Amanda Cox blends history and contemporary elements in The Bitter End Birding Society. With alternating viewpoints at different points in history and with different members of the same extended family, the main theme in the book is how to deal with a difficult past.
Whether it’s generational hurt that was never dealt with or traumatic events from the past few months, the characters realize the only way to move past their pain is to move through it. It’s easy to think that these themes are only relevant to us today, when in reality, these common life struggles affect every generation. And yet when they are not dealt with, the unintentional impact can be felt for generations.
Ana Watkins had a difficult school year, to say the least. It was the kind of year that made her question everything she had once taken for certain in her career. Desperate to get away from the noise, she ran to the mountains to spend the summer with a long-lost aunt.
But while she could leave the cell service behind, she couldn’t shake the guilt or nightmares. A summer in Bitter End, Tennessee was supposed to be restorative and stress-free, but her first week is a circus act of everything possible going wrong.
When her carefully laid plans become completely derailed, Ana tries to get back on track. But the more she isolates herself to her to-do list and pre-set agenda, the more of life she realizes she is missing.
Is it a bad thing to embrace the unexpected? Take a risk? Join a little bird watching club and all the drama that comes with it?
Ana came to Bitter End to heal, but she’s not the only one running from the past. The theme of healing comes up again and again, as characters learn to restore relationships, stop keeping secrets, forgive themselves, trust God, and dare to live out their dreams again. It’s a good story about second chances, breaking generational patterns, and choosing to live in the freedom Jesus offers.
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