One of my new favorite books. There was something so magical and transporting about this novel. It's difficult to explain exactly what about it touched me so much. All I can say is that you need to read this book.

Sweet, magical, and beautiful storytelling makes Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance one of the standout books I've read this year.

From the moment Weylyn is born, he's a little unusual. Nothing that anyone is willing to admit, of course - people can't just do the things he can do, it must be a coincidence. But it keeps him alone, whether around people or not. And yet, this book is told by the voices of those who knew him; friend, sister, unexpected visitor and more. The sense of wonder and enchantment he brought to their lives quickly passed itself on to me, and I fell completely in love with this book.

It's bittersweet at times, no-one so lonely could have a purely happy story. But it's uplifted by the kind of hope and joy that comes from finding magic in everyday places, and I was sad to finish it. I'll just have to be comforted by the words of the book itself: <i>"Don't leave anything you can't come back to." I know I can come back here and I will be welcomed, and that brings me more comfort than anything else in this world.</i>

I so enjoy magical little books like this one! It sort of reminds me of other oddball stories I've read and enjoyed. Benjamin Button comes to mind. Improbable tales, unforgettable characters, great plots, well written... just a pure pleasure to read. I was very sorry to have the story end and do hope the Ruth Emma Lang writes more like this one! I'll be looking for others!

Not everyone is average. It's taking Weylyn Grey a while to realize that. Most children grow up in loving families and do all the normal childhood things like going to school, trick and treating, waiting for Santa, playing with their friends and learning to become adults from their parents. Weylyn has a different route. He grows up living with a wolf pack after his parents are killed. He doesn't go to school and has no touchpoint with the usual childhood activities. He doesn't have human friends until Mary finds him in the woods and befriends him.



But Weylyn knows his way is different. Strange things happen around him. Like having a horned pig for a pet. Like having snowstorms come up from nowhere and drop inches of snow in a short time. Like being able to stop a tornado or a hurricane or regrowing timber that was cut overnight. The strangeness keeps others away and on the few occasions when Weylyn makes an attempt to be included, he soon pulls away himself to protect others from the natural disasters that seem to follow him around. Can he ever find love?



Ruth Emmie Lang has written a charming book about an unforgettable charcter. Weylyn draws the reader in and they cannot but help cheering him on, even as they experience the fact that his otherness seems to be the barrier that will forever keep him apart. The connections between characters and the happenstances that are unreal but seem perfectly formed make this a book few will forget. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

It's a book htat I didn't expect to love as much as I did. I don't know if I'd call it magical realism since that's a genre that's rooted in South American opression, but it's beautifully written and I enjoyed every moment of it.

This was an amazing read I loved it! So glad I had the chance to read it! It just made my heart tingle!
What a beautiful story about Weylyn, a man who lived with wolves and had some extraordinary talents! I loved all his adventures and all the people he met during his life wandering from Place to Place trying to find where he belonged and also chasing his the love of his life Mary.. and running from her as well. The ending was left open to interpretation.. so I imagined a happy ending but.. I'm kinda sad that Weylyn's talents were never explained..or his lineage..how he got them. I know it wasn't the point of the story but.. I'm just curious!

Good magical realism novel for teens

I enjoyed this fantasy novel, but it wasn’t perfect. I absolutely loved the first 75% of it, but I think that the quality of the writing and the plot significantly decreased in the final 25%. The last quarter of the book was so underwhelming to me. It became boring, dumb, and the characters became one-dimensional caricatures of what they were before.

Still, I was quite fascinated and enthralled by the first 75% of this fantasy novel. This first part was so good that I am still recommending that people read it. It was everything I hoped for after reading the book cover description. It is a sweet and eccentric coming-of-age story for an unusual orphaned boy named Weylyn and his best friend Mary. Weylyn is literally raised by wolves after his parents die, and it is written in such a way that it seems perfectly believable within the story. Weylyn can communicate with animals and he slowly realized that he has some sort of power over the weather.

I think that this book is suitable for people 12 and up. There is no sex and no cursing. A young woman about 23 years old lives with her boyfriend, but there is no mention of sex. There are a couple of instances where animals are violently and graphically killed. There is also the theme of two marriages failing, including the signs that go along with that. I appreciate the thoughtful and multi-faceted view of relationships, parenting, and life. The magical realism is wondrous and right on target, in my opinion. I also like the author’s choice of the story being told by multiple people other than Weylyn.

I received a free advanced reading copy via Netgalley, and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.

This was one of the best books I have read in 2017. It had just the right of amount of magical realism to keep me from rolling my eyes and engaged in the story. I absolutely loved it.

This will be posted to my blog The Windy Pages on
September 10th. Thank you for the galley.

Review: This magical fiction reads more like a fable than a magical realism. There's a boy who can control the weather, talk to animals and a magical pig. There's a great love and a great longing and lots of people along the way.

The story unfolds through different narratives, all who know Weylyn. He touches them in different ways - wolfman, son, brother, friend and love. He is mysterious and awkward. I think I'm supposed to love him, to be intrigued by him. Instead, I'm only slightly curious.

I like the settings and the writing. The novel almost reads like short stories all woven into each other. There are so many narrators though, none sound truly different. I always want one or two of the POVs to be really distinct among the mass, but these all sounded the same, only with different views. And because we only get Weylyn's point of view at the end, I felt very detached from him. I was curious about what happened, but I didn't feel an emotional attachment to the character like I had hoped I would. He seemed more like a strange fairy tale character my grandmother told me about than a whole realized character from the book.

