I first learned about Midnight at the Blackbird Café when the Speculative Chic editor tagged me in a Facebook post about the book. It’s a well-known fact that reading and baking are my truest loves. The gorgeous blueberry tart on the cover immediately caught my attention because it looks so delicious. Every aspect of the book felt tailor-made for me. I adore magical realism. The main character gets a chance to run a bakery/café? One of my all-time favorite daydreams. I enjoyed the book when I first read it back in 2019. I made it my book club selection because it was heart-warming and fun. I also wanted a book that was mostly grounded in reality for those who might be a little hesitant about speculative fiction.
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe (2019)
Written by: Heather Webber
Genre: Magical Realism
Pages: 333 (Paperback)
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
The Premise:
THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER Heather Webber’s Midnight at the Blackbird Café is a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town Southern charm.
Nestled in the mountain shadows of Alabama lies the little town of Wicklow. It is here that Anna Kate has returned to bury her beloved Granny Zee, owner of the Blackbird Café.
It was supposed to be a quick trip to close the café and settle her grandmother’s estate, but despite her best intentions to avoid forming ties or even getting to know her father’s side of the family, Anna Kate finds herself inexplicably drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from so many years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody can’t stop talking about.
As the truth about her past slowly becomes clear, Anna Kate will need to decide if this lone blackbird will finally be able to take her broken wings and fly.
As this is a book club discussion, there will be spoilers ahead.
Discussion
There is a lot going on in this book. Anna Kate is preparing to enter medical school when her beloved grandmother, Zee, dies. Zee’s will requires that Anna Kate come to Wicklow, Alabama to run the Blackbird Café for three months. Although Anna Kate and Zee were close, this is her first time in Wicklow. Her mother, Eden, fled the town after a car accident killed Anna Kate’s father and his parents, the Lindens, blamed Eden. As a result, Doc and Seelie Linden did not even know that Anna Kate existed, even though Eden herself passed away a few years earlier. At the same time, the Linden’s daughter, Natalie, has also returned to town with her young daughter, Ollie, after her husband’s mysterious death in a boating accident.
The specialty of the Blackbird Café are pies that convey messages from dead loved ones through dreams. Only a guardian, a woman of Zee’s lineage, can make these pies. The café is also home to a flock of mysterious blackbirds who live in the mulberry trees and only sing at midnight. These oddly behaved blackbirds attract herds of bird tourists. When a guardian dies, she turns into a blackbird. When she is a little girl, Zee tells Anna Kate,
“While on earth, it’s the job of the guardians to tend the trees, nurture them, and gather their love to bake into pies to serve those who mourn, those left behind. You see, the bonds of love are only strengthened when someone leaves this earth, not diminished. Some have trouble understanding that, so it’s the pie that determines who’s in need of a message, a reminding, if you will; it’s the love in the pie that connects the two worlds; and it’s a tree keeper who delivers the message” (p. 37).
The book alternates between Anna Kate’s and Natalie’s points-of-view. Although I liked Natalie, this really should have been Anna Kate’s story. Between deciding if she can forgive the Lindens, figuring out how to run the café, and coming to terms with her inheritance as a healer and guardian, there is more than enough conflict in Anna Kate’s story alone. Natalie’s primary conflict is whether or not she should eat the magic pie to see if her late husband’s death was an accident or a suicide. She is also struggling with her proper Southern mother’s interference with how she raises her daughter and starting a budding romance with the local mountain man, Cam Kolbaugh. The book got spread a little too thin between the two women’s multiple issues. I did appreciate how deftly Webber handles Natalie’s grief and panic attacks. Cam tells Natalie, “Traumatic events leave emotional wounds that are hard to heal. Everyone has their own way of getting though it” (p. 116). No one shames or scolds Natalie for her pain, which I found refreshing.
I could totally see Midnight at the Blackbird Café being turned into a Hallmark movie, and I don’t mean that as an insult. The book is heavy on charm. The friendship that develops between Anna Kate and Natalie is incredibly sweet. My absolute favorite character in the entire book was the curmudgeonly old man, Mr. Lazenby, who eats a piece of pie every day to get messages from his dead wife. His fellow elderly customer, Pebbles, has a crush on him. One day, Pebbles buys up all the pies except the mixed berry pie, which she knows Mr. Lazenby does not like. He then refuses to eat a piece of magical pie that sends messages from beyond the grave simply because it has blueberries. Based on my experiences dealing with elderly customers, this is completely on point. Both Anna Kate and Natalie get a love interest — Army veteran/mountain man Cam for Natalie and local lawyer Gideon for Anna Kate. Finding love made sense for Natalie’s character development but did not seem necessary for Anna Kate. Two great eligible bachelors in one small town is more unrealistic than pie that lets you communicate with the dead. I do want to move to the magic town where wonderful boyfriends are growing on trees.
