If you’re looking for a bit of mystery, whimsical characters and a keen sense of place, Other Birds offers all these delights and more. Pigeon prods and cajoles Zoey, helping her grow. Zoey even has a bird named Pigeon that only she can see. The fictional dellawisps-curious, loud and loitering-shape both the setting and how the characters interact within it. Ghosts and birds-imagined or real, but all mysterious-guide the meandering cast, allowing opportunities for joyful circumstances. Magical elements are hewn into the marrow of Other Birds. In time, each resident seeks to be understood, to build connections with one another and to understand how their lives are intertwined. From Zoey’s artist neighbor, Charlotte, to the property manager, Frasier, each tenant of the Dellawisp is haunted by ghosts-of who they were, whom they love, pasts they don’t understand or want to flee. So, too, has it become a home for a number of interesting people. Zoey finds herself at the Dellawisp, a quirky old building that hosts a flock of nosy, noisy birds for which it is named. Zoey never felt at home with her father and stepmother in Tulsa, Oklahoma, so after turning 18, she moves to the island to live in the apartment left by her late mother. An apartment building on Mallow Island, South Carolina, beautifully illustrates this principle in Sarah Addison Allen’s sixth novel, Other Birds.

Rather, it must feel like an extra layer where secrets might be kept-and possibly revealed.

What does it mean for a story’s setting to really act as an additional character? It can’t just be a well-defined place where players act out their roles.

Sarah addison allen other birds