Book Review: The Cormorant by Chuck Wendig

The Cormorant by Chuck Wendig

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

Series: Book 3 of Miriam Black

Publisher: Angry Robot

Date of Publication: December 31, 2013

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy's Rating: 5 of 5 stars - "The best and my favorite Miriam Black book yet"

I just can't resist Miriam Black. Come to think of it, that might be how I start all my reviews for the books in this series. What can I say, though? It's true. These books are so addictive, and I couldn't put off reading The Cormorant any longer, knowing I had the eARC burning a hole in my ereader. I desperately needed my Miriam Black fix.

Our heroine with the freaky ability to foresee people's deaths is back. And she has been busy experimenting with her powers, after finding out the one way to prevent a person from dying is to take the life of another, because Death will not be denied. But then someone is not at all pleased with the way Miriam is messing around with fate...

Miriam is lured to Florida by a rich businessman offering her an obscene amount of money just to find out how he dies. The death vision she sees, however, is of a brutal murder of the man in a year's time, committed by a mystery killer with a bloody message written just for her. Someone clearly has it in for Miriam.  Now everyone she has interacted with is in danger, including her own estranged mother, but how do you fight an enemy who knows your every move and is always two steps ahead?

The sheer awesomeness of this book is going to be hard to convey without getting into spoilers, but know that if you've been following the series all along the plot of this one is going to blow you away. It goes without saying, if you enjoyed Blackbirds and Mockingbird, you will love The Cormorant too because the nature of the character and story is as twisted as always. Furthermore, we get a nice beefing up of Miriam's history, with a further look into her mysterious abilities as well as the appearance of her mother Evelyn Black. Finally, we get to watch the fireworks as the two women meet again for the first time in many years.

And still, Miriam remains the foul-mouthed spitfire I know and love. In her own words, "Rare is the other human who doesn't mind being dragged over the deepening lines of impropriety while talking to Miriam Black." I couldn't have said it better myself. I would never want to be trapped in the same small space with Miriam when she goes off, but boy, she's always a riot to read about. She's a woman with a way with words, but also a bigger heart than she would probably like to admit.

Books that play around with time jumps and framing are also tough to pull off, but Chuck Wendig does it here perfectly, switching to flashbacks and other perspectives at the most appropriate moments, emphasizing the suspense when it is most required. Reading this one was like a roller coaster ride, except there are no dips, only highs and loop-de-loops. Between the outrageous things Miriam says and finding all about the creepy villain in this book, my butt alternated from being perched on the edge of my seat one moment to being laughed off the next. Yeah, let's just put it that way.

The Cormorant is probably the best and my favorite Miriam Black book yet; I absolutely loved it, from beginning to end. Fans need to pick this one up too, and if you haven't read this series yet, what are you waiting for? Miriam is totally awesome; I highly recommend this!

5 of 5 stars

A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes contained above are from the advanced reader edition and are subject to change.

Waiting On Wednesday 9/18/13

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can't wait to get our hands on!

Mogsy's Pick 

The Cormorant by Chuck Wendig: December 31, 2013 (Angry Robot)

December can't get here fast enough! I just can't wait to read this third Miriam Black book, I love that snarky, foul-mouthed, firebrand hellion chick!

"Miriam is on the road again, having transitioned from "thief" to "killer".

Hired by a wealthy businessman, she heads down to Florida to practice the one thing she's good at, but in her vision she sees him die by another's hand and on the wall written in blood is a message just for Miriam. She's expected..."

Book Review: Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig

Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig

I can't get enough of Miriam Black. I just can't. I thought the initial delight of discovering this twisted and refreshingly candid series would have worn off a bit by now, but it hasn't. If anything, I think I'm finally starting to sense of who Miriam is and the direction in which these books are going. Or that might just be wishful thinking. Regardless, I'm still having a blast.

Some time has passed since we last left Miriam and Louis in Blackbirds (book one of the series, my review here). For the sake of their relationship, Miriam has attempted to settle down, living in a double-wide trailer and working as a check-out girl at a local grocery store. No more drifting around the country, and no more utilizing her morbid ability to see and how and when someone is going to die simply by making skin-on-skin contact with them. For Miriam, it means a new life filled with lots of tedium, grin-and-bear-it moments, and constantly wearing gloves.

But a girl can only take so much. Fed up, Miriam packs up and gets ready to hit the road when Louis tells her about Katey, a contact of his who is convinced she is dying and wants to pay Miriam to confirm her suspicions. Eager to be herself again, Miriam readily accepts the job, which is how she finds herself dropped off at a prestigious boarding school for troubled girls where Katey is employed as a teacher. Very soon, Miriam finds herself caught up in much more than she bargained for, when she encounters Lauren, a student at the school whom Miriam's death visions tell her will die brutally at the hands of a crazed serial killer.

With Mockingbird, I think I feel a little more confident in describing the Miriam Black books as less of a traditional Urban Fantasy series, and more of a Thriller-Suspense with paranormal elements. Given the dark nature of Miriam's power, I would throw in a bit of horror, too. There are some intensely graphic and frightening scenes in this book worthy of the goriest slasher flicks, and if you're anything like me, at certain points while reading you'll likely find yourself squirming in your seat in an uncomfortable-yet-not-too-entirely-unpleasant kind of way.

