Somebody’s Someone – A review of Brynne Weaver's Butcher & Blackbird

I first heard about Butcher & Blackbird while listening to The BFF Bookcast (if you haven’t checked it out you totally should), where the audiobook came highly recommended, though I’ve got to be honest when I heard that it was read as a duet—not just two people reading separate chapters but two people portraying the main characters, their voices intertwined throughout the chapters into a beautifully cohesive performance—I had to check it out. I may also have been intrigued by the mention that one of the main characters was performed with a sexy Irish accent. I am a sucker for a good performance.

Butcher & Blackbird was my introduction to Brynne Weaver and let me say WOW! Butcher & Blackbird is hysterical, heartrending, sexy, and thought-provoking. The moment I read the Content & Trigger Warnings I knew I was going to love this book…Which is a very odd thing to say, but even the trigger warnings are written in one of the main character’s, Sloane’s, peculiar quirky voice. You’ll have to check it out to see what I mean.

Butcher & Blackbird follows Rowan and Sloane, a pair of Dexter-esque serial killers with hearts of…well not gold but something just as endearing… through their chance encounter and their murder games that follow. This was the perfect book for a Dexter and You loving girly like me who obsesses over the romance and happy endings. Rowan and Sloane hit all the bases—and I mean ALL the bases—in this beautifully written dark romantic comedy. This book had me laughing, cringing, and crying before sending me melting into a mushy pile of goo as two intricately broken characters learn they are not their pasts and what it means to truly be seen. There are not enough words in the world to sing adequate praise for what Brynne Weaver has done with this book.

And guess what?! Butcher & Blackbird is the first in a trilogy, so we get two more books in the beautifully twisted web of a world Brynne weaves in this story and trust me you are going to want to read more. Reading Butcher & Blackbird, I found myself growing attached to even the most minor of characters. All of her characters are multi-dimensional and relatable, and that’s saying something for a book about a bunch of murderers. And if everything that is Butcher & Blackbird wasn’t enough, Brynne Weaver uses chapter titles and included a playlist in the table of contents!

Weaver’s next novel in The Ruinous Love Trilogy comes out June 2024 so go quick and read Butcher & Blackbird, then listen to the audiobook.

In reviewing Butcher & Blackbird I can't give the novel anything less than five out of five bowls of ice cream ;-). Read the book or listen to the audio book to figure out why I'm rating this book in ice creams. Trust me, it’s worth it.