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One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow
From the bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night comes a powerful and poetic novel of survival and sacrifice on the American frontier.
Wyoming, 1870. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse.
Losing her husband to Cora’s indiscretion is another hardship for stoic Nettie Mae. But as a brutal Wyoming winter bears down, Cora and Nettie Mae have no choice but to come together as one family—to share the duties of working the land and raising their children. There’s Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde—no longer a boy, but not yet a man—who must navigate the road to adulthood without a father to guide him, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah, who is as wild and untamable as her prairie home.
Bound by the uncommon threads in their lives and the challenges that lie ahead, Cora and Nettie Mae begin to forge an unexpected sisterhood. But when a love blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, bonds are once again tested, and these two resilient women must finally decide whether they can learn to trust each other—or else risk losing everything they hold dear.
Wyoming, 1870. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse.
Losing her husband to Cora’s indiscretion is another hardship for stoic Nettie Mae. But as a brutal Wyoming winter bears down, Cora and Nettie Mae have no choice but to come together as one family—to share the duties of working the land and raising their children. There’s Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde—no longer a boy, but not yet a man—who must navigate the road to adulthood without a father to guide him, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah, who is as wild and untamable as her prairie home.
Bound by the uncommon threads in their lives and the challenges that lie ahead, Cora and Nettie Mae begin to forge an unexpected sisterhood. But when a love blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, bonds are once again tested, and these two resilient women must finally decide whether they can learn to trust each other—or else risk losing everything they hold dear.
497 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 8, 2019
19.9k people are currently reading
33.6k people want to read
About the author
Olivia Hawker
9books1,046followersAlso publishes under Libbie Hawker, Libbie Grant, and L.M. Ironside
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,899 reviews
July 19, 2021
I LOVED THIS BOOK! Everybody, this is a must read!! Hawker is an incredible storyteller and in this entanglement of words have created this literary masterpiece.
5 solid stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wyoming, 1876. The Bemis (Ernest/Cora and daughter Beulah) and Webber (Substance/Nettie Mae and son Clyde) have relied on each other for survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora with Substance, Ernest kills him. While Ernest is in prison, the women left behind, despite their feelings of anger and shame, they must live together in one roof to survive the harsh winter. Their children Clyde and Beulah inevitably start to develop feelings for each other.
Right from the start, the premise pulled me in to this shockingly wonderful story of infidelity and betrayal, love- lost and love-found, unusual friendships, strength of women, survival and forgiveness. I enjoyed the beautiful and vivid descriptions of the mundane life in the frontier; herding sheep, birthing sheep, milking cows, tending crops, making bread and pork fat just frying for breakfast. At one point while I was reading, I had to stop and actually made cheddar biscuits before resuming to read the book. 😂😂 I was so sucked in with their lives I wanted to be so much a part of it.
Hawker is unbelievably talented to be able to tell such a heartbreaking story about the lives of two families living in the isolated area of the Wyoming Frontier in the 1870’s.
5 solid stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wyoming, 1876. The Bemis (Ernest/Cora and daughter Beulah) and Webber (Substance/Nettie Mae and son Clyde) have relied on each other for survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora with Substance, Ernest kills him. While Ernest is in prison, the women left behind, despite their feelings of anger and shame, they must live together in one roof to survive the harsh winter. Their children Clyde and Beulah inevitably start to develop feelings for each other.
Right from the start, the premise pulled me in to this shockingly wonderful story of infidelity and betrayal, love- lost and love-found, unusual friendships, strength of women, survival and forgiveness. I enjoyed the beautiful and vivid descriptions of the mundane life in the frontier; herding sheep, birthing sheep, milking cows, tending crops, making bread and pork fat just frying for breakfast. At one point while I was reading, I had to stop and actually made cheddar biscuits before resuming to read the book. 😂😂 I was so sucked in with their lives I wanted to be so much a part of it.
Hawker is unbelievably talented to be able to tell such a heartbreaking story about the lives of two families living in the isolated area of the Wyoming Frontier in the 1870’s.
November 17, 2022
Why I chose to read this book:
1. I came across it on ŷ a couple of years ago. It intrigued me enough to add it to my WTR list; and,
2. September 2022 is my self-appointed "Historical Fiction Month".
Praises:
1. above all else, I just savored 's writing style with this particular storyline! Her descriptive prose firmly led me through the seasons of the isolated, atmospheric setting of 1876 Wyoming Territory, living with two families in the middle of nowhere;
2. Hawker fleshed out the four main characters in unique fashion! Each section is broken into four chapters, beginning with 13-year-old Beulah's thoughts (told in 1st person). She is "eerie and wise", with the ability "to see and know". Her attunement with others and especially with nature gave me goosebumps! If anything, her character makes me appreciate the intricacies of life outdoors even more. The following three chapters, each told in 3rd person, incorporate Beulah's musings. We have: Cora (Beulah's mother) whose adulterous relationship sets the stage for this story; Nettie Mae (the neighbor woman) whose husband was killed by Cora's husband when he discovers their dalliance; and Clyde (Nettie Mae's 16-year-old son) who now is the "man of the family". Although I felt for each of these characters on various levels, it was Nettie Mae's perspective that I appreciated the most!
3. the hardships and tragic events are all believably lifelike! I could easily relate to the seasonal changes and the farm work done throughout the year. I even made a personal connection to the two-headed lamb! Several years ago, one of our cows birthed a stillborn two-headed calf (with vet assistance). Extremely rare! and,
4. one must read the "Author's Note" - this story is based on her family history!
Overall Thoughts:
This is a story about love and hate, but especially about life and death and the connection to nature. It's Historical Fiction at its finest!
Recommendation?
If you are vegetarian/vegan/squeamish about animal death, then you may wish to skip this read. However, if life (and death) on the farm doesn't bother you, then I highly recommend reading this powerful tale!
1. I came across it on ŷ a couple of years ago. It intrigued me enough to add it to my WTR list; and,
2. September 2022 is my self-appointed "Historical Fiction Month".
Praises:
1. above all else, I just savored 's writing style with this particular storyline! Her descriptive prose firmly led me through the seasons of the isolated, atmospheric setting of 1876 Wyoming Territory, living with two families in the middle of nowhere;
2. Hawker fleshed out the four main characters in unique fashion! Each section is broken into four chapters, beginning with 13-year-old Beulah's thoughts (told in 1st person). She is "eerie and wise", with the ability "to see and know". Her attunement with others and especially with nature gave me goosebumps! If anything, her character makes me appreciate the intricacies of life outdoors even more. The following three chapters, each told in 3rd person, incorporate Beulah's musings. We have: Cora (Beulah's mother) whose adulterous relationship sets the stage for this story; Nettie Mae (the neighbor woman) whose husband was killed by Cora's husband when he discovers their dalliance; and Clyde (Nettie Mae's 16-year-old son) who now is the "man of the family". Although I felt for each of these characters on various levels, it was Nettie Mae's perspective that I appreciated the most!
3. the hardships and tragic events are all believably lifelike! I could easily relate to the seasonal changes and the farm work done throughout the year. I even made a personal connection to the two-headed lamb! Several years ago, one of our cows birthed a stillborn two-headed calf (with vet assistance). Extremely rare! and,
4. one must read the "Author's Note" - this story is based on her family history!
Overall Thoughts:
This is a story about love and hate, but especially about life and death and the connection to nature. It's Historical Fiction at its finest!
Recommendation?
If you are vegetarian/vegan/squeamish about animal death, then you may wish to skip this read. However, if life (and death) on the farm doesn't bother you, then I highly recommend reading this powerful tale!
January 30, 2020
I was so impressed with the poetic and lyrical prose in this beautiful novel. The story was stunning, captivating and I had hoped for a few more chapters. I loved every moment of this magical story.
October 17, 2019
Olivia Hawker’s descriptive storytelling Whisked me away to 1870s Wyoming. Gritty and raw this is a tale about resilience, acceptance, and forgiveness. Two families living on the Wyoming Prairie with their nearest neighbors over 20 miles away. When the husband of one family and the wife of another are caught in a compromising position. One man is killed and the other man is sent to jail, leaving the women Cora and Nettie Mae to pick up the pieces. Life on the frontier is hard and these women have to find a way past their grief, guilt, and hurt and help each other survive.
The strength of the story was in these characters. They will tug at your heart strings, you will cry with them, you will sweat with them, you will laugh with them, and you’ll pray with them. The main focus of the story for me was Beulah. Beulah was such a free spirit with a spark of magic. This was a quiet understated story that was loosely based on the author’s own family history. Sometimes it’s just nice to cozy up with a good book! An old fashion well told story full of colorful characters and descriptive writing that envelops you.
This book in three emojis: 💪🏻 👩🏼� 🙏🏻
*** Big thanks to Lake Union for my copy of this book ***
The strength of the story was in these characters. They will tug at your heart strings, you will cry with them, you will sweat with them, you will laugh with them, and you’ll pray with them. The main focus of the story for me was Beulah. Beulah was such a free spirit with a spark of magic. This was a quiet understated story that was loosely based on the author’s own family history. Sometimes it’s just nice to cozy up with a good book! An old fashion well told story full of colorful characters and descriptive writing that envelops you.
