Bird

Murphy, Rita. 2008. Bird. Random House. 150 pages.

Wysteria did not care where I had come from or where I had been. Nor did she care that I was small and delicate in nature and easily carried off by the wind. She cared only that I stay with her in the great house she occupied on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain.

There was just something right about Bird. It was atmospheric and lovely. Miranda, our heroine, is easily carried by the wind. But her new "friend" Wysteria is having none of it. Though given some liberty during her first few years there--albeit liberty in weighted boots and usually under the guardianship of Wysteria--Miranda eventually becomes bound to her strange new home. Her gift for spinning makes her handy to have around making and mending nets. Wysteria cares little that Miranda's hands seem incapable of forming calluses and are horribly abused day after day after day. Wysteria--though not much of a lovable woman--does represent at first Miranda's world. Life with Wysteria is all she can really remember, and as such, it is easy not to see what most of the townsfolk see: that Wysteria treats Miranda like a slave. The two live in a strange house. A very strange house that is rumored to be cursed. This introduces the deliciously spooky atmosphere which most likely will draw you into the story and keep you there.

Miranda's life isn't a happy one--not really--but it does hold a few surprises for her as she discovers the house holds more than a few secrets behind its locked doors. And as she makes a new friend, Farley, who shows her that maybe just maybe she was meant to fly away from her prison.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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