Blackbirds (Miriam Black)

This is an unusual story of a psychically gifted woman who is drifting through life encountering numerous bumps in the road. If you want a slightly off-beat story...this one is it! Highly recommend!

I read Blackbirds and the sequel, Mockingbirds. This is an amazing protagonist and a great premise. Chuck Wendig is one of those people who is undersold, in my opinion. Read this! You won't regret it. I hope he continues this series.

I remember years ago reading the back-of-book summary for this and feeling drawn to add the book to my 'to buy' list for the store. Unlike now, I wasn't as technologically advanced, so I jotted it down on paper. Unfortunately, a fair portion of the time I'd unthinkingly set the paper down somewhere and forget the location of where it and I parted ways. This book was undoubtedly on one of those lists, forever lost in the abyss.

However, I now yearn to go back and slap past-me for not buying it sooner. It was a phenomenal read, so much so that I had to actually force myself not to gobble it all in one sitting. Chuck Wendig has an incomparable gift for analogies and descriptions, which helped to breathe a whole new essence of life to the book.

The main character, Miriam Black, is without a doubt a paradox. It's like she's constantly standing on one foot on the edge of the bridge that leads to Bat Crap Crazy from Sanity.

With one touch, a simple skin-to-skin contact, Miriam will know how that person is going to die. Such a power has caused her to alienate herself from others, conning lowlifes of their money as they die so she can live another day, just barely getting by. Well, until she meets Louis, that is. After a simple handshake, Miriam discovers that he will die with her name on his lips.

She's never tried to alter what she sees, cemented in thought that fate will have what fate wants. With that in mind, she preferred moving onto the next easy target. However, this time, knowing Louis will die only because he met her gets to her, forces her to try living instead of getting by with a skewed sense of the word 'survival'.

I stumbled upon Chuck Wendig about a year ago when I literally StumbleUpon'ed his website/blog Terrible Minds. It was a very short story that was very, very good and from that moment, his blog has been a regular stop for me. I've purchased and read his numerous ways on how to be a better writer, I've participated in his flash fiction challenges, and I've found great wisdom via his Twitter account.

While he's penned other pieces, Blackbirds was his first original novel (Double Dead, the story of a vampire who awakens during a zombie apocalypse, is part of a line of books by various authors called Tomes of the Dead) and I purchased it immediately.

Before I go much further, yes, I know the book's sequel, Mockingbird, is about to drop, so it makes this review seem a tad late. To that I say, sod off. Blackbirds hasn't been out long and to get to Mockingbird, you have to go through Part 1 and I'm telling you about Part 1.

I loved it. Miriam Black, the story's anti-hero protagonist, is easy to feel sorry for, but not very easy to like, at least not in the beginning. She's a drifter, a thief, a drinker of hard liquor and smoker of cigarettes. She uses vulgarity like a master artisan weaves a tapestry. She also has the ability to discover, based on flesh-to-flesh contact with another person, how that person is going to die. She knows the gory details, down to what that person is thinking, the circumstances leading to their demise, and the exact date and time.

She drifts through life, hitching rides from seedy motel to filthy biker bar, getting money when she can, taking advantage of those about to die. Black runs with no real direction, no real plan. That all changes when she meets Louis, a truck driver with a heart of gold. He gives her a much-needed ride on a rainy night and she discovers, after touching him, he dies violently at the hands of a psychopath as he calls out Miriam's name.

After getting involved (by getting involved, I mean gaining carnage knowledge) with a con man named Ashley, Miriam runs afoul of the decidedly nasty folks who are after the aforementioned shady young man. Louis gets involved, Miriam does bad things, then some good things, more bad things, takes part in an interview regarding her past and powers, and then has a big showdown with the bad guys.

I'm not trying to simplify the book, but I don't want to ruin it. The theme has been done before, but as with any story, the greatness or not greatness (Suckness? Crapness?) lies with the author and how he is able to describe his universe to readers and Wendig is a master of it. He provides readers with a nearly overwhelming pallet of vivid scenery and character construction. Example: "She was as pale as a tanless ass." That REEKS of awesome. His dialogue is expertly-crafted. Many authors are able to write well and make the reader feel as though they are part of that world until the characters open their mouths. Conversation is not nearly as easy to write as people think, but Wendig nails it.