This book in three emojis: 💪🏻 👩🏼� 🙏🏻
*** Big thanks to Lake Union for my copy of this book ***
March 10, 2021
So it’s one for the blackbird and one for the crow, but I’ll tell you who it’s not one for - VEGETARIANS.
We’ve all heard the term beating a dead horse, right? Well this book also beats chickens, sheep, and a coyote to death.
I almost abandoned Olivia Hawker’s 1800’s Wyoming frontier-set novel multiple times due to the never-ending slaughter, but the overall plot was so intriguing that I steeled myself and plowed ahead. Speaking of plowing, the story kicks off with a man killing his neighbor after he catches him doing the no pants dance with his wife. He then goes to jail, leaving the two wives alone with their children to fend for themselves during the brutal winter. The women quickly realize their only chance of surviving is to cohabitate and combine resources. Can you imagine having to move in with the hussy up the road who just took out your husband by taking him down to pound town?
Obviously I’m making light of a book that had no lightness to it, but that’s what I had to do so I could finish. In the Author’s Note, Hawker explains how the novel is somewhat of a rumination on death and the circle of life. Death is one of only two shared experiences for every living organism (the other of course being birth), and she wanted to focus on that end of life journey. And she did. Multiple times. It’s also a story about acceptance and forgiveness, so it’s got that going for it.
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow is a title that is frequently mentioned on lists of Must Read books, so I’m glad to now know what all the fuss is about. If slow animal death isn’t something that bothers you, then by all means plow ahead.
We’ve all heard the term beating a dead horse, right? Well this book also beats chickens, sheep, and a coyote to death.
I almost abandoned Olivia Hawker’s 1800’s Wyoming frontier-set novel multiple times due to the never-ending slaughter, but the overall plot was so intriguing that I steeled myself and plowed ahead. Speaking of plowing, the story kicks off with a man killing his neighbor after he catches him doing the no pants dance with his wife. He then goes to jail, leaving the two wives alone with their children to fend for themselves during the brutal winter. The women quickly realize their only chance of surviving is to cohabitate and combine resources. Can you imagine having to move in with the hussy up the road who just took out your husband by taking him down to pound town?
Obviously I’m making light of a book that had no lightness to it, but that’s what I had to do so I could finish. In the Author’s Note, Hawker explains how the novel is somewhat of a rumination on death and the circle of life. Death is one of only two shared experiences for every living organism (the other of course being birth), and she wanted to focus on that end of life journey. And she did. Multiple times. It’s also a story about acceptance and forgiveness, so it’s got that going for it.
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow is a title that is frequently mentioned on lists of Must Read books, so I’m glad to now know what all the fuss is about. If slow animal death isn’t something that bothers you, then by all means plow ahead.
February 24, 2020
This for me was one of those books that the story was pretty decent but I got bored reading it. It should have been good but as I sit here thinking about it I just can't find a reason to say it was.
The story line is that prairie neighbors the Bemis and the Webbers live out miles away from town. One of the dudes decides to bonk the other one's wife and ends up dead. Other daddy goes off to jail. Leaving the two women and children on their own. That's a pretty big deal in the time period...several things can kill you. Freezing, starving, your neighbor....
The two women have to make it on their own. But honestly in my mind only one would have. Nettie Mae (the one who was cheated on) is the only one that had any dang sense. The other woman kinda pouts around and makes stupid decisions. Her daughter Beulah does most of the work but they keep talking about how flighty she is. I was confused.
ANNNNDDDDD a major pet peeve- this author repeats half the story over and over and over again. I can't even with that.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
The story line is that prairie neighbors the Bemis and the Webbers live out miles away from town. One of the dudes decides to bonk the other one's wife and ends up dead. Other daddy goes off to jail. Leaving the two women and children on their own. That's a pretty big deal in the time period...several things can kill you. Freezing, starving, your neighbor....
The two women have to make it on their own. But honestly in my mind only one would have. Nettie Mae (the one who was cheated on) is the only one that had any dang sense. The other woman kinda pouts around and makes stupid decisions. Her daughter Beulah does most of the work but they keep talking about how flighty she is. I was confused.
ANNNNDDDDD a major pet peeve- this author repeats half the story over and over and over again. I can't even with that.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
November 17, 2019
This book took me back to the prairie.. I haven’t really revisited since my days as a young girl when I read every single Little House book available!
This time it’s 1870, rugged and isolated Wyoming.
Two families who live on neighboring farms miles away from the closest town.
Cora who was raised in the city is lonely and has a dalliance with her neighbor Nettie Mae’s husband Substance.
Ernest, Cora’s husband comes across the pair at the river and in an act of passion, shoots Substance.
Substance dies and Ernest goes to jail.
The winter is coming and these women must unite their families to survive, and it is extremely difficult with all the anger and anguish to compound the situation.
I really enjoyed this story. It ended up pulling at my heart strings... it was scenic, a story of female survival on the frontier.. a story of forgiveness
Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC!
This time it’s 1870, rugged and isolated Wyoming.
Two families who live on neighboring farms miles away from the closest town.
Cora who was raised in the city is lonely and has a dalliance with her neighbor Nettie Mae’s husband Substance.
Ernest, Cora’s husband comes across the pair at the river and in an act of passion, shoots Substance.
Substance dies and Ernest goes to jail.
The winter is coming and these women must unite their families to survive, and it is extremely difficult with all the anger and anguish to compound the situation.
I really enjoyed this story. It ended up pulling at my heart strings... it was scenic, a story of female survival on the frontier.. a story of forgiveness
Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC!
October 29, 2019
I’ve always loved historical fiction set in the pioneering western US. One for the Blackbird is set in Wyoming in 1870.
The Bemis and Webber families rely on each other for survival. There’s no one else around, so they need each other. Ernest finds his wife, Cora, cheating with their neighbor, and now, Ernest is in prison with the two women left to survive on their own.
Of course, Cora and Nettie Mae have unsettled feelings between them, but when winter comes, they are forced together to tend the land and care for their children.
Two of their children are teenagers, though, and they fall in love. This relationship tests the women further.
Olivia Hawker’s writing is beautifully descriptive of the land and its people. I love that the story was loosely inspired by her own family. I adored these two families and the strong women.
One for the Blackbird is a tender story of forgiveness with the hard prairie life as a backdrop. I enjoyed every bit of it.
I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog:
The Bemis and Webber families rely on each other for survival. There’s no one else around, so they need each other. Ernest finds his wife, Cora, cheating with their neighbor, and now, Ernest is in prison with the two women left to survive on their own.
Of course, Cora and Nettie Mae have unsettled feelings between them, but when winter comes, they are forced together to tend the land and care for their children.
Two of their children are teenagers, though, and they fall in love. This relationship tests the women further.
Olivia Hawker’s writing is beautifully descriptive of the land and its people. I love that the story was loosely inspired by her own family. I adored these two families and the strong women.
One for the Blackbird is a tender story of forgiveness with the hard prairie life as a backdrop. I enjoyed every bit of it.
I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog:
October 24, 2019
I guess I’m an outlier here. I couldn’t wait for this to be over.
May 16, 2019
It has been a long time since I have read a book that captivated me as much as this one. Every word was poetry and every page made me want to hurry and get to the next one, yet, I had to savor each one I was on.
This is a book about sin, and redemption and wounds and healing and love and an awareness of everything under the sun. Simple people, broken dreams and the beauty of the world around and its healing touch.
Read this book.
This is a book about sin, and redemption and wounds and healing and love and an awareness of everything under the sun. Simple people, broken dreams and the beauty of the world around and its healing touch.
Read this book.
December 5, 2019
A story of family, friendship, and survival on the prairie frontier. Two homesteader families are thrown together under possibly the most awkward circumstances possible: Cora is found in bed with Nettie Mae’s husband, shots are fired, and when the smoke clears Nettie Mae is a widow and Cora’s husband is in jail. To say these two women want nothing to do with each other would be the understatement of the century, but as they stare down the barrel of an impending Wyoming winter with no men to work their farms and no other neighbors within miles, they realize they must rely on each other if their children are to survive. Quiet, lyrical, lovely, a paean to steel-spined women and the harsh beauty of the big sky country.
June 23, 2020
2.5�
“Beulah, he said, I done something wrong.
I said, I know it, Pa.
He nodded. Pa never questioned this way I have—the knowing that comes to me from the movement of wind or the scent of blackberries, or the sound of a gunshot by the river.�
There are some wonderful descriptive passages and an interesting premise to this story, just enough interest to keep me going as far as I did until I began skimming. Two mothers, one widowed, one with her husband in jail, face a bleak winter on neighbouring farms in northern Wyoming in 1876. They are enemies.
The 16-year-old son of one and the 13-year-old daughter of the other join forces in an attempt to handle the farm work on each holding without the benefit of help from anyone else.
“The prairie was nothing but death, season in and season out. Dry grasses, gray sage, the hawks falling from the sky to seize whatever small lives struggled in the thin shadows below. Wolves howling at night, eager for the hunt. The brown water racing down a hill face, the sterile winter snow six feet deep.�
I was really looking forward to this one, as I had a family member who lived in the area where it takes place, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me connected.
