Kate Says: "Reading Is Fun!"

A pretty good YA debut novel. Going into it, I didn't realize it was going to be a book about faith. I thought it was going to be a book about birds and loss, since the two factors that drive the story are Garbriel's (Cullen brother's) disappearance and a sighting of a woodpecker everyone thought was extinct.

However, there are missionary trips, loss of faith, and Cabot's faith crazed ideas that seem to doom him all the more, added into the mix. These are the factors that tie seemingly unrelated characters together to give this book a cohesive feel overall. I liked the mystery of Gabriel, but got annoyed with Cullen always talking about himself in third person, and some of the supporting characters were interesting, but didn't make a lasting impression on me, except for the ways they were interconnected with the main characters.

Overall, a good story, I only wished I had liked it more than I did.