Yay, New Zealand horror! Especially New Zealand horror with magpies and the most stylish cover ever. I actually reviewed this book for Strange Horizons - will link the review here when it comes out - but I've been a bit behind updating my Goodreads reads, if that makes sense, so leaving a few short comments here now.

This isn't the first book from Cassie Hart that I've read, and it's not the first magpie-containing book by her that I've read either. And, you know, magpies are a bit of a maligned bird. I know some people have trouble with them but I never have. I find that generally if you're polite to them they'll be polite back, but the magpies of Butcherbird are rather more Hitchcock than harmless, as they swarm the protagonist Jena and generally scare the shit out of her, for reasons that she comes to understand as the book goes on. The trauma of being mobbed by magpies is, however, a minor one when compared with the many traumas that Jena experiences. Well. I say "experiences" and that's true, but the interesting part of her character - and sadly, the all too believable part - is how she fits the pieces of herself around that trauma, papering over the parts of herself that might cause trouble in the hopes of staving off further misery and disappointment. It doesn't work, of course, but the generational horror of what's happening at the family farm, warping each iteration of the family that lives there, is really well done and horribly convincing.