I really enjoyed this book! I will say that the writing style took me a little bit to get used to because it's different than what I normally read, but once I did, I really enjoyed it, and I ended up really enjoying the writing style as well. This book has both comedic and tragic elements to it, but I loved how everything was interwoven and tied together, and it was really such a great story revolving around a dysfunctional family, and seeing them trying to all come together. I loved the growth and the characters, and I especially loved how family oriented this book was. I always am looking for books that focus more on family and friends, so this was such a great book for that. I definitely recommend this book, and I already am thinking about reading it again, because I enjoyed it so much.

I already know (based on the reviews on Goodreads) that I am in the minority on this one but I just couldn't get into it. The POV was extremely confusing in the beginning. It was odd trying to figure out why all the dead people were sharing their thoughts. I know a lot of my friends and followers are going to love this one, but it just did nothing for me.

Thank you, NetGalley for allowing me to read this and share my honest review!

What can I say about this book? I absolutely adored it. It is utterly original in its telling, wholesome, quirky, and whimsical. It's been a while where I have read a story that has not only made me smile or chuckle one minute only to be teary-eyed within the next few pages. 

Told from the perspective of the long-dead residents of Maple Street Cemetery, these ghosts can see and hear well beyond the gates, having jurisdiction over all of Everton. They are able to read people's thoughts and know what they are up to at all times, always hinting with a few foreshadowing bits of things to come. They often talk about death and what they miss from having been alive but continue to root for the residents without becoming too meddlesome - except for Ernest Harold Baynes. 

Baynes appears to Clive Starling pushing him to do some crazy and unimaginable things, like buying an $18,000 domesticated fox trained by Russians as a peace offering for his wife, or feeding corn pops to a deer, coaxing it inside his home so he can help clean it up. While everyone else believes that Baynes is a figment of Clive's imagination due to his illness and dementia setting in, he is actually quite real. We know this from the reliable collective narrators of Maple Street Cemetery. 

Emma as a protagonist is one that many young women can most likely relate to. She has felt the weight of expectation for as long as she can remember, expected to do great things with her life. Having felt that unbearable weight, she chooses not to go to med school and returns home becoming her father's guardian. Not knowing what she is going to do with her life, she reluctantly accepts this new role, amongst a few others, and rides the wave of her return. When she learns that her estranged best friend from high school is missing, she assists her dad in hanging missing person posters and interviewing town residents. The truth of the situation, and why no one is looking hard enough is that Crystal is a drug addict like so many others, past and present of Everton, including Emma's brother, Auggie. 

As the Starling family begins to repair the many broken threads that hold them together, Emma, Clive, and Auggie embark on their own journeys to build back relationships, become something better for themselves, and bring hope to their small town.

Annie Harnett is magic - painting an unforgettable picture of Everton, its residents, the ghosts, and animals that reside in it. This is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching, dealing with some very dark subjects, and I loved every minute of it. I couldn't wait to pick it back up when it was time to read. 

What I liked and why you should read this book: 
- Interesting point of view; told from the dead residents of the local cemetery
- Wonderful and unforgettable characters; all of whom are imperfect but come through a satisfying growth arc 
- Redemption, lost and found love/friendship
- Animals - there are cute stories from Ernest Harold Baynes written work, a dog named Moses, and a fox named Rasputin, not to mention many others
- Quirky storylines that all roll up into a very satisfying, heartwarming ending
- Dealing with grief and the acceptance of death; these are dark subjects that most people often don't have words for - this can help with you how you look at it

Annie Hartnett is certainly an author I want more from and I cannot wait to read Rabbit Cake. Pre-order, or put Unlikely Animals on your TBR (to-be-read) immediately, coming out April 12, 2022. This is one of the most anticipated novels of the year - you won't want to miss this one.

Trigger warnings: Death, Terminal Illness/Dementia, Drug Use, Attempted Suicide

Thank you to Annie Hartnett, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Netgalley for the advanced reading copy and the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Unlikely Animals is a quirky, well-written novel with intriguing characters and a touch of magic. A Man Called Ove meets Beasts of Extraodinary Circumstance vibes. I’d recommend this to fans literary fiction and character-driven novels, who are looking for something unique!

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett

Even though the residents of the small town Everton, New Hampshire don't know it, they have a little cheering section that wants the very best for them. This cheering section consists of the dead that are buried in Maple Street Cemetery. They wish the townspeople knew that they are never alone and they also wish the townspeople knew to savor each and every day like it could be their last. The Maple Street Cemetery dead would give anything to experience their everyday life one more day and wish they had known to pay attention to everything going on back when they were alive. Now they are like a small town Greek chorus, able to know the thoughts and actions of the townspeople and even the animals of the town. For instance, they know Moses, the dog, is not happy to be roused during the middle of the night to go somewhere since it cuts into his much needed twelve to fourteen hours of sleep a day.