Midnight at the Blackbird Café does shortchange on the magic. Anna Kate’s dead relatives have turned into blackbirds and the café employees are shape-shifters who turn into a cat and a bird, but the book spends more time focusing on how Natalie doesn’t want Ollie to have swim lessons. I wanted to see actual flashbacks of Zee, because she was an amazing character just based on the glimpses that we see of her. It felt like she left Anna Kate unprepared for the fact that it’s her destiny to live in Wicklow and be the guardian of the passageway between the living and the dead. I never understood why Anna Kate did not come to Wicklow to visit Zee after her mother died. It’s obvious from the start that Anna Kate is going to choose the café, but I wished that she had really desired to go to medical school. She only applied because she promised her dead mother. Eden believed in Western medicine but Anna Kate is clearly on the side of Zee’s holistic treatments. Anna Kate’s realization that she can be a healer through caring for the town and its people would have been more powerful if medical school was something she actually wanted.
The two most interesting questions that the book raises are “Can the dead communicate with the living?” and “Would you eat the blackbird pie?” I’d love to see your answers in the comment section. I’ve been having a rough go of it lately. Between my first and second readings of this book, my beloved maternal grandfather, Lyndell, got sick and passed away, and while I was writing this review, my coworker/friend died young and very tragically by suicide. I’ve always been on the fence about whether or not people can communicate with us from the other side. 
My grandfather was a beekeeper for fifteen years. My mother and I recently walked out of our work into a swarm of honeybees. Bees only swarm when they are starting a new hive and they’re very mellow during this process. Normally, bees cluster up in a tree, but these bees were in a pile on the ground. We both stood in a cloud of bees without getting stung. If we had been fifteen minutes earlier or later, we would not have noticed the bees. Did Lyndell send us the bees? I don’t know, but it makes me happy to think so.
Natalie ultimately decides to forgive her late husband without trying the pie and receiving a message. If the blackbird pie existed, I would definitely eat it, even if my message was just my grandmother telling me to lose weight. I would tell my grandfather that I think of him whenever I walk on the greenway that he maintained for years. To my friend who recently passed away, I would say, “I’m sorry I never realized how much you were suffering. The world was a better place with you in. I’m going to miss you for a very long time.” If you’re struggling with your mental health, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
In Conclusion
Like a piece of pecan pie, Midnight at the Blackbird Café will probably be a little too saccharine for some people’s taste. For me, it was more like blackberry pie — definitely sweet but with enough tart bite to be truly delicious. I loved the eccentric characters and the town of Wicklow felt like a real place that I could visit. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I’m glad I chose as my book club pick.
Recommended Reading
The Returned by Jason Mott: When someone dies, especially tragically and too young, the natural human impulse is to wish that they would come back. In this haunting book, the dead return, not as zombies or vampires, but exactly the same as they were in life. Fifty years have passed since Harold and Lucille Hargrave’s only son, Jacob, drowned on his eighth birthday. Their lives are upended when a government agency brings him to their doorstep, still eight years old and seemingly alive. As more and more dead people show up, a controversy rages as to whether they are God’s miracles, demons, or even people at all. The book mostly deals with the government’s response but its quiet moments are truly terrifying. What happens when the love of your life when you were sixteen comes back but you are thirty and married? How can you care for a young boy when you are elderly and exhausted? The Returned is one of the most uniquely horrifying books that I have ever read.
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden: This book also deals with a charming heroine, unique magic, and a conflict between the old ways and the new. Vasya is a wild and free-spirited girl who grows up in the wintry wilds of medieval Russia. She can see the chyerti, Russian household and forest spirits. While Anna Kate is torn between her mother’s Western medicine and her grandmother’s holistic magic, the conflict in this book is between Vasya, who wants to keep the old traditions of honoring the chyerti, and a new priest who believes that Christianity is the only way. I adore this book’s fierce heroine, beautiful writing, and unforgettable story. Vasya’s tale continues in The Girl in the Tower and The Winter of the Witch, but The Bear and the Nightingale was my favorite and can be read as a stand-alone book. Read my full review of The Bear and the Nightingale here.