And let's get something straight: Yes, Wendig curses. A lot. On his blog. Within his Twitter feed. In his stories. In his writing tips. Again, however, it is not gratuitous. Wendig caters to a certain core group of readers. Snooty, aloof Shakespearean poets are not going to get anything out of his tips; a young writer who loves Christopher Moore, Neil Gaiman, David Sedaris, etc., will not only love the natural flow of Wendig's four-letter-word-filled advice, but will truly learn from it. He speaks the language of his fans and as a result, has built a following of devoted readers.

Blackbirds is a quick read, a fun read, and one that sticks with the you long after the last chapter has been finished. Wendig draws you in, engrosses you in his world, and, most importantly, makes you genuinely care for people who are, on the surface, pretty unlikeable.

In summary: Order the book. You'll be a better person. And you'll learn a boatload of new curse words.

Miriam Black is a most unusual heroine. Like a gypsy, she drifts from town to town. And she is afflicted with a gypsy sort of a curse. If Miriam touches a person, she knows how and when (but not where) they will die. An early unfortunate experience has convinced our heroine that she is unable to change a person's fate. So, she follows people that she knows will die shortly and relieves them of their excess cash and other possessions. It's pretty much how she supports herself. That is, until the fateful day when good samaritan Louis Darling picks Miriam up while she is hitchhiking. She finds that she genuinely likes this large, gentle truck driver. But when their hands brush, Miriam receives a terrible vision. Louis is murdered with her name on his lips. At first, Miriam tries to avoid Louis in the hopes that she can avert his future. But that nasty bitch fate keeps throwing them back together. And now Miriam has some bad baggage. A con artist, Ashley, has solved the mystery of why she keeps showing up around dead bodies and he wants in on the action. Miriam needs to shake Ashley and save Louis. And it turns out that, thanks to Ashley, Miriam's life is now in danger too. This is a good fast read that I devoured in one sitting.

Little stories, that's what we are all really. Little stories set in a very big world with very big things going on beyond our reach. We each play a minor role in the lives of so many people and act as background pieces to the bulk of humanity. Despite this we all have our story. Our birth, our life, and inevitably our death; We don't know how it will be for most of the people out there, but in the back our heads we know everyone we know someday will die. We don't get to know the truth of those moments, only that someone has passed. We hear about the heart attacks, the strokes, the cancers, the car accidents, the murders, and the suicides. But we don't get to really know, at least not beyond our own personal crash landing. Miriam does. She's like a voyeur into those intimate moments when the mortal coil unwinds and whatever happens next leaves our bodies as little more than bags of decaying meat. Magic, psychic, something else, we don't get to know through our first introduction to the spiral of Miriam's life, but hints are there between the pages and the words of a shade in Miriam's ear.
Blackbirds takes us into a part of Miriam's life where she's in a cycle of using, abusing, and taking pieces of the prizes left behind by the dead. Things twist for her when a stalker wants to take advantage of her powers and another man wants to help save her, or at least save himself through her. The events that follow trace lines of fate, control, and bloody murder across the eastern coast. Things don't play out exactly as expected but the ending comes to a violent, brutal, and satisfying ending.
For me, the take away from Blackbirds is understanding overt and subtle events and wielding them properly. Chuck Wendig does a great job with this especially handling Miriam's gift/curse and the events of the some crime organization Miriam's stalker manages to piss off. Miriam's power can be potentially distracting is over used, but it's laced through the story at the right times, places, and events to slide things along without drowning the story. Enough hints of the supernatural are given that we can see the truth of the world out there is turned sideways from what we believe. Flipping this to the actions of Harriet and Frankie, we see just how to wield overt events like a club and drag us deeper into the story. Harriet defines being a catalyst for change, and while the actions of Miriam and Ashley are shifts here and there, Harriet is always bringing her partner and herself back and forth in a wave of violence and death.
I would recommend Blackbirds to people who like a little crime fiction mixed with those who like a little urban fantasy. Blackbirds never gets all magical with spells flying, demons hunting people down, or vampire and werewolves having blood duels and make out sessions. Instead it laces its supernatural into an already brutal world, and exploits both sides of the coin to a profitable end. The main character can be frustrating but she makes reasonable choices for herself and comes across as an intelligent and strong figure. Supporting characters are believable people, with their own wants and wishes extended out beyond that of Miriam, and it doesn't feel like we're just being dragged around in a world built just for her. This story is the first Chuck Wendig piece I've read and it has made me a fan already. I'm looking forward to the upcoming sequel Mockingbird later this year.

