Mariella Hunt

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

from Ordinary Monsters

The first time I saw Ordinary Monsters, it was in eBook form. I had clicked the ad on Facebook because I loved the cover–covers do make an enormous difference–and when I saw on the Amazon page that it was a deliciously long book, I knew I had to read it sometime.

However, there are so many books in my wishlist that, by the time I got to the bookstore (big books deserve to be paper copies!) I completely forgot what the title of the book was. “I’m looking for a really thick book,” I said, “one with a black cover…it was a fantasy…” At the bookstore, they stared at me blankly. “Where is the fantasy section?” I inquired (the bookstore had been recently rearranged). I found the book quickly once I got myself there.

I confess that when I first started reading Ordinary Monsters, I found that it dragged. Past the introduction, which I thought remarkable, chapters one through three were a puzzling assortment of POV-switches, and I could not quite grasp what the plot was. However, since it’s a long book, I was determined not to DNF it, and I’m glad that I pushed through. Once the action picked up, it was a true page-turner.

The use of ‘talents’ and a special school brought me pleasant nostalgia for Harry Potter. I appreciated the diversity of the ‘students’ and the creativity with which their talents are portrayed. Also, Ordinary Monsters has the only scene in a book that’s made me want to cry in all of 2023. Out of one hundred novels, this one alone has been able to crush me, and while I cannot tell you what happened because it’s a spoiler, I assure you that there are feels in here.

Some books require a bit of patience. Once you push past a rocky beginning, you’ll be rewarded with a memorable adventure. Ordinary Monsters was one of those books, and in the end, I’m glad that I remembered ‘the book with the black cover’ when I went to Barnes and Noble.

My rating is 4 stars out of 5.