This book is fast paced and action packed, start to finish. Multiple, overlapping adventures ensue between the many characters. The tone set is dark and ominous, which was right up my alley. I enjoyed the timing of the reveals as the plot unfolded. The characters are so wholesome and I just fell in love with the kids and each of their chaotic powers.

I struggled initially with having so many characters in the story, and the important side characters are difficult to remember and follow. This improves as time went on when I began to familiarize myself with who was most important to follow.

I received an advanced copy of the audiobook from NetGalley (thank you!). The audiobook narrator was good and made sure each character had a distinctive voice and tone. However, I didn’t always enjoy their stylistic choices.

Overall I do recommend this for fantasy fans.

DNF - I tried so hard to get into this story on audio but I was not able to finish it. I think it was well-developed and the world-building was needed but it is extremely lengthy and definitely a time commitment on audio. I was just not able to get into the story on audio. I will try again with the physical copy because I think it has potential. The audio was rough and hard to keep track of everything going on and people being introduced. I am rating 4 stars because I really liked what I read/ heard but I was just not in the right mindset. I do not think it is fair to rate but I have to put one on this form.

“Difference, children, is not monstrous. It is nature at work.”

This gaslamp fantasy novel is a strong introduction to the world of The Talents. This book explores how a monster is made and what is truly monstrous in this world.

I know this book is being endlessly compared to X-Men and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (which is very true!), so here are some other related reads for those who still aren't convinced this tome is worth picking up.
A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill
Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman

I feel like this is the adult fantasy I've been waiting my whole life for. The world building, characterization, and storytelling are so rich and compelling, the plot and outcomes remarkably realistic. It did take a bit to immerse myself in the story, but that tends to happen with better developed stories and it can also be more challenging for me to immerse in an audiobook. The narrator was really good (albeit a bit slow - I listened at 1.5 speed and it felt like a normal reading speed), but I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

Thank you so much for the ARC of this book, it gave me chills, it stirred my soul, it was incredible. I'm not a very fast reader but I couldn't stop myself from just pushing on to one more chapter night after night!! The characters, the setting, the tone all just created a spooky, gothic experience that I will be recommending for years to come.

Thank you to J.M. Miro, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of the audiobook.

One quick thing right off the bat specific to the audiobook - Ben Onwukwe is brilliant as the narrator, absolutely brilliant. If you were an audiobook listener back in the 80's and 90's, his dulcet voice will put you in mind of Christofer Timothy during his reading of the James Harriot canon. If you weren't, I'll still suggest him strongly. His narrative voice is a bit atypical of contemporary hit narrators (Michael Kramer and Kate Reading anyone?), but is a joy of its own.

As a longtime fan of Fantasy, I'm used to sprawling narratives with sweeping arcs and dozens of viewpoint characters. Mr. Miro, however, limits the POVs to 6 while weaving a tail that blurs the lines between hero and villain and plays with moral ambiguity in a robust and complex world.

A supurbly conceived gaslit world of Victorian England, where there lurks an underbelly of people with 'talents'. From shapeshifting healers to ultra strong men and puppetmasters, the cast of characters stand on their own as people with thier own weaknesses and flaws. This is probably best described as a literary interpretaion of a Victorian X-Men. Well done, Miro - I cant wait for the next installment!

My thanks to NetGalley for the free Audiobook in exchange for an honest review. If you listen to this, you will not be disappointed!

Wow, what a ride. This was a monster of a book at 665 pages which translates to over 25 hours of audio which I was captivated through every single minute. Based in the late 19th century the story follows multiple characters some with supernatural “talents” and others without as they try to survive the catastrophic imbalance of life and death. It’s got the feeling of “The Night Circus” but doesn't jump through time as much making it much easier to follow when listening to the audiobook and “X-men” or “The Umbrella Academy.” The story has a lot of characters and POVs but Miro skillfully weaves everyone into the narrative in a way that’s not an information overload or becomes overwhelming. I was completely taken with this world and the characters from the strong Alice Quick, to wee Marlow and tormented Charlie. The narration, description and pace were all dead on and I cannot wait for the next book.

Also, a big shout out to narrator Ben Onwukwe who did an absolutely fantastic job with all the different voices.

Special thank you to #NetGalley, #JMMiro and #MacmillanAudio for sharing this digital copy, these are my honest thoughts on #OrdinaryMonsters. Also, a thank you to narrator #BenOnwukwe.

This book was such a unique and rich fantasy! I really loved the many characters and the world building was fantastic! The narrator did a great job bringing these characters to life! I can’t wait to see what will happen next in the series!

The first book in a trilogy. Two orphans in Victorian London are hunted by a mysterious man made of smoke. They have powers that scare their families, and can kill them as well. One has the ability to heal any wound, the other can melt the flesh of people who upset him. Traveling the breadth of the UK and of the lengths a person can go.

This books took forever to get interesting. I kept stopping and starting it. It was just not an enjoyable time. I don't know what else to say about it. I just found the writing very blunt and not as lyrical as the author thought they were being.

