In the Shadow of Blackbirds

 Book 31 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from March 11 - 15

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

published 2013

Summary (via the book jacket)

In the middle of the 1918 influenza epidemic, Mary Shelley Black arrives in San Diego, where she hopes to be reunited with her childhood best friend - and first love - Stephen Embers. Stephen went abroad to fight in World War I, and his brother is now profiting from the grief-stricken citizens by claiming to commune with the dead through spirit photography - a practice that scientific-minded Mary Shelley believes is fraud. But the connection to the other side may be more real than Mary Shelley thinks possible...and it might be the only way to learn the truth of what happened to Stephen.

My Opinion

4 stars

I wavered between 3 and 4 stars but rounded up because of the originality of the story and the way it absorbed me while reading.  I've read books about spirit photography/seances, I've read books about the 1918 flu outbreak, and I've read books about war but this book combined them all to capture a specific time.  It wasn't until I would put the book down that issues would hit me, the biggest one being no mention of her father at the end or wrap-up of that very important plot thread.

It built at a really good pace.  I couldn't believe it was written in 2013 because of how well the author wrote the uncertainty and panic of the 1918 influenza outbreak.  With the way the author wrote about masks, I thought for sure she had the recent experience we'd all had with Covid and used it to inform this book.

All in all, an interesting, imperfect book.