mobysbooks 's review for:

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro

3.0

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This is a historical fiction / urban fantasy blend with a sprinkle of horror. J.M. Miro invites us to journey through the late 19th century, taking us from the deep south of post civil war United States to the bustling chaos of Victorian London, and the enchanting backstreets of Meji Tokyo. Through these setpieces we follow the 'talents', special children with supernatural abilities. They get adopted as orphans from an institute that raises and guides them. But life as a talent is dangerous, and they are threatened by unearthly evils.

This is a decent book that could have been a great book with a few tweaks. I firmly believe that a book should be as long as necessary and as short as possible. Ordinary Monsters is bloated, at least 25% too long and for me, not knowing when to stop writing is an author's cardinal sin.

It's a shame that Miro fumbled the ball like that because he tells an engaging story that started off extremely strong and I enjoyed it in the first half. I loved the setting and the character introductions, his cast boasts several whom I found intriguing to follow. The primary villain is annoying at times, he has a sad boy vibe that aims at making you feel sorry for him which didn't work for me at all. His motivation was unclear for a long time but towards the end I understood it better.

The plot often diverges to backstories which I initially enjoyed. It offered context and enriched the world building but he didn't know when to stop. These interludes took too long and often felt like a novelette wedged between chapters. The core plot itself becomes tedious in the second half and slowed down to a point that I found myself zoning out often and feeling fatigue. This book isn't egregiously long but could have been much shorter and be better for it.

Ordinary Monsters has a lot of merits and is not a bad book. I see talent in Miro's character writing and composing of tense moments. The premise reminded me of X-Men a little too often to take it entirely serious but he gave it some creative twists. He just needs to get to the point faster, because sometimes less is more.