The Warbler by Sarah Beth Durst is a 335 page standalone novel published March 1, 2025 by Lake Union Publishing of Amazon.

Genre:

Fantasy, Magical Realism

Opening Line:

My mother is a willow.

My Thoughts:

The newest novel from Sarah Beth Durst (author of The Spellshop) is magical realism about a young woman looking for answers about her family’s curse.

Her entire life, Elisa and her mother had to move from place to place, never calling a single place home, never leaving pieces of themselves behind or taking any mementos with them. For if they were to start to put roots down somewhere, they would begin to actually turn into trees themselves. This forces them into a nomadic lifestyle that requires them to appreciate each day for itself and to truly live in the moment, knowing that nothing will last. It’s not as easy life to grow up with, when everyone else around you seems to have much more stability and security, even if this means their lives are more predictable and less adventurous.

“Regrets aren’t a thing you can avoid,” Mom said. “They’re just a part of life. Every time you say yes, you’re saying no to a dozen other things you could be doing.”

Now, without her mother around anymore, Elisa chooses each destination based on her family’s history and whether or not she might learn about the origin of the curse, or the answer of how to break it. In this book she winds up in a quaint village with a bookstore complete with its very own resident cat, a stately old home with a porch hung with dozens of cages housing a diverse collection of birds, and a cafe frequented by three blue-haired old women who dispense cryptic wisdom. Could this be her final stop?

Chapters alternate telling Elisa’s story with those of her grandmother, Rose, and her mother, Lori. Each woman wants something different from life, and each faces obstacles in living the life that they want, either because of societal expectations, the consequences of actions (either their own, or someone else’s)…or because of the curse.

The pacing in this book does suffer at times, with the same points being driven home again and again; this occasionally wore on my patience. But overall I enjoyed this lovely and curious story.