The chapters alternate between characters, which gives the author plenty of scope to view the day-to-day chores from different perspectives, but it’s obvious the main character is Beulah, who has “the knowing�. She’s called dreamy and distractible by her mother, but strange and unnatural by the neighbour.
She can walk through a pen of lambs, and they will come to her. The chickens, and even the rooster, will gather at her feet quietly. If someone is ill, we know her thoughts about the outcome. At one point, she’s standing by a heavily pregnant ewe.
“Brief as my encounter with that ewe had been, I had seen with vivid clarity the sacred shadow hanging over her back, darkening the curve of her poll. Death was waiting, already drawn close beside her.
. . .
Death comes when it comes. You can’t do a thing to change it, once the great and final decision has been made.�
There are so many instances of her responding to the wonders of nature and the foreboding of death that I kept waiting for the story to move along. About halfway through, I began skimming sections, dipping back into it when something happened � flood, storm, blizzard � anything.
I decided to persist, quickly, to the end, and then discovered in the author’s notes that this is a true story. It’s inspired by the lives of her great-grandparents, who experienced a lot of what happens between these two families, including the two women enemies who shared a home for the winter.
I feel certain the author has used her artistic licence very enthusiastically in describing the relationship between the teenagers, Clyde and Beulah. In her acknowledgements, she writes:
“In fact, Blackbird almost seemed to write itself, pouring out of me in an ecstatic rush whenever I sat down to work on the manuscript.�
I wish there had been a sterner editor to stem that rush so it would be less repetitive and about half the length. I kept thinking of the quote I read from Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Chair of the judges of the 2018 Booker Prize, when the judges were commenting about the need for better, tighter editing.
“We occasionally felt that inside the book we read was a better one, sometimes a thinner one, wildly signalling to be let out.�
I’m sure there are other readers with more patience who will enjoy this. For me, the length, repetitiveness and ‘magic� affected my rating. I thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.
P.S. For readers who are sensitive to style, this is another book that often doesn't use quotation marks and in which whole chapters are in italics - just so you know.
“Beulah, he said, I done something wrong.
I said, I know it, Pa.
He nodded. Pa never questioned this way I have—the knowing that comes to me from the movement of wind or the scent of blackberries, or the sound of a gunshot by the river.�
There are some wonderful descriptive passages and an interesting premise to this story, just enough interest to keep me going as far as I did until I began skimming. Two mothers, one widowed, one with her husband in jail, face a bleak winter on neighbouring farms in northern Wyoming in 1876. They are enemies.
The 16-year-old son of one and the 13-year-old daughter of the other join forces in an attempt to handle the farm work on each holding without the benefit of help from anyone else.
“The prairie was nothing but death, season in and season out. Dry grasses, gray sage, the hawks falling from the sky to seize whatever small lives struggled in the thin shadows below. Wolves howling at night, eager for the hunt. The brown water racing down a hill face, the sterile winter snow six feet deep.�
I was really looking forward to this one, as I had a family member who lived in the area where it takes place, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me connected.
The chapters alternate between characters, which gives the author plenty of scope to view the day-to-day chores from different perspectives, but it’s obvious the main character is Beulah, who has “the knowing�. She’s called dreamy and distractible by her mother, but strange and unnatural by the neighbour.
She can walk through a pen of lambs, and they will come to her. The chickens, and even the rooster, will gather at her feet quietly. If someone is ill, we know her thoughts about the outcome. At one point, she’s standing by a heavily pregnant ewe.
“Brief as my encounter with that ewe had been, I had seen with vivid clarity the sacred shadow hanging over her back, darkening the curve of her poll. Death was waiting, already drawn close beside her.
. . .
Death comes when it comes. You can’t do a thing to change it, once the great and final decision has been made.�
There are so many instances of her responding to the wonders of nature and the foreboding of death that I kept waiting for the story to move along. About halfway through, I began skimming sections, dipping back into it when something happened � flood, storm, blizzard � anything.
I decided to persist, quickly, to the end, and then discovered in the author’s notes that this is a true story. It’s inspired by the lives of her great-grandparents, who experienced a lot of what happens between these two families, including the two women enemies who shared a home for the winter.
I feel certain the author has used her artistic licence very enthusiastically in describing the relationship between the teenagers, Clyde and Beulah. In her acknowledgements, she writes:
“In fact, Blackbird almost seemed to write itself, pouring out of me in an ecstatic rush whenever I sat down to work on the manuscript.�
I wish there had been a sterner editor to stem that rush so it would be less repetitive and about half the length. I kept thinking of the quote I read from Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Chair of the judges of the 2018 Booker Prize, when the judges were commenting about the need for better, tighter editing.
“We occasionally felt that inside the book we read was a better one, sometimes a thinner one, wildly signalling to be let out.�
I’m sure there are other readers with more patience who will enjoy this. For me, the length, repetitiveness and ‘magic� affected my rating. I thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.
P.S. For readers who are sensitive to style, this is another book that often doesn't use quotation marks and in which whole chapters are in italics - just so you know.
March 22, 2022
An extraordinary book—big and juicy, stuffed to overflowing with beautiful language, lovely images, and deeply realized characters. Perfect for patient readers who love to savor language and imagery, although I was so caught up in the story and characters that I raced through it in big gulps. I highly recommend for those of you who are in the mood for something lyrical, expansive, and uplifting.
September 15, 2019
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow is a captivating western family saga that begins with betrayal and heartache, and ends with forgiveness and a sisterly friendship.
Set in the 1870 eastern Wyoming prairie in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains, two families with adjoining homesteads, the nearest town or neighbor twenty miles away, are broken and left without the leadership of their men when one catches his wife and neighbor in a compromising position.
With one husband in jail for two years for the other husband’s murder, alone and out of necessity, mother’s Cora and Nettie Mae have to turn to each other to survive their long harsh winter. One mother to lessen the heavy farmwork burden on her only son, the other for her four children’s survival.
Olivia Hawker’s poetic writing transported me back in time to the wide-open prairie with its flora and fauna, the river and mountains in the backdrop. It was interesting to learn how the weather and changing seasons affected people living on the prairie back then, and the hard work it took to survive.
Based loosely off events of the authors family history, it’s a wonderful novel I highly recommend!
Much thanks to Olivia Hawker, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. Publication date 10/8/19
Set in the 1870 eastern Wyoming prairie in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains, two families with adjoining homesteads, the nearest town or neighbor twenty miles away, are broken and left without the leadership of their men when one catches his wife and neighbor in a compromising position.
With one husband in jail for two years for the other husband’s murder, alone and out of necessity, mother’s Cora and Nettie Mae have to turn to each other to survive their long harsh winter. One mother to lessen the heavy farmwork burden on her only son, the other for her four children’s survival.
Olivia Hawker’s poetic writing transported me back in time to the wide-open prairie with its flora and fauna, the river and mountains in the backdrop. It was interesting to learn how the weather and changing seasons affected people living on the prairie back then, and the hard work it took to survive.
Based loosely off events of the authors family history, it’s a wonderful novel I highly recommend!
Much thanks to Olivia Hawker, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. Publication date 10/8/19
August 12, 2021
In 1870 Wyoming, Earl Bemis finds his wife rutting with the neighbor man. One shotgun blast later, the neighbor's wife is a widow, and Bemis is headed to town to confess to a murder. That leaves two families missing the "man of the house," and like they say in Westeros - Winter is coming! Can the women work together to survive the harsh weather ahead?
This is a beautifully written look at two well drawn characters as they struggle with jealousy, resentment, and guilt while doing whatever is necessary to keep their children safe.
This is a beautifully written look at two well drawn characters as they struggle with jealousy, resentment, and guilt while doing whatever is necessary to keep their children safe.
April 24, 2021
The author, Olivia Hawker, is a poet. The way she uses words to describe nature and the sounds of the prairie is what kept me reading "One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow" long after I had lost interest in the actual story -- which felt like a painful ride in a slow-moving buck wagon. Pity, too, because the first few pages really pulled me in, and the premise is interesting.
One of the biggest problems is that events and ideas that would be the natural after-effects of the story’s tragedy are never examined. For example, you’re a teenage girl (Beulah) and your mom (Cora) is fooling around with the mean neighbor man (Substance Webber), and your dad (Ernest Bemis) blows him away. Wouldn’t that be a shock to your psyche? Wouldn’t the event roll around in your thoughts a bit? Wouldn’t you look at your mother and father and the neighbor man and his wife (Nettie Mae) in a different light?
Although this is Beulah’s plight, she never contemplates the situation or wonders why her Mom would do such a thing with that mean old Mr. Webber. Beulah never reflects upon her dad being separated from the family and tossed into jail. We have no idea what he's like or how Beulah feels about him. She doesn't think, “Gee, I miss Dad. Wish he was here.� Or, “I shall write a letter to dear old Dad and let him know how we’re all getting on.� Instead, Beulah, who had no relationship of any kind with the murdered Substance Webber, sits by his grave and has imaginary conversations with his spirit. It's bizarre.
