This is a weird one to review.

Caged Little Birds is slow, to the point at one stage I thought it was going to be a boring read because not much seems to happen. The main character is unlikeable and you sense very quickly she is not a narrator that you can trust. Despite being in prison for 25 years, Ava only ever sees herself as the victim.

Yet... There is something about it that draws you in. The sense of paranoia, knowing that she is wrong because it can't be that simple, but then wanting to know what is going on. I'd guessed who the stalker was, but that didn't matter. It's the unravelling of Ava's mind, how quick she is to jump to full on conclusions and be utterly convinced by them, that makes up the story. There's also the way her past is slowly revealed in dribs and drabs - you know the main outline but details start to get filled in that draws you even deeper into her paranoia.

I wasn't sure I was enjoying the book, but also found myself really wanting to know how it ended. You knew she couldn't get away with what she does, but at the same time, nothing would surprise you either?

Not one I'd rave about, but an interesting read nonetheless.

Blooming brilliant!! One of those books that really took me by surprise as I knew very little about it going in. And it had that claustrophobic, unsettling feel throughout as we follow Ava on her release from prison, seeing her face the world after 25 years for a crime that is hinted at throughout but not overly explored.

She finds herself with a new identity - Robin - and with a support system of case workers around her, but that feeling of paranoia and the past always forefront in her mind. She finds a bond with her next door neighbour, Bill, who has had his own issues in life and she does start to feel a little calmer when he's around, although his daughter seems very wary of Ava and this is where her active imagination begins to ramp up the overthinking and paranoia.

There's flashes back to her childhood, birdwatching with her father, and also her time in jail and the people she met there. We really are in her head and it's often a place of confusion while she tries to justify her actions.

The author cleverly drops little hints throughout as to what her crime was, and I really liked that slow burn of not really knowing straight away what she was in for - we see her playing the system when talking to the shrink or case worker, telling them what she knows they want to hear, while keeping a lot to herself.

There's so many aspects to this story that kept me gripped throughout and I really enjoyed the darkness of the characters and brings to the fore of does rehabilitation work, in connection with the severity of the crimes. A very clever book, brilliantly written! Highly recommended!!

I was gripped from the very first page. This is very dark, harrowing and haunting. The main character is written so well. This makes her very dark. This is very twisty and sinister

Unfortunately I will be unable to give feedback on this book. I requested this book and had intentions of reading it. However my taste in books has changed and I do not feel that a review from me would do the book justice

A torrent of suspense and danger floods this thriller, immersing you in a world of secrets and deception that keeps you hooked.

I love how uncomfortable a read this was. Nothing is black and white, even the most heinous of crimes.

Ava has served her time and now under an anonymity order she is known as Robin. She struggles connecting in a world that has changed but soon her world is about to be turned and her secret exposed. This was quite slow paced to start and i did lose interest for a few pages but then was pulled back in. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Caged Little Birds by Lucy Banks

Oh my goodness this book packs a punch! The author has created an incredibly complex character and took me from slight unease to wide-eyed horror at what was happening. Robin is trying to live a quiet life these days. She wishes she could live where there’s nobody else, just miles of wilderness, a rugged coastline and hundreds of sea birds. Yet she’s grateful for the roof over her head and the benefits she has to start her new life with. She’s grateful to be able to eat what she wants, when she wants and to have a hot shower without a queue and no fighting for the shampoo and conditioner. She doesn’t feel like ‘Robin’ though, such an insignificant and ordinary bird. In prison she was called ‘Butcher Bird’ and the public hate her, so even now twenty-five years later she can’t be Ava any more. As Robin settles into her new home and new identity, she becomes aware that someone knows who she is. Can she stay under the radar and stick to all the conditions of her release? Or will she be flushed out and shown to be the monster people think she is?