The cover is gorgeous, and an indication that the book is thriller/horror, so don't let the subject matter surprise you.

The world is a very nasty place, especially when illegal activity is involved, and Chuck Wendig looks under every dirty rock and catalogues the filth. Then he pushes you off a cliff, backward, and throws boulders after your bouncing body.

You like it so much you can't wait to get back to the next reading session.

Miriam Black has the curse of seeing how people will die. She doesn't like the shocking skill, but cannot thwart fate, so she tries to make the best of things with a defensive sharp humor and a sharper tongue. She was born with good instincts, but her mother was a corrupting harpy, as was the mother of a male friend, and the resulting damage to Miriam's young life prevents her from entering normal society; she's forced to the fringe, and the fringe is dangerous.

She walks the world as a scavenger of the soon-to-be dead, not a predator of the living; she is attached to society's dirty belly like a tick, smoking and drinking excessively. As a lone female with some flash, however, she attracts genuine predators. She also attracts a gentle giant, and her concern for his well-being pushes her into more compromise and danger.

You will like the ending.

It is an interesting concept but the story becomes a little too stretched in its lead character"s invincibility. I also don't believe the author needs to make some if the events as gruesome to convey the threat.

Not for people whose sensibilities are easily disturbed, as Miriam is a long way from a forthright hero. At fist she's just scavenging to survive, then she starts to care about what happens to people around her. The question is: can she change it?

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig has everything thriller readers want: an EXTREMELY likable protagonist, a hair-trigger plot, and awesome mystery with some great revelations. Wendig's writing is punchy and to the point, making this a quick read. Make no mistake, though: your time will be well rewarded. I read this in maybe 3-3 1/2 days, and I loved every second of it.

Miriam Black can see the future. With a simple touch she'll witness, like some sick Hollywood production, when and how the touched will die--right down to their last gurgling breath.

When a chance encounter with a late-night trucker reveals an unexpected twist, her life's downward spiral loses control until she's forced to confront her past, present and future--whether she wants to or not.

And thus begins Chuck Wendig's story that will drag you kicking and screaming to its twisted and violent end.

Books come and books go and some of them I'll soon forget and others, like BLACKBIRDS, I'll remember long after tucking it away in the attic.

What makes a book memorable you ask? For some it may be a complicated process: literary depth (blue curtains meaning more than just blue curtains), the number of syllables in a word, an author's extensive use of every word in the dictionary, how many times the word "suddenly" is used, and the list goes on.

Fortunately, I'm simple. I don't care if you have an extensive vocabulary, or spend your days writing literary prose with words that no human being will ever speak. I want to be entertained. Entertain me with clever characters and clever scenes. Like Stephen King once said: I can read a clunker as long as the engine runs.

Wendig's BLACKBIRDS is not only clever, but filled with witty writing, great characters and an outstanding female lead in Miriam. Many scenes stood out, but my personal favorite is when Miriam is first introduced to Frankie and Harriet:

Miriam crumples it up, goes to throw it, and finds herself face-to-face with a gawky, bony Italian-looking dude in a trim black suit.

"Jesus Chris," Miriam says.

The Italian nods, though he is clearly nobody's Lord and Savior ... Miriam sees a small woman approaching, a short chubby thing with black eyes like hot coals and a set of bangs that look like they were cut with a hedge trimmer and a ruler.

"Evening," the woman says.

"Scully," Miriam says to the woman. To the man, she nods: "Mulder."

Simple. Funny, easily recognizable and the scene before sets it up perfectly. I loved it and laughed out loud. I mean, who doesn't enjoy a witty reference to unrelated characters they know and love?

So let's talk about the elephant in the room for a minute. You did see the elephant, right? How can a guy, who's a guy's guy none-the-less, write a female lead and pull it off?

