“There are birds, and then there are other birds. Maybe they don’t sing. Maybe they don’t fly. Maybe they don’t fit in. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be an other bird rather than just the same old thing.”
On Sweet Mallow Island, off the coast of Charleston, there’s a small condominium called The Dellawisp, named for the ubiquitous turquoise birds that call the courtyard their home. There are only four residents of The Dellawisp – Charlotte, a henna artist running from her past, Mac, a chef who wakes every morning covered in cornmeal, Lizbeth Lime, a hoarder who demands complete silence from the other residents, and her sister Lucy Lime, whom she hasn’t spoken to in years. Then arrives Zoey, an 18 year old about to start college, moving in to the condo unit left to her by her mother Paloma. The morning after Zoey moves in one of the residents is found dead, and Zoey becomes drawn into the mystery of the deceased and the other inscrutable characters who inhabit the place she now calls home.
Zoey is the main point of view, but we do get chapters from the other residents as well. The book is unhurried, taking its time to let the various mysteries unfold and secrets come to light. Some things are obvious, others are less so, but the journey is pleasant. The supernatural elements are fun, in that they’re just pretty much just accepted. Zoey has an invisible pet bird named Pigeon, and never really questions it. Frasier, the property manager, can see ghosts. Mac has kept the ghost of his foster mother tethered to him because he loves her too much to let her go. And no one really questions any of it. The setting is simply delightful. You get to tour most of Sweet Mallow island over the course of the book, from the touristy Trade Street to the fancy hotel to the quiet poor neighborhoods where some of the characters grew up. Allen describes it so well you understand why the island is able to lure people back, even after they’ve been away for years. I wish Sweet Mallow Island were a real place, because I would love to visit one day.
I’ve loved Sarah Addison Allen since first reading The Sugar Queen; the combination of magical realism and mystery just scratches an itch in my brain that I didn’t know existed. Other Birds fits in well with her oeuvre, and introduces a lovely cast of characters that you grow to love over the course of the book.