I also didn't appreciate the lack of trigger warnings, including the child rape of the teen mother of one of the main characters that ended in her murdering her rapist. That was... not something I was prepared to handle and I don't like how the author wrote about it. Just... bluntly. Very "this happened and we're moving on now" I just couldn't get into the story at all because of that.

Well I loved this book and I want more honestly I will probably be getting this as soon as I can but I truly enjoyed the audio of this

Marlowe and Ovid are born into a world where prejudices are the status quo. It is one of the worst time to be poor or brown or foreign, or worse, yet, any variation of the three and a woman. Being different is a curse. Ovid and Marlowe are the accursed.

Born with magical abilities to heal and hurt, the boys were raised to keep their talents secret. Somewhat safe under the onus of their mothers with whom they lived as transients, they’re are taken in at an institute for children just like them after the women die. Before they make it to what may be safety, something catches up. The chase is the secondary aspect of this disjointed story. The last is when magic and machinations clash.

If you imagine magical street urchins and morally corrupt guns for hire, you get the sensual feast of Ordinary Monsters. Its fog blankets the atmosphere, its grit chafes, and the stench of refuse and the River Thames infiltrated my world for a full 25 hours. I’ve read books set in the time of lynch mobs and work houses, how the most ordinary monsters harm the world, but even an extraordinarily dangerous child cannot compare to the ordinary violence that occurs to and around them. It is a notion the author may not have intended, but it is the one that resonates.

Speaking of violence, Miro does not shy away from any of it. If you’re triggered by abuse or murder, think twice before picking this one up. It is not sanitized fantasy. Doing so, would have been a disservice to the story and it’s impact. It is the extremities of violence abutting the supernatural that makes this book special.

At 672 pages, I alternatively listened to an ARC of the audiobook and read the physical copy I bought and received on release day. Both the narration and the writing lured me into the grimiest magical community I’ve had the pleasure to visit. No one, not even the characters would want to live there. What is good for readers is rarely good for the characters. Ordinary Monsters is no different.

Thank you @netgalley and @flatironbooks for sending me an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Ordinary Monsters is the first book in the The Talents trilogy. Talents are people born with some special ability. Some can heal, others manipulate dust, one can animate items into a being, an invisible girl and then there are those that can make their bodies extremely dense and strong to not be hurt. The concept of the book isn’t new, it actually reminded me of many others but the story is different. I reminded me a little of a mash up between the Umbrella Academy, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children and His Dark Materials set in Victorian London.

One thing to know is this is a very character driven book that jumps around in time so you understand the motivations of all the characters and how/why Marlowe, a boy that can both heal and hurt others, was stolen away from the Clinic outside Edinburgh to be hidden away. Charlie is the other main character the story rotates around. He is also an orphaned boy who can heal himself from any injury except possibly beheading. As Charlie and Marlowe figure out their place in this world as they are whisked away to the clinic for Talented Children outside Edinburgh, we discover a battle between two figures. One wants to open the doors between the dead and the living guarded at the clinic, the other wants to close it completely. But they only have a limited time to figure it out as the guard between the worlds grows weak and will not last much longer.

Much of the book is spent getting the kids to the institution where they are supposed to be safe with a few altercations along the way. Once at the institution more of the why of the story is revealed and some of the magic of the world explained. I had a good time with all the children and did like learning why Marlowe was so important. That said, this book was pretty long and had a lot of down time so you will need to be a patient reader to get the meat of the story. With Liches (dead brought back to life) roaming around trying to get to people who work for the institution and the kids their are some really good action scenes but a lot of the book is spent on backstory and some heartbreaking tales. I felt the worst for the part of the story set in Tokyo and what one of the talents lost there.

A few twists at the end were unexpected and made the story more interesting. I am interested to see where this world goes in the future but I hope the author does a little better with the story layout as sometimes it was a jumbled mess in Ordinary Monsters and the 25 hours of audio felt a bit long.

Narration:
Ben Onwukwe did a great job with the narration of the story. His voice lent well to the tone of the story and the local. He had a pretty decent sized cast, but had a clear voice for each. I was able to listen to Ordinary Monsters at my usual 1.5x speed.

I loved this book. But I loved reading it. The audio I felt was too hard to follow, similar narrator to Empire of the Vampire and if you haven't listened to it, you should. You'll see what im talking about. this book has too much going on and starts out too confusing to be effective as an audiobook. However I think this book is genius and I do love audiobooks, I listen to them all the time!

Ordinary Monsters is the first book of The Talents Trilogy. It’s a historical fantasy set in a dark and magical Victorian era.

The Cairndale Institute is an academy specialized in gifted children. They look for children born with extraordinary abilities and take them to Scotland, where the institute is located. The story follows two of these gifted children, Charlie and Marlowe, and the detectives that are sent by the institute to find them and escort them to Carindale. But they are not the only ones looking for them; there’s also a ruthless man with dark powers that’s hunting them down.