Probably a lot easier said than done. While some readers may not see past a man writing a female lead, Wendig does it with a style and class that's certain to please those who give it a chance. Miriam is a strong, witty (tired of the word "witty" yet? Tough. It's my blog: witty witty witty witty witty) and self-aware woman. And while most women can't see the future, I'm certain they'll be able to relate to her being misjudged as a weak individual and the strengths she's been forced to gain as a result. Miriam is NOT a pushover. She will fight when confronted, be sexual when it suits her, smoke cigarettes and drink beer when she damn well feels like it. She's not one to be messed with and Wendig does a great job bringing her to (believable) life.

BLACKBIRDS is a riveting and fantastic read that will keep you glued to the pages and longing for more. This is a MUST-HAVE on your summer reading list.

Well written and cohesive. An expose' of the dark side of one's personality, but, the person involved has an inner strength and grit. Not a comedy, that's for sure, but well written and interesting. JAD

First up, a confession. I know Chuck. Not know him like, hey, we hang out and drink beers, but we chat on Twitter as much as he feels like answering me. I love his blog. I find him to be an inspiration when I'm down and out on my own writing-which is often.

So, it was with trepidation that I started his new novel BLACKBIRDS. Why trepidation? Because I'm always nervous when I start a friend's book. I want to love them so bad, that I often raise my expectations too high.

The good news is BLACKBIRDS lives up to everyone of my expectations. It stars Miriam Black, a woman who-if she touches you skin to skin-can see how you're going to die. Like, she flashes to it, knows the time, knows the cause, witnesses it. She's used to this, by now-sort of. And now she kind of wanders America, dealing with her power-her curse.

And then she touches Louis, a truck driver. And what she sees stuns her. It's not that he's going to die. And it's not even how gruesome his death is. It's that, when he dies, he says her name.

To say anymore would spoil the novel.

And believe me, you don't want this one spoiled for you.

Miriam drives this novel. She's a complex, deep, and very sympathetic character. At the same time, she's a badass, and she's going to drag you along for this hell of a ride. You can't stop reading, because you NEED to know what happens to her.

The most compelling chapters-for me-were the interludes, where Miriam is interviewed by a young journalist and starts to reveal the secrets of her power. It got to the point where I'd curse at the end of each interlude, because I know I was going to have to keep reading that night to get to the next one.

Chuck asked me, very early on in the process to pick out a beer for Miriam. The choices are easy (well, not so easy, it took me a while to come up with them, honestly). Rogue Dead Guy Ale or Left Hand Fade to Black are the beers to sip while reading this.

But as soon as you start, you'll forget the beer and just be caught up in the pages.

Miriam Black sees death. At least, she sees the death of people she touches, skin to skin. She knows the date, time, and circumstances of each person's death. She's tried to change things a few times; to cheat Fate, as it were. But she has become convinced that Fate will not be cheated, and her attempts only make the inevitable more so. So she has become a sort of scavenger, gleaning enough from the corpses of those whose death she's seen to just get by. In the course of her endless road trip with death, she meets two men: Ashley Gaynes, who sees in Miriam the chance to run the ultimate con game on those whose deaths Miriam will see, and Louis Darling, a trucker in whose death vision Miriam hears him calling her name, as if she were there. It seems Fate may have plans that even Miriam hasn't figured out.

I really enjoyed this book. Wendig is rapidly becoming a favorite author. His stories are provocative, funny, visceral, bloody, and engrossing. Miriam Black is certainly damaged goods- abusive childhood, teen trauma, and cursed with a psychic ability that would freak the pants off most anyone else. She's a wise-cracking, hard-ass, chain-smoking, hard-drinking woman far older than her years who has figured out a way to live with her visions, or so she thinks. There is confrontation on many levels, and a final push to redemption.

Character is everything in this book. Miriam, Louis (even "Dead Louis"), and Ashley have depth and personality. The secondary villains are chilling and pretty much ooze evil. A little stereotype? Maybe, but it doesn't hurt this story at all. In fact, it may help, as these darker characters embody what Miriam could be (and in some ways, may think she is) until she is confronted with them.

Setting is less important here, as Miriam is essentially a drifter, and never stays in one place longer than she needs to in order to collect her scavengings. It is, in many ways, a road trip story, and the journey is the real setting.

One more thing- the cover. A truly outstanding job by Joey Hi-Fi. One of the best and most effective covers I've seen in a while.

