The Blackbird Season
by Kate Moretti

The Blackbird Season opens with thousands of blackbirds falling from the sky in Mount Oanoke, Pennsylvania. Initially, I wondered if the story would be reminiscent of The Birds. Would it have a horror Hitchcock feel? Or disturbingly haunting Daphne du Maurier (author of The Birds) tone? Alas, it has neither. However, it does mirror The Birds in that a school and a teacher are both are integral to the plot. A high school girl disappears. A high school teacher and basketball coach is suspect. Gossip entwines with truth. His marriage falters. The entire town, still reeling from the dead birds, becomes focused on finding the troubled garish girl and indicting the teacher.
The story also echoes du Maurier’s Rebecca in that it’s a book of jealousy, emotional frailty, and character flaws.
Suspenseful and dynamic. (Small town mysteries are my favorite.)

I like books set in one horse towns. This one had a lot going on, some of which felt extraneous, and I think if a side story or two were dropped, it would have been sharper and more impactful. Still not a bad read.

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

This book is the ultimate page turner. It will make you hang off the edge of your seat with your mouth agape and will thrill you down to your bones. GAH! I absolutely LOVED this book. Kate Moretti DELIVERS. And she will keep you turning the pages for hours with this one. This is a highly recommend read and one I won't soon forget. It has also made the list of one of my top 10 favorite books this year!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Simply put, this book is amazing!

I previously had read The Vanishing Year by Moretti and I really enjoyed that work. To me, this book is even better.

Told in alternating view points between Nate, his wife Alexia, their friend Bridget, and a young student, Lucia, The Blackbird Season explores what happens when a small town is rocked by scanda.

Lucia is a young, troubled student of Nate and Bridget, a senior who hasn't exactly had the easiest path in life. Both of her parents are gone and her brother is a drug user who abuses her. She is an outcast at school and turns toward her teacher, Nate, for comfort.

Nate wants his students to like him, he follows them on social media (despite the fact that he probably shouldn't), keeps tabs on them, and tries to be the 'cool' teacher. This turns against him when accusations hit that he is having a relationship with Lucia who claims they are 'in love'.

Bridget doesn't know what to believe. Dealing with losing her husband just a year before, she is battling with her own demons. To watch her friends struggle with the scandal is hard. She wants to believe Nate but her own eyes tell the truth may be otherwise.

Alexia, meanwhile, is not just dealing with her husband possibly having not just an affair but one with a student, she is also dealing with their autistic son, Gabe. Gabe is a struggle. Life is not easy in their house and Alexia sees Gabe's failure as a mark on her, instead of just seeing Gabe for Gabe.

Each of the adults has their own view on what has happened. The adults in town have their own views. Everyone thinks they are right.

And then Lucia vanishes. Was Nate responsible? Where did Lucia go?

Moretti portrays each of her main characters wonderfully. And she leaves you guessing until the end if Nate was or was not in a relationship. The ultimate twist is one I did not see coming but it was wonderfully written.

I completely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good, fast paced thriller. Try to free up your schedule because you are going to want to read this in one sitting!

My review will be biased because I just love Kate Moretti. This was a book that I devoured in two days. Just love it. Read it People

I was drawn into this story immediately--the story is told by four different points of views, and once one chapter ends, you just want to keep going to see what the next narrator is going to reveal about the story. For about the first half of the book, I was impressed by the strength of the character descriptions. I was somewhat disappointed by the end though, because I felt like there was still so much unknown about everyone. Bridget is an outsider, and has some ties to tarot (which ties her to Lucia). Bridget at first seems to be devastated by her husband's death, but then she somewhat suddenly seems to be relieved to be free from her marriage. Her past is hinted at, but never explored in depth. I think she could have been further developed as a character. That being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I think it has a lot to offer book club discussions.

I loved this! I loved the complicated dynamics between the two sets of characters (the adults and the students), and I loved how, right up until the very end, we were never sure who to trust. The POV switched between several of the main characters — Alecia, whose husband Nate has been accused of having an affair with a student; Nate, the aforementioned husband; Bridget, their mutual friend and Nate’s colleague; and Lucia, the enigmatic student in question — but even though you’re let into these different characters’ heads, you still get the sense that you might only be hearing the stories they tell themselves. Add in some strange falling birds, a creepy abandoned paper mill, and an alleged witch, and you’ve got an engrossing mystery that I couldn’t put down. Definitely recommend this one!

