Fantasy
![J. M. Miro - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_j_m_miro.jpg)
Ordinary Monsters: A Novel (The Talents, 1)
MOST ANTICIPATED SFF BOOK of 2022 by Tor, The Nerd Daily, CrimeReads, BookBub and more!
"Ordinary Monsters is a towering achievement: a dazzling mountain of wild invention, Dickensian eccentrics, supernatural horrors, and gripping suspense. Be warned... once you step into this penny dreadful to end all penny dreadfuls, you'll never want to leave." ―Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Firemanand Heart-Shaped Box
A STUNNING NEW WORK OF HISTORICAL FANTASY, J. M. MIRO'S ORDINARY MONSTERS INTRODUCES READERS TO THE DARK, LABYRINTHINE WORLD OF THE TALENTS
England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness―a man made of smoke.
Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a brutal childhood in Mississippi, doesn't have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When Alice Quicke, a jaded detective with her own troubled past, is recruited to escort them to safety, all three begin a journey into the nature of difference and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous.
What follows is a story of wonder and betrayal, from the gaslit streets of London, and the wooden theaters of Meiji-era Tokyo, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh where other children with gifts―like Komako, a witch-child and twister of dust, and Ribs, a girl who cloaks herself in invisibility―are forced to combat the forces that threaten their safety. There, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Komako, Marlowe, Charlie, Ribs, and the rest of the talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of what is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts.
Riveting in its scope, exquisitely written, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world―and of the gifted, broken children who must save it.
"Ordinary Monsters is a towering achievement: a dazzling mountain of wild invention, Dickensian eccentrics, supernatural horrors, and gripping suspense. Be warned... once you step into this penny dreadful to end all penny dreadfuls, you'll never want to leave." ―Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Firemanand Heart-Shaped Box
A STUNNING NEW WORK OF HISTORICAL FANTASY, J. M. MIRO'S ORDINARY MONSTERS INTRODUCES READERS TO THE DARK, LABYRINTHINE WORLD OF THE TALENTS
England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness―a man made of smoke.
Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a brutal childhood in Mississippi, doesn't have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When Alice Quicke, a jaded detective with her own troubled past, is recruited to escort them to safety, all three begin a journey into the nature of difference and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous.
What follows is a story of wonder and betrayal, from the gaslit streets of London, and the wooden theaters of Meiji-era Tokyo, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh where other children with gifts―like Komako, a witch-child and twister of dust, and Ribs, a girl who cloaks herself in invisibility―are forced to combat the forces that threaten their safety. There, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Komako, Marlowe, Charlie, Ribs, and the rest of the talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of what is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts.
Riveting in its scope, exquisitely written, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world―and of the gifted, broken children who must save it.
Editorial Reviews
"Ordinary Monsters is a towering achievement: a dazzling mountain of wild invention, Dickensian eccentrics, supernatural horrors, and gripping suspense. Be warned... once you step into this penny dreadful to end all penny dreadfuls, you'll never want to leave." ―Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Firemanand Heart-Shaped Box
"Haunting, tense, earth-shattering … A riveting mix of magic and terror." ―Tamora Pierce, author of
Trickster's ChoiceandIn the Hand of the Goddess
"Brilliant, subtle, bone-breaking. A book that creeps up on you, wearing brass knuckles." ―Conn Iggulden, author of The Dangerous Book for Boys
"From the very first page, you're pulled into a world of hope and fear, dark and light, the known and the unimaginable. A world that is equal parts magic and pain. Readers should prepare themselves: there's nothing ordinary about Ordinary Monsters." ―Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor and The Hunger
"Ordinary Monsters is one of my favorite books of the year―it's full of surprises, atmospheric as hell, and moves like a runaway train. Nothing in this book is what you expect it to be and it couldn't be more satisfying." ―Kelly Braffet, author of Save Yourself and Last Seen Leaving
"J.M. Miro's Ordinary Monsters reads like a Dickensian X...
"Haunting, tense, earth-shattering … A riveting mix of magic and terror." ―Tamora Pierce, author of
Trickster's ChoiceandIn the Hand of the Goddess
"Brilliant, subtle, bone-breaking. A book that creeps up on you, wearing brass knuckles." ―Conn Iggulden, author of The Dangerous Book for Boys
"From the very first page, you're pulled into a world of hope and fear, dark and light, the known and the unimaginable. A world that is equal parts magic and pain. Readers should prepare themselves: there's nothing ordinary about Ordinary Monsters." ―Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor and The Hunger
"Ordinary Monsters is one of my favorite books of the year―it's full of surprises, atmospheric as hell, and moves like a runaway train. Nothing in this book is what you expect it to be and it couldn't be more satisfying." ―Kelly Braffet, author of Save Yourself and Last Seen Leaving
"J.M. Miro's Ordinary Monsters reads like a Dickensian X...