The other teenager in the story, Clyde, the dead man's son, doesn’t think about the incident much either. His father is blown away by a neighbor and yet his thoughts about the incident are never examined. He doesn't say or think anything like, “I never would have thought Dad could do something like this.� Or “Wow. What a way to go.� Clyde must bury his murdered father. Wouldn’t that incident be rough to process mentally? The moment is well-told and memorable, yet Clyde never thinks of it again.
Wouldn't Clyde be reminded of his father from time to time, or think of him when he passed near the grave site? Would he never examine his feelings about his Dad's death, or what a challenge it is to manage the homestead without him?
Beulah has three younger siblings (Benjamin, Charles and Miranda) who may as well be cardboard cut-outs. Not one of them ever exhibits a “personality� of any kind. The two boys are referred to as the “little fellers� over and over so often, I started to cringe. Besides, “I’m hungry,� they haven’t anything to say. There’s a moment when the youngest child, Miranda, is in danger but it’s difficult to care since we don't know anything about her. She’s briefly described physically but never referred to again, except to say, “Thank you for the dolly,� to the widow, Nettie Mae. Clyde saves Miranda from a roaring river, but I think I would have been more moved if he had saved his horse. I felt I knew his horse far better than Miranda. Beulah’s siblings could have been completely erased without any change to the narrative. Why include characters that have nothing to add to the story?
The descriptions of nature are vivid, but the relationships between the characters are barely there. For example, we have no inkling of the connection between Ernest Bemis (the murderer) and his four children. He sends them hand-carved gifts for Christmas, but we aren’t privy to any thoughts they may have had about the gifts. There is no examination of their longing for his presence.(Aside: Would Ernest be permitted to whittle with a knife in prison?)
As the story winds down, we are informed that the wronged widow, Nettie Mae, feels sisterly toward her adulterous neighbor, Cora. It would have been so much more satisfying if we could have come to that conclusion ourselves � without being TOLD. An eventual meeting of the minds or hearts � or a shared laugh between the two women is never disclosed. Forgiveness isn’t examined, either.
There are several other elements of the story that made my teeth clench, but I’ll just mention two more:
#1:
There is the part about Nettie Mae riding a horse over 20 miles to fetch a doctor in Paintrock because Clyde has a fever. There’s a doctor in Paintrock? Really? What kind of doctor is going to be in Paintrock, Wyoming in 1876, just 10 years after the end of the Civil War? Doctor Cooper is described as being elegant and wearing a monocle. So, he’s doing well in Paintrock during the Wild West days? Whiskey was used for pain management and limbs were amputated because there were no antibiotics. What would a doctor do for a fever? He would have told Nettie Mae, “Either he’ll pull through or he won’t.� I doubt he would’ve gone back to her home to check out Clyde’s fever. A fever is not an illness. It’s usually a symptom of infection. There wasn’t much they could do for infection in 1876. But the silliness doesn’t stop there. On another occasion, Clyde rides to town to fetch the doctor AGAIN! And Nettie Mae assures Cora that she has quite enough money to pay the bill. (Hmm�.Really?) The elegant doctor returns to Nettie Mae’s home to check on a patient that he has no way of helping. It doesn’t make sense.
A more reasonable scenario would have gone like this:
Clyde would have ridden up to the doctor’s house and said his neighbor had fallen from her horse and was unconscious.
Doc: “Any bones broke?�
Clyde: “No.�
Doc: “Any open wounds that need stitching?�
Clyde: “No.�
Doc: “Well, either she’ll pull through or she won’t.�
What else could he offer? Even in the book, he doesn’t do anything. He rides all the way back to the house, looks at Beulah, and says, “Take it easy. You’ll be fine.� Nettie Mae paid a lot of money to hear that.
#2:
At the end of the tale, Beulah is able to sway her genteel mother into loving life on the prairie. However, this complete change of perspective is not believable. Cora suddenly ceases to yearn for the ease and sociability of life in a city -- which is what she enjoyed most in her youth and has longed for ever since she married -- because she hears the sounds of grass being ruffled by the wind. Really? Life on the prairie in 1876, is not for the faint of heart. Cora is faint of heart.
"One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow" with all its gorgeous descriptions, can’t compare with the simple and memorable prairie stories of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's time for a re-read.
One of the biggest problems is that events and ideas that would be the natural after-effects of the story’s tragedy are never examined. For example, you’re a teenage girl (Beulah) and your mom (Cora) is fooling around with the mean neighbor man (Substance Webber), and your dad (Ernest Bemis) blows him away. Wouldn’t that be a shock to your psyche? Wouldn’t the event roll around in your thoughts a bit? Wouldn’t you look at your mother and father and the neighbor man and his wife (Nettie Mae) in a different light?
Although this is Beulah’s plight, she never contemplates the situation or wonders why her Mom would do such a thing with that mean old Mr. Webber. Beulah never reflects upon her dad being separated from the family and tossed into jail. We have no idea what he's like or how Beulah feels about him. She doesn't think, “Gee, I miss Dad. Wish he was here.� Or, “I shall write a letter to dear old Dad and let him know how we’re all getting on.� Instead, Beulah, who had no relationship of any kind with the murdered Substance Webber, sits by his grave and has imaginary conversations with his spirit. It's bizarre.
The other teenager in the story, Clyde, the dead man's son, doesn’t think about the incident much either. His father is blown away by a neighbor and yet his thoughts about the incident are never examined. He doesn't say or think anything like, “I never would have thought Dad could do something like this.� Or “Wow. What a way to go.� Clyde must bury his murdered father. Wouldn’t that incident be rough to process mentally? The moment is well-told and memorable, yet Clyde never thinks of it again.
Wouldn't Clyde be reminded of his father from time to time, or think of him when he passed near the grave site? Would he never examine his feelings about his Dad's death, or what a challenge it is to manage the homestead without him?
Beulah has three younger siblings (Benjamin, Charles and Miranda) who may as well be cardboard cut-outs. Not one of them ever exhibits a “personality� of any kind. The two boys are referred to as the “little fellers� over and over so often, I started to cringe. Besides, “I’m hungry,� they haven’t anything to say. There’s a moment when the youngest child, Miranda, is in danger but it’s difficult to care since we don't know anything about her. She’s briefly described physically but never referred to again, except to say, “Thank you for the dolly,� to the widow, Nettie Mae. Clyde saves Miranda from a roaring river, but I think I would have been more moved if he had saved his horse. I felt I knew his horse far better than Miranda. Beulah’s siblings could have been completely erased without any change to the narrative. Why include characters that have nothing to add to the story?
The descriptions of nature are vivid, but the relationships between the characters are barely there. For example, we have no inkling of the connection between Ernest Bemis (the murderer) and his four children. He sends them hand-carved gifts for Christmas, but we aren’t privy to any thoughts they may have had about the gifts. There is no examination of their longing for his presence.(Aside: Would Ernest be permitted to whittle with a knife in prison?)
As the story winds down, we are informed that the wronged widow, Nettie Mae, feels sisterly toward her adulterous neighbor, Cora. It would have been so much more satisfying if we could have come to that conclusion ourselves � without being TOLD. An eventual meeting of the minds or hearts � or a shared laugh between the two women is never disclosed. Forgiveness isn’t examined, either.
There are several other elements of the story that made my teeth clench, but I’ll just mention two more:
#1:
There is the part about Nettie Mae riding a horse over 20 miles to fetch a doctor in Paintrock because Clyde has a fever. There’s a doctor in Paintrock? Really? What kind of doctor is going to be in Paintrock, Wyoming in 1876, just 10 years after the end of the Civil War? Doctor Cooper is described as being elegant and wearing a monocle. So, he’s doing well in Paintrock during the Wild West days? Whiskey was used for pain management and limbs were amputated because there were no antibiotics. What would a doctor do for a fever? He would have told Nettie Mae, “Either he’ll pull through or he won’t.� I doubt he would’ve gone back to her home to check out Clyde’s fever. A fever is not an illness. It’s usually a symptom of infection. There wasn’t much they could do for infection in 1876. But the silliness doesn’t stop there. On another occasion, Clyde rides to town to fetch the doctor AGAIN! And Nettie Mae assures Cora that she has quite enough money to pay the bill. (Hmm�.Really?) The elegant doctor returns to Nettie Mae’s home to check on a patient that he has no way of helping. It doesn’t make sense.
A more reasonable scenario would have gone like this:
Clyde would have ridden up to the doctor’s house and said his neighbor had fallen from her horse and was unconscious.
Doc: “Any bones broke?�
Clyde: “No.�
Doc: “Any open wounds that need stitching?�
Clyde: “No.�
Doc: “Well, either she’ll pull through or she won’t.�
What else could he offer? Even in the book, he doesn’t do anything. He rides all the way back to the house, looks at Beulah, and says, “Take it easy. You’ll be fine.� Nettie Mae paid a lot of money to hear that.