The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes From the Texas Hill Country’s Rather Sweet Bakery and Café by Rebecca Rather with Alison Oresman: My name is Kelly and I’m a cookbook addict. The Blackbird Café made me think of this collection of stories and recipes from the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café in small-town Texas. It’s a good mix of elaborate cakes, simple cookies, and tasty savory recipes. I’d love to have an occasion to make the Rather Sweet Bread and Cheese Board, Texas Tortilla Soup, and Emergency Fruit Crostatas. I found myself wondering if Uncle Albert, the ninety-four year-old man who eats lunch at the café every day, is their Mr. Lazenby. If you like daydreaming about owning a bakery as much as I do, you will love this cookbook.
The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl Day and Griffith Day: This is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. When I read it, I wonder whether it’s reasonable to plan a vacation to Savannah, Georgia just to visit the Back in the Day bakery. I’d have to go on a Saturday so I can have one of their Cinnamon Sticky Buns. This book is packed with beautiful photos and delectable recipes for breakfast sweets, cupcakes, cakes, cookies, brownies, bars, puddings, and custards. I can vouch for the Blueberry Buckle and Lovely Lemon Loaf. If Midnight at the Blackbird Café has you craving pie, The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook devotes an entire chapter, with recipes for ‘Nana Cream Pie, Salted Caramel Apple Pie, Lemon Meringue Pie, and S’More Pie.
Participation Poll
Loading ...July’s Book Club Selection: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, hosted by Casey Price on Friday, July 31st!
I’m sorry to say that I was pretty disappointed in this book, because of some of the points you noted in your review. It felt like a Hallmark movie, or a ‘clean’ romance novel, not like fantasy. As you say, it shortchanged on the magic. I wanted more attention to the blackbirds, but they were just an excuse for people to matchmake from the grave. The magic was in the service of the Hallmark plot. I wanted more depth there.
I am ambivalent about my second big criticism of this book, which is that it was just so white. I think I might not have even noticed that if not for 1) the present moment, and 2) the fact that there’s an offhand comment about Natalie being in the Daughters of the Confederacy. Maybe that’s a normal (?) thing to do among white southerners, but it turned my gut and made me read the whole book through a skeptical lens. As far as I noticed (and it may be that I’m wrong about this) the only character of color is Jena, an outsider, and also literally a magical animal. That made me really look askance at the plotline where Jena and her (white) husband have chosen to put themselves in servitude to Zee and the town for the last twentysome years because they feel bad about – getting hit by a car? That doesn’t fly for me.
That said, I did enjoy reading this book, the same way I would enjoy a Hallmark movie. It’s light and fluffy, and the romances are sweet. And hey, I don’t mind some escapist sweetness. But this book missed the mark for me by reminding me of the reality of racism without addressing it, so instead of being sweet relief, it was a nagging itch the whole time.
I do heartily second your recommendation of the Bear & the Nightingale, though! That has been one of my favorite series of the last few years.
Thank you for commenting. I’m from Virginia, not Alabama, but it is pretty common for white Southerners to be proud of their Confederate heritage and not think about the horrifying implications, although I hope that current events are at least making people think twice about Confederate symbols and monuments. Heather Webber made a terrible choice in having Natalie be in the Daughters of the Confederacy because I think that what she wanted to convey about Natalie (that she was wealthy, came from a good family, and was also a little bit spoiled) could have been accomplished by having her be in the Junior League.
Jena and Bow were a missed opportunity. After my first reading of the book, I was convinced that they were immortal, but then I realized that I pulled that out of thin air and it wasn’t really in the text. I think I assumed that they were immortal or lived a longer than the average human lifetime because they worked in the café for twenty years just so they can be there to guide Anna Kate after Zee dies. Can they see the future? Could Zee see the future? I wasn’t sure if Jena and Bow were supposed to be angels, guides from the land of the dead, or simply shape-shifters who felt guilty about causing a fatal car accident. I thought that they were connected to the land of the dead since they turn into animals and the guardians become blackbirds when they die. Although I was charmed by the book, so much about the magic was annoyingly vague. We all know about Summer’s difficulty paying for college and nothing about the shape-shifting, possibly immortal, possibly angels, café employers.
I am dying for Katherine Arden to write another book for adults because I loved The Bear and the Nightingale.
Thanks! Yeah, the Daughters of the Confederacy was such a throwaway mention, and had a disproportionate impact on my overall experience of the book.
