Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - All the Birds in the Sky

It was a fun and interesting read. And it certainly felt like a take on Sci-fi and fantasy that I haven’t read before which was cool. I will say that the summary in the flap of the book feels like it describes plot points that aren’t as significant to the book or don’t adequately summarize or encapsulate the book in the way I would have liked it to. Then again, I may not have read it and I enjoy it!

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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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mariebrunelm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

What happens when you mix sci-fi and fantasy? You get this book which had kind of similar vibes to Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children and perhaps Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell if you squint a lot, but I haven't actually finished that one so I may be completely wrong. What a great way to start a review, don't you think?

All the Birds in the Sky opens with Patricia and Laurence, two solitary kids who embody two sides of what other people can't fathom: witchcraft for Patricia, sci-fi for Laurence. But just as Patricia's story was getting started as she discovered she might have magic powers, she loses them and her journey is forced to pause. As for Laurence, his path may seem a little more straight-forward, but that's without his parents endeavouring to make sure he goes back to being a "normal" child. And yet the two can't help but meet each other again and again over the years, as their abilities take them in very different directions and shape the world around them.

This was such a peculiar book. I'm not entirely sure I got it because it kept evading me and slipping from my grasp. It *is* quite charming, and I would heartily recommend it, but it's also messy and complicated on a surface level, which to me successfully mirrors how life gets messy and can look complicated when at the core it's sometimes not really. I didn't exactly know what to expect going into this book because I didn't pay a lot of attention to the blurb. I certainly wasn't expecting it to have so many different ingredients - sci-fi, magic, a sprinkle of dark academia, romance, found family, and an apocalypse thrown in for good measure. I'm not entirely sure it works, to be fair. But it is charming and it has a lot of heart.

Rep : bi MC, queer-friendly narrative.

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antimony's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

i LOVED the beginning of this book. the first 2 parts were so fun. the writing style...the characters...the series of events..... like for example the school. which reminded me of the certain brand of middle grade books i used to love. i really enjoyed every time it was mentioned that all the school cared about was memorization bc it felt just like the humor in some kids' book set in an ambiguous time period where adventure runs rampant and school is soul-sucking. i adored page 45, where we first see the pov of theodolphous rose. the line (which im writing from memory, so bear with me when it isn't accurate) "in fact, patricia had been right about the man. his name was theodolphous rose, and he was a member of the nameless order of assassins." was just SO FUN.

things went downhill from there.

part 3. was not very good. it started strong, though not as strong as the first two parts. and it was ok. nice to see where the characters ended up. or something. but then they started to be a tad annoying, and then the timeskips began. these timeskips drove me mad. it was like we skipped the most convenient times to make things happen without having to be explained. like she wanted laurence and patricia to get together despite not really having chemistry? skip a few weeks and cut to them having sex (speaking of which.....i generally skip sex scenes, so im not really a good source for what's good or bad, but this one was pretty bad). the world is falling apart but you want to skip to the good part where it already has? cool! skip a few months and the collapse is no longer impending and you don't have to write anything actually falling apart. >:\

part 4 was a tad redeemable. things stopped making sense but i liked that

Spoiler

laurence told isobel abt magic and lost his voice. this may seem strange of me but idk it was satisfyinf.

i feel like some of the events were strung together nonsensically, and things happened to happen but they didn't fit together? if that makes any sense.

anyway. very strong start, which descended into something i did not like, which rose up to fizzle out and not quite be good or bad. points for the beginning & the writing bc i do like this style and i also like being nice.

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