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.

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!

‘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

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.

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.

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.