⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book was fucking amazing
Wow. Just wow.
I’ve read a lot of Neil Gaiman’s work and loved it, so when I saw some reviewers referencing his stories in their reviews of Birds of Paradise, I knew I had to give it a try. I’m so glad I took the chance.
The book opens with a prologue that sets the stage in a way few books do: with emotion that sucker punches you in the gut. Before their fall in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve loved each other so much, they literally opened their own bodies and exchanged hearts to remain close. Adam’s heart beat inside Eve, and Eve’s heart beat inside Adam.
Fast forward to modern times, and we meet Adam working as a security guard for a famous actress. When he kills a man for coming on to her too strong, he must go underground. In the process, he reconnects with many animal figures from his past who’ve now been anthropomorphized as people. There’s Crow with her missing leg, Owl the vicious destroyer, Rook and Magpie the “brother” lawyers, Butterfly the artist, Crab the crusty curmudgeon with an unmatched engineering brain, Pig the sweet fighter, and more. Each of these characters switches between human and animal forms throughout the story, and it was interesting learning about their lives and how the twists and turns within brought them to this point. Missing, however, is Eve.
An odd elderly couple claiming to be devout Christians appears on the scene, surrounded by a curious band of fellow nudists, and things go south when their life-changing plans to recreate Eden by searching the globe for every plant and animal that once lived there and taking charge of them by any means necessary are revealed. These evil bastards are intent on reimagining a new Eden—a twisted version of it powered by money and greed, and Adam isn’t having any of it.
What I loved most about Birds of Paradise is Adam’s transformation from a lost man who is so disappointed in his spoiled, greedy children that he can’t stomach the sight of most of them to a person who will do literally anything to protect his friends—the animals he grew up with and tended to so lovingly in Eden—and to find his missing wife Eve. He has no qualms about killing anyone who hurts his precious animal friends, and there are many flashbacks showing the reader the importance of his relationships with each one. Adam is sensitive but also brutal. Kind but sadistic. Honorable but willing to destroy everything and everyone if he’s forced to. So complex. I absolutely loved him.
The ending of this book was stellar, and the last few pages had me wiping my eyes a few times when we learn that sweet humanitarian Eve is dead by Adam’s hand at her behest. She couldn’t take the world any longer and begged him to kill her. But she left her heart inside him, and now Adam knows he must draw his strength from it. Okay, the truth is, I bawled like a fucking baby.
The author says in the acknowledgments that he wrote this book over a span of ten years, and it shows. Every scene is perfectly developed, guiding the reader gently by the hand through Adam’s truths, no matter how terrible or cruel or sad. Langmead’s ability to show so much emotion through Adam’s dispassionate eyes is an enviable feat, and he pulled it off with great aplomb.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It’s a true masterpiece to rival—perhaps to even surpass—Gaiman’s work.
* I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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