Nightbird

By: Alice Hoffman / Narrated By: Jenna Lamia

Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins

I’m giving this particular pat Happily Ever After a pass cuz it is, after all, supposed to be for Kids and not for meeeeee in particular!

I know I know I know. As an unABASHed listener of Regency and Historical romances, I shoooould be an avid embracer of All Things Happy From Hence Forward. I know, right? It’s just that Alice Hoffman’s enchanting Nightbird weaves so many storylines, and so many things together throughout the book, and there are enticing bits of angst and foreboding, that I was kinda sorta hoping she’d go for the braver “bittersweet” ending. After all, when all is said and done, a major change takes place. And here in the Days of COVID-19, we’ve all come to discover that “change” brings endings and loss.

But that’s not the way it goes in this tale of friendship, curses, dreams, and community.

So I guess I’ll just have to get over the ending and tell ya I liked the whole danged story anyway, shall I?

Twig is just a girl, feels herself to be just a shadow. She and her mother live lives of isolation and loneliness cuz they’re living a lie of sorts; there are secrets, and if the inhabitants of tiny Sidwell, Massachusetts, knew them? Well, who knows what chaos and harm could come from such knowledge.

Cuz it turns out that young Twig has a brother, a big brother, smarter than anyone she’s ever known, loyal and true, graceful and handsome, loving and protective. And nobody knows he exists. He’s the victim of a curse that was handed out 200 years ago, falling on every male descendant of Twig’s ancestors/family, and he lives upstairs, homeschooled and isolated.

Except for his nightly excursions of freedom. It’s like this see, because of an old unrequited love, a witch decreed that all males would be born with wings. There’s a way to get rid of them early on, but that leaves them weak and near-crippled all their lives. Twig’s mother decided she’d let her son grow and be who and what he is: So he now has big, incredibly beautiful, black wings. And at night he soars through the town (Townsfolk spot him every now and then and have dubbed him The Monster and are out to kill and destroy him), and he pretends he’s just like everyone else as he visits the town’s library and school and places he’ll never ever ever be welcome.

All things start changing when lonely Twig happens upon the Hall family who move into the ramshackle house next to theirs, and the lovely teen-aged Agate is met, and the rambunctious Julia becomes Twig’s secret best friend (Twig’s mom has forbidden her going over there because, wouldn’t ya know it: The Halls are direct descendants of the witch). But for the first time in her life, Twig is part of a family, one that laughs and chatters and embraces life, and she just cannot bear to lose it all.

And James has seen the family too, esPECially Agate, and it’s love, young and very romantic love.

The story follows many lines, from the budding romance of James and the accepting Agate, to Twig realizing that despite her lonely status as an outcast, Julia really does indeed like her and will go so far as dubbing the two of them soul sisters in order to be friends; from the town’s Monster hunts, to possible environmental devastation by the Woods being turned into housing and strip malls; from Mom’s unwillingness to open up and let life in, to a seemingly good-hearted stranger from New York coming by and showing trueness and steadiness of character. Hoffman seamlessly builds upon all of these things, and it all comes to a head when the four young people, James/Agate, and Twig/Julia, come upon an idea, a hopeful magic ritual that might bring normalcy to James, acceptance into town life.

Jenna Lamia narrates this well, but I did have a sliiiiight problem with how very many vocal gyrations she went through in order to give each. and every. single character (And there are a LOT of townsfolk thrown in there too, my friend!). a unique voice. It’s kinda hard on the ears, but I do applaud her for respecting her job as the teller of the story, of attempting to convey its many characters, many situations in a dramatic fashion. I wouldn’t say she’s grating, not by any means, just kinda “enthusiastic” which I’m willing to live with, especially as I’m eyeing another Kids/Tween audiobook narrated by her.

All in all, a delightful audiobook that’s as sweetly magical for the Inner Kidlet in ya, as it is for Kidlets of most ages.

Besides which, James saves birds and owls… so he had me right there!