Set on a small Scottish island during and after World War II, this debut by Emma Seckel is wise and eerie at the same time. The sluagh are the blackbirds of Gaelic legend that hold the souls of the unforgiven. They mass on the island when the heroine, Leigh, arrives home after her father’s fall from the cliffs. Reminiscent of Hitchcock’s The Birds with the aura of Tim Burton in the writing, the book has much to recommend it.
-Mary Ellen, Interlibrary Loan