Emma, who was born with healing hands, lost the touch long ago even though she is just twenty two. She's back in Everton, having never started med school because she realized she didn't want to be a doctor. Now she's living at home with her mom, dad, and twenty year old brother. Dad is still sort of in the dog house with her mom and her brother has completed two stints in drug rehab. Also, her former best friend, now very estranged, is missing and the only person who cares is her father, who has just a little time to live because of worsening mental decline. He has a ghost named Ernest Harold Baynes for a friend and he often sees animals where no one else sees them.

This is a lovely, heart lifting, but sometimes sad, story with several important messages. Emma takes a job as a long term substitute teacher for a small fifth grade class and I loved being with those kids with Emma. I wouldn't mind spending more time in this small town, with these flawed but special people, and with the denizens of the Maple Street Cemetery. Those dead folks have been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and would love to be able to help the still living if only too much meddling wouldn't cause them to go "poof" to who knows where.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, particularly fans of Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book”. As much as I enjoyed each and every character of this book, I particularly enjoyed the residents of the cemetery, as well as Ernest Harold Baynes. I appreciate that the author included the born-death years each time a cemetery resident was mentioned; it really helped to keep the characters straight. I also really liked the way the author tackled so many deep issues without making it depressing or clinical, including dementia in an aging parent, opioid addiction and death. This would make an excellent choice for a book club.
Thank you so very much to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for granting my request of an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review. It was such a pleasure to read!

**Thank you for Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

I didn't think it was possible to match the brilliance that was "Rabbit Cake" but "Unlikely Animals" makes it clear: the magic is Annie Hartnett.

When Emma Starling returns home, the healing touch of her childhood gone and her future completely unknown, it is to a recovering addict brother who doesn't seem to like her, a mother charged with making their hometown beautifully preserved as her own world falls apart, and her father, Clive Starling. Clive has been diagnosed with an unknown form of terminal dementia and was forced to retire early as a poetry professor after he began seeing imaginary animals in his college classroom. His closest companion is a long-dead naturalist with charming tales of living with foxes and bears, and he spends his time putting up fliers advertising the disappearance of Crystal, Emma's estranged childhood best friend. Our narrators: the occupants of the town cemetery, watching the living and cheering them on amid their human stumbles.

Annie Hartnett is such a detail-oriented writer, and she paints an unforgettable image of a small town and the lives quietly spinning within. Her characters have unique personalities, but she never resorts to caricature in telling their stories and that of their quirky small town. This book has staying power, and I know it will join "Rabbit Cake" in a list of unexpected, beloved delights.

I received an ARC copy of this extraordinary novel from Netgalley, author Annie Hartnett, and publisher Ballentine Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to add Annie Harnett to my must-read authors list. She writes a fine tale with complicated protagonists and an obvious love of the subjects and place. I feel like I had a little slow trip through New Hampshire in times past and today.

A great deal of this novel is told through the eyes and voices of the Maple Street Cemetery residents, a fact that only seemed a bit wonky for moments before it makes for a perfect telling of all sides of a tale. This is a family story and the soul and breath of a small town in New Hampshire. The Starling family - affectionately called Mr. and Mrs Bird by friends - number four. Clive and Ingrid have two children, Emma who recently graduated college in California and managed to miss her scheduled orientation to law school, and August- Auggie to friends, just about 20, who became addicted to opioids after a severe neck injury on the football field his junior year of high school and has suffered through two bouts of re-habilitation. No one is sure this bout with the 'cure' took, so Auggie can conceivably get a life. Emma returns home after her mother informs her that her father is dropping every day deeper into dementia and is dying.

Obstacles seem to multiply rapidly for the family. Emma's natural healing touch seems broken, Clive is kicked out of the band he formed years ago after an incident in the restaurant bar they played in every Thursday night. He's asked to resign from his position as a professor at mid-term after a filmed incident in his classroom that made it onto Youtube. Auggie is trapped in his own mind and Emma doesn't know how she wants to spend the rest of her life but it isn't as a lawyer. And nobody wants to watch Clive's mind whittled away before he dies. Family.