Though, that's sort of what I've come to expect with Chuck Wendig. His writing and stories can make you desperately want to turn the page and be scared to do so at the same time. His characters and dialogue can induce me to laugh my ass off yet at once make me feel like a terrible person. And I love every minute of it. Why do people go and watch scary movies anyway? On a certain level, we do it for the express purpose of being terrified out of our wits. Similarly, that was why I was so eager to pick up this second installment of Miriam Black -- I wanted what I got out of Blackbirds the first time around, to again be shocked, scandalized and enthralled by Wendig's particular brand of dark humor and suspense. I was not disappointed.

Mockingbird also gave us a better look at who Miriam is as a person. I mentioned in my review of the first book that I know deep down beneath that snarky rough exterior she is good person with a good heart, and here I think we see that a little more in her determination to help the schoolgirls and her refusal to simply walk away from the situation. The origins of her mysterious power are still largely unexplained, but we do get a bit of that too. The best part, though, is this book provided a lot of insight into Miriam's past, like her childhood and her relationship with her mother, which gave me a better idea of how she became the way she is.

Overall, a very suspenseful and chilling novel which I could barely put down. As a special treat, I bought the Whispersync Kindle/Audible bundle so I was able to listen to parts of this in audiobook format too. The narrator Emily Beresford is fantastic as Miriam Black, her talent coming through especially when she sings the "Mockingbird" song, the serial killer's rendition of the folk song "Wicked Polly". The song earwormed itself into my head for days, which I have to say made the book even more memorable and creepy.

Final verdict:

4.5 of 5 stars

Book Review: Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig 

Oh man, what can I say about Miriam Black? Funny how Chuck Wendig was able to hook me on his Blackbirds female protagonist the way he couldn't with Mookie Pearl in The Blue Blazes, my first book by this author. I may have mentioned my aversion for rough, brutish, brawn-over-brains characters like Mookie in my review of that book, but here I find myself completely taken with Miriam and her snarky, foul-mouthed, firebrand hellion devil-may-care badass ways. This chick had me at, "That's me. My fair fuckin' lady."

Miriam also has a very special ability -- she can foresee the manner in which a person will die and know exactly when, down to the very micro-second. All she needs is any skin-on-skin contact and the visions will trigger, the deaths playing out in her mind in their entirety but lasting only a couple seconds to anyone watching from the outside. She used to care, used to want to save others from their preventable demises, but quickly learned her lesson: What fate wants, fate gets. Now she's a vagrant, hopping from city to city trailing those she knows will soon meet their end, so she can swoop in and rob them at the time of their deaths and no one will be the wiser.

Then one day she meets Louis, the random truck driver who gives her a lift and is the first person in a long time to show her even a hint of kindness. She finds she likes him, but then she shakes his hand and sees his death -- in 30 days, Louis will be brutally murdered. Miriam is shocked; she's seen hundreds of deaths from accidents, suicides, and health problems, but very rarely has she seen murder. And the kicker is, in her vision right before Louis dies, he looks up past his killer and calls Miriam's name...like he sees her there.

It was difficult to put this book down. Obviously, the plot being such a tease was a major draw, but like I said before, I was also very much taken with Miriam. I still don't know why, really; it's not like I can relate to her all that easily since I am nothing like her, but I felt connected to her regardless. She's definitely unique, and it'll be a mistake going into this book expecting her to be just another independent, tough-as-nails paranormal fiction female protagonist. Miriam would probably just beat someone like her up, but only after cussing her out and drinking her under the table.

A lot of the criticisms I've seen directed at this book claim Miriam's character doesn't read like a "real girl", but I have to disagree. Not only do I know women who act just like Miriam, I also think that her rough, trashy badass exterior reflects the kind of life she's had growing up with her disturbing power, making her behavior and personality convincing and refreshingly honest. At the same time, I sense that underneath is someone more perceptive and complex, with a introspective, kind and caring side to her that you just have to dig a little bit beneath the surface to find. Okay, maybe make that dig A LOT beneath the surface, but I still know it's there.

This book also made me start appreciating Chuck Wendig's style a lot more than I had before. His writing, topics, and characters are infused with this attitude which to me is a little reminiscent of the transgressiveness in books one might find by authors like Chuck Palahniuk or Bret Easton Ellis. I also love the paranormal spin to Blackbirds, but I would also hesitate to categorize it as urban fantasy because it throws so many of that genre's conventions out the window; my guess is that a person can be really put off by this book if caught completely unprepared by it.

Sometimes, it does feel like the book is deliberately out to shock you, what with some of its violent and graphic scenes as well as Miriam's potty mouth, but I was strangely cool with it. The subject matter also had a way of making me feel deliciously unsettled, but it at least made this book memorable. I admit I was somewhat initially hesitant about tackling another Chuck Wendig book after enjoying but not being completely blown away by The Blue Blazes, but I definitely liked Blackbirds more than I thought I would.

Final verdict:

  4.5 of 5 stars