Black Helicopters, Blythe Woolston
Black Helicopters, Blythe Woolston
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Black Helicopters

Author: Blythe Woolston

Narrator: Kate Rudd

Unabridged: 3 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook (DRM Protected)

Published: 03/12/2013

Synopsis

A teenage girl. A survivalist childhood. And now a bomb strapped to her chest. See the world through her eyes in this harrowing and deeply affecting literary thriller.I’m Valkyrie White. I’m fifteen. Your government killed my family.Ever since Mabby died while picking beans in their garden—with the pock-a-pock of a helicopter overhead—four-year-old Valley knows what her job is: hide in the underground den with her brother, Bo, while Da is working, because Those People will kill them like coyotes. But now, with Da unexpectedly gone and no home to return to, a teenage Valley (now Valkyrie) and her big brother must bring their message to the outside world—a not-so-smart place where little boys wear their names on their backpacks and young men don’t pat down strangers before offering a lift. Blythe Woolston infuses her white-knuckle narrative, set in a day-after-tomorrow Montana, with a dark, trenchant humor and a keen psychological eye. Alternating past-present vignettes in prose as tightly wound as the springs of a clock and as masterfully plotted as a game of chess, she ratchets up the pacing right to the final, explosive end.

About Blythe Woolston

Blythe Woolston‘s first novel, The Freak Observer, won the William C. Morris Debut Fiction Award. About Black Helicopters, she says, ”Suicide bombings shock me and confuse me. What triggers that decision? What makes a person become a weapon? It‘s a terrible choice — a terrorist‘s choice — but it is also the choice of a human being with a mind and a heart and a life before that moment. Every suicide bomber is a human being, just like me. When I understood that, I started writing Black Helicopters.“ Blythe Woolston lives in Billings, Montana.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Wendy Darling on May 24, 2013

I would venture to guess that a lot of readers are going to find this a very difficult book. It feels bleak, it feels hopeless, the language and structure are tricky, and it doesn't care at all if you like it. But man, is this short and devastating literary thriller packed with powerful emotion. 15-y......more

Goodreads review by Kelly on March 19, 2013

This book is going to garner a lot of discussion. I read it three times before I felt like I had a grasp of what was going on. 15-year-old Valkyrie -- Val -- has had a hell of a life. If it can even be called that. Her mom was killed by the black helicopters when she was young, and her father went t......more

Goodreads review by Lottie on June 27, 2013

3.5 Stars! Black Helicopters is a brief novel that I have no doubt will puzzle a person a bit if the person just simple read it. There are hidden details that can be hard to spot-- even I don't really know if I truly understand the story that Black Helicopters offered. And I think that it was meant t......more

Goodreads review by Aj on May 05, 2020

I feel conflicted about this book! It’s unique. It stars a teenage girl who decides to become a suicide bomber. I enjoyed the untrustworthy main character and the author’s attention to detail. I still have so many “Why?” questions! Stuff just happens without explanation. But, it’s definitely memorab......more

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