Silhouette of a sparrow

Another YA book by a Grinnellian! Take over the teen publishing industry please Grinnell, you do it right. I probably would not have picked this book up except out of Grinnell pride, but I really enjoyed it. It's a historical (1920s) novel that's well-researched without reading like it's just regurgitating facts. And I'm so happy to see a queer historical romance! I took history of women at Grinnell, I know there were lesbians before the 1970s. And here are some in a book! It's weirdly both fast-paced (I read it all in one night) and reflective. Kind of like if Marilynne Robinson were forced to write a book where something had to happen in 150 pages. (PS I love Marilynne Robinson.)

I also loved the conservation angle. The one thing I thought was weird is that the protagonist, Garnet, likes to birdwatch and cut out bird silhouettes as her hobby. And she cuts out these silhouettes like, all the time. On the streetcar, on boats, wherever. The narrative said she had a fancy small pair of scissors for just this purpose (a gift from her mother to keep her sewing scissors from being dulled on paper... or a gift from her mother to encourage her art?) But like. What is she doing with the paper scraps? I wondered that literally every time she started cutting out bird shapes in public. I'm aware that this is probably a personal flaw and not a narrative flaw.

Library-wise it might be kind of a hard sell. The cover makes it look like it might be about bird monsters and, to me, the book jacket summary sounded kind of boring. I really do think historical fiction readers & realistic romance readers would love it though so I hope it gets picked up by them.