SUGAR BIRDS by Cheryl Grey Bostrom is a compelling, visceral tale of coming-of-age in the beautiful but sometimes dangerous wilds of the Pacific Northwest.
I’ve been reading several books selected by the International Pulpwood Queens & Timber Guys Book Club, now that my novel Pause has been selected as a 2022 title. When I realized that a January Pulpwood pick was set in my home stomping grounds of far NW Washington State (I’m fourth generation here), I was excited to see how the landscape would inform and shape the story. And I was so happy to see that the landscape and all the lore of wild nature is fully as important as the characters in this gripping story of danger from both humans and the wild.
Trying to avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that the story alternates between two point-of-view characters: 10-year-old Aggie, an extraordinary girl who accidentally burns down her home and believes that she has killed her parents. She thinks she will be thrown into Juvie, so she hides in the forest near her burned home and survives using the skills her naturalist father has taught her. The other main character is Celia, a 16-year-old angry teen who has been “dumped” with her grandmother very near Aggie’s hiding places, after her father takes a temporary job in Brazil. The parallel stories converge as both young women face their own internal demons and danger from wildlife and human threats.
I was impressed by the quality of writing and the propulsive energy that pulled me along with the conflicts and discoveries. Bostrom creates vivid scenes, full of sensory details of the smells, sounds, sights, and even tastes of the Pacific Northwest landscape, but doesn’t bog down the plot with excessive description. Because of my taste for active scenes versus summary, I was happy to buckle up for the wild, immersive ride. And since the agile tree-climbing Aggie (who likes to climb very tall trees to sketch bird nests and observe the young) reminded me of my own wild childhood climbing trees on my Grandpa’s raspberry farm and acreage here in Whatcom County, I felt I was there right along with Aggie. As much as anything, Sugar Birds is a love song to our precious Northwest nature and wildlife.
I enjoyed “meeting” Cheryl via a recent Pulpwood Queens Zoom gathering of authors, and we had to wonder why we had not known of each other before this year, as she lives near to me, after having grown up on the Olympic Peninsula. I will eagerly await the sequel she promises.
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com