Review: I freaking loved this book so much. It was equal parts comical and tragic and from the very first sentence I was immediately hooked. There was so much going on to keep you entertained, from Emma’s magical abilities, to her father’s failing health and subsequent hallucinations, to the missing best friend, and the severe opioid crisis taking over the small town. And how could I forget about the ghosts of the local cemetery narrating the whole thing? The fact that the book is fiction, but refers to real historical people is also fascinating. It will make you cry by pulling at every major heart string you have and you will instantly fall in love with every character and animal you meet, dead or alive. I also believe this is the first book I’ve ever read where I felt like small town life was realistically depicted, both the good and bad. Simply put, I cannot say enough good things about this novel and I will be purchasing a physical copy of once it debuts on April 15th!

Quirky and dark humor. I particularly enjoyed the historical bits about Ernest Harold Baynes and his menagerie,

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett is really a unique read. The unique take of ghosts watching and commenting on life from the cemetery was really interesting and I quite enjoyed it. The magical elements were really understated, letting the story about how the main character evolves throughout a difficult time in her family's life. While dealing with a difficult subject matter (death), the novel is uplifting and lyrical. I did feel like it started a bit slow likely because I finished a fast paced mystery plot prior. I highly recommend giving this a read.

I really enjoyed this tragicomic novel about life in a small New Hampshire town, a family at odds, and the opiod crisis afflicting our country. Emma has come home, having failed to enter medical school. Her brother is a recovering heroin addict, her father has some sort of degenerative brain disease, is seeing animals, and is dying. Her mother is unhappy. Emma isn't sure what she's going to do with her life, but she knows she no longer has her healing powers. She discovers her best friend has been missing for months, presumed by most of the town to be dead of an overdose somewhere. Clive, Emma's dad, is the only one still looking for Crystal. This novel is such a wonderful read, both sad and funny at times. It's a bit of a meditation on what can be resurrected - how much of your life can you save and what do you need to let go? The characters and the town are wonderful.

"Natural-born healer Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she's lost her way. A med school dropout, she's come back to small-town Everton, New Hampshire to care for her father, dying from a mysterious brain disease. Clive Starling has been hallucinating small animals, as well as visions of the ghost of a long-dead naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, once known for letting wild animals live in his house. This ghost has been giving Clive some ideas on how to spend his final days.

Emma arrives home knowing she must face her dad's illness, her mom's judgement, and her younger brother's recent stint in rehab, but she's unprepared to find that her former best friend from high school is missing, with no one bothering to look for her. The police say they don't spend much time looking for drug addicts. Emma's dad is the only one convinced the young woman might still be alive, and Emma is hopeful he could be right. Someone should look for her, at least. Emma isn't really trying to be a hero--but somehow she and her father set in motion just the kind of miracle the town needs.

Set against the backdrop of a small town in the throes of a very real opioid crisis, Unlikely Animals is a tragicomic novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the possibility of resurrecting that which had been thought irrevocably lost."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review - Unlikely Animals by Annie Harnett 368 pgs. finished 3-8-22 NetGalley

I received a free advanced copy of this book from the author. This is my honest review.

What a fun, quirky book! The characters are numerous and inhabit a small town in New Hampshire. The cemetery houses talking ghosts who watch over the town. Everyone seems to know everyone’s business, but they don’t. Emma returns to her hometown because of her father’s illness. Characters are flawed, but lovable and many serious topics like friendship, family, community, loss and even companionship of animals and a certain ghost! An unforgettable, delightful story with many great lessons!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Emma returns home to care for her dying father and discovers that her childhood best friend is missing. Emma has to come clean to her parents about some of her recent activities.

Humorous novel about family, friendship, and life choices.

"Unlikely Animals" is an odd book, and one I was not sure about initially, but in the end, I enjoyed it. The story focuses on the Starling family. Clive Starling has always been somewhat eccentric, but his eccentricity has become worse since he developed a degenerative brain disease. Clive has been experiencing hallucinations, including of Ernest Harold Baynes (Harold), who was the naturalist at Corbin Park (which is now a private park owned by a bunch of millionaires) and a real-life Doctor Doolittle, with pet bears, foxes, and other wild animals. Clive's wife, Ingrid, is struggling to deal with the changes in Clive, as well as misbehavior that cannot be blamed entirely on the brain disease. Their son, August (Auggie), is a recovering heroin addict still trying to find his path in life. Their daughter, Emma, was supposed to be the star. She was born with charismata iamaton (the gifts of healing) -- her hands could speed up the natural healing process. She left New Hampshire for California for college and then medical school. However, things had not turned out as everyone had expected, and as she had led her family to believe. She was returning to Everton, New Hampshire because her family needed her, but she was returning as a failure, having never attended medical school and having lost "The Charm", as her father had named her healing touch.