Welcome yourself into a heavy-with-feels book and have a glimpse into the tedious life of failed marriage and widowhood. That's what was instilled on me from the get-go. The Blackbird Season was so gloomy and depressing, the darkness will even follow you in your sleep (if you're an adult). The Stephen King books I read were not even able to infiltrate my dreams. With that, I give this book a lifeless set of eyes for stealing the light out of me for three days (the last day being after reading the book, just me huddling on my bed, moping). I closed the book with a heavy heart and grief that I couldn't place. This book is for the emotional masochist who wants to plunge into the world of intrigue, mystery and thrill. You will not be disappointed.

A wonderfully nuanced literary thriller. Moretti's well-drawn characters will surprise you with their unreliability. Many overlays of the love, betrayal, redemption theme. This is my favorite kind of read -- a page-turning well-crafted literary novel with subtle surprises galore.

Thank you, Netgalley for the e-review edition.

This book is INSANITY. And I mean that in the best way. It captivated me from the very start and I couldn't put it down until all the secrets were revealed.

This book was trippy. I didn't believe Nick had killed Lucia. I wasn't even sure he'd had an affair with her. I mean, sure, all signs pointed to his guilt, but that obviousness was glaring. And made no sense. Surely he wouldn't be so careless.

However...

No one is as perfect as he appeared to be. It was annoying how much he needed to be liked by everyone. So that definitely raised a red flag.

As for Alicia---I felt for her. She was caught between a rock and a hard place. Wanting to believe in and stand by her husband. But when things keep popping up, how long can that faith last? Mixed in with the caretaking of their autistic son, she had a lot on her plate. And really it was a miracle she was able to keep it together.

In a book with so many flawed and unreliable characters, the only one I truly liked and trusted was Bridget. It took her a while to get to the point of involvement considering she was grieving, but once she started she was an unstoppable force.

As things begin to unravel and truths are uncovered, the plot somehow thickens! It's madness. Just when I start to think I know what's going on, something else pops up and my theory is blown to pieces. However, I DID guess the whodunnit, if not the why.

I was still confused at the end about Nick. Was he guilty of some transgressions after all? And if so, was he hiding behind his good boy image? Or, was that just who he was and the rest were lies?

I went into this book blind, not reading a synopsis, or other reviews. I was drawn in strictly based on the cover, and the title.
This book was great, and written so well. I actually found myself blind-sided a few times. I feel like this book is very reminiscent to the writing style of David Bell, and Heather Gudenkauf, so fans of them, will really enjoy this book. The writing was fantastic, the description of Lucia was so wonderfully done, I could not help connecting with her character and envisioning her. This was the kind of book, where you don't really like a good 3/4 of the characters. You just don't trust anyone. Everyone is kind of just an unreliable narrator. The story-line I found brilliant, and fresh, and I didn't want to return to real life. I wanted to stay in this book world.

This was such an intriguing read for me. I love how easily this story sucked me in- I was initially going to read a few pages to see if I wanted to read this one next, and 6 hours later I had finished the book! It seems like a trend in a lot of novels recently is to have completely unlikable characters, but something I appreciated about this book is that while there were things to not like about the characters, I still found myself rooting for most. The twist wasn't unique, in the sense that it's often used, but I didn't really care because I was so wrapped up in the characters and how it all played out. Thanks so much NetGalley for this ARC!!

This was just the right speed of book for just the right time. Moretti's novel centers around "that one girl" who has always been a little off. Lucia has always been a little odd and off center and I feel like the plot purposefully wants to keep the reader off center as well. Do we trust our cast of characters or are there details being left out? My only negative was the pacing and information dump at the end of the book. I feel like it rushed everything but also gave us more questions at the conclusion.

The Blackbird Season, by Kate Moretti, is probably as close to a perfect book as you could get.

I selected to read this because I was intrigued by the picture of those thousand dead starlings falling from the sky. What happened? And why?