And I agree – there were so many questions the book didn’t explore about the way magic works or what it means. I actually spent a lot of the book thinking the grey cat might have been Anna Kate’s dad (and I might have liked that storyline better, in fact). It kind of felt like the book cut corners to get to sweetness, and it would have been a more satisfying read if she’d dug in more and let things be more complicated. There were more complications (maybe too many?) in the mundane aspects of the story, but the magic is strangely simple.
And I know! I loved all three of the Bear & the Nightingale books. I tried her middle-grade horror books, and they are genuinely spooky. After I realized that it’s a series about the same kids going through horrifying event after horrifying event, I decided it wasn’t for me.
So I haven’t finished reading yet, so YMMV. But one thing I’ve noticed that I don’t care for is how easily Anna Kate is accepting of her magical heritage. There’s just no conflict there, and to me, it’s just too easy. I guess I was expecting something a wee bit less fluffy, not that fluffy is bad, but the tone just wasn’t what I thought I was getting into.
Do you have any plans on reading the next book? It’s the same style cover art, though I don’t know if it’s a direct sequel or a companion novel: https://smile.amazon.com/South-Buttonwood-Tree-Heather-Webber-ebook/dp/B07WPNFTXT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=heather+webber&qid=1593218674&sr=8-1
I did find it strange that Zee did not prepare Anna Kate for having to take over café and the duties of pie-baking and caring for the mulberry trees after Eden died. Eden would have been the logical choice for the new guardian, but when she died, Anna Kate was the only one left. I got the impression that Zee was old. I never understood why Anna Kate did not go to Wicklow to see Zee after her mother died. Early in the book, Zee tells Anna Kate the story of the guardians as a bed time story. I also thought that Anna Kate should have had a “Wait a minute, Zee’s fairy tale story is real? We have to bake pies to communicate with the dead? And we turn into blackbirds when we die?” moment.
It looks to me that the new book is a similar sort of story, but not a sequel or a companion novel. I will probably read it, especially now that my library is partially open.
I kind of had higher expectations of this, something more akin to Practical Magic. I loved the concept so much! Pies that let you speak to your dead! But everything was so conflict light that it ended up really feeling easy. Anna Kate didn’t know what the secret ingredient was? Oh the birds told her, and then Eden made it even easier by showing her the entire storeroom of the secret ingredient. So the magic fell flat a lot, when it should have been really emotional and pervasive.
I also thought that Anna Kate’s personal family stuff fell flat. More awkward than actually full of conflict. And her desire to go to medical school always felt suspect just because she leaned so heavily to holistics.
I don’t really know what Natalie added to the plot. In the end, I think what irritated me most was the lack of magic and that neither of these women really ever stood on their own two feet after a struggle.
I hate that my pick fell flat for so many people. I found the book charming, but I didn’t go into it expecting a lot of magic. Anna Kate didn’t really need a love interest; I felt like she already had a happy ending in learning that she could fulfill her destiny as a healer by baking the pies and caring for the town. I do agree that the book would have been better with more magic.
If you haven’t read The Bear and the Nightingale, you definitely should, because I think it has everything that you found lacking in Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe–a strong, independent heroine and more magic.
I’d been meaning to read this ever since I saw it at work (Barnes & Noble). The cover sucked me in and the premise sounded fun. I’ve gotten into the habit that when summer hits, I want light reading without anything too serious. Perfect summer fun books. This fit the bill in that there was very little conflict, we’re in a cute little town, there’s a touch of magic, and everyone ends up happy as best they can.
Having said that, there were things that bugged me. There’s all this talk about the magic pie and yet absolutley NONE of the characters we’re close to eats it. I desperately wanted Natalie to eat it just so A.) we can actually see the pie at work and B.) she could actually get some of the closure she wanted. Instead, we’re left with maybe she will, maybe she won’t. I also really wanted Anna Kate to eat a slice so she could talk to her dad. He wouldn’t have to reveal how the car accident happened since that’s the main drive of the story, but instead just say dad things like how he was proud of her and P.S. Zee says there’s a hidden Harry Potter closet for you. I really thought that was bizarre, having a random character not of the Wicklow line know all of Zee’s secrets. I kept wondering if there was going to be some kind of random “Summer is actually a Wicklow!” reveal, which wouldn’t have made sense, but her being so buddy-buddy with Zee seemed weird too.
I was also kind of annoyed at the whole Jena/Bow thing. The fact that they can shapeshift is never addressed, and I never got the feeling that they were a part of the blackbird/mulberry tree deal. Bow was chasing Jena across a random road that caused the crash and there’s just no reason for that other than the two were just goofing around. They said they were there to right a wrong, so I took that as their little cat-bird chase in front of the car wasn’t intentional. So I needed their existence to be explained somewhat. I know at one point Bow as a cat works with Zee (in blackbird form) to lead Anna Kate somewhere, but that wasn’t enough to convince me that they were 100% part of the main Wicklow thing. At first I did, but once I figured out that Bow was obviously the cat and Jena was the bird and they were the cause of the wreck, then I no longer believed so. The two pieces just didn’t fit.
