A weird and wonderful new Dark Fantasy with themes of belonging and found family. Magical and whimsical at times, this was a delightful novel to get lost in! A Gothic story woven with emotion perfect for fans of The Locked Tomb series and The Book Eaters.

A freshly divorced lady grieving her father's death hides herself in her home. her only respite is her pet dog, Po.
She wants to mind her own business but an awfully talkative borderline annoying neighbour keeps her up. A snarky skeleton has taken up space in her backyard. And her backyard suddenly is flourishing but not with beautiful flowers but with mysterious vines.
What the hell is happening And what would Josie do?

The first thing that grabbed my interest was the cover. Then I started reading, my eyes slowly widened, I did some double takes here and there and kept reading until I finished it.
I love the banter between Josie and the skeleton who calls her to call herself Skelly. A very different and unique book. Short read and I love the horror even though it did not scare me much. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Little Bird is a beautifully poetic story with highlights of magical realism and a main character who is very relatable.

Although listed as horror, it really isn't. It's a story of grief and survival. It's weird and funny and just a good read.

This one was a struggle for me. I loved the concept and the cover, there were quotes I liked about loneliness and grief but the book as a whole just didn't hit the mark.

I found all three characters infuriating and whilst there were moments that their wit made me chuckle, mostly I was irritated by their inability to give straight answers to any question. I wanted to love it, but I had to drag myself through the last couple of chapters as I had completely lost interest in whether the characters have an arc at all.

I also think publishing it as a horror is a mistake, there isn't any fear or even creeping dread past the first chapter. A bit like a movie that reveals the monster to early and you spend the rest of it underwhelmed, once the "horror" is revealed here it becomes harmless.

Confession: I am 100% embarrassingly late in reading this and writing this review. Before the book was published I received an electronic arc of this from Netgalley. I accidentally let it expire. I then purchased the book when it came out so I could still review it. It took me this long to get around to it. But I have finally read it and it was 100% one of the best books I’ve read so far this short year.

This book is a hilarious, sad, beautiful, and well written exploration of grief, sadness, loss, self destruction, and how someone can self destruct and practically not notice. The protagonist Josie is still grieving the death of her father and her divorce and has isolated herself with her stay at home job and is self medicating with alcohol. The arrival of a jungle of vines and a talking skeleton in her backyard upend her world and her life.

I love Josie. The character arc she goes through over the course of the book is amazing. She is a profoundly broken person and watching her come to terms with that was fascinating. Skelly is a great character and foil for her. Her wit and sarcasm were great to read but she also managed to be supporting at the same time. The ending is heart wrenching imo.

I absolutely loved this book. There is a lot of discussion of heavy topics (alcoholism, divorce, cancer, death, anxiety, depression) but I still highly recommend this for fantasy fans. (I see this tagged as horror but I personally don’t see it as that.)

A skeleton appears in a woman's backyard bringing stories, out of control vines, and an important message. Honestly, I did not enjoy this book at all. I think it had great potential, especially for dealing with grief, but it fell very short. The characters, especially the main character, was very flat. This book is categorized as horror, but besides a skeleton, named Skelly, showing up in the backyard...there really isn't any horror elements at all. The story itself is very strange and it was difficult to keep engaged and focused on reading it. It was very flat.
One positive would be the cover of the book...it's what drew me to the book in the first place.

This might be one of the weirdest and hardest to understand books I’ve ever read. I wish I could say I mean this in the best of ways but alas, I do not.

While short , this book took more time of mine than I anticipated. The synopsis sounded so intriguing, what with a skeleton suddenly appearing and starting to talk to the main character. Add to this a nosy neighbor who seems to know more than she lets on, a cute little dog-who was the highlight of the story by the way- and a mention of family found-“however bizarre”- and I thought I had a crazy good reading experience ahead. Unfortunately it all fell flat for me. The storyline was boring, the characters lost their appeal very early on, even the skeleton who was supposed to be the most interesting of the bunch, and the dialogue didn’t make sense to me most of the time, I’m sorry to say.

I believe I simply wasn’t the reader for this one. I do however think this could be a good stop motion animation for some reason. The weirdness of the story reminded me of that art form.

The cover is gorgeous, the plot promising, and the dog is the best thing in here, but sadly these weren’t simply enough for me to enjoy this book.

This was a weird book, but I liked it. It hit me in all the feels.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

This was such a weird little book and I loved it.

Josie was such a relatable character. She struggles with mental health issues that make it hard to leave the house some days. She follows a strict routine and is not coping well with the loss of her father and marriage.

Magical realism is a genre I’m just dipping my toes in, but I am definitely looking forward to more from this author!

This book was definitely on the weird side even for me.

Yes, Josie is a mess, but throughout I never really felt like I knew her as a character. I’m still a bit puzzled to be honest even after finishing it - which came a little too quickly considering how we are drawn into Josie’s mayhem of a life.

I don’t know if this author’s books are all like this? I expect they are which isn’t a bad thing in itself but this one just wasn’t my style.

The cover however is amazing which is what drew me to this in the first place.

This was a weird weird book but I honestly loved it. The cover and premise drew me in and I’m so glad I gave it a chance!

