Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, and sorry it took me so long to listen to!
I really enjoyed this story! I don’t too often get to listen/read stories about gay folks who are my parents age or older, so it was refreshing in that way. It had a bit of a memoir feel to it, which I personally enjoy. I had no expectations going in and was pleasantly surprised!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book.

Oh wow!!! This was a first for me by this author but will not be my last! Such a good story!

This is a tough one to rate. At moments, it’s like a miraculous resurrection of David Rackoff has arrived to tell you this alternate version of his life story (the narrator sounds so much like him that I checked the copyright date multiple times) - but then the title character comes back and we’re back into a tiresome rehashing of the difficulty of expunging toxic people from your life.

The title character is the problem. The book is really about Birdy’s childhood friend Roland, who is a much more interesting character and is surrounded by an entertaining supporting cast. But far too much of the book focuses on the tween to teen years Roland and Birdy spent together. While many of the events provide interesting glimpses of life in Winnipeg in the 1960s and 80s, Birdy is so consistently awful from the beginning that you start to cringe every time he enters a scene. I really wish that his departure had happened several chapters sooner so we could have had more detail about Roland’s adult life. The particular ways in which Birdy is obnoxious hew so closely to dated stereotypes that I am reluctant to recommend this one to a broader (ie straight) audience.

If you just can’t get enough of cis white boomer coming out stories, or if you have a particular interest in Manitoban queer history, then it’s worth pushing through to listen to this one. For everyone else…at least you will appreciate your own (hopefully better) friends and family more by the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

A good coming of age story about sexuality and growing up in the 70s. It is equally as funny as it is sad with lots of entertaining moments as well as some trauma.
It reads like a diary/memoir however I didn’t particularly feel hooked throughout which explains the 3* rating.

I wanted to love this book so much. but I just couldn't get into it. The book had a great idea, but it just sort of dragged in the middle.

This was a coming-of-age tale about a young gay man growing up in 60s Canada. The book focuses on his childhood and friendship with the eponymous Birdy O'Day. I liked the fact that the book avoided some tropes and the protagonist, Roland, grew up in a supportive household although I'm not sure there's a lot of queer joy to be found here.

I did feel like DNFing around the 67% mark as I wasn't engaged and found the book a bit meandering. Thus I came to NetGalley to read reviews to help me decide and was promised a suprise at the end which made me persevere however I don't think I was invested enough to find the ending surprising.

Saying that, the narration was engaging and I enjoyed the Canadian accent. If I had one quibble, it was occasionally hard to differentiate who was speaking during moments of dialogue but other times I found the voices quite distinct so a small thing in the scale of things.

Overall, I feel pretty ambivalent about this one: I don't regret listening to it and don't have many complaints hence the three stars however I'm not sure this was for me.

Disclaimer: I received an audio ARC (advance review copy) from the publisher, ECW Press Audio, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks!

An Evening with Birdy O'Day
by Greg Kearney
The tremulous story of love, loss and inspiration. The book shows the difficult nature of LGBQT+ in the 1970's and 80's through modern times. From changing perception of love, and cultural norms. The book shows the personal struggles of childhood when friendships shows the nature of love between two friends. The trials and tribulations of defining yourself, understanding your desire, and finding inspiration. Birdy O'Day had a long life of bad situations, and personal struggles that affect his carrier. Roland finds that he not only is gay, but that he has to struggle through life and acceptance. His Mothers MS, and his aids diagnosis. His connection to Birdy, and the personal struggles after he left for fame.

I never knew where this story was going to go next. I really enjoyed the way we started the book in present day, and having Roland looking back on what led him to where he was now. The relationship between Roland and Birdy was extremely toxic, but the relationship between Roland and Margaret was incredible. The progressive nature of their relationship, the unconditionally love, and inseparable bond was beautiful to read about, especially during the time period that this book took place.

I would definitely recommend!

Thank you to Greg Kerneg, ECW audio, and NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book!

Initially, the narrator put me off of this book a little because I feared it was maybe too over the top. But when I returned and leaned into it I kind of loved it and felt like it really painted a great image of Kerney’s characters to me.

A funny and sad and funny some more gay coming of age story! A great read for Pride month!

