All the Birds, Singing takes place in a compelling and well-described milieu – two of them, actually, since the story is split between the present and the past. The present-day story is on a remote sheep farm on a rainy Scottish island; the flashbacks are in the Australian outback at hot, dry sheep stations. Wyld creates an effective mood in both places: a dark dread in Scotland and a desperate exhaustion in Australia.
Unfortunately, these great settings are populated with stock characters from genre fiction. Most detrimental is that our narrator, Jake Whyte, has no personality beyond the stereotypical closed-off-because-damaged woman (cf. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Dark Places). The action in the present day story doesn't feel realistic to me, and the reverse-chronological flashbacks felt purely like a literary gimmick.
Unfortunately, these great settings are populated with stock characters from genre fiction. Most detrimental is that our narrator, Jake Whyte, has no personality beyond the stereotypical closed-off-because-damaged woman (cf. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Dark Places). The action in the present day story doesn't feel realistic to me, and the reverse-chronological flashbacks felt purely like a literary gimmick.
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