The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones

 

I listened to the unabridged audio version of The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones, which is narrated by Kirsty Rider. 

The Earthquake Bird is a novel that had been sitting on my reading wishlist for quite a long time and I finally made the time to read it this month. The Earthquake Bird also happens to be the author's debut novel. 

The Earthquake Bird is billed as a psychological thriller. I enjoy reading psychological thrillers, which is one of the features that attracted me to this novel. Another factor that drew me to this novel is that the story takes place in Japan and also features an unreliable narrator named, Lucy Fly, as the leading character. If done correctly, unreliable narrators are a fantastic feature in a novel.

So, what did I think of The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones? The pacing of this novel is kind of slow. 

Yes, I like unreliable narrators, but I've seen better unreliable narrators in other novels I've read over the years. 

There was too much switching back and forth between the first person perspective and third person perspective in the The Earthquake Bird, which I find disconcerting in a novel. I guess you can say this only added to the main character's unreliability. However, I still don't like the lack of clarity when an author switches perspective on a reader as it is does cause some minor confusion.

The ending for The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones was dull. For me, it's clear who the killer is to me. But it felt like the author was trying too hard to be creepy in a psychological way that didn't hit the mark. 

The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones is a good, debut novel, but I think it could have been so much better. 

Below is the publisher's summary for The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones from Chirp's website:

Now a major Netflix film starring Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough, a haunting psychological thriller set in Tokyo probing deep into the mind of a murder suspect

The grisly headline leaves nothing to the imagination: “Woman’s torso recovered from Tokyo Bay. Believed to be missing British bartender Lily Bridges.” The only suspect is Lucy Fly. Her friend is dead, her lover has disappeared, and as far as anyone is concerned, she’s as good as guilty.

Trapped in the interrogation room, Lucy begins to unravel two stories. One, for the police, is a spare outline, offering more questions than answers. The other–the real one, if you believe her–is a gripping dive into an obsessive mind, revealing the checkered past that brought her to Japan, her complicated friendship with Lily, and a tempestuous affair with a missing Japanese photographer named Teiji. As she excavates the dangerous secrets–both past and present–that haunt her waking mind, Lucy relates an unsettling life story that spans bustling Tokyo, the British countryside, and remote Japanese islands, each step taking us closer to the chilling truth about Lily’s death. An all-consuming crime story like no other, Susanna Jones’s mesmerizing debut novel is a neo-noir thriller as shocking as it is exquisitely composed.

While listening this novel, I learned that Netflix made a movie, 'Earthquake Bird', based on the novel in 2019. I might watch the movie version.

I am giving The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones a rating of 3 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next, post happy reading!!