The Warbler - Sarah Beth Durst - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Sarah Beth Durst

GENRE: Contemporary Fantasy.

PUBLICATION DATE: March 1, 2025.

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A contemporary fantasy about mothers and daughters and curses and choices. More drama (but not melodrama), less magic. Compelling but complicated characters. Slowpaced but interesting. Not at all like ‘The Spellshop’, so don’t expect the same kind of vibes! I like this one better, though I am not so happy with the ending.

Plot Preview:

Elisa’s mother has drilled into her that if she starts considering any place her home, a family curse will turn her into a tree. As such, Elisa cannot stay longer than ten months in any place, no matter how much she wants to. She is tired of running around and hence always looks for answers about a past that’s little known to her.

When she reaches a small town in Massachusetts that has some strange anomalies, she hopes to finally find a resolution to her quandary. Will her stay in this town give her the answers she has yearned for? Will her endless journey finally come to a close?

The story comes to us over three timelines: Elisa’s first-person POV in the contemporary time, and two more POVs from two separate historical timelines.

PSA: The Goodreads blurb reveals too much. WAY TOO MUCH!

First things first. Don't compare this book with ‘The Spellshop’, arguably the author's most popular title so far. That was a cosy fantasy with magical creatures and cutesy romance. This is darker in tone, has only human characters, and though there's a magical curse, the magic itself is barely present in the story.

Bookish Yays:

🌳 Elisa and the other two characters whose perspectives we hear. I love how each of them has a complex personality that isn’t always likeable but is true to life with human feelings and flaws.

🌳 The multi-timeline narration. I enjoy plots unfurling over multiple character and time perspectives, and this book handled this aspect of the storytelling quite well. The connection across the three narrators isn't difficult to figure out, so it is more about the how than the who.

🌳 The focus on mother-and-daughter relationships, leading to an exploration of intergenerational trauma and mental wellbeing and even possessiveness and control. The story explores the varied facets of parental love.

🌳 The sharp comment on how societal expectations influence women’s life choices, with the many compromises they need to constantly make being considered a necessary part of womanhood. This is especially felt in the POVs coming from the historical timelines.

🌳 A bookstore and a bookstore cat named Charlie – what reader wouldn’t like these additions!

🌳 Good utilisation of small-town ethos.

🌳 Excellent atmospheric description of the ambience, especially in the woods.

🌳 No romance despite the potential for such a subplot!

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🌱 The curses - actual and imagined. Loved them! But I do wish there had been more clarification on certain aspects connected to the curse. The mystery adds to the allure but it also frustrates.

🌱 The male characters have a relatively minor role to play in this woman-dominated plot. But even in their limited roles, there are a couple of interesting characters with good potential.

🌱 It’s not that difficult to guess where (or with whom) the resolution of the mystery lies. However, the straightforwardness of this doesn’t make the story less compelling.

🌱 The pacing is somewhat slowburn. The start is good but it soon begins to slow down. However, the second half is quite strong and I wasn’t bored at any point.

Bookish Nays:

🍂 Not much magic and too many unexplained scenes.

🍂 The ending is especially disappointing as it leaves many things unattended.

🍂 The title doesn’t suit the story for the most part, and once you realise the significance of the label through the plot, you will also realise (or at least, I hope so!) why it is such a poor title for this story.

All in all, I did like this story a lot. While the plot wasn’t a novel one, the characters and the multi-timeline narrative kept my attention throughout. Had the ending been better and more sealed, I might even have crossed 4 stars.

I think this contemporary fantasy works much better as a drama than as a fantasy. Though there are fantastical elements, the lack of detailing makes them feel more like a background to the reality-oriented plot.

Recommended to those who enjoy complicated character-driven stories with just a hint of magic. Not for those who are looking to recreate ’The Spellshop’ experience as the two books are very dissimilar.

3.75 stars. (Which would have been upwards of 4 stars had the ending been better.)

My thanks to Lake Union Publishing for providing the DRC of “The Warbler” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The digital version of this book is currently available on Kindle Unlimited.