It might not be surprising, but I love Dark Historical Fantasy when it’s not afraid to embrace the darker topics in life.
Hello, everyone and welcome back to The Dragon’s Library. Today, I will be going over the recent addition to my literary archives. A new book by Steven Price, under the pseudonym, J.M. Miro: Ordinary Monsters.
Ordinary monsters is a wonderfully macabre work of historical fantasy, set in the late Victorian Era.
Now, while I would usually use this as a moment to jump right into the premise, I feel the need to give a content warning. I usually don’t do this, but this story does contain or reference a whole bunch of topics people may find uncomfortable and/or disturbing.
There are, in no particular order, descriptions of sexual assault, abuse, torture, self harm, and several scenes set in post Civil War Missippi have characters who are racists. If you do not want to hear about any of this, then please leave. Also if anyone under the age of say thirteen is listening to me, for some reason, then legally I have to tell you to leave. I know you won’t and to be honest I don’t care, but now no one can say I didn’t give fair warning.
With that said, let’s get to the premise.
Ordinary Monsters, follows several adults and a handful of children with supernatural talents. Two agents, Mr. Coulton and Alice Quicke, are tasked to find these Talents and bring them to the Cairndale Institute. However, a mysterious man, Jacob Marber, aided by a monster, is also hunting the children. The latest assignment sends the duo to America to retrieve first the 16-year old, Charlie Ovid, who can heal from any injury and the mysterious Marlowe, who can glow with a supernatural light. With Jacob Marber hot on their heels, the two agents rush to bring the children to safety, only for the group to uncover dark secrets that change everything they thought they knew.
Wow. This story was really good. The initial set up brings to mind the X-men or Miss Peregrine’s Home For Particular Children, the school even has its own version of Cerebro, but the execution is a lot darker than those stories usually go. However, it manages a dark and graphic tone, without becoming pointless. The characters and their motivations are very well fleshed out, to the point where no character feels completely evil. Even the villains have reasons for their horrific deeds. Surprisingly this even extends to Jacob Marber and his otherworldly ally, the Drughr.
I won’t say too much, as the exploration of the unknown and seeking answers is a main plot driver, but suffice to say that there's more to Dr. Henry Burghast, the head of the school, then initially appears.
My main problem was the few plot lines that went unresolved, but they were mostly minor and my research suggests that this is the first part of a planned trilogy.
Now that content warning wasn’t just for show, and I will be talking more in depth about those scenes in the spoiler sections, but this is a graphic book. The main gimmick of the magic system is that all of the abilities are created as a result of children being born with ties to both the living world and the realm of the dead. Many of the abilities create twisted forms of life, or alter the user’s body. In addition, one recurring monster are the liches, undead creatures created when a specific kind of Talent is unwilling to allow a soul to leave its dying body.
That brings me to the characters.
Marlowe is a kid, who may as well be a tragedy magnet even by the high standards of this book, his parents were killed, then he was kidnapped to protect him from Jacob Marber and found on a train by a desperate woman. She was feeling the wealthy father of a man she murdered for raping her, and found the glowing baby with a corpse. After a few years of living in hiding, a resurgence in bounty hunters caused her to leave the now young child with a friend named Brent, fearing for his safety, and vanished entirely from the story. This all happens in the first few intro chapters. He lost at least three sets of parents in like four chapters. That has got to be some kind of record. Marlowe is pretty simply due to his age, he’s only eight, but at times he has an understanding of things that makes him seem a lot older. I hope he gets more fleshing out in the sequels.
Charlie Ovid is one of the other three main characters, the one whose POV we most consistently experience. He was an African American kid who grew up with his mother in Mississippi, during the late 1800s, only to be orphaned a few years before we met him. That only should tell you he has had a shitty life, but after an accident causes a white worker to fall to his death, he gets the death sentence and is executed…three times…Because it turns out that Charlie Ovid can heal from any injury. It’s revealed that the only things that can kill him are magical monsters and eventually old age, although even the weakest people with his Talent can live till 150, so it’s mostly monsters. Charlie is the more down to earth and suspicious of the kids. I really came to enjoy him as a protagonist. The writer gets extremely creative with his ability. The first time we see it is when Charlie cuts open his arm, in order to retrieve something he stored in his own body. That is such a clever thing to do, that I am genuinely surprised we have never seen a character with advanced regeneration do something like that before.
However, my other favorite character has no powers, aside from being a good shot. Alice Quicke is a private detective and all around badass, who recently started working for the institute. She acts as the adult main character and her arc is mostly centered around opening herself up after her tragic past and learning to care for others again.
As we wrap up the plot, I do want to touch on the wonderful themes in Ordinary Monsters. While there is a lot about letting go, accepting others, fighting for what you believe in and not demonizing what you don't understand. The main overarching story is about how people can use good intentions to justify monstrous actions for the greater good. The title really says it all. Despite the undead liches, bone crows, and otherworldly terrors, the most horrific actions are committed by those who believe that they are doing something for the greater good, but have become so blinded by their prior sins that they are unwilling to stop when the cost continues to increase. Those actions, once unthinkable, become something they must make count. If they stop now, then all those they killed and all the lives ruined are for nothing. This story really does embody the old adage that the path to hell is paved with good intentions. In the Ordinary Monster’s monsters are just that: Ordinary.
It’s only when other people, those who look not at the potential good results, but the present harm, stand up and stop them, that this cycle of demonization and justification can be ended.
So, yeah I like this story a lot, however I do have a few issues with it. The audiobook has great production values. With musical intros and well done accents. But this can make it demanding to listen to. My schedule has me listening to audiobooks while doing other things, and as a result, I regularly have to rewind for missed sections. However, this isn’t an issue if you read the ebook or physical release. In addition, the story jumps around alot and almost every character that is in more than two chapters, gets at least a chapter or two from their POV. Then the story has a random flash back from the perspective of a new character and Jacob Marber, with little to no warning. The information was important and the chapter well written, however the whole thing felt like a part of the story that was kinda just stuck in somewhere, because the author couldn’t find a good spot for it.
Wrapping this up, let me emphasize that despite these flaws, Ordinary Monsters is a fantastic world with a wonderfully macabre Victorian Setting and a ghastly magic system that begs for a further exploration. I would recommend this to anyone who likes the Scholomance series, by Naomi Novik, or who enjoys Historical Fantasy as a genre. If you enjoy that, then Ordinary Monsters is the book for you. 9/10, I highly recommend you give it a shot.
[Spoiler Section Begins]