I loved the way Banks writes Ava, we see everything from her perspective and her mind is such a complicated place to be. I found myself in the strange position of being in her head, but feeling strangely detached and unsure of her. It becomes clear early on that Ava was convicted of murder and has served her full twenty-five year tariff, so there are things about the modern world she doesn’t fully understand. Social media seems ridiculous (in fact, when I try to explain Facebook it sounds ridiculous) and she’s baffled by the little rectangular boxes people carry everywhere, even paying attention to that more than the people they’re with. It’s unusual to see our society this way, with the things we take for granted shown as alien. She’s trying to fit in with her parole conditions, but they break into her peaceful world when she doesn’t want it. There are weekly appointments with the psychiatrist and home visits from Margot her probation officer. Everyone is telling her how lucky she is to be looked after by the state like this, but given the choice Ava would prefer to fend for herself. She goes to pointless interviews, where her crime means she will never be hired, but they fulfil a condition of receiving benefits. There are obligations and places to be at certain times, something she has never been used to.

I had the impression that Ava has always lived inside her own head, rather than being present in the world. We learn that her childhood was spent on a remote Scottish island where there was a huge seabird colony. With no mother, Ava is kept out of school and taken to work with the birds, helping her father, identify, check and ring them for identification. He removed any meaningless junk from the house, including Ava’s toys and her late mother’s armchair, assuring her she wouldn’t need them because she’d be outside. There are other figures that loom in Ava’s past too; Henry who she’s had a relationship of sorts with; Ditz, a fragile young woman from prison who hanged herself; then someone she addresses as ‘you’. The importance of these people and their place in Ava’s life is slowly unveiled as Ava either reminisces or becomes paranoid about them. Another catalyst is Bill next door, or more importantly, his daughter Amber. Bill has been friendly and welcoming, chatting over the fence and eventually asking whether she’d like to go for a walk. However, his daughter is more suspicious, or is it just Ava’s paranoia? Their relationship is very uneasy and Ava is sure that Amber wants to expose her, she’s just waiting for an opportunity. A poison pen letter and a brick through the window add even more pressure to the mix.

Ava strikes this reader as someone with a personality disorder. The isolated childhood and lack of schooling have left her lonely, naive and unable to form boundaries with others, as she’s never had anyone to form a relationship with. She’s grown up as easy prey for those who seem able to sense someone vulnerable and manipulate or use them. Unable to deal with rejection in the usual way someone her age might by reflecting on the experience, feeling sad and angry, maybe seeing a counsellor. She doesn’t even go get drunk, eat ice cream, and malign him to her friends, because she doesn’t have any. Her response is immature, because she is immature emotionally, but perhaps no one could have predicted the events that followed. Lucy Banks brings the past into the narrative as Ava ruminates on what happened. She’s triggered by what she sees as another rejection, so her rage and anger are disproportionate to the situation. She becomes that young girl again. At this point I started to be scared for anyone who came into her orbit. I think the way the writer slowly allows this unease to develop between reader and narrator is brilliant. I noticed that her sleep pattern changed, her paranoia starts to build, she starts to link past and present events in a way that isn’t logical, and acting on emotions rather than fact. I wasn’t sure whether I was in the mind of a murderer or the mind of someone who is just struggling with their mental health, distorting the facts and hallucinating the more violent aspects of her story. I won’t tell you which it is, because slowly finding out is so satisfying and such an enjoyable read. The writer has created a highly original narrative voice and a reveal that I hadn’t worked out. It really stands out as one of the best books I’ve read this year and I recommend you read it.

Not exactly an edge of your seat thriller but still a very interesting and complex book. It was fairly clear where the plot was leading but never boring. Sad f you took in the full life experiences of Robin and I almost found myself sympathising with some of her actions if only from looking at life from her perspective.

Ava has just been released from prison after a 25 year sentence. She's been given a new identity and a fresh start. This book follows Ava on her release adjusting into her new life.

I definitely struggled to get on with this book!
Written in a first person POV from dislikeable main character Ava, it felt a bit relentless. There was no break from being inside Robin's head, which I guess was kind of the point, but it was exhausting and tedious at times.

There aren't many other characters in this book but the ones there were I also didn't like. Whilst I appreciate the unique direction the story took, there wasn't enough here to grab my attention or keep me invested in the book. It wasn't a bad book but definitely fell flat for me!

