Murmuration

TJ Klune is one of the very best writers I have had the pleasure of reading across any genre. That said I do not like everything he writes and this book was not my cup of tea. I got through about 50% of it but I got bored with the slow tempo and repetitiveness even though I know it was purposely structured that way. I guessed what the twist was and read ahead to the last couple of chapters and authors note just to see what happened. I can definitely appreciate the brilliance of the writing but for me it was a DNF. It did however inspire me to watch Pleasantville again.Edit: I wrote this a few days ago as a 3 star read and put the book away but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I would try to read something else but this story was blocking me. So I finally continued where I left off and by the end I was ugly crying. The writing is so brilliant and even though I’m still not sure I actually LIKED the story there is no doubt it had a great impact on me and gave me all the feels so I couldn’t leave it at a 3 star!

Such a psychological-mystery romance that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What happened? This was......... This was was is..... This IS something precious. It flows and changes and spins around like a real murmuration. I’ve never thought about starlings,how they fly and move as a group. All flying together as one. It’s controlled chaos. It moves with purpose. Being lost in the murmuration is so good. All of it. This exactly I love- A Brain Power At Maximum Level.The year is 1954. His name is Mike Frazier. He lives in Amorea, where all the people know and care and love each other. People don’t lock their doors. There are no children because ---. No cars because ----. No newspapers. No television. He has a cat named Martin and his fella is a waiter named Sean. He owns a bookstore called Bookworm. It’s very popular. People come in every day. There is a book club on Mondays where they sit around and discuss literature. The people of this town seem overly invested in making sure the proprietor of the bookshop and the waiter at the diner eventually get together. They are happy, healthy, and whole. Balance. This is everything to him. This place. This people. His home. This man. He doesn't care what the rest of this world is as long as Sean in it. So what if he can’t ---. Everything whites out. EVERYTHING IS hazy after ---. For a very long time. It’s precious, this thing between them, and Mike will protect it at all costs.Things are not what they appear, which I got it right from the beginning of the book. But I couldn’t figure out who Mike was talking about… , who was that guy. And finally, after the last third, I got it what was going on in a complete surprise.The romance line is sweet and tender,corresponding well with the location and its inhabitants, and supported by his writing prose- natural and fluid. Even thought the mystery is very strong part, their love moving the happening.I want to explain to you why I think this book is so different from other MM novels, but it's difficult to do without ruining your experience. This story really affected me- grips me immediately, until the end of the last chapter, and then I read the author's note about why he'd decided to write about this topic and I really realized how he had gotten the idea. I hope he writes more soon because, as you may have guessed, I'm an unapologetic fanboy of this particular direction.When my heart was crushed at the same time it was uplifted and my brain's working on the max, I cannot give this book any less than 5 stars

I don’t know what the F I just read, but this was a brilliant story. This’ll be a SPOILER FREE review and will not give any information about the story itself.Like many of TJ’s book I’ve read so far, I tend to go in relatively blind. I read the blurb, I only look at the star ratings of the reviews of the people I follow on GR, and maybe, just read a little bit of their experience after reading. But not the details of the storyline and avoid spoilers at all cost, because I like to be surprised when reading a book, and TJ Klune does that every single time.So, if you love TJ’s writing, you’ll like this too. The plot is very different then all his other books I’ve read so far, but also has it’s similar way of how he writes them. It reads like a poem at times and it slowly builds up more and more momentum until the moment you’re thinking “where the f is this all going?!” And then my mind was blown and it’s all far more complex then I initially thought it would be.

