All the Birds in the Sky book review

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Published by Tor Books on January 26, 2016
Pages: 313
Goodreads

Childhood friends Patricia Delfine, a witch, and Laurence Armstead, a mad scientist, parted ways under mysterious circumstances during middle school. But as adults they both wind up in near-future San Francisco, where Laurence is an engineering genius and Patricia works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s ever growing ailments. But something is determined to bring them back together—to either save the world, or end it.

I had no idea what this story was going to be about when I picked this book, and I’m still not sure what I think about it. All the Birds in the Sky was a weird comparison between nature and science and I’m not sure I enjoyed it. There was definitely some really great parts of the narrative but there were other parts that weren’t developed at all and I feel that those were the parts that let the story down. I think the biggest problem I had with this book was the fact that it reminded me a lot of Middlegame but I preferred the storyline and the characters throughout that story and I was waiting to feel that type of love for this book and it never happened.

All the Birds in the Sky follows two characters, Patricia and Laurence, Patricia is a witch and Laurence is fantastic at science. I really thought that the juxtaposition between these two was going to be the main point of the story and it was for some of it but I do think their relationship was underdeveloped. I wish there had been more of them both separately and together especially as children. I think it was glossed over and there was room for more, I would have loved to see more of their struggle and to really get into the nitty-gritty bit of the backstory. I don’t think that this gets any better as the story goes on either, there is a lot of blind spots and with a lot of fast movement with moments that should have been defining but were brushed over.

The best bit of All the Birds in the Sky was for me, the use of magic. I loved the way that Patricia made use of nature and the way her magic worked, for me the biggest part of this was definitely the healing. I think the way this is represented is way more realistic and balanced than other books I have read. I loved learning about the different reasons why they acted this way and how that affected the world around them.

For me, the worst bit of All the Birds in Night Sky was how underdeveloped everything was. I felt as though there was SO much happening and I just didn’t know what I was supposed to be keeping a track of and why. I think it would have been nice to have more information about the different schooling that each of the children received. I think it would have offered a lot more insight into them both as characters and their motivations, it would have made for a deeper storyline and I think I would have connected with them a lot better than I did.

Although I enjoyed and finished this book, I’m not sure I would recommend this book. I think there was a lot of potential but I’m not sure if it was reached through the characters and storyline!

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!