Review: Silhouette of a Sparrow - Molly Beth Griffin

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 3.5 stars  
Cover Rating: 3 stars (It's strange.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: September 11, 2012
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Page Count: 224 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

It's the 1920's and Garnet is sent to the country for some "fresh air". Garnet loves ornithology, and carries a pair of scissors to snip out bird silhouettes. This is something that she does with ease. Though Garnet is fascinated by this new place she has come to stay, the company is less than desirable. Her relations are stuffy and snobby and Garnet just wants to escape them desperately. Then she finds someone to escape with. There are many reasons that people would find the friendship between Garnet and her new flapper friend scandalous, so they have to sneak around. This works fine until things come up that threatens to tear apart the happiness the two of them have built. Some things that should be, simply are not to be.

What a lovely book. I really enjoyed Garnet, she had such an interesting personality. I would have loved to see her snipping out bird silhouettes quick as you like. I really liked how many different things she had going on throughout the book. Her brain was consumed by just one passion.

It's crazy thinking about how duty bound women were(still are). Things always had to fall into a certain place otherwise you were deemed outside of the realm of nice people. Garnet is trying to escape what she has to do and at first she doesn't even quite realizes it's not what she wants. It's a tricky thing to look at something that is safe and comfortable and livable and decide that that's not really want you want. To know that you can be content, but not happy is a hard thing to walk away from. This is especially true when there is no promise that you will be happy. I appreciate that Garnet was willing to try though.

The relationship was wonderful. You would think that un-worldly Garnet would be the one that needed taking care of, but she ended up taking care of Isabella. Together, they both find out more about themselves. I think that what made their relationship ring so true. Is that through each other they were able to find themselves. Those are the kind of people we all need to surround ourselves with. True people, kind people.

This is a wonderful book and an especially wonderful LGBT book. It's a quick by beautiful read and I look forward to more by this author. If you have a chance, definitely check out this novel.

First Line:
"I was born blue."

Favorite Line:
"It was a slow, silent carousel ride, and I gave in completely to the dizziness."