#2:
At the end of the tale, Beulah is able to sway her genteel mother into loving life on the prairie. However, this complete change of perspective is not believable. Cora suddenly ceases to yearn for the ease and sociability of life in a city -- which is what she enjoyed most in her youth and has longed for ever since she married -- because she hears the sounds of grass being ruffled by the wind. Really? Life on the prairie in 1876, is not for the faint of heart. Cora is faint of heart.
"One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow" with all its gorgeous descriptions, can’t compare with the simple and memorable prairie stories of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's time for a re-read.
February 13, 2025
Stunning prose, beautiful place descriptions, well-drawn characters, and a twist of a plot that is based on the author's own family history make this quietly powerful novel a historical, rural stand out for me. I have not heard of Olivia Hawker before but am glad to have discovered her and plan to find time to read all her other books.
This is one seriously talented author. Her ability to paint a natural scene is almost unparalleled and cinematic:
Each time a sheep called out in protest, a plume of silver steam rose from its muzzle to hang above the fold, and the early-morning light refracted within that cloud, so the air just above the animals' backs glowed in the rising sun.
Metaphors are original and deep:
Nettie Mae knew something inside of her had broken, or would soon break. Not the way a stick breaks, or a bone, snapping into pieces that may be thrown in opposite directions, a permanent and emphatic separation. Rather, the break was a pot or a jug dropped to the floor. A heavy vessel, full, full to overflowing. Too heavy to be borne any longer...
Beulah is the standout character, who "sees and knows, even when everyone else had blinded themselves to the truth."
She quietly steers the Bemis and Webber families to the emotional landscapes they need to be in. It's a special thing to witness her getting them there.
This is one seriously talented author. Her ability to paint a natural scene is almost unparalleled and cinematic:
Each time a sheep called out in protest, a plume of silver steam rose from its muzzle to hang above the fold, and the early-morning light refracted within that cloud, so the air just above the animals' backs glowed in the rising sun.
Metaphors are original and deep:
Nettie Mae knew something inside of her had broken, or would soon break. Not the way a stick breaks, or a bone, snapping into pieces that may be thrown in opposite directions, a permanent and emphatic separation. Rather, the break was a pot or a jug dropped to the floor. A heavy vessel, full, full to overflowing. Too heavy to be borne any longer...
Beulah is the standout character, who "sees and knows, even when everyone else had blinded themselves to the truth."
She quietly steers the Bemis and Webber families to the emotional landscapes they need to be in. It's a special thing to witness her getting them there.
November 25, 2020
The story takes place in 1870 on a desolate Wyoming prairie, a good 20 miles from the nearest town. When Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, having sex with their only neighbor, Substance Webber, Ernest shoots and kills Substance. Ernest turns himself in and is sentenced to two years in prison. With winter approaching, Cora asks Substance’s widow, Nettie Mae, if the two families could share resources. Nettie Mae refuses at first, but when her only child, Clyde, is weakened by fever, she agrees to let Cora and her four (4) children move into her home. It is a long, hard winter for these two women to live under the same roof.
The novel has four distinct narrative strands, with one in the first person and three written in third-person from the perspective of a different narrator. The first strand told by Beulah, the thirteen-year-old daughter of Ernest and Cora. Beulah is almost otherworldly. She has an uncanny ability to see death, find beauty in the ordinary, and a very calm demeanor. The second strand is the narration of sixteen-year-old Clyde Webber, the only surviving child of Substance and Nettie Mae. With his father dead, Clyde must take over the family’s sheep farm. The third is the story of Nettie Mae, who is described at least a dozen times as “bitter�. She has lost four of her children, and now her husband. She despises Cora and hates that they must work together. Clyde is all she has left and Nettie Mae is determined to keep him away from the lure of Beulah Bemis. Finally, there is the narration from Cora Bemis’s perspective. She is very remorseful for her affair, which was done out of boredom. She hates living on the prairie and longs to go back to the society life she had known as a young girl in St. Louis. On one hand, she wants to get her children to the city and send Ernest a message about where they have gone. On the other hand, she is afraid that once he is released from prison, Ernest will choose the farm over her if she leaves.
The title is based on an old planting rhyme. “One for the blackbird, One for the crow, One for the cutworm, and One to grow.� Beulah explains to Clyde that you should put four seeds in one spot to have enough to feed all creatures that come to the garden, including crows and grubs. It is the perfect rhyme for the way these two young people are able to combine their land, their skills, and their families to make sure there is enough for everyone.
The audible narration is 19 hours, 2 minutes long, and the hardcover is 493 pages. I several friends who have given this a 5-star rating on ŷ. It is written in a quiet, poetic manner. There are strong themes of friendship, survival, family, love, and forgiveness. I am only giving it 4-stars since it seemed to move very slowly at times, and there were repetitive stories of the same event told by different narrators.
The novel has four distinct narrative strands, with one in the first person and three written in third-person from the perspective of a different narrator. The first strand told by Beulah, the thirteen-year-old daughter of Ernest and Cora. Beulah is almost otherworldly. She has an uncanny ability to see death, find beauty in the ordinary, and a very calm demeanor. The second strand is the narration of sixteen-year-old Clyde Webber, the only surviving child of Substance and Nettie Mae. With his father dead, Clyde must take over the family’s sheep farm. The third is the story of Nettie Mae, who is described at least a dozen times as “bitter�. She has lost four of her children, and now her husband. She despises Cora and hates that they must work together. Clyde is all she has left and Nettie Mae is determined to keep him away from the lure of Beulah Bemis. Finally, there is the narration from Cora Bemis’s perspective. She is very remorseful for her affair, which was done out of boredom. She hates living on the prairie and longs to go back to the society life she had known as a young girl in St. Louis. On one hand, she wants to get her children to the city and send Ernest a message about where they have gone. On the other hand, she is afraid that once he is released from prison, Ernest will choose the farm over her if she leaves.
The title is based on an old planting rhyme. “One for the blackbird, One for the crow, One for the cutworm, and One to grow.� Beulah explains to Clyde that you should put four seeds in one spot to have enough to feed all creatures that come to the garden, including crows and grubs. It is the perfect rhyme for the way these two young people are able to combine their land, their skills, and their families to make sure there is enough for everyone.
The audible narration is 19 hours, 2 minutes long, and the hardcover is 493 pages. I several friends who have given this a 5-star rating on ŷ. It is written in a quiet, poetic manner. There are strong themes of friendship, survival, family, love, and forgiveness. I am only giving it 4-stars since it seemed to move very slowly at times, and there were repetitive stories of the same event told by different narrators.
September 28, 2019
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow is a book about loss and survival in the vast expanse of Wyoming. Two families, the Bemises and the Webbers, have settled on land adjacent to each other miles from anywhere or anyone else. In the opening chapter we discover that the Mrs Bemis has had an affair with Mr Webber and is discovered by her husband who promptly murders Mr Webber. The story however does not dwell so much on this act but on what happens next to the women and children left behind.
The power of this book comes from the way the author brings her characters to life. Our main protagonist is Beulah Bemis age 13. She is the eldest of the Bemis children. Smart, capable, but dreamy and a little magical. Beulah sees and notices what others don't. Beulah is the lynchpin of the story.
Her mother Cora can't bear her new existence in the wilderness. Cora however has to turn to Nettie Mae Webber and ask for help if she and her children are to survive the harsh winter. Olivia Hawker takes a character that is flawed and 'weak' and asks her reader to empathise with her. At first I felt no sympathy for Cora but as the story progresses my feelings towards her softened.
The wronged woman, Nettie Mae, is bristling with anger, resentment, heart, loss and humiliation. She is as prickly as a thorn and not easy to love in any way. What a wonderful, powerful and unique character she was! For me Nettie Mae is the star of the book - a woman wronged in so many ways who has hardened her hurt in order to survive. She must take in those who have caused her to be in a dire predicament and we follow her struggle to cope with all the Bemis family. But Nettie Mae is above all else a mother.. She must protect her only surviving child Clyde at all costs even when it causes her great difficulty.
The story moves quickly but is also detailed. I felt totally engrossed in the whole world of the farms, the animals, the landscape and the weather and of course this collection of characters.. I highly recommend this.
The power of this book comes from the way the author brings her characters to life. Our main protagonist is Beulah Bemis age 13. She is the eldest of the Bemis children. Smart, capable, but dreamy and a little magical. Beulah sees and notices what others don't. Beulah is the lynchpin of the story.
Her mother Cora can't bear her new existence in the wilderness. Cora however has to turn to Nettie Mae Webber and ask for help if she and her children are to survive the harsh winter. Olivia Hawker takes a character that is flawed and 'weak' and asks her reader to empathise with her. At first I felt no sympathy for Cora but as the story progresses my feelings towards her softened.
The wronged woman, Nettie Mae, is bristling with anger, resentment, heart, loss and humiliation. She is as prickly as a thorn and not easy to love in any way. What a wonderful, powerful and unique character she was! For me Nettie Mae is the star of the book - a woman wronged in so many ways who has hardened her hurt in order to survive. She must take in those who have caused her to be in a dire predicament and we follow her struggle to cope with all the Bemis family. But Nettie Mae is above all else a mother.. She must protect her only surviving child Clyde at all costs even when it causes her great difficulty.
