Ordinary Monsters: A Novel (The Talents, 1)

"England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness-a man made of smoke. Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a brutal childhood in Mississippi, doesn't have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When a jaded female detective is recruited to escort them to safety, all three begin a journey into the nature of difference, and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous. What follows is a story of wonder and betrayal, from the gaslit streets of London, and the wooden theatres of Meiji-era Tokyo, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh where other children with gifts - the Talents - have been gathered. There, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Marlowe, Charlie and the rest of the Talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of what is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts. Riveting in its scope, exquisitely written, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world-and of the gifted, broken children who must save it"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Verkruissen

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro is an extraordinary read. I found it dark, moody, atmospheric and completely engrossing. The story takes place in what feels to be the 1800's, industrial age due to the heavy smog and descriptions given to London.
I found myself feeling like Xavier's school for the

gifted was now located in Scotland and the what the students had was referred to as "talents" rather than magic or abilities. The "talents" themselves were captivating and unique as were the children that had them.
I am compltetely stoked that this is a trilogy even though the first book was quite the tome at nearly 700 pages it did not feel like a long book. It definitely had me hooked from the beginning. Definitely one of the best books I've read this year!

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LibraryThing member reader1009

adventure/suspense fantasy fiction / humans with superpowers, monsters in 19th century England/America.

fun, immersive read--excellent pacing, storytelling, world building. Those 670+ pages just flew by, and I'll be anticipating the next installment.

LibraryThing member muddyboy

This is the start of something big. This novel will be the start of a blockbuster trilogy. This book has everything - kids with special talents,, a Victorian setting and evil monsters with other worldly connections. Well over six hundred pages but it moves along at a rapid pace never lacking for

action. Many times when a book is part of ta projected series it seems the authors spend too much time backgrounding book two. This is not the case here. This book stands well alone.

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LibraryThing member lisally

Ordinary Monsters is a 650 page beast jam packed with ideas, but it really needed more of an edit...

This was really frustrating for me, as the book could go from really interesting action scenes to drawn out story beats to infodumps to glossed over details...
While atmospheric, a sense of physical

place is missing at times. Take the Cairndale institute, home of the Talents; not much detail is given beyond large Scottish Manor House. One example that really annoyed me involved the stained glass windows of the "Sainted Dead." What does that mean? Are they Christian saints? Is there a significance? Why mention that at all?

Meanwhile, plot points are often told rather than shown as is some character development. Ironically, despite the infodumps, I really wish there was one on all the known types of Talents-that the reader is left to piece together.

Still, there's a so much inventive, moody storytelling here, but the uneven pacing made me want to throw the book across the room at times. This could have been something special, a deconstruction of the magic/superpowered school story, but it doesn't quite get there. There is some intriguing set up at the end, however, which may lead me to peek at the next installment.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

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LibraryThing member jmchshannon

Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro is a novel that did not get much attention this year, and that saddens me. To me, it is very Gothic, dark, and disturbing. One might call it a supernatural horror story because it gets so dark. At over 600 pages, Mr. Miro takes his time building the plot and

establishing the characters, but the wait is well worth it. Once the story starts in earnest, the rest unfolds at breakneck speed, leaving no chance for you or the poor characters to catch their breath. I enjoyed Ordinary Monsters and hope there are enough sales for Mr. Miro to publish the second book.

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LibraryThing member Black-Lilly

This was a fun entry for a series.
I very much liked that it was not plain fantasy but that it had an equal amount of horror in it as well. (That one scene on the train: chef kiss!)

Some characters stayed a bit bland, even if they turned out to be essential for the plot, I hope that they will get the

time they deserve in the next installment.
The world building by itself was very nice though, Miro managed it to bring life on three continents alive with ease. I also liked that he described Victorian London as a gritty smudgy place as it was and not all sunshine and flowers.

Oh, but please, please, no more lip wetting in book number 2, that was too much, they all must have very rough and bloody lips by now ...

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LibraryThing member yarmando

Action packed and gruesome: the way a good penny dreadful should be. Children with talents—some eerie, some monstrous—fight and flee the terrors seeking to use them to open, or seal, the gate between the living and the dead.

Great first half, as we meet Charlie the Healer, Komako the commander

of dust, and uncanny Marlowe. But the action and slows as it settles at the institute in Cairndale. The scenes drag (but appropriately so) beyond the orsine in the city of the dead, but it all accelerates into a big, satisfying conclusion.

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LibraryThing member jo_lafaith

I read Ordinary Monsters over the holiday… or what has amounted to 3 weeks. The plan was always to use it as a transition between 2022 + 2023 as it is a true tome, at 658 pages. I didn’t read everyday, but when I did pick it up I used it as an escape and a distraction. Despite its gothic

atmosphere, a kind of Charles Dickens meets X-Men, and dark scenes, grimy settings and (sometimes) horrific subject matter… it was quite cozy.

The children are such a shining light (literally 👀) in this story, and Charlie and Marlowe had my whole heart. I’d say the default tone of the book is one of the grotesque, but the children and their “talents” are often described with a kind of beauty and awe. I thought that was so effective. The relationships dynamics, in general, are full of layers shaped by the world the characters live in and the extraordinary circumstances surrounding them.

It feels long, in a good way, but also in a way that feels like a true journey. This is Book One in an eventual trilogy and the world is huge… it has no choice but to be slow. For that— I recommend going into it expecting a slowness and a story you need to give full attention to. For some readers this might be one to skip. I’m going to continue in the series but I imagine I’ll need a refresher when Book Two finally comes out… and quite frankly, that’s daunting.

I also want to say that for all of my interest in the unfolding mystery of it all, and the fascination I felt, or even the protective energy I felt towards Marlowe… it didn’t emotionally impact me. Not outwardly, anyway, which is strange for me. I didn’t even feel particularly moved. For that I couldn’t give it 5 stars, despite the achievement I truly believe it to be. So… 4 stars, but solid in every way and if you ARE the audience for this story, you’re going to love it.

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LibraryThing member Carol420

The book leans heavily on Victorian ideas of occult spiritualism, mysterious, moneyed clubs that have hidden agendas and... those that no one would miss...orphans. The secret society in question here, run the mysterious "Cairndale Institute", which recruits carefully chosen children to house on its

grounds in Scotland. Admission requires special “Talents”, which are the equivalent of undeveloped superpowers. Invisibility and accelerated healing get you a place into the institute, along with some more "unusual" powers, such as the ability to manipulate matter or invisibility. Recruitment is mostly an aggressive rather than a passive process. The Institute’s agents actively seek out children worldwide that no one will miss or question their disappearance, to bring into their program. Overseeing the Institute is Dr Berghast, but his true intentions are clouded to say the least. The story initially follows private detective Alice Quicke, who is employed by the Institute to locate an American "talent", Charlie Ovid, who possesses powers to self-heal. Charlie is incarcerated in a Natchez City warehouse while the local police try to figure out what to do with someone sentenced to death but who can't be killed. The case resolves, but not without some bloodshed, and Alice leaves Charlie with her partner and goes off to find an eight-year-old potential recruit named Marlowe. Soon Alice becomes aware that evil forces are after the boy, and they are both in danger. The Institute, we find out, has a long dark and questionable history, and this history is tied to a disgraced former student...Jacob Marber. Now we have flashbacks involving Jacob now taking us from Scotland to Japan. The story has super-powered battles, supernatural creatures, a portal to the land of the dead and magical artifacts that all make an appearance. The book way W-A-Y too long. After 500 pages with well over 150 more to go...I simply lost interest.

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