Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance

Really enjoyed this book, the story is original and well written, I'd read more from this author.

Oh goodness! you say. How could a book about a boy raised by wolves be anything other than cheesy? I mean, after "The Jungle Book" and "Julie of the Wolves," it's all kind of downhill, isn't it?

Well, I am pleased to say that "Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstances" is a lovely and very readable addition to this genre. It's billed as magic realism, and it might as well be called that as anything else, but it doesn't really fit into any genre classifications. It's part magic realism, part urban fantasy, part contemporary literary fiction of a distinctly American flavor. It follows--sort of--the life of Weylyn Grey, who has strange silver eyes and can communicate with animals and control the weather. When his parents die in a freak snowstorm, he runs away and joins a wolf pack. Several years later he's pulled back into human society and adopted, only to cause, inadvertently, problems within his adoptive family. He bounces from home to home, touching the lives of those he encounters, but never feeling like it's safe for him to stay.

The action is narrated by the people he encounters, some of whom become deeply involved with him, some of whom hardly get to know him at all, but whose lives he changes profoundly. There are multiple little subplots and side arcs to the story from all these people, and the main story only emerges gradually, as Weylyn's life takes shape around the people in it. It isn't until the latter half of the book that the heart of the story is revealed.

These interwoven plot lines require the reader's attention, but this isn't a difficult book to read--the language is casual and conversational, peppered with moments of humor, especially when the child narrators speak. This isn't "light" or "genre" fiction, but it isn't heavy or dense either: a good choice for those who want to read something a little more literary but don't want to saddle themselves with something really long and challenging, or those who just want a little more magic in their lives.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was one of the most pure and beautiful and wholesome books I've ever read. I loved everything-- the plot, the structure, the characters. What a cozy, lovely story. I'm already looking forward to rereading it someday.

Magical realism that I actually enjoyed?
Surely not???
Though this gem of a book does feature far more of the 'magic' than the 'realism', so that's probably why it was a winner for me!

During this tale we follow the life of Weylyn Grey through the memories and stories of the people that knew him.
Weylyn isn't like other people.
He has lived with wolves, can stop storms, collect light in jars, and is under the impression that his very presence puts the people he loves in danger.
We get to visit dense woodland, travel through thick snow, and enter a house covered in spiders webs.

This book is such a magical, fantastical, touching story.

I really connected to every character we met along the way and was facinated with the life of Weylyn.
I couldn''t wait to turn the page and find out what was going to happen next!

I really enjoyed the way the story was told - from the POV of different characters and their views of the things that happened around Weylyn.
It was lovely to see how Weylyn had touched peoples lives and how they each coped with having to change their views about reality and how the world worked.

We also get to see how Weylyn himself deals with being different, his struggle with the fact that he possibly puts the people he loves in danger, and how he ultimately copes with that fact.
I loved his character so much and just wanted to give him a big hug!

It was magical, funny, touching, and at times quite sad.
It was perfect.

Let me preface this by saying that I rarely read (or like) magical realism. I'm a pretty black and white reader and I'd rather have something be completely fantastical or completely true to life. That being said, I've read a handful of brilliant magical realism books this year, and Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance is one of them.

The story is magical. The writing is beautiful. And it made me smile the entire time.

"Beasts" is the story of Weylyn Grey, told through the eyes of people who have encountered him throughout his entire life. After his parents die in a freak storm, Weylyn is brought up by a pack of wolves in Michigan. There in the woods, he befriends Mary, the daughter of the local butcher. There his adventure really picks up as Weylyn moves throughout the United States and comes to term with his mysterious gifts.

If you are (were) wary like me, trust me—take a chance and put this on your list.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for letting me read.

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstances, a debut novel by Ruth Emmie Lang, is indeed an extraordinary example of magical realism done right. It has subtle mystery, heart and depth, that draws you in. At its core however it is character driven. This is its strength and I feel makes it really fantastic.
The story of Weylyn Grey is uniquely told through then lens of others that he touches in both small and meaningful ways in his lifetime. There are feelings of wonder, beauty, and melancholy interwoven throughout so intertwined they become indistinguishable. I was entranced, engaged, and enthralled by this tale of a young boy orphaned, raised by wolves, who communes with animals, seems to control weather, and is at home in the woods. His relationship with Mary, the daughter of the foster family that takes him in is incredibly meaningful and touching.
This is a book I can not recommend highly enough, especially for those that enjoy magical realism and fantasy. It is one of the most unique novels I've read in several years and I'm looking forward to more from Ruth Emmie Lang.
I received an advanced reader copy (eGalley) from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. This review reflects my honest and unbiased opinions.

I expected this book to be weird since I don't usually go in for magical realism, so I was a bit apprehensive about it. I am really glad I read it. It read quickly and felt different from a lot of books. It did jump around a lot and included many different perspectives, which can put some people off but I think in this book it was done well and added facets to the main character. Really excellent read.