The town of Everton has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, and that is a central aspect of the story. Crystal Nash, Emma's former best friend, has gone missing, and Clive is determined to find her, hanging up thousands of missing person posters and talking to anyone who might know something, and in the process wearing out in his welcome in many places in town, except for the town copy shop, which has done good business from Clive. Crystal, like Auggie, was a heroin addict, and the local police have written her off as a result. However, Clive will not give up on her.

Through the course of the story, Emma and Auggie will both find themselves, and will help provide hope and healing to a community in need of something positive. Emma will also gain a better understanding of and appreciation for her father. An adopted stray dog (Moses) and a pet fox ordered from Russia (Rasputin) will add adventure and turmoil to the story. The residents of the local cemetery are also involved, indirectly. They cannot directly interfere in human affairs, but they keep tabs on the living residents of Everton, and comment on what is happening. They could solve some of the mysteries in town, including the whereabouts of Crystal, but no one asks them. The author has interspersed the story with information about the Baynes, including using excerpts from the writings of Harold Baynes, and used information about the Baynes, Corbin Park, and other historical figures and events as inspiration for various characters and places in the book.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This is a unique book that I found to be both entertaining and sad. Parts of the book are given to conversations among characters buried in the town cemetery where the residents there feel their purpose is to look after the people in the town. The chapters start with notes by Ernest Harold Baynes, the "real life Doctor Doolittle of New Hampshire" (he was a famous naturalist who kept wild animals as pets). Baynes' fox and bear companions were entertaining stories. The story is mostly about family, but brings forward addiction and the opiod crisis and their effects.

Emma was born with a gift of healing and the entire town knows about it. But she left home when she grew up and has just returned to help take care of her father, who has dementia. She has since lost her gift and cannot be expected to heal her father. Emma's best friend, Crystal has disappeared and Emma's father has been searching diligently for her. Emma and Crystal had become estranged and hadn't spoken in years, but Emma still feels the pull of their friendship and becomes involved in the search for Crystall through her father. This is a mystery to be solved.

This story has enough humor to keep it from getting bogged down in the sadness of the dementia, the addiction, and the missing friend. The cemetery crew was fun and a nice paranormal touch.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through Netgalley for an advance copy. Thsi book will be published on April 12, 2022.

Often narrated by many of it’s now deceased residents, this book can only be described as “quirky”. Enter Emma, a daughter with healing hands lying about attending med school, a brother that is a recovering drug addict, a father dying of a degenerative brain disease who has hallucinations and purchases a fox online, a high strung mother that cannot forgive her cheating husband, a handsome former high school heart throb, a missing best friend, a small town drug kingpin and a 5th grade classroom filled with offbeat children, then throw in real life naturalist Mr Baynes for historical purposes and you have an unexpected, charmingly humorous story.
There are hard topics of real life that are presented in a lighthearted way that prevents the story from being too heavy yet shows how family and friends support and love each other. I recommend this for anyone who is looking for a quick escape from reality and an uplifting fun read.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this book! I went into this read having absolutely zero idea what to expect, and it blew me away. I devoured Unlikely Animals. This is a novel that tackles some really important topics like the opioid crisis, a dying parent, and the effects of all these things on a family. However, I still found myself literally laughing out loud at some points. The main reason I know this is well done is that I didn't find the narrator being ghosts from the local graveyard cheesy. It actually added to the novel and offered a perspective you wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

This book has a lot going on, and is unlike anything I've read before; I really enjoyed it. I imagine some may say it's a bit twee, but I found it funny, sweet, and sometimes heartbreakingly sad. I also liked the way actual historical facts about some of the people, places and events described in the book were incorporated into the story, Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am on the fence about this novel. It is quirky (not a bad thing). And because it's magical realism, I realize that it's not going to be very realistic.. That's certainly okay with me. Having said all of that, I didn't care for any of the characters really. I usually develop a connection to the people in the story, but it just didn't happen here. I really wanted to like it. I normally do like a good ghost story. I could tell that the author put a lot of work into it. But while the story eventually came together, it was hard to get there. I lost interest often which made it hard to pick up again later. The author describes afterwards how she chose this subject matter in the first place which is actually very interesting. But the overall story fell flat for me. Other readers will surely feel differently. So for that reason, I would encourage you to read this if the synopsis sounds appealing and judge this book for yourself. I personally felt it just wasn't my cup of tea. So three stars from me for sheer effort and research on the author's part. Thank you to #NetGalley for the advance copy.