I should warn potential readers that the book would be rated for language, violence, and some mild sexual situations. But it should also be rated for intelligence, provoking thought, and just general goodness.

I have been a fan of Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds Blog for a while. Chuck is TWISTED in the best way imaginable. He's got a deliciously wry sense of humor so the characters seem clever and more importantly REAL! I don't think I've ever read a book that was better suited to being a movie than this one. The only negative thing that I can say about this book is that I wish it was longer. I didn't want it to end! Can't wait for his next book!

I work graveyard shift and read Blackbirds on my lunch breaks at 2 in the blessed morning. Perfect synergy for the dark world created by Chuck Wendig.

How dark you ask? Well, if Tarantino and Stephen King both left a DNA sample on the scuzzy cracked asphalt in the alley behind the loading dock of an abandoned factory in Detroit, Blackbirds would be what was birthed. Yup, it's that dark.

Miriam can see how you are going to die. Just the slightest bit of SOS (skin on skin) and she sees your death played out in her head. Definitely makes her a bummer at parties. However, a girl has to make a living and in this era of shrinking wages and limited access to benefits, she opts for self-employment. If she senses you are about to ride the lightning to the promised land, she buddies up with you and then hangs around to pick your corpse. Hey, it's not like you need it and, face it, your kids wouldn't appreciate it.

Until she meets Louis. Unremarkable on the surface, she is drawn to his straightforward lack of BS and his honest interest in her. However, what she sees when they touch is horrific. Trying to change that vision becomes her quest and her salvation. That is, if she can escape the con man, the two blood-thirsty killers, and the creepiest villian this side of King's Territories, who have all taken an interest in her.

Throw in the single best cover on any book ever and a bonus interview with The Chuck at the end and this book is a fest for lovers of urban fantasy and dark urban horror. Even those that are not Wendigoths abide and approve. Bring on the sequel!

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig is an excellent read, a page turner that I was unable to put down once I started. Miriam Black is an interesting and well developed character, with a voice that is a pleasure to read. While the action is solid, the most interesting part is Miriam's inner journey as she struggles with the gift she has been cursed with, and against the inevitability of fate.

A fair warning though, reading Blackbirds is much akin to being dragged through a beautiful sewer. You are swimming in pure nastiness, but cannot help but stop to admire the turn of a phrase or the elegance of a description. Chuck Wendig never hesitates to hit below the belt, and I repeatedly found myself cringing at what he puts his character through. As long as the thought of reading foul mouthed character who have bad thing happen to them doesn't drive you away, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

It's objectively impossible to read this book and not love (or love to hate) Miriam Black's character. And for that matter, all the characters in this book were hits - there were no usless "misses" or filler characters snuck in to cheat at advancing the plot. Speaking of plot, it was twisty and action-packed. The story was tightly constructed and driven by the dynamic nature of the characters, chiefly Miriam Black. I can't wait to see an encore performance of Miriam Black in Wendig's next work.

Wendig writes with a unique, cinematic voice that walks a tightrope of Palahniuk-ish grotesque and Updike-esque literary quality. I enjoyed the level of detail - just enough to show flashes of literary brilliance but not so much that it became self-indulgent or boring. Some of the descriptions made me lol for real - especially when likening an unrelenting torture victim to an inflatable clown punching bag.

It took me several pages before I really understood what was going on, that the sections in italics were Miriam's visions of how people were going to die (a power of hers), but once I understood the "rules" I was *in* the story and I never got pulled out. Ashley Gaynes' character threw me off a bit - his stupidity knows no bounds and he pretty well writes his own obituary when he starts using the crystal, which is a pretty human quality. Stay away from the meth, kids.

Wendig classifies his work as "new pulp", which I think is a pretty spot-on label. It's part urban fantasy, part magical realism, part absurdist, so I'll just tag it as all of them. Bottom line - it's got something for everyone so I would recommend it to anyone.

Kelly I. Hitchcock
Author of The Redheaded Stepchild

This novel was well written. The story line was pretty good, but the thing I like about books is the humor. Sure this was a bundle of gore at times, but it had it's funny, clever little lines. That really just made it for me.

