Thank you to Kensington Publishing for a copy of this book.

You know the kind of story that once you start it you just can’t put it down, until suddenly it’s 3 am and you’re a complete zombie? Yeah, this book is exactly like that - once I started I just could not stop!

The Long Flight Home is a fascinating look into an aspect of WWII I wasn’t familiar with: the use of pigeons to transport military intelligence across enemy lines. It’s inspired by a true story; in 2012 a pigeon skeleton was discovered in a chimney in England. The message it carried was coded, and has not been deciphered to this day. With that small seed, Hlad has created a story that is beautiful, and at times, heartbreaking.

What really stood out for me was Hlad’s writing style; the narrative is straightforward and spare. It reminded me a bit of Hemingway’s writing - I quite enjoyed it, and I’m pretty sure that’s how the book hooked me so fast. Only one part kind of threw me and pulled me out of the story - the ending. It featured an abrupt jump forward in time, and felt a bit rushed. I found it harder to connect with the fate of the characters because of it. But, I don’t feel like that affects my overall rating all that much, because everything else was brilliant.

You would not believe how fast I jumped at the chance to read and review this book (thank you HarperCollins Canada)! I’m a big Guillermo del Toro fan, and the movie Pan’s Labyrinth was stunning. So, it’s fair to say I went into this with pretty high expectations. I was not disappointed.

This is another one of those books I just couldn’t put down; I read the whole thing in a single sitting. It’s faithful to the movie, and between the text and the gorgeous sketches throughout, I could picture the movie all over again. It definitely captures del Toro’s vision.

The story is written in the third person, and jumps into the thoughts of multiple characters throughout. That, combined with the simple and straightforward narration, made it feel very fairytale-like. It reminded me of some of Gaiman’s work.

Most importantly, you do not need to have watched the movie to enjoy the book; although it did make me want to watch it again. Now to track down a finished copy in all it’s glory!

I have never been so upset about a book as I have been about this one. It’s not a biography - it’s Dery’s attempt to legitimize his ideas about Gorey’s sexuality. Edward Gorey was a homo-romantic asexual, something he freely admitted in interviews and was very open about in various letters to people throughout his life. So where is the debate? Why write a book loosely based on this man’s genius, and then keep bringing it back to his ‘mysterious’ sexuality? It is very clear that Dery (a straight man), knows absolutely nothing about this complex orientation - he continually implies that Gorey experienced something traumatic in his childhood (no proof), and that he was just ashamed of being gay (again, no proof). What. The. Fuck. Shame on you Mark Dery - you had the opportunity to explore Gorey’s fascinating life and his beautiful creations… and instead you wasted it on a 500 page slap in the face toward the man you’re now making money off of. This brick gets 1 star, and that’s only because the writing itself isn’t garbage.