I found this book by way of a review on io9 which stated about the main character Miriam: "She's a booze-soaked, promiscuous grifter in a dirty white t-shirt, hoping her lack of a bra makes hitchhiking a little easier. She keeps careful track of where and when people are going to die in her notebook, then shows up at the right time to bear witness. And rifle through their pockets. It's how she gets by." 
 (view spoiler)[ Miriam, now a young twenty-something, has developed an unique ability. When she makes skin to skin contact with another person,incidental or not, she "sees" their moment of death. Wendig doesn't exactly say how or why she came by this ability but he does seems to suggest that it is as a result of her strictly religious, "Carrie"-like upbringing? In any regard, Miriam has hit the road, running away from this horrible childhood. She becomes something of a con-woman, a not-so-nice angel of death, making sure that she is on the scene at the unsuspecting doomed person's moment of death so that she can pick a pocket, lift a credit card. She never takes more than what she needs to buy a hot meal or a warm bed at the next town. She has given up on trying to save people, to change fate. It doesn't work. As the months go by, she mixes with more and more of the detritus of society, she sinks lower and lower, likes herself less and less. Then, she meets someone that changes things a bit. Louis, a truck driver who is actually a good person, who cares for her and who, when she sees his death, finds that it is tied inexplicably to her, she is no longer just a bystander. She has to find a way to change fate and save this person and maybe herself. Soon, Miriam runs into a whole cast of unsavory characters, Ashley, a conman who sees Miriam as a cash cow, "Hairless" an absolutely creepy drug dealer and his two ruthless henchmen. (hide spoiler)] 
 Miriam's story unfolds several ways, in real time, and through her thoughts, her dreams and hallucinations, through her death visions and through an interview she decides to give to a curious college student. Wendig uses all of these to somewhat effectively get inside of Miriam's head. You never quite get to what makes her tick though. And, the other characters were a bit standard and one-dimensional. The complicated character of Miriam though has lots of promise which I hope he expands on in the sequel. 
 To call this book dark, gross, disturbing, cruel, twisted and morbid would probably be a bit of an understatement. But that's okay, if you like or don't mind all that. Because, with "Blackbirds", Wendig has put together an interesting character in Miriam. He expertly weaves a thrilling and fast-pasted dark story maybe full of more truth than we realize...that death is rarely anything but ugly and undignified.