The plot moves slowly starting with Weylyn's young life. His life in itself is interesting and intriguing. You have to feel sorry for this orphan being raised by wolves. And there is something special about him. The plot kept my interest long eough for me to finish the book, but I can't say that I loved the book or loved Weylyn.

I would read another book by this author though. I like her imagination and the scenes were always very vivid.

This is one of those books I wasn't sure I would enjoy, but as I kept reading I found myself falling in love. It checks off all the boxes: whimsy, quirky characters, quirky animals, and a strong family. Lang easily weaves the story through multiple characters POVs - and each POV offers a special part of the story. Highly recommend the story of Weylyn Grey.

I gave this title my best shot, but just couldn't get going with it. I do think there's a readership for it—I'm just not in that group.

I really wanted to like this book, but I found myself unable to finish it. I might give it another chance at some point since so many people loved it. I loved the idea of the story, but something about the writing style made it difficult to stick with the story.

I am sorry to say that this book expired from my reader before I had a chance to read it.
So I went and bought a copy instead.

*I received this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I adored this book and I feel like I'll be recovering from all of the emotions generated by this story for a good long while.

What a fantastic and magical way to end the 2017 reading year.

I honestly can only give gigantic praise for this book- right from the first page I knew I was going to love it- I am such a huge fan of the writing, Lang has enormous talent and I have ridiculously high hopes for her next novel, whatever it may be (though honestly good luck following this book up because it was amazing).
Following my enjoyment of the writing was the structure of the novel- I love love love books with multiple points of view, and with multiple timelines and boy did this book have both.

Finally, I adored the fact that we hear about the main character from the perspectives of all the people he meets. And then right at the end, we hear from the man himself, and my heart was positively bursting with emotions because if this ain't a fantastical potion of friendship, magic, nature, and love, then I don't know what is.

I really need everyone to pick this book up immediately so I can talk about it with them.

So, so pleased with this entire reading experience.

Magical realism told from a 3rd party perspective throughout is always hard, but I think Lang pulls it off.

When you hear someone says "this is like nothing you've read before", you kinda want to see what is going on. This book took me to my childhood all the way down. I totally loved the magical part of it, (because hey! who didn't believe in magic when younger!?), loved all the characters and the way the author introduced them to us. We get to know each of them little by little and I am very very pleased with this tale. I totally recommend giving this a try. Even if you're not into magical stories, this one is a must!

Thanks for the opportunity to read this in advanced but I had to leave it after a few pages, the story felt quite strange to me and I could not engage with the characters. I felt bored

"My name is Weylyn Grey, and I’m near-sighted, allergic to ragweed, and my feet are flat. I can’t cast spells, I don’t grant wishes, and I’m not sure if I can turn a from into a prince, but I have no intentions of finding out. Some people like to think I can affect the weather, but I’d still recommend a good, old-fashioned umbrella for keeping the rain off. It’s also been said I can talk to animals, but if you want me to teach your dog to speak English, I’m sorry. You’re out of luck."

Like a summer breeze or a burst of lightening, Weylyn Grey enters and exits the lives of our various narrators in Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang. It is through these perspectives, and the variety of ways in which Weylyn interacted with these characters, that we grow to know and love our protagonist—quirks, suspected supernatural abilities and all.

Weylyn story begins like a tale of Western folklore—orphaned as a child, he is raised by a wolf pack, learning the ways of the forest. He is gentle though primitive and it quickly becomes clear that those aren’t his most unusual qualities. In his presence, depending on the provocation, odd things happen: weather patterns change abruptly, creatures manufacture magical substances and nature bends to his will. When his world bumps up against more traditional society his peculiar ways are amplified; however, through this contrast we see even deeper into his true human nature.

There is one person, Mary, with whom he bonds early on, and as the story ebbs and flows she becomes the anchor that draws him back. It isn’t until he recognizes the potential danger within himself that he is forced to choose between the life he knows and the life he desires.

The story is ripe with magical elements but Weylen’s personal struggle is relatable and distinctly real. The world Lang paints is heartfelt, charming and remarkable. Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance is magical realism at its finest.

When I think of Magical Realism, I think of the Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Isabelle Allende. They wrote stories where the magic was just subtle and woven into the narrative of that time and accepted by the characters and seamlessly knitted into the plot. In this case, I'd label this novel, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, a book of Fantasy.
While there were bits of story that were well written and engaging, there were, more often than not, segments that I didn't feel moved the story forward or taught me more about the main character. They felt like filler to convince the reader of Weylyn and his "gift." Weylyn read like a God living on earth because he had so many abilities to change earth, wind, fauna, and communicate with several species.
And so I was left wondering where the heck did this ability came from and what climax would help me understand him and his impact on the earth. I never received that answer. I also wondered if this was a love story, but it just seemed to fizzle before it even bubbled.
To her credit, the author is very descriptive and sets an image for the reader that is fantastical, but I waited to be dazzled by the characters and have the story conclude in a way that I would think of these characters long after I finished the story.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and author for allowing me to read this tale. I wish the author well with her future publications.

This novel is stunning, a coming of age story with a healthy dose of magical realism. One of my favourites of the year.