Bingo Row 1 – Black
Ordinary Monsters by JM Miro feels nostalgic. I suspect a lot of that is because the book looks so much like my long gone copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It’s a big black book with the silhouette of a flying bird on the cover. I only noticed it in a bookstore because I thought it was Jonathan Strange. There are a few other similarities I noticed between the two, but it’s been so long since I read the other that I won’t get into them.
The story starts intriguing with Eliza who killed her employer for raping her, then ran away and found a glowing baby to take with her on the lam. I was into Eliza’s story. Unfortunately she leaves early on because she’s a wanted murderer and that’s bad for her adopted son, who I think is the main character. The synopsis on the book flap certainly presents him as one (of two).
As I read, the book got easier and easier to put down and keep down. I leave the books I read lying around the house as I read them, so it was always taking up a lot of space because it is, as mentioned, big. Otherwise, I probably would have forgotten and abandoned it under mail and comic books.
It’s not that the book was bad, it was just bad at keeping me invested as they shaved off the fun and interesting characters. The aforementioned glowing baby grows into a pleasant boy. His co-protagonist (per the book flap) was a fine enough indestructible teenager. There are other kids. There are superpowers, monsters, secrets, and conspiracies, which are entertaining enough.
I enjoyed the good prose and the pleasantly atmospheric atmosphere. My enjoyment was net positive, which isn’t intended to be a damn with faint praise thing. But if it is, it is.