LIKE A BIRD

A wildfire threatens a family’s home.

The Bird family is no stranger to tragedy. Sixteen-year-old Rachel and her 7-year-old sister, Jane, have been living with their maternal grandparents, Wayne and Margaret, since their mother’s death in a car accident that also claimed their uncle. Raised in Vancouver, Rachel must adjust to tiny Aspen Lake, British Columbia, and the ranch where Wayne’s family has lived for generations. Introverted, awkward Rachel always feels on the periphery, connected to friends only through her relationship with boyfriend Cody. Despite Rachel’s maturity, the stress of handling adult tasks, such as taking care of Jane and helping her aging grandparents, overwhelms her. She also struggles with navigating relationship crises with Cody. Meanwhile, a wildfire encroaches on surrounding areas, slowly working its way toward Aspen Lake, a metaphor for the impending sense of doom and increasing anxiety that Rachel feels. News reports form a recurring motif throughout, taking over the family members’ lives as they regularly track the wildfires’ progress. Rachel’s reflective inner voice permeates her first-person point of view, creating meaningful, slower-paced moments amid the survival storyline. The novel prioritizes Rachel’s internal conflict over the wildfire subplot, which develops incrementally, lending the work the tone of dramatic literary fiction instead of an action novel. Ultimately, readers are led to admire the resilience of both Rachel and the Bird family as a whole. Main characters are cued white.

A deliberately paced, literary coming-of-age survival tale.