I love the setting of this story, fictional Mallow Island off the South Carolina coast, and I love the idea of the dellawisps, orange and blue birds that occupy the same building as the main characters, sometimes harassing them and sometimes protecting them. And I liked some of the magical realism elements like the invisible pidgeon and the presence of ghosts, especially the one who sprinkles a character with cornmeal every night. 

Considered a ‘found family’ story, Other Birds centers around 4 characters searching for people and places that can become their family when their own families have abandoned them. Zoey is 18 and preparing for college on her own.  Charlotte long ago ran away from the religious cult her family joined. Mac had only an elderly neighbor to feed and care for him as a child. And Oliver left his dysfunctional mom to head west for college–as far away as he could get. 

They all come together through their apartments at the Dellawisp building on Mallow Island, managed by Frazier who is a sort of anchor for all of them–but also looking for love and family.

The premise is kind of interesting, but the execution is not great. It feels more like a YA novel (but trying not to be), and is too often corny and/or predictable. Perhaps part of that is the 3rd person limited point of view where each chapter focuses on a different character but is in the same 3rd person narrator’s voice, which doesn’t really change enough from character to character, so it feels flat and not very real–more fitting for a folk story titled “A Tale of the Misfits Who Found Each Other.”

It’s a bit unfortunate because each character has an interesting backstory with a lot of potential, but somehow there was a sameness to them or a distance between the character and the reader such that I didn’t feel like I really got to know any of them very well. 

Beautiful cover, solid premise, intriguing birds, but underdeveloped story. Too ambitious for 300 pages, leaving characters shallow when they deserved more.