Thornbird

After her grandmother’s death, Ryan Mayfair flies from Allentown, Pennsylvania, to her new home in Starling, Tennessee. At the airport, she sees a news report announcing that an execution date has been set for the notorious serial killer Gabriel Thorn. The broadcast notes his refusal to reveal the location of his six victims’ bodies, and Ryan privately reflects that the media always forgets her father’s seventh victim: her mother. Ryan, whose birth name is Gabrielle Thorn, has lived under multiple identities to escape her father’s legacy. 

Ryan’s aunt, Maggie Shipley, picks her up and explains she was estranged from Ryan’s grandmother, who disapproved of her husband, Dan. Ryan’s mother, Sarah, sided with their grandmother, which also strained the sisters’ relationship. On the drive, the sight of Sturgeon Lake, where her father allegedly disposed of his victims, makes Ryan feel sick and fills her with dread.

At the Shipley house, Ryan learns her cover story: She is Ryan Shipley, the daughter of Dan’s estranged brother who lives overseas and attended boarding school in Switzerland.  She meets her 16-year-old twin cousins, Jasmine “Jazzy” Shipley and Connor Shipley, who are unaware of her true identity. 

Jasmine shows Ryan their shared bedroom and admires her cousin’s heart-shaped diamond locket necklace. Ryan is anxious when Jasmine touches the locket, afraid she will open it and see her initials “G.T.” inside. The necklace is her most cherished possession as the diamond was formed from her mother’s cremation ashes. Jasmine explains that their family is infamous because their uncle is the serial killer Gabriel Thorn. 

At dinner, Ryan meets her uncle, Dan Shipley. The meal becomes tense when Jasmine complains about the social stigma of being related to “Uncle Psycho,” especially with his execution approaching. The conversation about her father makes Ryan lose her appetite.

Ryan has a nightmare that is a vivid memory of her mother’s murder. In the memory, a young Gabrielle hides under a bed after seeing her mother’s body. Her father, Gabriel, finds her, calls her “little sparrow,” and insists he never meant to kill her mother. He cryptically adds that he loves “them” and keeps “them” safe—words Gabrielle does not understand. 

After waking, Ryan takes her camera and goes for a walk on a trail behind the house. There, she meets Everett James, an attractive boy her age who is out for a run. She tells him her cover story, and he flirts with her before telling her he will see her at school on Monday.

On her first day at Crockett High, Ryan spots a student on the bus wearing a “GABRIEL THORN FAN CLUB” patch (39). In her AP Government class, she finds herself in a discussion about capital punishment that uses her father’s case as the central example. To blend in, she votes with the class in favor of his execution. Everett is also in the class and teases her playfully. In her photography class, Ryan befriends a student named Mar. At lunch with Jasmine, Connor, and Jasmine’s friend Gillian, Ryan sees Everett talking with another student, Chase Hedlund. Jasmine reveals that Chase has a reputation as a delinquent and is a close friend of Everett’s.

A page from FreeTheSparrows.com shows a forum discussion about Thorn’s first victim, 44-year-old Lydia Singh. One contributor shares personal information on Lydia’s daughter, gleaned from her Instagram account.

After school, Ryan, Jasmine, and Connor go to downtown Starling and witness a press conference held by the victims’ families. Benjamin White, whose mother, Anabel, was Gabriel Thorn’s fifth victim, announces that the reward for information leading to the bodies has increased to $1 million. Jasmine becomes determined to find the remains, but both Ryan and Connor refuse to participate. Later, Jasmine’s best friend, Nikki James, visits. Nikki is Everett’s sister and tells Ryan that it is exhausting watching her brother “pretend to be flawless all the time” (58).

On Saturday morning, Ryan borrows Maggie’s truck and parks half a mile from her abandoned childhood home. She walks through the woods and finds the cabin covered in graffiti denouncing her father, along with decaying, faded birdhouses. Ryan tries to suppress happy memories of painting the birdhouses with her father. 

Ryan is surprised to see a jeep parked outside the cabin. Its driver, a young man named Logan “Zed” Zellman, reveals that he runs a popular true-crime podcast and an online forum called “Free the Sparrows” under the handle “the Rain King.” He morbidly offers to show Ryan the bloodstain on the bedroom floor where Thorn’s wife was killed. Horrified, Ryan refuses. Before she leaves, Zed mentions that Gabriel Thorn had a daughter who would be her age.

Shaken, Ryan returns home and talks with Connor. Ryan notices the name “Sam” flash on Connor’s phone when a call comes in that Connor ignores. She asks who Sam is and learns he is Connor’s boyfriend. 

Alone in her room, Ryan looks through the scrapbook her grandmother left her and notices that in some photos her father has been cropped out. She then finds Zed’s website, FreeTheSparrows.com, and discovers a thread with false sightings of Gabrielle Thorn. More disturbingly, she finds a section containing photocopies of the three letters her father wrote to her from prison, sourced from an ABC documentary. Ryan reads the first letter, in which Gabriel claims her mother’s death was an accident and states that it was Gabby witnessing her death that made him realize he needed to “cage” himself.

Jasmine informs Ryan that Everett asked for her number, and Ryan allows her to give it to him. Everett texts immediately and asks her out, but Ryan declines. He continues to flirt, undeterred by her rejection. 

On Sunday, while watching TV with Connor, Ryan’s uncle Dan admires her photograph of a bird. Ryan identifies it as a northern flicker, a type of woodpecker. Realizing her father’s love of birds has become notorious, Ryan lies about how she learned about them, conscious of Connor’s presence. Later, while cleaning her room, Ryan discovers that her heart-shaped diamond necklace is missing.