I do agree that this should have just been Anna Kate’s story. Plus the double first-person thing kept throwing me off. Maybe it’s becuase I’m not used to having multiple main characters use that POV (I had the same issue in This Is How You Lose The Time War), but they were also kind of similar in tone. And yes, Natalie’s issues started to feel repetitive. I realized she was there to repair the problems with her mother, but I wished she’d gone off on her mom at least once, pointing out all the damage her mother has caused over the years. And Seelie did a 180 way too easily. We never get to really see her wrestle with the fact that she’s caused so much pain. She just flips sides and everyone goes with it, easy-peasy. We’re just gonna ignore the fact that she called Eden a murderer for over 20 years and totally neglected Natalie. Cool.
And yes, this is totally Hallmark movie material, haha!
There was a part of the book that said that the pies don’t work on the guardians, so Anna Kate couldn’t eat the pie and communicate with her parents or Zee. It did not; however, explain why the pies can’t send messages to the guardians. I was frustrated that Natalie never ate the pie. If there was a baked good that let you get messages from beyond the grave, I would definitely try it. Would it be my maternal grandmother telling me to lose weight? Probably. There was never any real reason for Natalie not to eat the pie, like a religious objection.
Zee’s relationship with Summer never bothered me since she was a healer/witch and it seemed like Summer was in need of help. It followed for me that Anna Kate would also feel obligated to take care of Summer.
I feel like I conjured Jena/Bow’s back story out of thin air because it wasn’t in the book. I think I made the assumption that they were somehow part of the mulberry tree/land of the dead because they were so invested in getting Anna Kate to stay and run the cafe. At one point, Bow, in cat form, sets the deck on fire so Anna Kate will realize how much the cafe means to her. (Wouldn’t it have been easier to set a fire as a person?) Anna Kate only briefly thinks about what will happen to the mulberry trees and blackbirds if she leaves for medical school, and you would think she would be more concerned that generations of her ancestors might die if she does decide to go. I also assumed that Jena and Bow were immortal or live longer than humans since they hang around working in the cafe for twenty years, waiting to have to talk Anna Kate into running the place. So much of their story was left out and it was far more interesting than Natalie. If there had to be a second narrator, it really should have been Jena, Bow, or both.
Ooooh that’s right! I forgot about that. You know, I remember that part when they said why Anna Kate couldn’t eat it and then later on down the road my brain translated that into, “Well, she can’t talk to her mom or Zee, but her dad’s not a blackbird so she could talk to him.” Except the messages come through the blackbirds and they’re all related and…duh. lol
I think we all kind of had to conjure Bow and Jena’s backstory because it was never very clear what their deal was. I did initially think that they were also a part of the whole mulberry/blackbird thing, but changed my mind after I realized they were the cause of the accident. I also agree that she was really nonchalant about the whole, “I wonder what happens to the trees when I leave…oh well!”
I saw your other comment about the book falling flat – I may fuss and sass, but I really did enjoy it. It’s the kind of thing I like to read in the summertime these days. Heck, I outright bought it and usually I’m kind of picky about what I buy. Although I dunno, I’ve been getting a little less picky since I get tired of waiting for library loans all the time. It made me want to travel and for find some of these sleepy little cutesy towns that have the best local cafes and things to eat, because those are the places that *always* have the best food. 😀
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe was a fun, fluff, beach read kind of book, but I can see how it could have been a great book and that is frustrating. I am glad that you did enjoy it for the summer light read that it is. I was starting to wonder if I only liked it because asking me if I want to inherit a bakery/cafe is like asking me if I’d like to rub oil on Jason Momoa–the answer is very much definitely yes.
Just finished this book but wanted to turn the conversation around. I thoroughly enjoyed the book because it was light and didn’t have as much tension and conflict. I do not like books that spend the entire story with two characters having it out. The face Seelie was able to turn around quickly once she saw Anna Kate was refreshing. The magic realism was just enough without it being totally unbelievable or over the top. The book definitely gave me “The Good Witch” vibes but it was fun and light hearted. I just happened to stumble on this page today but wanted to add my thoughts because I went into it with no expectations (as you should) and was pleasantly surprised.