Very few novels can be considered unique, but there was plenty in The Animals In The Country which was rare or unique, including having an alcoholic, dingo-loving grandmother as the main character. The set-up is simple, that humans contract a virus that allows them to talk to animals, and society quickly splits into people who want to spend all their time talking to animals, and those who shut themselves away. The novel has some really uncomfortable moments which force the reader to confront their own relationship with animals, and the scenes in the zoo, and in the truck filled with pigs were sad and unnerving. I also loved Jean's complicated relationship with her family which was juxtaposed with her unwavering devotion to her granddaughter Kimberley. The MVP of the novel is surely Sue the dingo, and her ramblings which make sense about a third of the time. This was a really intriguing novel, but ultimately a bit too out there for me, and I struggled in particular to make sense of the animal talk, which held back my enjoyment of the story a little.

I loved the premise but the characters were unbearable. Once the action actually starts taking place I found that I no longer cared but also found nothing to be believable. I also clearly have a different idea of what animals would be like/say if they were able to communicate differently with us. Overall a lackluster fail.

A truly original work of fiction, with a finale that left me a little bit broken. The humour is dark and dry, the pandemic scenario is disturbing yet all too familiar, and there's a wonderful - if eerie - poetry to the voices of the animals Jean encounters on her journey. Impossible to put down.

3.5 rounded up

A rollicking ride, The Animals in That Country is pre-IRL pandemic pandemic tale. Are you still with me?! If so: in this pandemic is one which, once infected with the flu-like illness, the sick are able to hear and speak to animals. I know many will likely want to avoid this type of story during an actual global epidemic (me included for the most part), but I found this to be a unique and broadly impressive take on the theme.

Our protagonist, Jean, works as a tour guide at an outback wildlife park. She has a soft spot for a dingo named Sue which lives in the park, and spends her time looking after her granddaughter, Kimberly. Early in the pandemic Kimberly's estranged father (Jean's son), Lee, comes to the park and becomes infected before taking off with Kimberly. The rest of the novel follows Jean and Sue's journey to find Kimberly and bring her back to safety.

As mentioned, McKay handles the theme adeptly, and the pacing of the book meant the novel makes for a fast-paced read. I'd check out more of McKay's writing on the strength of this. Recommended if you like books with flawed protagonists and speculative themes.

To be honest, I didn't understand much of what the animals were actually talking about, but on the whole it wasn't very likeable. But why would it be? We love our dogs and cats and we mostly take good care of them, but what about all the other animals? People eat cows, pigs, chickens etc and mostly mistreat them before they kill them. Also, animals in zoos probably aren't very happy, enclosed in too small quarters, living an unnatural life...

But more than a book about talking animals (which is turning people crazy, which is pretty wild), this is a book about family and relationships. I loved the special bond Jean has with her granddaughter Kim, how she will stay of the booze whenever she's around, her sense of humour when interacting with her. Also, Jean's relationship with her son Lee is special. Even though he is good for nothing, she still loves him and wants to help him.

Thank you Scribe and Netgalley for the ARC

This is a very timely book with everything that is going on in the world at the moment. It makes us think about the animals we're surrounded by, even our pets and the ones that we think we are treating well and are happy- would they agree if they could talk?
I'm not sure that I enjoyed the book though. The plot follows Jean who is trying to find her son and granddaughter after the zoo flu has hit and everyone is in lockdown. Jean travels down the coast of Australia with her dingo Sue, as Lee is trying to listen to the whales.
Its overall a sad story, that makes you think about our lives in the wider context. Probably not a book I'd pick up again though.