The story moves quickly but is also detailed. I felt totally engrossed in the whole world of the farms, the animals, the landscape and the weather and of course this collection of characters.. I highly recommend this.
May 9, 2021
Thanks so much to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Olivia Hawker for giving me the opportunity to read her new book: One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow and I have read her previous book, The Ragged Edge Of Night and I loved it.
Wyoming prairie in 1876, two isolated farming families live next door to each other and one night all hell breaks loose. When Ernest Bemis discovers his wife Cora and his neighbor Substance Webber cheating! The meek mild Ernest shoots Substance and kills him. He rides to the closest town, he informs the local sheriff about his crime and he's jailed for two years.
Nettie Mae Webber's now a widow with a farm to run, animals to look after and her only help is her sixteen year old Clyde. Cora Bemis has to live with her guilt, shame and life on the prairie is very hard. Her four children Beulah, Benjamin, Charles and Miranda need her and they no longer have their father to do the heavy work. Soon it becomes very clear that Cora's going to struggle to survive the harsh winter on her own, she's not prepared at all, she has no money to buy supplies, she doesn't have enough fire wood and the only person she can ask for help is her neighbor Nettie Mae!
After Clyde becomes ill, Nettie Mae accepts that keeping two farms going is too hard for her teenage son, the two families have no choice but to join forces and Bemis family moves into the Webber house hold. They begin to prepare for the long hard winter, harvesting vegetables, preserving food, cutting and seasoning fire wood. Despite combining the food/supplies they have both women are concerned that cupboards will be empty before the end of winter and their children will go hungry.
For both women living in the same house over winter is going to be a challenge and Nettie Mae has every right to hate Cora! Nettie Mae isn't as stern as she seems, she's a natural home maker and she loves children. Cora isn't a bad person, she wasn't prepared for the lonely isolated life on the remote prairie, Substance took advantage of her weakness and she has to live with her shame of her infidelity.
The story is about two women struggling to live and keep their children safe in such a harsh environment, how they cope with being totally isolated for months, how they discovered by working together they could survive the long winter, it's about forgiving someone who has betrayed you and giving them a second chance.
I really enjoyed reading One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow and I gave it four stars.
Wyoming prairie in 1876, two isolated farming families live next door to each other and one night all hell breaks loose. When Ernest Bemis discovers his wife Cora and his neighbor Substance Webber cheating! The meek mild Ernest shoots Substance and kills him. He rides to the closest town, he informs the local sheriff about his crime and he's jailed for two years.
Nettie Mae Webber's now a widow with a farm to run, animals to look after and her only help is her sixteen year old Clyde. Cora Bemis has to live with her guilt, shame and life on the prairie is very hard. Her four children Beulah, Benjamin, Charles and Miranda need her and they no longer have their father to do the heavy work. Soon it becomes very clear that Cora's going to struggle to survive the harsh winter on her own, she's not prepared at all, she has no money to buy supplies, she doesn't have enough fire wood and the only person she can ask for help is her neighbor Nettie Mae!
After Clyde becomes ill, Nettie Mae accepts that keeping two farms going is too hard for her teenage son, the two families have no choice but to join forces and Bemis family moves into the Webber house hold. They begin to prepare for the long hard winter, harvesting vegetables, preserving food, cutting and seasoning fire wood. Despite combining the food/supplies they have both women are concerned that cupboards will be empty before the end of winter and their children will go hungry.
For both women living in the same house over winter is going to be a challenge and Nettie Mae has every right to hate Cora! Nettie Mae isn't as stern as she seems, she's a natural home maker and she loves children. Cora isn't a bad person, she wasn't prepared for the lonely isolated life on the remote prairie, Substance took advantage of her weakness and she has to live with her shame of her infidelity.
The story is about two women struggling to live and keep their children safe in such a harsh environment, how they cope with being totally isolated for months, how they discovered by working together they could survive the long winter, it's about forgiving someone who has betrayed you and giving them a second chance.
I really enjoyed reading One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow and I gave it four stars.
January 6, 2020
Probably one of the worst books I have ever slugged through. I can’t believe this is over a four star book. When the author repeated part of the previous scene from another characters view I wanted to cry for the prolonged pain and agony.
December 4, 2019
Edit: After finishing this several weeks ago, I restarted it and read it super slowly. Savored the story and the language. My gosh, this book is so good. I felt the tension between Cora and Nettie Mae even more than in the first read, I felt all of the heartache and then the hope from start to finish, and I fell head-over-heels in love with the isolation and harshness of the Wyoming prairie. Since I enjoyed the book so much, enough to read it again immediately, and since I feel lost now that I'm done with my reread: I'm bumping my rating up from 4/5 to 5/5.
****
I’ve said before that books set out in the American West during the 1800’s are my FAVORITE. This story is set in Wyoming in the 1870’s. There are two families living in proximity to one another in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains: the Bemis family and the Webber family. There is no one else within at least twenty miles in any direction. The two families, although not close at all, have come to depend on the fact that they are near one another if anyone should need anything. All of that changes when Ernest Bemis shoots and kills Substance Webber down by the river and then goes to prison for murder.
This isn’t a story about that murder, although it happens early on and is felt throughout the story. This is a story of how two families with all of the tension and emotion in the world goes on to make it through the long, cold winter without the men of their houses. This is a story about the forgiveness that comes-or doesn’t come-after such sin. Sixteen-year-old Clyde Webber takes on the burden of the heavy work at both homesteads, much to the angst and disagreement of his mother, because he can see how much the Bemis family needs him. And Beulah Bemis, just thirteen, takes to helping him. Beulah is much stronger and dependable than she appears.
There is a tension that weaves through reading this story. Cora’s guilt and remorse is heavy in the her POV. I love that I could feel the weight of her remorse over how her actions had completely changed two entire families. It seems like when I read stories that include infidelity, the ones involved do not always show remorse-the people in the relationship don’t always try to fix the harm they have caused. But that is written exceptionally well into the narrative here, and is probably why I felt so strongly for Cora. Nettie Mae Webber, now a widow, was much harder to love and care for at first. She was so rude and angry and nasty at times that I could barely stand to read her scenes on the page. I would have thought my sympathetic feelings would lie mostly toward the person wronged, but in this case I just couldn’t love Nettie Mae as much as Cora. Watching these two women work out how their two families would peacefully interact after such a violation was fascinating to me.
Speaking of characters, these are written very well. In fact, this book relies heavy on the characters and their thoughts and conversations to convey the story rather than big action scenes. Certainly there are things that happen that raise the suspense, but this story is carried by its characterization.
I most loved Clyde Webber. I just loved reading his scenes. Such a strong boy with a lot of feeling about what his father had done and how his mother behaved in the aftermath. Clyde was raised under the mentality that men do not cry or show emotion-they get the job done when it is time, no matter what. So watching him navigate his loss as a young man vs. stepping into his father’s role in the family was really great. Young Beulah is a great character as well, but the almost-magical portions of her POVs made it just a teensy bit harder for me to enjoy her role. I never do as well when there is mysticism or magical realism in stories, even in small parts, and I do feel like this book is mostly Beulah’s story.
What I loved most about this book is that it is a great look at life in the West during the time when it was so sparsely populated. When the people out there had to depend on themselves to survive the dry, hot weather and the cold desolation of the winter. I think this is best when read sort of slowly, in order to really take in everything that was going on out in this neck of the woods, and to really appreciate how difficult it was for these families to look beyond themselves and their feelings in order to survive and to take care of their children. A great story, and one that is largely inspired by the author’s real-life family too.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you, Lake Union Publishing!
Find this review and more like it on my blog, !
****
I’ve said before that books set out in the American West during the 1800’s are my FAVORITE. This story is set in Wyoming in the 1870’s. There are two families living in proximity to one another in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains: the Bemis family and the Webber family. There is no one else within at least twenty miles in any direction. The two families, although not close at all, have come to depend on the fact that they are near one another if anyone should need anything. All of that changes when Ernest Bemis shoots and kills Substance Webber down by the river and then goes to prison for murder.
This isn’t a story about that murder, although it happens early on and is felt throughout the story. This is a story of how two families with all of the tension and emotion in the world goes on to make it through the long, cold winter without the men of their houses. This is a story about the forgiveness that comes-or doesn’t come-after such sin. Sixteen-year-old Clyde Webber takes on the burden of the heavy work at both homesteads, much to the angst and disagreement of his mother, because he can see how much the Bemis family needs him. And Beulah Bemis, just thirteen, takes to helping him. Beulah is much stronger and dependable than she appears.
There is a tension that weaves through reading this story. Cora’s guilt and remorse is heavy in the her POV. I love that I could feel the weight of her remorse over how her actions had completely changed two entire families. It seems like when I read stories that include infidelity, the ones involved do not always show remorse-the people in the relationship don’t always try to fix the harm they have caused. But that is written exceptionally well into the narrative here, and is probably why I felt so strongly for Cora. Nettie Mae Webber, now a widow, was much harder to love and care for at first. She was so rude and angry and nasty at times that I could barely stand to read her scenes on the page. I would have thought my sympathetic feelings would lie mostly toward the person wronged, but in this case I just couldn’t love Nettie Mae as much as Cora. Watching these two women work out how their two families would peacefully interact after such a violation was fascinating to me.
