into the troubled lives of her characters, slowly revealing their broken hearts and tortured souls, making us despair for their futures and, at the same time, root for their salvation. Good suspense makes you turn the pages. Great suspense does the same, but you hate yourself for not slowing down to make the story last and last.
Moretti is great at atmosphere and this book is full of it. What would you do if your husband was accused of an inappropriate relationship with a student? Leave? Stay? Try to figure out what happened? As told from several perspectives, this novel leaves us in suspense as to who did what and why and whether there are other, more sinister forces at work.
I really enjoyed this book! I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book for review before its publication date several years ago. For some reason, I didn’t get the chance to read it and it moved from the top of my tbr list. When I was browsing my library’s offerings, I decided it was finally time to give this book a try when I saw that this audiobook was available. It turns out that I really wish I hadn’t neglected this book for as long as I did.
This book is told from multiple points of view and it did take a minute for me to realize what the book was actually about. The book starts out with a lot of blackbirds falling from the sky and everyone wanting to know why but the focus of the story quickly shifts to a teenage girl, her disappearance, and a possible affair. We learn the details of this story from several key characters including Lucia, the teenage girl at the core of this mystery. Nate is a high school teacher and the school’s baseball coach who is suspected of having an affair with Lucia. Alicia is Nate’s wife who has no idea what to think of the accusations against her husband. Bridget is a high school teacher who happens to be good friends with Nate and Alicia. I thought that the multiple points of view worked very well with this story which each character having something important to add to the story to move things forward.
I was hooked by this mystery early on. I had no idea whom to trust and was at a loss as to what I thought might have happened. I must say that I was rather surprised by the outcome of the story and thought that it worked well. I wouldn’t say that I really liked any of the key characters, with the expectation of Bridget, but I felt that they were all very genuine. I really liked that we saw the struggles that Alicia encountered in raising a child with autism and the impact of that stressor on her marriage.
I thought that the four narrators did a fantastic job with this story. All of the narrators had very distinctive voices so it was always very easy to determine which point of view the book had moved to. I thought that the narrators added a lot of emotion and excitement to the reading. I thought all of their voices worked well for this story and I believe that their performance added to my overall enjoyment of the story.
I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a compelling mystery that kept me guessing until the very end. The cast of narrators was able to bring the story to life which added to the appeal. I look forward to reading more from this talented author in the future.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Atria Book via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.
My goodness, this is an excellent book, with layer upon layer of delicious story and character depth you can peel back and enjoy. But be warned…you’ll get sucked into Moretti’s writing magic and stay up well past your bedtime to find out what truly happened the day the birds fell in that small Pennsylvanian town. Masterful.
Twisty, totally engaging thriller, bringing together a handful of fully inhabited perspectives into a unified story you won’t be able to predict. Another winner from Moretti.
I really enjoyed this book-I grew up a few hours away, small dying town in western PA, small school, not a lot of ways out. Many former classmates are still hanging out with the same people, within a few miles of where we grew up. Luckily we never had the scandals that played out in this novel
There were a few small mysteries packed in this story, a little romance-I think this one would appeal to many readers. I will definitely be reading more by Kate Moretti, and will be passing The Blackbird Season on to friends
It’s just another day in Mount Oanoke, Pennsylvania when the birds start to fall. Hundreds of dead starlings, dropping from the sky during a baseball game. It seems like the birds started it all, but really the secrets and lies began much earlier. Nate Winters, high school teacher and baseball coach, is beloved in the town. That is, until a reporter, in town to cover the birds, catches Nate hugging a student at a local motel. Suddenly, the birds are forgotten, and the story becomes much juicier: Nate; his student, Lucia; and their supposed affair. Lucia fuels the fire by affirming the affair and suddenly Nate and his wife, Alecia, are swept up in the story. The only who believes in Nate’s innocence, even a sliver, is his friend and co-worker, Bridget. As Lucia’s creative writing teacher, she has unique insight into the girl’s mind. But when Lucia suddenly goes missing–with Nate as the prime suspect in her disappearance–not even Bridget may be able to save Nate. But is there more to Lucia’s disappearance than an affair with her teacher?
Wow, I was really impressed by this novel. It’s a complicated novel that is just as much a character-driven study as it is a mystery. It’s incredibly well-written, and Moretti expertly embodies the voice of each of her characters, from beleaguered Alecia, who is worn down from mothering her autistic son, Gabe; to the cast of teenager characters; to Bridget, who lost her husband to cancer a year ago. It’s so well-done that often with each chapter (which skip from various points of view — Bridget, Kate, Lucia, Nate, etc.), I found my myself veering between whom I preferred or believed, constantly second-guessing my allegiances or what happened. This is very rare for me: typically I find my “person” in a novel and stick with them, no matter what.
But here, I was confused, wondering. Was Nate really a cad, who cheated on his wife every second he got, or was he the sweet, affable teacher and baseball coach that the whole town admired and adored? And Alecia–was she more than just a weary mom, broken down by years of staying at home with her autistic son, Gabe, unable to give to anyone beyond him? Did she push Nate away, into the arms of others? Or was the truth more complicated that all of this? I have to hand it to Moretti–she was excellent at creating confusion and doubt. In addition to different perspectives, the novel shifts in time (before the birds fell, after the birds fell, before Lucia disappeared, etc.). It’s a little tough to keep track of, but it also keeps you on your toes and always wondering, as you piece various parts of the puzzle together.
For me–even more than the mystery of what exactly happened with Lucia–the strength of this novel was the writing and the characters. I felt for them, even when I was frustrated with them. Moretti captures the angst and meanness of high school extremely well, portraying the cliques of a small town quite superbly. (I was reminded of WHEN WE WERE WORTHY, which I just finished.) I loved the juxtaposition of this being a small town, so the idea is that everyone knows everyone and everything, and yet there are so many secrets, so much unknown. Being a witness to Alecia and Nate’s marriage is amazing– you see firsthand how the events affect them and how they’ve reached this point. It’s an incredibly realistic portrayal of marriage and of motherhood.
As you probably tell, I just really liked this novel. It’s very well-written, with quite compelling characters. I worked out some of the plot, but it didn’t stop me from reading at all. I think some of the emphasis on character development slows the story at places, but not in any detrimental way. This one will make you think, as well as intrigue you with what happened to Lucia. Quite worth the read. 4+ stars.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley (thank you!) in return for an unbiased review; more at justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/.
Moretti begins The Blackbird Season with a sinister premise — a cloud of birds falls from the sky on the same day a teenage girl people call ‘the witch’ goes missing. A spellbinding tale of long-held secrets and small-town scandal, The Blackbird Season is one of those stories that sneaks up on you, each chapter building steadily to an ending that will haunt you long after you turn the last page.