A review by booksare42
The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi

emotional mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Thank you to Neem Tree Press for providing me with a digital copy of this book. Thank you to The Write Reads for organizing this blog tour and providing me with the material for it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon is different from what I’d normally read, but I’m glad I picked up this book because it was beautifully written and I ended up really enjoying it. Told from various perspectives, The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon tells a story of characters who are haunted by their past and facing an uncertain future.

Throughout The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon there is a tragedy that is being hinted at. The main characters are haunted by an event that happened in their past that forever changed their lives. This tragedy isn’t immediately revealed, but hints are left throughout the first part of the book. While the tragedy is revealed at the end of part one, the reader is left to wonder what the specific details are while they read part two.

I enjoyed the use of the changing perspectives in The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon. I liked that each chapter was only a few pages and then it would switch to a different character and a different location. I think this also did an excellent job of showing how different the lives of the main characters are.

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon deals with some heavy topics. It deals with things like grief, anxiety, mental health, death, sexual harassment, poverty, and class divide. I thought this book did an excellent job portraying anxiety and the struggles that someone dealing with anxiety face. I also think this book did a good job showcasing the class divides, and I thought that the switching between Misha or Zohaib’s perspective to Nadia’s perspective did a great job of showing these divides.

As far as the characters go, I loved Nadia and Zohaib. I thought these two characters were well written and they were characters that I could root for. It was clear that they were haunted by their past and I was invested in finding out what happened. I also enjoyed Misha and some of her interactions with the other characters. I also liked that there were a few chapters told from the perspectives of secondary characters like Zohaib’s roommate or Nadia’s cousin.

One thing I didn’t love about this book was the ending. I thought that the ending was very open and I would have likes just a little bit more closure.

Overall, I thought The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon was a great book full of memorable characters and a story that I will be left thinking about for a while.