I think that the best way for me to describe "Little Bird" is just as weird. Even though I like horror and creepy things, while reading this book I can't say I was scared, just confused. This might have been my fault, as I don't love a character-driven plot, but I was not compelled by Josie as a character. Overall, I'm glad I read this book but I'm not sure I would pick up anything from this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I can confidently say this is the weirdest book I've ever read in my life, and that's saying a lot. I know this author is known for writing weird fiction but I didn't know what I was getting myself into apparently (my fault for never reading the synopsis for books).

It wasn't just the weirdness that prompted me to give this book a 2 star rating, I honestly didn't really care for it. The writing style was fine and everything but I wasn't absorbed into it like I was hoping I would be. Also, I love me an unreliable narrator but I honestly thought the main character had lost her mind half the time.

The cover is gorgeous and it was an interesting story, just not a story for me.

*Many thanks to Black Spot Books for the complimentary copy for my honest review*

Fell in love with the cover it's absolutely beautiful. This book is about Josie, po, smelly and sue. Po is the absolutely cute dog. This book made me sad and had me all in my feels

Josie is a mess. She’s divorced, her father has died, and she’s not coping at all. She’s not left her house in a while, has her groceries delivered after a breakdown while shopping, and actively avoids talking to her neighbours. She runs her online business, dealing with irate customers, loves her little dog, and drinks herself to sleep each night.

When a new neighbour moves in next door, Josie grouses about the stranger, but that stranger soon comes knocking on her door, inserting herself into Josie’s life.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, a weed begins growing in her backyard, and suddenly, there is much greenery, and even worse, a skeleton sitting amidst the leaves.

When the skeleton begins speaking to her, challenging Josie, too many other things begin happening as well:
-her neighbour implies she understands something about the rampant growth in Josie’s backyard
-Josie’s estranged mother keeps calling to connect,
-Josie’s having blackouts
-her business is suffering, and
-her little dog is becoming wary of her.

The pressure builds and builds for the angry and sad Josie, to the point of her having to confront a number of things in her life.

Though not a long book, the author did a great job showing us the deeply unhappy Josie, who continues her downward spiral through most of the book, as she’s unwilling to deal with the reasons behind her unhappiness.

I was a little surprised that once Josie began honestly confronting her thoughts and feelings how quickly the story wrapped up. Considering how much time we spent in Josie’s mess, I didn’t expect to come out of it as rapidly as we did. The background behind the skeletal presence in her garden, and the history of other similar presences, could also have used a little more elaboration, but otherwise, I liked this story.

3.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Black Spot Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Originally I wasn't sure if I could read this because of it's heavy aspect of death, but I pushed through it and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. This was a wild ride in the best way! Skelly was a great character, fully of sarcastic wit that went head to head with Josie! Perfect for fans of the Skeleton in the Family series by Leigh Perry!

This was such a strange and bizarre story...
I had a chance to read it thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

I'm normally not a big horror fan. It's mostly the gory books that I avoid though. The cover of this book caught my eye and it made me curious. So I requested the book and was happy to receive a positive reply.

The story was quite bizarre. But in a good way.
Skelly the skeleton and her vines pop up in Josie her dried out backyard. Josie is a snarky alcoholic loner who tries to shut out the outside world. Though her daily work requires a lot of customer contact, it's all digital and from the safety of her home.

The conversations that follow between Skelly and Josie were at times hilarious. But where it would lead to, I had no idea. Then a new neighbour arrives, Sue. And though Josie wants to have nothing to do with her, Sue finds her way in.

Though it's mostly about Josie her life, the conversations with Skelly and Sue, it never became boring. And I'm a person who does appreciate a little bit of action going on. Besides some situations with the vines, it was more a psychological story. And an interesting one.

The ending I did not expect, but after letting it sink in I do really like it.
So all in all I give it 4 stars.

If you're a fan of fantasy stories, a bit of bizarreness, banter, a snarky main character and some psychological drama, you would like this book.

Thank you Black Spot Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an e-arc of this book
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The story of Josie, a living mess, freshly divorced, lonely, and alcoholic woman, who likes to live alone. One day she has a new Neighbor, Sue, and vines are growing in her garden. And the vines come with a gift named Skelly. A passive-aggressive kind of philosophical skeleton questioning her life.

At first, I was bored. Then Skelly appeared and she was so funny. She’s my favorite. But the book wasn’t what I expected. I didn’t get attached to the characters, I didn’t feel a lot for them. And there’s no big plot. It’s a character-driven book, but something was off, especially with Josie. Well, I understood her, at some point, but yes. However, the relationships between them saved the book.

So, in conclusion, it’s not a bad book, but I guess it wasn’t for me either.

I live this book, it’s quirky, original and weird in a totally charming way.
The main character Josie is not coping with the death of her father and a recent divorce. Then one day a shrub appears in her garden and keeps growing, it brings her a noisy neighbour (who I thought was a great character) and a talking skeleton on a throne of vines. I mean whats not to like about this strange turn of events. A really enjoyable read, written very well which makes it an easy page turner would definitely recommend this book.

a great one for this coming season.
One that reads well when the weather is dark and mysterious outside