If Birds Fly Back By Carlie Sorosiak - Reshelved Books

Hello Everyone! 

I recently just finished Carlie Sorosiak's ya novel If Birds Fly Back.  For those of you who love books like Eleanor & Park & Our Chemical Hearts, I think you just might find yourself loving this one as well. 

Do my sea shells look like birds? 

This novel is told from the perspectives of two different characters. Linny, who's sister Grace has runaway, and who dreams of becoming a filmmaker - a dream which is shot down by her doctor parents, and Sebastian, a boy who never knew his father but learns that his father is a famous author, still alive, but very old (in his eighties!)  When Sebastian leaves home to track down and meet his father, Linny and Sebastian's worlds collide, and thus this novel is formed.  

Not only is Sebastian's father in his 80's, which is shocking to find out, especially when Sebastian is only around 17.  (His father REALLY should be his grandfather.)  But, Linny & Sebastian meet his father while volunteering at his nursing home.  Yes, you read that correct, his father is patient in a nursing home.  

While tackling subjects such as paternal abandonment, sibling abandonment / teenage runaways, and coming of age, this novel also becomes a story of falling in and learning to recognize first love. 

One thing worth mentioning, is while I absolutely adored this novel (trust me, you will NOT be able to put this one down!) I wasn't a fan of Linny's screen play tidbits.  Sections of this novel break away from prose, and are written in a screen-play format.  This is fitting because Linny's passion is film making, and also because these sections are Linny's way of working through her sister leaving, and for tying together the title of the novel with imagery of "finding one's wings."  However, I think I would have liked the novel even more if these snapshots of Linny's screen play were eliminated and if Sorosiak found another way to tie together the birds and Grace's disappearance... I'm not sure how she could do this.  It might have even been better if these screen play fragments were fleshed out more.  Basically, I found myself skipping over these parts and not really paying much attention to them at all.  

Overall, I'm going to give this novel 4 and 3/4 Coffee Beans.  I really want to give this novel 5 Beans, and I did on my GoodReads page.  However, because of my screen play critique, and for the purposes of this review, I just don't think I can.

Until the next read!

~Jessica