Review: Ordinary Monsters

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was provided an audio ARC via Netgalley from Macmillan Audio and a physical ARC from Flatiron Books, all opinions are my own.   The audiobook is narrated by Ben Onwukwe, and he was wonderful.  He gave each of the characters a voice and really made this book come to life on audio.

This was fantastic!  This has all of the elements I look for in an SFF book!  This crosses a few genres, there is a bit of horror, fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction all wrapped into this epic tale.  This has a creative plot, interesting characters, riveting action scenes, and great world building.  While this book is long, the audiobook was slightly over 24 hours and the paperback is roughly 650 pages, I thought the pace was great and I was always engaged.  Every time I put the audio on I wanted to keep listening, and every time I picked up my physical copy I wanted to keep reading.  

This is set in 1882 and mainly takes place in Victorian London.  It follows several different children with unique abilities or Talents as they are often called.  The books starts with two detectives searching for two of the children 16 year old Charlie and Marlowe, who I believe is 8.  Each of the boys has a talent, and they will eventually be taken to Cairndale a school of sorts for Talents where they will be safe and where there are other children like them.  There they meet other Talents and the mysterious Dr. Berghast.  There the kids will have to decide who is friend and who is foe, all while trying to learn how to use their abilities to save the world from the great evil that is threatening to break into the world of the living and wreak havoc.

While this is a little dark and there is violence, I think this would be perfectly fine for the YA reader.  I would let my 14 year old read it.  It isn't overly graphic when it comes to the more horror centric elements of the book.  There is some violence but again it isn't overly graphic.  There are hints of a very innocent romance between two of the teen characters to come in the future, but there is no romance in the book.  The pacing was great and the plot was engaging which is critical in a book that pushes 700 pages.  There are alot of characters to keep track of but I never felt lost or as if things were over complicated.  

I thought the world building in this was excellent.  I was able to visualize the scenes and characters as I was listening almost as if I was watching a movie.  I was invested in all of the characters, even the morally grey ones.  While this does end with alot of unanswered questions, I don't feel like it ended on a cliffhanger.  I felt the book closed nicely with the promise of more to come in the next installment, which I would happily dive into immediately.  I am highly anticipating the next book and cannot wait to jump back into this world when the time comes.  

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