Not sure what I think of this book. I felt it was quite dark and I feel I missed some things that were important to the story but on reflection it all made sense at the end, so maybe it was just the way it was written.
The story had me hooked enough to keep reading and actually it wasn’t a long book. I really didn’t connect to the characters which is something that I look for in stories but I’m wondering if the longer I think about this book, the more impact it will have on me.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

I’m always interested in a book set in Iceland and this one was excellent. Elva grew up in Melbourne but her mother who left when she was young was Icelandic. Elva is now in Reykjavík learning to speak the language so she pass an immigration test. Her grandfather who lives in the north has recently had a stroke and her father remains behind in Melbourne. Elva is an intriguing character. At the start she is teaching herself taxidermy and she works in a shop that sells weird stuff. But it’s clear that she is shy and has some other compulsions (counting steps for instance).
Books, mythology, fairy tales, storytelling and language move through the story of this woman her friendships and relationships, and facing her fears and past. It was an enjoyable and quick read for me. The book kept me reading and I raced through it.

loved this book! so captivating. I enjoyed the character-driven style of this novel. the writing flowed beautifully and painted the most incredible picture of Iceland. I loved Elva!

Fed to Red Birds was a story quite different and interesting, so it immediately caught and held my attention when I started reading. At first I wondered if it would go off in a magical realism direction, but that turned out not to be the case. Instead, I would describe it as a book focused on the role our imagination can play in the way we view the world and how this can have both positive and negative effects. Elva is a character who needs to come to terms with a past both real and imagined in order to move forward in her life. Although a part of me regretted that the magical realism angle I'd envisioned didn't come, I still found the story thought provoking and intriguing, well paced and with pleasing prose. As an aside, I visited Iceland in 2015 and loved it there, so it was also enjoyable for me to read place names I recognised, bringing back memories of that trip. Overall, I am giving this book four stars. Recommended if you like literary fiction with a quirky twist.