Ordinary Monsters by J M Miro

Ordinary Monsters by J M Miro has frequently flitted in and out of my attention scape as soon as it released but now that I have read it fully, I frankly believe, that this book deserves a lot more love! It's a mammoth book with a daunting page-count but the lyrical writing, the cinematic action-thrills and the clever juxtaposition of familiar tropes like gifted children and a magical school in a well-detailed Victorian era England, makes the pages fly and helps us make short work of the book. 

It's a complex, twisted tale that moves across the Wild West of America, the plague ridden streets of Tokyo, finally ending up in the cold windy northlands above Edinburgh in the early 1890's, tracing the lives of two kids - namely Charlie Ovid at Sixteen, a half black kid from Missouri and Marlowe, a young eight year old orphan, found in a moving boxcar next to his dead nursemaid and then brought up in a circus. 

Because both these boys are gifted with unique 'Talents', they perhaps hold the key to saving this world from demons, more horrifying than your worst nightmares who can rip through the fabric of the living world and pose danger to every living soul. These "Talents" themselves are a rarity in the world today and as evidenced by the hardships of early life for both Charlie and Marlowe, we know it's really tough to just survive out there. The "Talents" possessed are also pretty unique - Like Charlie can self-heal and even hide a knife inside his skin. While Marlow can glow an eerie blue in the dark and becomes a natural addition to the circus freak-show. All the hardships continue until two 'detectives' who are in charge of hunting for missing people, Alice Quick, a nonsense woman ,no stranger to violence herself and Frank Coulton, her gruff partner who's an absolute delight to encounter. Quick and Coulton rescue both the kids and take them back to their employer, a shadowy figure known only as Dr. Berghast, who has made his life's mission to find such 'Talents' across the world and bring them to Scotland, his institute called Carinndale Institute - a sort of magic school for the Talents to learn about their innate abilities and hone, and control the same. 

But not before both Alice and Coulton learn that these children are also being hunted by a monster, in human form - a formidable man named Jacob Marber. A "Talent" himself, swayed over the promises from the other side and who will stop at nothing to kidnap these kids himself, with his undead allies, all in service for this creature from the netherworld, a 'drugr' who would covet the life of such talents, in order make herself powerful in this living world. 

It's a great set up - children born with extra ordinary gifts against eldritch-like horrors of the netherworld, a shadowy benefactor with his own shady reasons out against an ex-Talent, who wants to stop him for reasons unknown. And thrown into the mix are the children's various human protectors racing against time to get them safe and their 'Talented' allies within the magical school, who take on a greater role as the plot thickens and speeds up. J M Miro writes a sweeping, poignant tale of two clueless children caught in a whirlpool much against their choice and while the initial chapters are mostly about the pain and suffering, it paints a very realistic picture of the post-civil war America touching upon the race issues/social dramas that plays out in that time. Charlie is immediately endearing with his strong emotional connects drawn from his tortured background, so are Alice and Frank with their missions established. 

It is a slow-burn of a novel, with the narratives frequently spliced across time/POV chapters spread across the world. But the patience is rewarded richly towards the second half of the book where narratives collide and split again. Secrets are spilled, hidden agendas are revealed. Some mind-numbing twists are also in store. Miro's Victorian Era gas-lit England is well realised with it's perpetual gloomy spirals of mist and fog, hansoms and shadowy creatures, figures in the dark. The book is what I would call a mix of literary fiction, body horror and historical fantasy. Miro writes up a storm with this excellent world he has built up, with a sufficiently well explained magical system that explains the 'Talents' well enough. Miro's characters are brilliantly realised, some of my favourites being Ribbs, a young girl who can become invisible and Coulton, the man charged with findings and bringing back gifted children to the Carindale institute. They are actually minor from the overall plot point of view but leave their own strong mark on the proceedings. The backstory of Jacob Marber is a fascinating addition to the narrative and Miro manages to get the reader sympathetic to the man's cause as we unearth the reasons. And the action scenes when they happen, interspersed between the long lulls of deep meditative narratives about family, love and bonds, explode off the pages. The train scene when the kids and their guardians are on-board to travel to Edinburgh is worth its weight in gold. 

This first book ends on a satisfactory note with the main plot points covered but leaves scope wide enough for rest of the series to expand. Ordinary Monsters is a book, well worth your time investment for the rich dividends in the story and plot. It's slow yes but it's a classic in the making, as JM Miro excels at various aspects of the craft : Be it the attention to details, the murky atmosphere, the suspenseful build-up and the world-shattering reveals about the high-stakes involved.  This is one of my favourite books of 2022 and I truly, believe that more people should be reading this and be talking about this extraordinary 'talent'. 

Highly recommended.