Speaking of characters, these are written very well. In fact, this book relies heavy on the characters and their thoughts and conversations to convey the story rather than big action scenes. Certainly there are things that happen that raise the suspense, but this story is carried by its characterization.
I most loved Clyde Webber. I just loved reading his scenes. Such a strong boy with a lot of feeling about what his father had done and how his mother behaved in the aftermath. Clyde was raised under the mentality that men do not cry or show emotion-they get the job done when it is time, no matter what. So watching him navigate his loss as a young man vs. stepping into his father’s role in the family was really great. Young Beulah is a great character as well, but the almost-magical portions of her POVs made it just a teensy bit harder for me to enjoy her role. I never do as well when there is mysticism or magical realism in stories, even in small parts, and I do feel like this book is mostly Beulah’s story.
What I loved most about this book is that it is a great look at life in the West during the time when it was so sparsely populated. When the people out there had to depend on themselves to survive the dry, hot weather and the cold desolation of the winter. I think this is best when read sort of slowly, in order to really take in everything that was going on out in this neck of the woods, and to really appreciate how difficult it was for these families to look beyond themselves and their feelings in order to survive and to take care of their children. A great story, and one that is largely inspired by the author’s real-life family too.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you, Lake Union Publishing!
Find this review and more like it on my blog, !
July 1, 2023
I’ve seen mixed reviews on this book…seems people either love it or hate it. I’m definitely in the first camp.
The story takes place in the late 1800’s on the western plains, just as that area of the country was being settled. Two families have farms close to each other, and as neighbors, support each other, especially through the long, harsh winters. One fine day, one of the men catches his neighbor in a compromising position with his wife, and without thinking, shoots him dead, and is sentenced to jail for two years. With both men gone, and winter approaching, the women, one filled with remorse and the other with anger, realize they’ll need to combine their households to make it through the harsh season ahead, a prospect neither is looking forward to. To make matters more complicated, the son of one of the women and the daughter of the other, work side by side to tend to the chores of two farms, and eventually start to have feelings for each other. While the girl is a hard worker, she’s also a dreamy sort, in tune with the land, and with a way of knowing things. She frightens the boy’s mother, and she’s not the sort of girl she wants for her son. As the story progresses, we see how the two families fare through the winter, how the relationship between the two women and between the boy and girl evolve, and what happens after the Spring thaw.
This was definitely a character driven story, with absolutely gorgeous writing, and I loved every bit of it. Highly recommended!
The story takes place in the late 1800’s on the western plains, just as that area of the country was being settled. Two families have farms close to each other, and as neighbors, support each other, especially through the long, harsh winters. One fine day, one of the men catches his neighbor in a compromising position with his wife, and without thinking, shoots him dead, and is sentenced to jail for two years. With both men gone, and winter approaching, the women, one filled with remorse and the other with anger, realize they’ll need to combine their households to make it through the harsh season ahead, a prospect neither is looking forward to. To make matters more complicated, the son of one of the women and the daughter of the other, work side by side to tend to the chores of two farms, and eventually start to have feelings for each other. While the girl is a hard worker, she’s also a dreamy sort, in tune with the land, and with a way of knowing things. She frightens the boy’s mother, and she’s not the sort of girl she wants for her son. As the story progresses, we see how the two families fare through the winter, how the relationship between the two women and between the boy and girl evolve, and what happens after the Spring thaw.
This was definitely a character driven story, with absolutely gorgeous writing, and I loved every bit of it. Highly recommended!
February 5, 2020
Thanks so much to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Olivia Hawker for giving me the opportunity to read her new book: One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow. I have read her previous book, The Ragged Edge Of Night and I loved it.
Wyoming prairie in 1876, two isolated farming families live next door to each other and one night all hell breaks loose. When Ernest Bemis discovers his wife Cora and his neighbor Substance Webber cheating! The meek mild Ernest shoots Substance and kills him. He rides to the closest town, he informs the local sheriff about his crime and is jailed for two years.
Nettie Mae Webber is now a widow with a farm and animals to look after with only her 16 year old son Clyde to help her. Cora Bemis has to live with her guilt and shame. Life on the prairie is hard and she only has herself to blame, her four children Beulah, Benjamin, Charles and Miranda need her. Soon it becomes very clear that Cora is going to struggle to survive the harsh winter on her own, she's isn't at all prepared, she has no money and the only person she can ask for help is her neighbor Nettie Mae!
After Clyde becomes ill, Nettie Mae accepts that keeping two farms going is too hard for her teenage son, the two families have no choice but to join forces and Bemis family moves into the Webber house hold.
They begin to prepare for the long hard winter, harvesting vegetables, preserving food, cutting and seasoning fire wood. Despite combining the food/supplies they have, both women are concerned that cupboards will be empty before the end of winter and their children will go hungry.
For both women living in the same house over winter is going to be a challenge and Nettie Mae has every right to hate Cora! Nettie Mae isn't as stern as she seems, she's a natural home maker and she loves children.
Cora isn't a bad person, she wasn't prepared for the lonely isolated life on the remote prairie, the responsibility of motherhood, Substance took advantage of her weakness and she has to live with her shame of her infidelity.
The story is about two women struggling to live and keep their children safe in a harsh environment of the Wyoming prairie, how they cope with being isolated from the outside world for months during the harsh winter, they discover by working together they can survive the long winter, they do manage to keep their children safe and they become friends.
I really enjoyed reading One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow, I gave it four stars, I will share my review on ŷ, Twitter, Barnes & Noble, Barnes & Noble, Australian Amazon and my blog.
Wyoming prairie in 1876, two isolated farming families live next door to each other and one night all hell breaks loose. When Ernest Bemis discovers his wife Cora and his neighbor Substance Webber cheating! The meek mild Ernest shoots Substance and kills him. He rides to the closest town, he informs the local sheriff about his crime and is jailed for two years.
Nettie Mae Webber is now a widow with a farm and animals to look after with only her 16 year old son Clyde to help her. Cora Bemis has to live with her guilt and shame. Life on the prairie is hard and she only has herself to blame, her four children Beulah, Benjamin, Charles and Miranda need her. Soon it becomes very clear that Cora is going to struggle to survive the harsh winter on her own, she's isn't at all prepared, she has no money and the only person she can ask for help is her neighbor Nettie Mae!
After Clyde becomes ill, Nettie Mae accepts that keeping two farms going is too hard for her teenage son, the two families have no choice but to join forces and Bemis family moves into the Webber house hold.
They begin to prepare for the long hard winter, harvesting vegetables, preserving food, cutting and seasoning fire wood. Despite combining the food/supplies they have, both women are concerned that cupboards will be empty before the end of winter and their children will go hungry.
For both women living in the same house over winter is going to be a challenge and Nettie Mae has every right to hate Cora! Nettie Mae isn't as stern as she seems, she's a natural home maker and she loves children.
Cora isn't a bad person, she wasn't prepared for the lonely isolated life on the remote prairie, the responsibility of motherhood, Substance took advantage of her weakness and she has to live with her shame of her infidelity.
The story is about two women struggling to live and keep their children safe in a harsh environment of the Wyoming prairie, how they cope with being isolated from the outside world for months during the harsh winter, they discover by working together they can survive the long winter, they do manage to keep their children safe and they become friends.
I really enjoyed reading One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow, I gave it four stars, I will share my review on ŷ, Twitter, Barnes & Noble, Barnes & Noble, Australian Amazon and my blog.
November 30, 2020
Set on the prairie in Wyoming in the late nineteenth century, One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow tells the story of two women who must learn to rely on one another for their families to survive in the wake of a terrible betrayal and tragedy. When Cora’s husband catches her having an affair with Nettie Mae’s husband, he shoots him and ends up in prison. Now, with no other neighbors around for miles, Nettie Mae and Cora will need to overcome their differences to make it through winter.
Olivia Hawker’s latest historical fiction novel is a quietly beautiful story of forgiveness.
Going in, I expected to find it hard to sympathize with Cora. Cora’s loneliness certainly led her to a decision that ultimately ruined the lives of many people. But I didn’t find Cora to be a bad person. In fact, I found the way she handled herself to be filled with a surprising amount of grace. I would like to have seen more about the before Cora. But the Cora we saw was someone who really just seemed to have lost their way.
Surprisingly, I found Nettie Mae harder to love, though as the book went on I really did appreciate her growth. Nettie Mae held a lot of bias. Her perception of Cora was understandable, but I struggled a bit with how she treated Cora’s children—especially Beulah. Nettie Mae has a very limited view of the world and others. This felt understandable given that the life she has known has been very isolated. I liked seeing her learn more about tolerance as the story evolved.
This is definitely a story about survival, tolerance, unrecognized bias, forgiveness, and community. The setting on the prairie was really wonderful, and we got a lot of story elements around how these family survive without the men of the house who had previously done the bulk of the work. I loved how real and flawed the characters were. I also loved the main protagonist Beulah. She was self-assured, smart, steady, and a tiny bit magical.
