Feed The Birds: A Gothic Mary Poppins Reimagining by Dakota Wilde

 

I'd never heard of this author before but I was actually high-key impressed. When you pick up a gothic Mary Poppins retelling, it can really only go one of two ways: fanciful whimsigoth or balls-to-the-wall insanity. I'm happy to report that this was the latter, because the latter is way more fun. I'm actually shocked that this doesn't have more ratings, actually, because erotic horror is HUGE. Maybe this book just hasn't found it's right audience yet, I hope it does. Halloween is just around the corner, y'all. Read this book!

FEED THE BIRDS is the story of Marigold Peppins: a woman cursed to be bound by the wind. Her only companions are her birds as she walks the streets of London, looking for the only thing that can break the curse. Barrett Blackford is a widower looking for someone to take care of his children. He's not expecting Mary, and he expects even less to be utterly attracted to her to the point of obsession.

But given Mary's curse, this can only end one way.

The writing was honestly so gorgeous at times and I thought the story was haunting (spoiler: not a romance). Novellas can be hard but I thought Wilde did a great job sticking to her page count and making the story work. My one real qualm is actually shared by the top negative reviewer for this book, and it's something I don't normally comment on except it was exceptionally noticeable here: the editing was pretty bad. There was about one incorrect use of a comma per page, and several noticeable mispellings that would have been caught by a pass with spell check. I enjoyed the story anyway but some people can be real hardasses about that, so if that's you, maybe don't read this book.

I would read more from this author. I think she has a fun tongue-in-cheek approach to gothic horror. 

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars