"this is, without question, one of the best books i’ve ever read "

"This book held me in a constant state of unease. 🫣

"Even after everything, I wouldn't want Otto to know I'd ever thought about slitting his throat."

I applaud Evie Wyld's deft hand in this book. Her writing is subtly woven with little details that give the constant impression something is off. Trees rattle and wind claws down the protagonist's throat. Crows caw and blackbirds wait in the hawthorn. On the air is a scent of blood.

The protagonist is a woman named Jake who's haunted by secrets in her past (which we slowly learn about over the course of the book). In the opening chapters, all we know about Jake is that she never feels safe, the townspeople look at her strangely, and her lower back is riddled with scars.

Meanwhile, she works on a farm where something is occasionally killing the sheep, leaving their torn bodies for Jake to find in the morning. Her growing fear over what's killing the sheep lead her to see things in the shadows: Was that a human lurking in the dark? Some pesky teens? Or was it a dangerous, stalking beast?

Jake is a woman whose trauma has layers, and the truth about her past is much darker and more complex than I could have expected.

All the Birds, Singing belongs firmly in the category of literary thriller; it's a slow, unsettling burn that suggests sometimes learning the truth of a monster’s origins is much scarier than seeing it with your own eyes."