I adored this book. Welyn Grey's parents die in a terrible accident and he is raided by wolves. this story has been done before but not like this . it is the story of Welyn and hos adventures and the people he meets along the way . The thing I brought away was how one person can greatly impact someone's life forever. This book is wonderful and magical. The story will stay with you long after the last page is turned

This was easily the most wonder-filled, adventurous story of 2017 so far. There is so much heart, beauty and whimsy in this one little book.

It’s truly contemporary fantasy at it’s best, managing to meld beautiful, fantastic magic into a very real world with heartfelt, real life pain and joy.

I love with Weylyn Grey with all my heart. From wild wood wolf-boy to Old Man Spider and all the magical storms and bees and plants in between, he stole my heart. He’s unique and loveable and magical and an absolute joy to share an evening with.

Summary:

The story follows Weylyn Grey, a boy raised by wolves who has a magical connection to the weather, to animals, and to nature. The book progresses through different stages of Weylyn’s life from the point of view of those he encounters and impacts as he deals with his uncontrolled abilities and what it means to be a wild thing.

The Long Review:

This book stunned me. From the first breath, the sense of wonder and lyrical prose reminded me of childhood imagination game–original, magical, and somehow secret. There was a slight Stranger Things vibe in the beginning, set in the 80’s and from the viewpoint of children, on the edge of what’s real and possible.

At first, before I learned to check the chapter titles, I got confused by the POVs. It’s always in first person, but changes character. I appreciated that the author kept a relatively steady voice despite the variance in age and time period throughout the story.

All of the characters were fantastic and I found myself falling in love with them one by one. Their wit, their weirdness, their relationships with their families and with Weylyn. (I honestly teared up reading Mary’s dad’s perspective in the first section, and that was tangential to the main plot.)

This is a book about many things but one of them is friendship/family. I’m not one for adult fiction precisely because of the overwrought interpersonal drama usually involved, but the interpersonal plots in this book were so meaningful while also being concise. Lang did a masterful job jumping through short periods of Weylyn’s life while maintaining depth and a sense of great plot movement and character development. It never felt like we were stuck in Weylyn’s head (something I often find is the case with books centered on one character’s struggle as the main plot) because the PoV was someone else’s and because the minor characters’ plots and growth were still fleshed out and complete.

This is a fantasy story where, though the magic is an overarching plot line, the development of the minor characters over time with Weylyn is the true payoff. Mary, Lydia, and Meg all represent different people to Weylyn–friend, girlfriend, sister, mother, teacher–and it’s so rewarding to see those relationships develop between regular people and this wild boy, and then to see them uncover his secrets and see the impression he leaves upon their lives when he moves on and returns again, as wild things do.

I just adored how the characters clicked on this lowkey level and everything was very subtle and real, rather than dramatic moments, but still very heart wrenching and enthralling.

The magic, of course, is a huge and awesome part of the story. I’m a sucker for storm magic, and this has plenty. We also see Weylyn reincarnate plants, play with bees and wolves and raccoons and spiders and even fireflies. The fireflies scene is one of the images that really stayed with me and would look amazing on screen, but this book is full of amazing, visual scenes that stuck in my mind’s eye.

This was a rollercoaster and I was never bored. It was fast-paced yet fulfilling and not at all predictable. By the end, I felt like I was leaving an old friend and I was so pleased and satisfied.

My only problem with this book is that the cover does not do it justice. Sure, it’s pretty enough, but a book this full of wonder and joy and magic should have something truly eye catching and aesthetic. This is a book full of storms, wolves, bees, wild woods, daffodils, and magic; somehow all that made it on the cover was fireflies? To me, the cover indicates a pretentious novel with the kind of magic that might just be a metaphor for whatever adulthood pain the main character is subjected to. I assumed it would be sad, with a plot more about internal growth than adventure. I was very pleasantly surprised. However, if I saw this in a store, I never would have picked it up.

Just a truly good and rewarding read. I highly recommend to lovers of contemporary fantasy. If you like Neil Gaiman’s or Maggie Stiefvater’s work, you’ll probably love this. Also, if you liked Roar by Cora Carmack, maybe check this out because even though it’s very different, they both revolve around storm magic.

Similar vibes:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane-Gaiman, The Scorpio Races-Stiefvater, Going Bovine-Bray, The Little Prince-St. Exupere

This is the story of Weylyn, an odd but charming character. He has the uncanny ability to communicate and live with animals, along with his ability to influence the weather. No one knows how he came across these mysterious characteristics but those close to him couldn’t deny they existed. Some people found him too strange to exist and rejected him, while others embraced him and his oddities loving a man who flitted in and out of their lives. This is a coming of age story. This is a love story. This is a story about magic.