So good, so good, so good!! Wendig's somehow stepped inside the mind and soul of a teenage girl with a monstrous ability and made her a heartbreakingly believable character... one the reader aches with and roots for. Vulgar, violent, morally ambivalent, Miriam goes through life afraid to get too close to anyone... literally, because if she touches you, she knows exactly when and how you will die. She doesn't cause that death, but she experiences it as if she were you in your final moments. She's developed a number of coping mechanisms to avoid contact and also a plan to use the power to her advantage. After all, if you're loaded and you're going to die anyway, why shouldn't she be there to scoop up a few valuable keepsakes to make her own life more comfortable? I mean, it's not like you're going to need them, right?

Miriam is coping pretty well, until a piece of her past tracks her down and brings a sadistic trio of trackers trailing him. And then she violates her own primary rule: she lets herself care about one of her marks.

The rest of the story piles surprise upon misery upon twist, none of which I will divulge here and all framed in the colorful vernacular Wendig wields so masterfully.

I can't wait for the sequel.

The trailer prepares you quite well for what you’ll be reading. The language is quite vulgar throughout the book. Everyone in the book is rude and unpleasant. The characters do have a lot of personality though. And they are all quite believable. For some, it might be hard to like them though, even the main character.
See full review at: http://mizner13.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/blackbirds-by-chuck-wendig-book-review/

The main character of Chuck Wendig's Blackbirds is a surly, sarcastic, capable, and manipulative woman. She scavenges from the people she knows are going to die within hours or even minutes of meeting them. All it takes is a touch, and pow - she sees every detail, down to the exact date and time, who if anyone's around and what the last moment is like before the doors of life slam shut. She's haunted by all she's seen, and more than that. She's been on the run for a very long time, and even though she didn't know it, the thing she's been running from is about to catch up with her.

You could have the most interesting setting in the known universe, but without good characters, the story goes nowhere. It falls flat. It doesn't move. Miriam moves. She curses like a trucker, brushes off just about anything resembling real human contact, wanders aimlessly from place to place, would just as soon put a knife in your junk as buy you a drink - and yet she's our heroine. I wouldn't go so far as to call her entirely likable, but she's such indelible and admirable you don't necessarily have to like her for the novel to work as well as it does.

This is one of Chuck's biggest strengths. His characters come across as people, even if they're in direct opposition to the characters we come to like. The setting for the tale is an urban fantasy steeped in noir and the gritty semi-absurdity of Pulp Fiction or True Romance. But it could be on a space station or deep underground or in a suburban house and it would still ring true. It's Wendig's characters that make him such a seminal contemporary author of fiction.

The writing in Blackbirds is tight and focused. It's laced with profanity and there's plenty of sex and violence to be had, and it'd be very easy to let such spectacle overwhelm the underlying foundations. But this novel's smarter than that. It doesn't even let the bleakness and finality of Miriam's visions overwhelm her humanity or humor. It balances extremely well between the narrative throughline of Miriam in the now, the steps she took to be where she is, and the people both with and against her, who could easily have been ciphers or mere empty vessels, punching bags for our heroine to bash around. But as I said, it's smarter than that, and the universe of urban fiction is at least three magnitudes brighter for its presence.

Blackbirds is an engrossing read, at times incredibly funny and at others something you won't be able to get out of your head long after you put it down. It is dirty and morbid and vulgar and wonderful.

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig is a roller coaster meth-addicted joyride in a Ferrari with no brakes. He's the psychotic love child of the rape of Hunter S. Thompson by Ken Kesey and Rob Zombie. He's one of the most exciting writers working today, and you should just quit pissing about and but the damn book. It will disturb you, it will challenge you and it might make you hate yourself a little bit for liking it so much. But you deserve it.

...but she's also a great, compelling character.

Miriam views her ability to foresee someone's death as a curse, leaving her bitter and cynical. Then she begins to fall for one of her marks, a truck driver named Louis. When a trio of vicious criminals come closing in on both of them, she's forced to confront her ability at last or face her own death, the only one she cannot see.

Wendig's writing is sharp and quick, and the story moves at a rapid pace. Miriam is a grim, foul-mouthed woman, almost to a fault, yet Wendig does a great job of making the reader feel for her. The baddies, meanwhile, are just as tough, and Wendig pulls no punches with the things these characters do to one another.

A solid book and a great introduction to the character. I look forward to reading the follow-up, Mockingbird.