In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

by Cat Winters

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. At her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?Featuring haunting archival early-20th-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.

Reviewed by Briana @ Pages Unbound on

1 of 5 stars

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House of Ash is the story of two teens: Mila, a Victorian girl stuck in her stepfather’s creepy, sentient mansion and Curtis, a modern-day teen trying to hold his family together through his bipolar father’s outbursts. Ostensibly, the book is about how these two characters bond over feelings of being trapped and then seek for ways to help each other, but I found the connection forced, and without a clear connection their stories seem too divergent to quite belong in the same book. Basically, Mila’s story is trying to a Gothic tale about an evil house and Curtis’s is an issues story about family and mental illness, and the author doesn’t succeed in making them come together.

I admit I didn’t much care for their stories separately either. I like actual Gothic literature, and though some of it can also tend towards the silly and overdramatic rather than actually scary (I’m looking at you, Ann Radcliffe), Mila’s story is not a compelling modern take. There’s a lot of telling rather than showing, particularly in the beginning when Mila and her family first enter the mansion; the author basically insists that the place is wrong, creepy, mocking, etc. without taking the time to fully convince me that this is so.

Curtis’s storyline interested me a bit more, though a lot of it features him having angry outbursts and driving dramatically throughout town in his car or on his motorbike, cursing the world. The sentiment is certainly understandable based on his life circumstances; I just personally wasn’t completely invested in reading about it.

My favorite part was the end of the book, but that was because I was suddenly semi on the side of the “bad guys.” Though their ends might not have justified their means, I think they had a good point about needing to stop the continued influence of the cursed mansion on their town, and the author missed a prime opportunity here to add some nuance to the story of good vs. evil because she was more fixated on building a flimsy, unconvincing romance between Mila and Curtis.

I was hoping to get a good Gothic tale out of House of Ash and enjoy some strong YA fantasy, but the book fell completely flat for me. I don’t give a lot of very low ratings, but I was tempted to DNF this book the whole time I was reading, so it’s going to have to get one star from me.

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  • 2 January, 2018: Reviewed