Little Birds by Hannah Lee Kidder

Short but oh dear lord my broken heart!

*****/5

Kidder's website describes Little Birds as 'a collection of glimpses into some of the darkest corners of our lives–the lies we tell ourselves, the ways we hurt others, the painful truths we pretend to face'.

I knew that Kidder would be a good writer when I stumbled upon her YouTube Channel, that delivers writing advice via a camera and a heavy side helping of sarcasm. She makes content on writing, editing, poetry and her life in general. She's funny, engaging and every video has her signature dry wit that I find very appealing, as well as guest appearances from her rescue dog Saya and other animals.

Little Birds has a different tone from her videos, however. As her website explains, it examines pain and the lies we tell ourselves and others. Briefly, it’s not a light book in tone although it is short (and hence light in weight). All the short stories deal with painful experiences, illness, break ups, suicide, sexual assault, death to name a few – so there’s your content warning folks. It's not funny or entertaining exactly. But it is captivating and heart-breaking.

The short stories are a mixture of lengths; some could be described flash fiction, being only a sentence long, and some venturing to the length of several pages. No matter how long however, none of them can say that they pull their punches and they all have some emotional kick or a special moment that really breaks your heart. It’s very impressive that no matter what the length of the piece that she can still establish an overarching plot idea and gives you enough information about the characters that you can fill in the blanks and then just punches you straight in the gut with a sad twist right at the end. It’s impressive that she manages to do it every time too.

Her writing style is seemingly effortless and thoughtful and examines small pieces of scenery that gives you a clear sense of place in pieces where you don't have a whole lot of sense of the characters or the atmosphere.

Some criticisms:

Kidder has a habit of leaving the horrible revelation until the end of the story. It gets quite predictable that there is going to be some horrible chilling revelation towards the end that will totally make the rethink everything that's happened in the story and completely change your perspective on the events and the characters. It's not a new tactic to storytelling but it feels a little overused in this anthology. I’d prefer it if the realisation came slowly over the course of the story or that the story opened with the worst thing about it and then rewound to see how this was connected to the characters in the story. I feel like this formula could have been experimented with somewhat here and it was a missed opportunity.

There are only 13 stories in total, in 40 pages. I like Kidder's writing enough that I’m not mad about its lack of length, but I would like more.

In summary

Criticisms aside, this is a very good set of short stories examining human pain and it is written very well. This also includes some queer stories, which is always a plus, which can be hard to find. Regardless, this is one that you will need a box of tissues for.

My only notes for Hannah, if she reads this, more dragons please.

Five stars and a chef's kiss.