Official Review: The August Birds by Octavia Cade
Posted: 07 Mar 2016, 16:27
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The August Birds" by Octavia Cade.]
4 out of 4 stars
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August September is nine years and eleven months old.
It is very close to the oldest he will ever get.
August knows that he’s dying – he knows it from the way his doctors look at him, from hushed conversations his parents have when they think he can’t hear them, from the way no one will be mad at him, even when they should be. The worst part of it all is that he’ll never get to grow up to be a scientist. He’ll never discover a new comet, or save an endangered species, or find a cure for the very disease that’s killing him.
But in the last month of his life, he’s going to see more of the world than he ever expected. As the month of August starts and August’s life winds down to its inevitable conclusion, two ravens from Norse mythology, Huginn and Muninn, avatars of Thought and Memory respectively, appear to help August make it to his tenth birthday.
The August Birds by Octavia Cade is divided into thirty-two chapters, one for the last day of July and one for each day of August. Each chapter reads like an individual vignette, and is a separate story from a notable event in Science (or the history of Science) to happen on that day in the past or future. On August sixth, Huginn and Muninn take August to visit Hiroshima, Japan. On August twentieth, the birds take August to see the launch of Voyager 2 at Cape Canaveral.
Each day is a new experience for August, a new lesson to be learned. And every lesson helps him come to terms with his life being cut so short – with his sister, who’ll go on to be a scientist instead of him – with the unfairness of his life – with the pain.
The August Birds is hands-down one of the best books I’ve ever read. If the summary hasn’t already sold you on it, allow me to explain how amazing it is.
The novel handles its topics, ranging from the carbon shadow of a man killed at Hiroshima to a little boy unable to emotionally process that he’s dying of cancer, with compassion and an eloquence that left me in tears. One of my favorite parts of the story was when Huginn and Muninn take August back only a few years, to a time before he was born, and his parents had taken his sister to visit the ruins of Pompeii.
August asks Muninn, the bird of Memory, whether or not his parents and sister would have been happier if he had never been born. And Muninn, never one for comforting falsehoods, replies, “Yes. But they would also have been different, and perhaps they would not have swapped that difference for all the happiness in the world.”
Throughout the novel, Octavia Cade uses figures and events from science, from August’s childhood heroes, to discuss mortality and sickness, jealousy and forgiveness. In the course of helping August make it to his tenth birthday, they teach him about the world, and how even though he’s going to die, the matter and energy that make him up will go on…
The August Birds combines literature with science seamlessly, with realistic and likeable characters that learn and grow and laugh and cry and all those things characters tend to do that make us readers fall in love with them. The pacing of the story isn’t perfect, there are a few parts that slow the story down, but the entire plot takes place over the course of a month, so at no point does it become tiresome. And at each point, I found myself wanting to learn, along with August, what the ravens would teach him day after day.
I rate The August Birds 4 out of 4 stars. This is very rare for me. I generally give a rating of 3 out of 4 stars to books that I enjoy, but I reserve 4 stars for books that change me. I learned something from this book. I learned to think about what the last Quagga must have felt like as it died, rendering its species extinct. I learned to share a girl’s joy at discovering a comet, and the fear that drove Einstein to advocate for an American nuclear weapons program.
The August Birds is more than a work of literature. It’s a work of history, and science, and an empathy powerful enough to understand a dying nine-year-old without infantilizing him. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite novels, the kind I can read again and again and find something new in it each time. If you're looking for something different - something poignant, and uncompromising, and wholly worth reading - give this one a try.
You won't regret it.
******
The August Birds
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Like dhaller's review? Post a comment saying so!
4 out of 4 stars
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August September is nine years and eleven months old.
It is very close to the oldest he will ever get.
August knows that he’s dying – he knows it from the way his doctors look at him, from hushed conversations his parents have when they think he can’t hear them, from the way no one will be mad at him, even when they should be. The worst part of it all is that he’ll never get to grow up to be a scientist. He’ll never discover a new comet, or save an endangered species, or find a cure for the very disease that’s killing him.
But in the last month of his life, he’s going to see more of the world than he ever expected. As the month of August starts and August’s life winds down to its inevitable conclusion, two ravens from Norse mythology, Huginn and Muninn, avatars of Thought and Memory respectively, appear to help August make it to his tenth birthday.
The August Birds by Octavia Cade is divided into thirty-two chapters, one for the last day of July and one for each day of August. Each chapter reads like an individual vignette, and is a separate story from a notable event in Science (or the history of Science) to happen on that day in the past or future. On August sixth, Huginn and Muninn take August to visit Hiroshima, Japan. On August twentieth, the birds take August to see the launch of Voyager 2 at Cape Canaveral.
Each day is a new experience for August, a new lesson to be learned. And every lesson helps him come to terms with his life being cut so short – with his sister, who’ll go on to be a scientist instead of him – with the unfairness of his life – with the pain.
The August Birds is hands-down one of the best books I’ve ever read. If the summary hasn’t already sold you on it, allow me to explain how amazing it is.
The novel handles its topics, ranging from the carbon shadow of a man killed at Hiroshima to a little boy unable to emotionally process that he’s dying of cancer, with compassion and an eloquence that left me in tears. One of my favorite parts of the story was when Huginn and Muninn take August back only a few years, to a time before he was born, and his parents had taken his sister to visit the ruins of Pompeii.
August asks Muninn, the bird of Memory, whether or not his parents and sister would have been happier if he had never been born. And Muninn, never one for comforting falsehoods, replies, “Yes. But they would also have been different, and perhaps they would not have swapped that difference for all the happiness in the world.”
Throughout the novel, Octavia Cade uses figures and events from science, from August’s childhood heroes, to discuss mortality and sickness, jealousy and forgiveness. In the course of helping August make it to his tenth birthday, they teach him about the world, and how even though he’s going to die, the matter and energy that make him up will go on…
The August Birds combines literature with science seamlessly, with realistic and likeable characters that learn and grow and laugh and cry and all those things characters tend to do that make us readers fall in love with them. The pacing of the story isn’t perfect, there are a few parts that slow the story down, but the entire plot takes place over the course of a month, so at no point does it become tiresome. And at each point, I found myself wanting to learn, along with August, what the ravens would teach him day after day.
I rate The August Birds 4 out of 4 stars. This is very rare for me. I generally give a rating of 3 out of 4 stars to books that I enjoy, but I reserve 4 stars for books that change me. I learned something from this book. I learned to think about what the last Quagga must have felt like as it died, rendering its species extinct. I learned to share a girl’s joy at discovering a comet, and the fear that drove Einstein to advocate for an American nuclear weapons program.
The August Birds is more than a work of literature. It’s a work of history, and science, and an empathy powerful enough to understand a dying nine-year-old without infantilizing him. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite novels, the kind I can read again and again and find something new in it each time. If you're looking for something different - something poignant, and uncompromising, and wholly worth reading - give this one a try.
You won't regret it.
******
The August Birds
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Like dhaller's review? Post a comment saying so!