THE BIRDICT

💛 This is dreamy, dark and powerful. The themes and parallels drawn in this book are masterfully crafted, the use of monsters and gods as metaphors for the very real evils of our world - prejudice, injustice, double standards - is brilliant and the prose is mermesiring.

💚 It takes time to get to the meat of the story. I would say 20-30% of the listening time is devoted to exposition which could have been peppered throughout the rest of the book. The cast of characters is myriad as are the storylines. Whilst this is impressive, it also makes it tricky to connect with individual ones and to follow the narrative.

Big thanks to NetGalley, Cadwell Turnbull and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an ALC in return for an honest review.

SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO...​​

Much as Animal Farm has little to do with livestock, so this uses fantasy elements as allegories for complex political and philosophical concepts. The writing style reminded me of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel.

THE BLURB

One October morning, Laina gets the news that her brother was shot and killed by Boston cops. But what looks like a case of police brutality soon reveals something much stranger. Monsters are real. And they want everyone to know it.

As creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, seeking safety through visibility, their emergence sets off a chain of seemingly unrelated events. Members of a local werewolf pack are threatened into silence. A professor follows a missing friend's trail of bread crumbs to a mysterious secret society. And a young boy with unique abilities seeks refuge in a pro-monster organization with secrets of its own. Meanwhile, more people start disappearing, suicides and hate crimes increase, and protests erupt globally, both for and against the monsters.

At the center is a mystery no one thinks to ask: Why now? What has frightened the monsters out of the dark?

The world will soon find out.