With a title that comes from a Margaret Atwood quote, I knew immediately that The Animals in that Country by Laura Jean McKay book would be a good fit. Jean, not afraid to curse and speak her mind, is a grandmother who works at an animal sanctuary. Sometimes, she drinks on the job. While she has somewhat of a hard exterior, she has a soft spot for the animals she works with and the ones she rehabilitates at home. But someone has been releasing animals back into the wild. Is it an eco-terrorist? An owner who can no longer care for them? Or is it a result of the superflu sweeping the nation, also known as the zooflu, that causes a peculiar side effect of being able to communicate with animals. When Jean’s son leaves with her granddaughter, she heads off to find them with her companion, a dingo, alongside for the ride. This book is creative and gritty, honest and funny. Jean is a memorable and brassy character that I’d follow anywhere. Even with a dingo riding shotgun. The Animals in that Country looks at communication, community and reinforces the idea that humans are definitely the most dangerous animals of them all.

A truly original disaster story which stars an alcoholic Aussie grandma and her oversexed canine companion Sue. The dialogue is incomprehensible until you get the hang of dingo-speak; the plot shuffles exactly like a dehydrated grandma, until grandma encounters a cult, steals a vehicle and gets her hands on a gun. This book feels “unfilmable”, which is refreshing- so many thriller-slash-dystopian novels seem to be written with Netflix in mind. Yet I caught myself googling unfamiliar animals to get an idea of their size (and just how threatening or otherwise their presence might be on a cross-country road trip)
If you’re bored of zombie apocalypses and nuclear winters, I recommend this book. Warnings for animal cruelty, substance abuse and child neglect.

I loved this book! such a page turner, so spooky to be reading about a viral flu pandemic whilst being in quarantine. so surreal, such a wild ride. I have been highly highly recommending this title and will for a long time to come.

A strange novel to read during an actual pandemic. It's unusually written, and the characters aren't exactly the most likeable of people. But there's something refreshing about that – sometimes it's good to see the world through eyes you don't like, though it does make it difficult to connect to the characters. The concept of being able to understand animals – not exactly talk to them in the Dr Doolittle sense, it goes deeper than that – is certainly a unique one. It's understanding them through all of the senses. I'm still not entirely sure what I thought about it – whether I loved it or didn't. It's unusual, and challenging, and complex yet simple. It's a world I never expected to explore and yet here I am. I think if you want to challenge yourself, to explore the world through the eyes of someone so different than yourself, and a situation quite unlike anything we will ever truly face, then this is the novel for you.

Very interesting and quirky book. I wasn’t too sure of what to make of it at first but once I got into the rhythm of the story and the almost poetical voices of the insects and animals, I couldn’t put it down.

Where to begin with this novel - an interesting release especially considering there is a current pandemic! The premise of a flu that causes a change in the brain allowing people to speak with animals, birds and insects is intriguing and setup really well. Non of the characters are very likeable which, to be honest, is refreshing - you're not really rooting for any one person to change the nature of the world, or make a huge difference. At its heart, this is a tale about a woman searching for her granddaughter. The main protagonist has a dingo as a sidekick - random, but that part really worked for me. The reason for four stars was the almost poetic way the animals etc talked in the novel - at times I found this distracting and hard to place what was meant by what they were saying. Ultimately, an enjoyable novel, finishes a little abruptly but the journey isn't always about the destination.

I don't know where you'd get more plausible talking animals. It isn't pretty -- it's disturbing -- although the animal speech often reads like modernist poetry.

‘They’re still going on about that superflu on the radio.’

Jean Bennett is a tough middle-aged woman who works as a guide at a wildlife park in the Australian outback. She likes a few drinks (except when she’s looking after her granddaughter Kimberley) and she hopes, one day, to be a fully-fledged ranger. Jean likes the animals and talks to all of them, but a young dingo called Sue is her favourite. Kimberley’s mother, Angela, manages the park.

Life is disrupted. There’s a pandemic sweeping the country: called ‘zooflu’, it is no ordinary flu. One of the first symptoms is that victims begin to hear the animals speaking. First it is just the mammals, but as the flu progresses, they hear birds and insects. A cacophony of unstoppable voices: people are overwhelmed.
Jean’s son, Lee, arrives at the park. He’s infected, he takes Kimberley and heads south. Jean follows him, taking Sue the dingo with her.