As the plot thickens, they will discover the truth about their talents and that not everything is what it seems. Their particular abilities might become useful in this world where there’s a blurred line between the living and the land of the dead.

It’s impossible to describe what happens after this without giving away important details of the story, so if you like stories about gifted children like Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, X-Men or Umbrella Academy and dark, tenebrous settings like Penny Dreadful, this trilogy is for you.

The story is captivating from the very first page. The world-building is fantastic, with its eerie atmosphere and haunting scenes. The characters are very intriguing, the prose is enchanting and the story is going to stick with you for a long time.

The audio is narrated by Ben Onwukwe and his voice is an absolute delight. It’s 25+ hours long but his narration kept me engaged from the beginning to the last minute of the book.

Thank you @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the advanced audio copy. I haven’t been this excited about a fantasy series in a long time. I can’t wait for the second book of the series!

I was provided an audio ARC via Netgalley from Macmillan Audio and a physical ARC from Flatiron Books, all opinions are my own. The audiobook is narrated by Ben Onwukwe, and he was wonderful. He gave each of the characters a voice and really made this book come to life on audio.

This was fantastic! This has all of the elements I look for in an SFF book! This crosses a few genres, there is a bit of horror, fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction all wrapped into this epic tale. This has a creative plot, interesting characters, riveting action scenes, and great world building. While this book is long, the audiobook was slightly over 24 hours and the paperback is roughly 650 pages, I thought the pace was great and I was always engaged. Every time I put the audio on I wanted to keep listening, and every time I picked up my physical copy I wanted to keep reading.

This is set in 1882 and mainly takes place in Victorian London. It follows several different children with unique abilities or Talents as they are often called. The books starts with two detectives searching for two of the children 16 year old Charlie and Marlowe, who I believe is 8. Each of the boys has a talent, and they will eventually be taken to Cairndale a school of sorts for Talents where they will be safe and where there are other children like them. There they meet other Talents and the mysterious Dr. Berghast. There the kids will have to decide who is friend and who is foe, all while trying to learn how to use their abilities to save the world from the great evil that is threatening to break into the world of the living and wreak havoc.

While this is a little dark and there is violence, I think this would be perfectly fine for the YA reader. I would let my 14 year old read it. It isn't overly graphic when it comes to the more horror centric elements of the book. There is some violence but again it isn't overly graphic. There are hints of a very innocent romance between two of the teen characters to come in the future, but there is no romance in the book. The pacing was great and the plot was engaging which is critical in a book that pushes 700 pages. There are alot of characters to keep track of but I never felt lost or as if things were over complicated.

I thought the world building in this was excellent. I was able to visualize the scenes and characters as I was listening almost as if I was watching a movie. I was invested in all of the characters, even the morally grey ones. While this does end with alot of unanswered questions, I don't feel like it ended on a cliffhanger. I felt the book closed nicely with the promise of more to come in the next installment, which I would happily dive into immediately. I am highly anticipating the next book and cannot wait to jump back into this world when the time comes.

If I were to recommend only one book this year it will be this one. So many characters and each one unique. And that doesn’t mean it was confusing it means it made it better. There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this story. Well told with an intriguing story about special children and other mysterious things going on.
This is not a romance, it’s an adventure. I chose to listen to this book on audio and was narrated by Ben Onwukwe. He was perfect for this movie like narrative. So good. Maybe the best out there. I hope he does many more books. I highly recommend listening to this one.
Thanks Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

Listen, the size of this book is intimidating, for sure. But I was really surprised with how well the story flowed and how engaged I was the ENTIRE time. Which is really impressive. There’s a lot of stuff that’s a bit messy here — the magic system alone had me asking a lot of questions — but it works anyway. I’d definitely describe it as Gothic, but it didn’t get as dark as some books that start to feel TOO heavy. It was well balanced and interesting and cool. There are familiar elements, but they’re put together in a way that feels new and fresh. The battle scenes alone are brutally, gorgeously written, and I feel really invested in the series at this point. The audiobook absolutely added to the experience and even frightened me a little at times? In a good way, of course!

This is a dark, compelling fantasy story with an eye-catching cover, great writing, an interesting premise, and several compelling characters. I thought it got off to an excellent start, but the pace did seem to lag in the middle. I listened to the audiobook, and it was slow going at times. I thought the narrator had a nice voice, and did a great job at differentiating between the many different characters, but still for some reason I could only listen for an hour or so at a time before needing to stop. It wasn't compulsive reading/listening for me, though I did enjoy the story overall. Maybe it's one I should have read, rather than listened to. Excellent atmosphere and attention to detail in the created world, though again, this level of detail might be why it felt slow in the middle. It could have worked as two novels. I'm not sure I would continue reading a series set in this world, but I do think it's worth a look if you like long, dark fantasy novels, and the synopsis captures your attention.

Full review up on FanFiAddict: https://fanfiaddict.com/review-ordinary-monsters-the-talents-trilogy-1-by-j-m-miro/

I'll also be posting it to goodreads/instagram later on throughout the day.