Caged Little Birds by Lucy Banks is a standalone novel. The story follows Ava, now known as Robin after she is released from prison after serving a lengthy sentence as she settles into her new life in a neighborhood community. But someone is out to disrupt Ava's new start, someone who knows her secrets.

At first we don't know much about Ava/Robin or why she is in prison but we know something terrible happened. At various times in the book, I loved, hated, empathized with, was horrified by and wanted to shake this deeply complex character. I went into this expecting more of a thriller but found instead more of a psychological character study into the experience of a women out of her element, struggling to find her feet and fit into a world that is no longer the same. It made me curious about women's experiences in prison and think deeply about how people treat convicted criminals.

The book was easy to read, and follow the story, and short enough that I could read in one sitting. Overall, I really enjoyed this psychologically intense story and will look out for more by this author.

I really struggled with this one. The storyline just didn’t have me gripped and was a little slow, it did however highlight the struggles ex offenders deal with when released and how it affects their mental health.

Caged Little Birds is a claustrophobic and intense read. Within the pages we meet Ava, who as a child had lived a solitary life accompanying her father across the remote islands of the UK to carry out bird studies.

When we meet Ava, she carries the name Robin. Newly released from prison we see how she goes about living life on the outside after being incarcerated. We also learn more about the events that led her to a prison cell, and what happened within the prison walls.

This was about as far from uplifting a read as you can get, but I was compelled to find out what would happen next!

I really liked this book and loved the character of Mia. Was gripped throughout this brilliant tense and creepy story with one of the best protagonists I've ever read xx

I have mixed feelings about this book. I did find it intriguing, I like an unreliable narrator and it was well written. However, it was obvious from the start what Ava had done and where the story was heading and it was very slow. I started skim reading to get to the action at the end which is never a good sign. It was just too slow and repetitive for me, I prefer these kind of books to be pacier and I got a bit bored of waiting for Robin to do something. Perhaps I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, let’s blame the heat and round it up to 3.5.

This was certainly different. It was well written, and quite disturbing, not an easy book to read at all. I don't really know what to make of it, it is not a book you read and just forget. It's really quite clever ,but I am not sure I liked reading it.

Ava thinks she’s blameless but everyone else thinks she's a murderer....

Ava is released from prison after 25 years with new identity and home but she can't escape her past and someone knows about her lies and is about to catch up with her.

Such a twisty book loved it

Released from prison at the end of a twenty-five year sentence, Ava is housed in a council house in a town she doesn’t know and given the new name Robin. Keeping a lid on her feelings by self–medicating with sleeping pills, she convinces her psychiatrist and her probation officer that all is well. And sometimes all does go well, especially when she spends time with Bill, an ex-homeless man whom the council have housed next door. Although Robin keeps most of her past hidden, it seems that Bill is a kindred spirit, prepared to accept that a person can change despite a flawed background. But Bill has a daughter, Amber, who recognises Robin from somewhere and grows suspicious of her father’s blossoming friendship with her. And then the threatening notes start arriving and the pressure builds for Robin.
Less of a thriller and more of a psychological character study, this well-written novel depicts a descent into paranoia and violence. The narrator was unreliable, unlikeable and utterly compelling.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

Ava was in prison for 25 years after being convicted for murdering her lover's son. Now she has been released with a new name, but starting over may not be that easy. Someone knows who she really is ....

This was suspenseful and oppressive. I felt stuck in Ava's head and it was uncomfortable, given how much of an unreliable narrator she is. In her mind, the boy's death was an accident. But hints are dropped that undermine that belief. Once the threats against her start, she becomes suspicious and paranoid and it's hard to know how much of what is going on is real. Well done.

This story is told in two time lines the present Ava living with a new identity after her release from prison with snippets of her troubled and traumatic past..

So Ava is a character you love to hate, misunderstood, chaotic devious, manipulative, unpredictable a real Jackle and Hide.

Caged Little Birds is an enchanted read that although complex you can't help but be immersed in.