Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bored watching, 15 Feb 2009
Do you enjoy bird watching? Are you lonely? Have your so-called friends started to avoid you? Are you being stalked by a wierdo twitcher?
If so, you may empathise with the heroine of Sally Hinchcliffe's first novel "Out of a Clear Sky". Birdwatching is the unlikely context for a tale of modern day rejection, suspicion and paranoia, as an insecure twitcher IT geek, with a difficult family history, grows increasingly convinced that somebody is out to get her. With good reason. Abandoned by her boyfriend, and ostracised by work colleagues, she finds herself pursued by a mystery stalker with an interest in more than her bird lists.
In some ways I really liked this book. It starts well, and reminded me of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, or The Secret History, although it lacks Donna Tartt's elegance and style. Birdwatchers turn out to be more interesting than you would imagine, with their strange cliques and rules, and the birds themselves create an atmospheric background to a story of murder and obsession. The brutal and cruel world of starlings, dunnocks, and great crested grebes, characterised by violence and sex, contrasts amusingly with the nerdish bird watchers own lives.
Hinchcliffe also writes some attractive prose. I liked her description in the opening chapter in which a group of ravens pick at the body of a mystery corpse, and I liked her particularly creepy description of a dead bird left on the heroine's doorstep.
Yet ultimately I found Out of a Clear Sky disatisfying. After a strong start, the narrative deteriorates with a series of awkward twists that stretch the credibility of the main characters. I would also have liked more opportunity to learn more of the other characters, but this is denied by the heroine's descent into isolation. Overall, Hinchcliffe's book is a good try but would have benefited from more editing. But watch out for those ravens.
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13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A satisfying and subtle read with plenty of uneasy moments, 19 May 2008
This debut novel, Out of a Clear Sky, is ... clever. And I say that in full knowledge of what the word `clever' means to most readers, and that it's a turn-off. But this is the other kind of clever; the kind that leaves a little hole of worry or doubt or expectation in your head as you read and then knits up that gap with perfect timing and economy so that you, the reader, feel satisfied (a) that you were clever enough to spot the thing in the first place and (b) that the writer was only playing with you and knew exactly where and when to answer the question that you'd been asking yourself. As an example (and not to play with spoilers here) my heart did sink the tiniest bit when I found the protagonist was called Manda and her sister Zannah - such outlandish names, I thought, and wondered why. And then I found out why, and the solution was so clever, and so apposite to plot development, that I grinned to myself as I read on.
And I'm not a big birder. The truth is that I have a negative thing about birds. But Sally Hinchcliffe reconciled me to the joys of waiting and watching, and Manda's observations of native species are so perfectly slotted into the main storyline that even a non-birder like me will learn and enjoy. More than that though, the way the birding experiences foreshadow or amplify the human narrative is excellently handled. As I say, clever, in all the best senses of the word. If you enjoy Dibden and du Maurier, I recommend this book to you
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An impressive debut, 11 May 2008
Structured around the beauty of bird sightings and bird-watching, Out of a Clear Sky is a crafted debut that is intrinsically layered with themes and characters. Skilful, clever, well researched and with inspired prose, this stimulating debut transported me into specific locations with seeming ease.
After Manda Brooks' long term relationship ends she hopes to continue her list, collecting and cataloguing bird sightings. The bird sightings provide stability, continuity and some form of consolation, as her friends and her ex fade from her life. Set in the midst of a community of bird-watchers, the events and locations drive the characters through early morning mists, coastlines, into campsites and into hides. Each sense of place and each bird sighting is intensely induced.
As Manda journeys and searches for sightings, she is pushed to her limit as she becomes the prey of another birder. The obsessive natures of individuals are then considered, linking Manda and birds through subtle simile. As she flees and as her life is methodically taken to pieces (again on a number of layers), Manda begins to re-examine, to revisit her upbringing and, in doing so, reaches conclusions regarding her personal connections.
Out of a Clear Sky is an exploration of interaction, human nature, love, loss, obsession, truth, betrayal and much more. The delicate weaving through layers, the seamless joins, are all controlled with a delicate hand. Attention to detail and discriminating observation combine making this, above all else, an enthralling read.
This psychological thriller is both an original and an impressive debut
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