A beautiful and heartfelt novel that I really enjoyed. Thanks to TLC Book Tours and Lake Union Publishing for my copy.
Olivia Hawker’s latest historical fiction novel is a quietly beautiful story of forgiveness.
Going in, I expected to find it hard to sympathize with Cora. Cora’s loneliness certainly led her to a decision that ultimately ruined the lives of many people. But I didn’t find Cora to be a bad person. In fact, I found the way she handled herself to be filled with a surprising amount of grace. I would like to have seen more about the before Cora. But the Cora we saw was someone who really just seemed to have lost their way.
Surprisingly, I found Nettie Mae harder to love, though as the book went on I really did appreciate her growth. Nettie Mae held a lot of bias. Her perception of Cora was understandable, but I struggled a bit with how she treated Cora’s children—especially Beulah. Nettie Mae has a very limited view of the world and others. This felt understandable given that the life she has known has been very isolated. I liked seeing her learn more about tolerance as the story evolved.
This is definitely a story about survival, tolerance, unrecognized bias, forgiveness, and community. The setting on the prairie was really wonderful, and we got a lot of story elements around how these family survive without the men of the house who had previously done the bulk of the work. I loved how real and flawed the characters were. I also loved the main protagonist Beulah. She was self-assured, smart, steady, and a tiny bit magical.
A beautiful and heartfelt novel that I really enjoyed. Thanks to TLC Book Tours and Lake Union Publishing for my copy.
February 22, 2021
I wasn't sure how to rate this book. It started as an audio book for me and the narrator's gravelly voice initially seemed like the perfect match, but as time went on I began to drift. The story seemed to loop back on itself with each character's perspective. I grew frustrated. The pace was too slow. I decided to continue in print which was a great decision. The nuances were clearer on the page, the characters better defined and I loved the beautiful descriptions of the prairie. When things got a little repetitive I could gloss over it. It's a long book, but as one of my GR friends said it is reminiscent of the Laura Wilder books which is great if you are in the mood.
November 11, 2019
I am in an utterly and hopeless book hangover after reading this book! Oh! My! Gosh! I am speechless! I Just had an "experience"! It was more than just reading a book. It was like going into the pages and becoming a part of the story. It was a complete bonding with the characters, the remote and endless landscape of the Wyoming territory and with the vegetation and animal life that dwelt within that habitat. It was an unbelievable and unforgettable encounter with an epic read.
I don't even know how I can write a review close to worthy of this book. There are so many emotions I felt that were as real as if I were dealing with them myself. This is the first book I've read by Olivia Hawker and I'm in awe of her talent to pull so much out of me with her extraordinary prose. Each page in this magnificent novel drew me deeper into the lives of the characters. I'm just mind boggled at the intimate and minute details that created a living journey for me to travel in the pages of this book.
There are passages that blew me away with the depth and meanings they held. Passages that made me stop and ponder. This is one that is particularly profound:
This is a dream Beulah is having about a worm eating the leaf of a beanstalk...."The worm moved its terrible jaws and spoke. God is said to be great, the worm told me, So great you cannot see Him. But God is small, with hands like threads, and they reach for you everywhere you go. The hands touch everything-even you, even me. What falls never falls; what grows has grown a thousand times, and will live a thousand times more. Wherever hand touches hand, the Oneness comes to stay. Once God has made a thing whole, it cannot be broken again."
The characters are unforgettable people. They are based after the author's ancestors and are truly unique and memorable. I so appreciated the Author's Notes and Acknowledgement added at the end of the book. It was so interesting how she developed and came to write this amazing novel. This is a very lengthy novel but so worth every word that's written in it. I truly didn't want it to end. I want to thank Lake Union and Olivia Hawker for the extreme privilege I had of reading this book! This is my honest and heartfelt review of a book that ranks as one of my top 5 this year.
I don't even know how I can write a review close to worthy of this book. There are so many emotions I felt that were as real as if I were dealing with them myself. This is the first book I've read by Olivia Hawker and I'm in awe of her talent to pull so much out of me with her extraordinary prose. Each page in this magnificent novel drew me deeper into the lives of the characters. I'm just mind boggled at the intimate and minute details that created a living journey for me to travel in the pages of this book.
There are passages that blew me away with the depth and meanings they held. Passages that made me stop and ponder. This is one that is particularly profound:
This is a dream Beulah is having about a worm eating the leaf of a beanstalk...."The worm moved its terrible jaws and spoke. God is said to be great, the worm told me, So great you cannot see Him. But God is small, with hands like threads, and they reach for you everywhere you go. The hands touch everything-even you, even me. What falls never falls; what grows has grown a thousand times, and will live a thousand times more. Wherever hand touches hand, the Oneness comes to stay. Once God has made a thing whole, it cannot be broken again."
The characters are unforgettable people. They are based after the author's ancestors and are truly unique and memorable. I so appreciated the Author's Notes and Acknowledgement added at the end of the book. It was so interesting how she developed and came to write this amazing novel. This is a very lengthy novel but so worth every word that's written in it. I truly didn't want it to end. I want to thank Lake Union and Olivia Hawker for the extreme privilege I had of reading this book! This is my honest and heartfelt review of a book that ranks as one of my top 5 this year.
March 23, 2020
I’d recommend One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow to anyone who also loved Where the Crawdads Sing. Although the stories don’t seem similar, Beulah reminded me a great deal of Kya Clark, the “Marsh Girl.� Both Kya and Beulah have a love of nature and animals. And both were regarded as peculiar. One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow takes place in Wyoming in 1876. Beulah’s mother, Cora, is caught in a compromising situation with her neighbor. Cora’s husband kills the man and turns himself in to the sheriff. Cora and the dead man’s wife, Nettie Mae, have to come together in order for their families to survive the brutal winter. Cora’s daughter, Beulah, and Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde, enjoy working the farm together and eventually an attraction between the two develops much to Nettie Mae’s disapproval.
I’ve always heard the saying that no home is big enough for 2 women and it was a long, bitter winter as Nettie Mae and Cora try to work together to survive. I wanted to hate both women, but they each had a great deal of heartache and struggle. Nettie Mae had lost 4 of her 5 children and only had Clyde. Cora had been raised in Saint Louis and was a granddaughter of Ulysses S. Grant and had never expected to live in the prairie wilderness.
This was an outstanding read and the only thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is the length. It was almost 500 pages and I think it could easily have been edited down to 400 pages. It’s sad that such an excellent book hasn’t received more publicity.
I’ve always heard the saying that no home is big enough for 2 women and it was a long, bitter winter as Nettie Mae and Cora try to work together to survive. I wanted to hate both women, but they each had a great deal of heartache and struggle. Nettie Mae had lost 4 of her 5 children and only had Clyde. Cora had been raised in Saint Louis and was a granddaughter of Ulysses S. Grant and had never expected to live in the prairie wilderness.
This was an outstanding read and the only thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is the length. It was almost 500 pages and I think it could easily have been edited down to 400 pages. It’s sad that such an excellent book hasn’t received more publicity.
January 1, 2022
Beautiful story of forgiveness and survival.
In one moment, two families in the 1870s Wyoming are turned upside down. Ernest Bemis finds his wife Cora in a compromising situation with their only neighbor, Mr. Weber. One is dead and the other in jail. Now Cora Bemis and the widow Nettie Mae Weber must work together to save their farms and their families. Their isolation in the frontier leaves the women with no other choice.
When a deep friendship develops between teenagers Clyde Weber and Beulah Bemis, the tension deepens between the families.
This historical fiction story shows the difficult life on the western frontier. It is an emotional story with great character development. I felt there were some similarities between this story and Where the Crawdads Sings. If you enjoyed that book, you may enjoy this one.
I listened to the book. The narrator was great and helped to get the listener immersed into the story.
At the time of this review, this audiobook was available on Kindle Unlimited.
In one moment, two families in the 1870s Wyoming are turned upside down. Ernest Bemis finds his wife Cora in a compromising situation with their only neighbor, Mr. Weber. One is dead and the other in jail. Now Cora Bemis and the widow Nettie Mae Weber must work together to save their farms and their families. Their isolation in the frontier leaves the women with no other choice.
When a deep friendship develops between teenagers Clyde Weber and Beulah Bemis, the tension deepens between the families.
This historical fiction story shows the difficult life on the western frontier. It is an emotional story with great character development. I felt there were some similarities between this story and Where the Crawdads Sings. If you enjoyed that book, you may enjoy this one.
I listened to the book. The narrator was great and helped to get the listener immersed into the story.
At the time of this review, this audiobook was available on Kindle Unlimited.
June 22, 2020
I have thought of how to sum up this book but all words fail me. I will do it no justice. All I can say is the author has the ability to transcend you into Wyoming 1870. The writing is top shelf and descriptive. That being said, this is a wordy, lyrical read. It can not be skimmed. By the end you feel like you have travelled the journey with the characters from anger and resentment to forgiveness and friendship. My only regret is that it is finished and I wish I could follow the characters.
5 stars easily!
5 stars easily!
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