But while that’s the starting off point of the book, there’s so much more to this. Before I knew it, I was deep into a suspenseful novel that simply wouldn’t let me know. I didn’t know if Nate was innocent. I loved Alicia, and even as my heart hurt for Nate, it hurt even more for her. And Lucia – such a damaged girl. I simply didn’t know if there was any way out for her.

This is a book that stays with you. It’s a book that makes you question how much you really know people and how far you would go to support a loved one.

And it’s a book that makes you very, very glad you live a relatively boring life compared to some folks.

This book was so good. I enjoyed every page and read it quickly, curious how it was going to come together in the end. I want to read all of Kate Moretti’s other books immediately!

Synopsis:

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, Alicia, 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 Alicia 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 Alicia, 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.

This book was creepy as hell and so suspenseful. I couldn't put it down. Awesome ending, too. Can't wait to read more from this author.

The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti is another enjoyable read from this author. The pacing is somewhat slow but suspense continues to build. I don't think many readers will be able to figure out the whodunit aspect. I enjoyed this title, though not as much as The Vanishing Year.

People are who who we make them... or maybe we become what they think of us. This was a powerful novel on many levels. It goes into thoughts of trust, of self and on a large scale doubt of self and others.

THE BLACKBIRD SEASON centers around a place where we all have been... high school. a place where we (or at least me) was constantly searching for myself and where to fit in. Do you fly under the radar? Stay true to friends of your whole life just because they are there? Who really knows you? At a time in life when. You are searching it is normal to allow one moment to define you... to send you a path... to make you make decisions that snowball and lead to others. And what if for one moment you stepped out of the caste someone put you in and opened yourself up? What if you found someone to believe in you?

This novel is set in a sleepy town that has secrets but for the most part there are no outsiders everyone knows everyone and expectations are set and met everyday. When a phenomenon happens and brings reporters to the town will secrets that were better left buried be exposed? And If they are, are the right secrets?

Told from 4 distinctive voices and POVs: Nate Winters- town hero, the guy everyone trusts and likes. The teacher who students think of as a friend and as cool, the baseball coach who has a star player who will go places. The teacher who blurs the line between friendship and authority. Is it just a facade? Can he be this nice? Alecia Winters- Nate's hard wife. She has an autistic son and she is a stay at home
Mom. She is a crack in Nate's perfection but he loves her. In fact "he chose her" she was troubled and needed love. He makes her feel alive. But does he love her? He is a bit absent in fatherhood and a little too close to his students and has he cheated on her? Is he as she always suspected too good to be true? Bridget- a widow and a teacher. A friend and confidante to both Nate and Alesia Does she know the real truth and can she step outside of her own sadness to do the right thing? And Lucia a troubled student who is abandoned by her parents, beaten by her addict brother and who goes to Nate for help. She just wants him to believe her to believe IN her and when she doesn't---well they all think she is crazy so why not?

When Nate is accused of having an affair with Lucia and then she goes missing everyone believes he killed her. How can he explain the closeness to her, the need to save her and save himself?


This novel is twisty and turny. You'll want to find out the answer as quick as possible but want to stay with these people as long as possible. You'll find yourself wanting to hug Alecia and tell her that Her son will be ok, to relax and let her husband in. You'll want to befriend Bridget and let her mourn and then have a drink with her and tell her it's ok to start dating again. You'll want to be in Nate's presence, to feel his smile on you and you'll want to believe him and protect him. And Lucia. You'll want to save her.

I loved it. I couldn't wait to read this novel after reading Kate Moretti's other thrillers. Her three other books were fast paced and page turning. You liked the characters and you were enticed with the mystery. This novel had a different feel. It was more complex. More mature. The characters were more multi dimensional. But the story and the Thrills were still there. I think this novel will touch every reader and will leave them questioning how they see others and the actions they would take if confronted with some of the same circumstances.


This novel comes out September 2017. It is a book that I will tell everyone to read and will definitely re read to see if I figure out some of the twists earlier with Morettis wonderful storytelling

This will be a must read of the fall!!!

***thank you to the author Kate Moretti for writing this and letting me read it early, to Atria Books and Edelweiss for the early digital copy!****