What follows is a surreal road trip. Jean can make sense (mostly) of what Sue says but most people she meets are terrified, many have been driven insane. Will Jean find Kimberley and Lee? Is Sue helping her or hindering her?

It is easy to become lost in this novel: trying to make sense of what the animals are saying while trying to understand the human reactions. The human view of the world is challenged: even where individuals think they understand the animals. We humans make a lot of assumptions, and once those assumptions are challenged, our thin veneer of civilization is disrupted.

I’ve never read a novel quite like this. Ms McKay manages to steer this quite unique story through some challenging territory. And, when I could not make sense of all of it, when I became discombobulated, I thought that would probably be how it would feel if I could hear the voices of animals.

I am not entirely sure how Ms McKay makes this story work so well, but it does. It is simultaneously clever and disturbing. What an impressive novel!

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Scribe UK for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Timely, as I've just watched the Netflix series Tiger King and there's a pandemic about. The virus that breaks out across Australia, in this novel, moves through stages. First, people can hear mammals, then birds, and finally insects -- when they finally lose their minds. They hear animals with their whole bodies -- so that this novel becomes a cacophony of strings of words, guttural spoutings, sensory descriptors. The animal world is one of smells, tastes, uncensored thoughts. It is like the virus unlocks the 90% of the brain humans don't use, and they become more absorbed into the world. When there is a cure for the virus, the silence is astonishing. The author uses sound and sensory detail to great literary effect. It can be confusing, however, and to the detriment of story.
With thanks to #netgalley and Scribe UK for an ARC to read and review.

Strange, quirky, original and beautifully written. Jean, the MC, is an absolute treat in all her acerbic and misanthropic glory. The bond she has with animals resonated strongly and I loved the wit and poignancy of this story.

The Animals in That Country is a (weirdly prescient) book that takes place at the onset of a viral flu pandemic. However instead of a questionable sense of grocery store etiquette, those infected with the virus develop an ability to communicate with animals.

The story follows Jean, a wannabe park ranger who has a penchant for booze, smoking menthols and on-line trolling. When her son is infected with the virus and takes off with her granddaughter, Jean accepts help from an escaped dingo named Sue to track them down.

There is no doubt that Laura Jean McKay is a fantastic writer with a sharp style that complements the harsh protagonist and setting of the book. Jean is a refreshingly real character who is a far cry from the British pre-teens we are more accustomed to see talking to animals in fiction.

The way that McKay executes her idea of animal communication is both fascinating and disturbing. Towards the middle of the book I fell out of the story a little trying to find deeper meaning in what the animals were saying - probably because my inner child really just wanted a story about fluently affectionate animals. But then, was McKay manipulating me to empathise with Jean? Frustrated by the need for a deeper sense of connection, if not from fellow humans then from the animal companions that we desperately anthropomorphise? Either way, the story quickly sucked me back in and set my heart pounding.

This book is an impressive debut that has reminded me how much I have been neglecting some great Australian fiction. I would recommend this book to fantasy readers who loved N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season or Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribe for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I wish to thank Laura Jean McKay, Scribe UK and NetGalley for the advanced copy of The Animals in That Country in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fantastic debut, I really looked forward to reading this when I found it on NetGalley, I wasn’t disappointed. Initially set in a wildlife park in the Northern Territory of Australia, Jean the protagonist is a tour guide and child carer for her daughter in laws daughter Kimberley. Jean has a devoted relationship with her charge and the animals in the park. Jean is a gritty big drinker, often in conflict with her daughter in law who manages the park. A viral pandemic throws the country and park into pandemonium as those infected become capable of communicating with animals, first mammals, then birds, reptiles and insects. Jean and a dingo kelpie dog named Sue embark on a road trip across Australia to find Kimberley. Sue is tremendously insightful as she guides Jean on their journey.

Incredibly unique, definitely topical, wildly quirky, wonderful characters; I’m talking to everyone I know who reads about this book.