I'm sitting here after just finishing Murmuration trying to put my thoughts into words and wishing I could explain what I'm feeling, I don't think I'll be able to. TJ Klune is an amazing writer, although with the world in such a mess it's nice to leave the seriousness behind for just a little while and read books like The Lightning Struck Heart, Tell me it's real, The queen and the Homo Jock King and my personal favorite How to be a Normal Person, they make me laugh, cry (in a good way) and smile, so with that being said it takes me a while to read his books that I know will give me a headache. I'm not good with angst and sadness but TJ's writing is so good that I have no choice but to read his books like Into this River I Drown, Bear Otter and the Kid (just an over abundance of angst), and the many others that have caused my heart to hurt and now Murmuration.I was once again amazed at TJ's skill as a writer and while I had my mind set as to how I wanted this story to go he takes it so much further than my imagination can possibly go. I won't give the story away so I'll only say if you've ever had the pleasure of reading any of his other stories you will not be disappointed in this book. It's deep,dark, beautiful and as always very thought provoking. I had in my head this books ending and he did not let me down.

Waking up lying on his back in the middle of the road, dazed, with faint impressions of breaking glass somewhere at the back of his mind, and not too sure who he is, the reader has to work hard to get his/her bearings at the start of this book. What is this all about? We are inside the mind of a disorientated man who has only too few clues as to who he is and what has brought him to be here. Why can't he whistle? Why does a horse suddenly appear at the side of the road? We could be dreaming, or perhaps a victim of a hit-and-run driver.Before long, with Mike, we are walking into a small town that presents itself as warmly welcoming all travellers, and in spite of fleeting after-images of falling and breaking glass and twisting metal, we discover that this is where we live, are known and welcomed back, and have a business, an identity and a cat named Martin. It all begins to come back to Mike, Mike Frazier: his home, his contented life and his friend Sean. Armorea is the kind of town with an almost Utopian sense of community and and atmosphere of concern by all for all the inhabitants. As his memory of the place returns to him, so his friends and neighbours gather around him to make him feel at home again after his brief (brief?) absence.Armorea is the sort of place people find it difficult to leave - nothing appears to threaten its security, and though it may be a little old-fashioned, that seems a small price to pay for the sense of community and trust that perhaps permeates even the more querky inhabitants.Mike may have arrived home and found a contentment to remain settled there, but we, the readers are only beginning a journey that takes us through a series of oddly inexplicable, albeit trivial, moments that scratch away at the back of our mind, suggesting that something is going on - something that does not quite stay in tune with the friendly self-sufficiency of Armorea.A murmuration of starlings is a wonder. As the flock swirls and turns and spreads and dips and collapses, crowding together and then flinging apart, so the phenomenon seems to be an impossibility (But then from Into This River, we know that TJ is at ease with the impossible). With never an accident, never a collision, the thousands of birds behave more as if they were being directed by a single mind, yet they are undeniably individuals, somehow impossibly working together in a harmony that has to be seen to be believed.What has this marvel of nature got to do with this book? A few starlings do make an appearance now and then, and Mike does watch a murmuration at one point near the beginning of the book, but can this really justify the title? Or am I missing something? Is there something more there, remaining at the very edge of my vision, something recognized, but hardly available to thought?T J Klune is the master of the tease, stringing the reader along with oblique references that hint only, and avoid declaration. He is also a master of language, confidently walking the fine line between saying too much and too little; somehow he manages again and again to pick the very word that resonates in the mind and sets up vibrations that carry the imagination so much further than just the letters on a page. The story is good - the developing relationship between Mike and Sean keeps the reader turning over, but it is much more than this. There is some other plot going on in parallel to this story . . . . or is there?If I were to say more, you'd have to kill me.

I really liked this book. I loved parts of it - the writing was sublime (and very Wolfsong-esque) and it was a great story - but I felt I had to wait just a tad too long to know what was going on, so I can't say I loved the book.It's almost impossible to write a spoiler free review, but the romance was charming, it made me smile and I loved Sean and Mike. I'm glad I read it, but doubt I'll reread.

I had to put this nook down at one point because I didn't think it was going to go the way I want/ had expected it too. It did, however and I enjoyed the journey and the complexities of the story and situation.

You can't miss this one - it's amazing. Incredibly romantic but so engrossing. Every time you think you've figured it out, it changes! Loved it!

At the start l was unsure if l would like this. That changed. It is a cracking book full of twists and turns. Read it, you will not want to put it down