Review - Feathered Friend by Fiona Glass

Dexter inherited his father’s homing pigeons and has grown to love the birds. One day, after a meet, Dexter is checking all the birds made it back and finds an extra pigeon in the roost. He takes the bird into his house to try and track down the owner but when his back is turned the bird is gone and there’s a cute young man in his kitchen. The young man introduces himself as Avery and he’s clearly attracted to Dexter.

“Feathered Friend” is a very short fairy-tale story based on the swan maiden folklore. It not only has a gay twist but has been updated to make the bird a homing pigeon comfortable with a suburban roost. Like most fairy tales, it doesn’t try too hard to be believable. You just have to go with the whimsy.

Dexter is a rather ordinary man who works in a library. He’s still grieving over the loss of his father. He seems to take Avery’s sudden appearance a little more calmly than most of us would. You could put it down, in part, to English reserve. It’s also clear he’s lonely.

Avery remains a bit of a mystery throughout the story. He doesn’t reveal much about what he is or how he came to be that way. Given the very short length of the book, that’s not really a disappointment.

“Feathered Friend” is available from Smashwords or Amazon (commissionable link).