A funny, boisterous, and deeply moving novel about aging hairstylist Roland's childhood friendship with Birdy O'Day, whose fevered quest for pop music glory drives them apart.

This book was fairly interesting. Gay coming of age reflection of what broken boys end up as. I absolutely loved the ending especially, given how annoying a character Birdy was/grew to be.

Only downside is the book seemed a bit too long and stream of consciousness writing got a bit grating at some points.

I unfortunately decided to not complete this audiobook at 63%. I thought this audiobook started off super strong with an amazing narrator. For real, the narrator is incredible. Unfortunately, the further I got into the story, the less attentive I was to it. I thought the beginning 10-20% was hilarious and I was super excited for the book, but once we started to focus on Roland and Birdy as boys, it got a little lost in translation for me. This might be a book I revisit down the line potentially because it did have great potential.

Thank you author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book!

An Evening with Birdy O’Day by Greg Kerney tells the story of Roland and Birdy growing up together, then growing apart. Birdy pursues the fame he’s always longed for, but leaves behind the boy who longs for him. It’s framed by Birdy’s invitation, decades later, to meet. As he considers the invitation, Roland reviews the events of their lives.

This is the bittersweet fantasy of anyone who’s been separated by time and circumstances from someone they love—at the end of their lives, will they see each other one more time? And how would that go, if they did?

Despite the five star rating, the book has some pacing and focus issues. There are times when Roland goes on long tangents about his mother. I embrace those, since I understand the book to be more of a story of their entire life including context, and Margaret is an important part of that. If you’re expecting a love story, it’s both less and more than that.

Thank you author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!!

Young Birdy and Roland remind me of Aristotle and Dante. Roland doesn’t remind me of Ari but Birdy reminds me of Dante. Birdy is eccentric and headstrong in his individualism. Also it’s in Roland’s pov and his description of Birdy makes me think of the way Ari talks about Dante.

I love Margaret!!! I feel like she’s so casually honest with the kids. She gives reasons and lets them act like kids. She feels autistic coded to be honest and I love her.

This book was such a pleasant surprise - I absolutely loved it! It's essentially the life story of a gay boy/man and tracks his obsession with his childhood friend who goes on to find fame. It's sad and has a melancholic tone, but it's also full of wit and had be laughing out loud multiple times. The characters where so richly painted. My personal favourite was Roland's mother who was insistent on being totally open and frank with her son, to the point of inappropriateness at times. I loved the antics that Roland and Birdy got up to together and how their relationship developed. It really is so sad and touching and I found it so relatable and imagine that Roland's longing will be relatable to many other readers too. It's not super often that a book as a plot, characters and writing that captivate me this much and I'm so glad I read this book.

I was granted access to the audio by the publisher via Netgalley. I enjoyed the narrators style and voices and his comic timing suited the tone of the book. There were some points where he seemed to pause or stumble in odd places, but it didn't impact my enjoyment of the book at all.

Overall this is such a great read and to be honest, I would have been happy if we had got another 100 pages of Roland's life in the between times, when Birdy wasn't present, but that's just me being greedy! Highly recommended!

This was such an enjoyable read and I loved the narration. The narrator was so essential to getting the voices of the characters out, like to the point where I'd suggest this mostly as an audiobook. The book focuses a lot on the past and their childhood together. Despite this, it's not childish or YA at all.

NetGalley ARC

Unfortunately the voice of the mc was just irritating me, they were unrelatable to me so I found them hard to connect with. But I think this book would be very entertaining to the right audience.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced audio book.

I love a dishy narrator and story, but this one felt a little too over the top. It may have been a case of the audiobook narrator doing a little too much.

An Evening With Birdy O”Day is a masterpiece in light and shade, it takes you from deeply dark humour and guttural laughter to melancholic sadness and wrenching tears.

I don’t want to spoiler this story at all but I need to mention Margaret, Roland’s mother, my god I loved that woman, she made me howl with laughter and I admired her grit and steel immensely, she is written so so well! There are few like her, but if you know one you’re damned lucky! Roland and Birdy’s early years were so poignant, so relatable.

Prepare to have your heart broken.

Raw,brutal, hilarious and just stunning! All the stars 🌟 #Jorecommends

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press Audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in return for an honest review.