I really enjoyed this book. I haven’t come across many magical realism books that I found interesting, but the concept of this one stuck out to me and it was executed beautifully. Told in first person by the people who interacted with Weylyn from his childhood throughout his life, all of his eccentricities are put on display as well as his very engaging and amusing personality. I found all of the characters to be very well written, and brimming with the details needed to bring them to life. I loved seeing Weylyn’s story through other people’s eyes. It added to magical quality of the story and of him. Details are what brought to the life not only the characters but the world and the plot. A lack of detail when describing how magical events transpired and a wealth of detail when describing how those events affected those around Weylyn.

If readers are looking for a story that is easy to engage and escape in, while visiting a character whose very nature makes one curious, then this is the story for them. I was hooked from the first chapter and found myself wrapped in Weylyn’s world and all of the magic that came with it. Lang told a very compelling story about life and the unexpected and how one person can change everyone and everything around them. I highly recommend this novel. It’s one of those books that you can easily snuggle up to and read in one sitting. Very well done by Lang, an author I will be looking forward to reading more of in the future.

It is difficult talking about this book without giving any of the magical moments away. This story is about the orphaned boy Weylyn Grey, who is special in a very soecial way, and his life with a pack of wolves, with Mary, with Merlin and so many more wonderful people.
I loved the epistolary style of this book. It helped tell the story of Weylyn Grey from different points of view. Every narrator had their unique voice and this made the story come very much alive.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Take something beautiful and vandalize it with skepticism?”

I love magical realism, and as much as I hate comparing authors, this novel had a similar feel to Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace. I absolutely adore the beginning with Roarke’s story. The ‘Old Spider Man’, it just tickled my fancy to no end, it’s fantastical and exactly the sort of magical spice I love. The novel is about the lives of all the people crossing paths with Weylyn Grey, a boy and later a man both of this world and not. Strange things happen around him, strange curious things, but the biggest curiosity is him. Are his gifts a blessing or a curse? He is dangerous, but could the love of Mary save him? Can love save any of us? Aren’t we all dangerous in our nature, all of us slipping in some mess, hurting others unintentionally, a beacon for some, a misery for others? Isn’t love, friendship, all of it a complete mystery and adventure?

He is a fleeting beauty to some, a rip in the safe universe for others, but no one remains untouched after being in his presence. Inside the heart of a the wild boy raised by wolves, there is tragedy, disasters that have left him the biggest victim of all. It’s a strange and wonderful journey, there is an intelligence in the ‘fantasy’ that touched me. He is, like many of us, afraid of himself, in his own way because of his extraordinary gifts that aren’t always leading to rainbows and happy endings. Everything costs him, even helping others, much as it does the rest of us. Misery and happiness are conjoined twins for anyone alive and kicking.

Of course we are all of nature, though we forget with our creature comforts, but Weylyn is connected in a mysterious way even he can’t understand. He isn’t the only character, the people he touches or scratches with his wildness are beautifully written even in their rottenness. Lydia Kramer’s story broke my heart, the sixth daughter of a beautiful brood of girls, the least remarkable one according to her vain mother, but she has such fire and bite. This is a captivating novel, I miss these sort of stories terribly because to me, the most mysterious thing of all is human nature and the environment the surrounds us. Does Lang spin a fantastical web, sure- but there is so much painful reality within to keep you anchored. What an achingly lovely novel. I cannot wait to read her next novel! I have a new favorite author! This won’t be out until November, hence I didn’t divulge much, I really don’t want to ruin the novel. I didn’t share all the things I highlighted, wish I could!

Publication Date: November 7, 2017

St. Martin’s Press

I'm so happy to be one of the people that have gotten to read Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang before it comes out in November. It is such a lovely story, filled with magic, fun characters, and many emotions.

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance is the story of Weylyn Grey's life, it is told not only from his perspective, but also the people that have been close to him. Weylyn is a unique individual, he has a connection to nature that he doesn't even fully understand. This connection to nature manifest itself in a few different ways; he lives with wolves and his emotions may or may not affect the weather. Because of these powers he fears he could put the people he cares about, particularly Mary, the woman he loves, in danger.

This book was not only a fantasy story, but a love story. It is a beautiful book with a lot of imagination in it. I enjoyed the landscapes chosen for the story and how the love story aspect interwinds with the magical aspect. I think this is the kind of book you read as an adult and get transported to your childhood, when anything seemed possible. You see Weylyn's life unfold from childhood to adulthood, and even though he does get a bit cynical as he grows up, there is always some wonder in his life.

Furthermore, I really enjoyed the nature aspect of this story. Weylyn's connection to nature, his respect for it, I think is something that we should emulate more. I loved reading about Weylyn's life and the magnificent stories those who met him got to tell.

I think this book is a great gift for any book lover in your life. It's a book you can reread and still enjoy. Most importantly, it's a book with vivid imagery, that will put a smile in your face. If you love fantastic stories, if you love wolves, if you love magical realism, you need to read this.

Weylyn Grey is different. An orphan raised by wolves. Special, right! He loves two things. His horned pig, Merlin, and a woman called Mary.
He can do amazing things except master his courage to let Mary know how he feels.
This is his story, and it's magic!