I really wasn't expecting to be so drawn in from this short extract, but now I cannot wait for my finished copy of this book to arrive to I can carry on with it! There's already so many characters I want to know more about and I am so intrigued by the magic and powers. The world building really pulls you into this new world and I love the dark and gothic writing. Can't wait to read more!

the opening of Ordinary Monsters reads almost as the origin story for a superhero tale. Marlowe is discovered in a railway van by a young woman fleeing from her abusive master. Charlie, a Black man in the US South, is a victim of racism, framed for murder and locked in a warehouse where he is daily beaten - and miraculously recovers. The two have come to the attention of a mysterious organisation which wants them.

For good or ill? I honestly don't know. There's a hint, perhaps, in the mismatched pair of detectives sent to retrieve them: Alice, a woman out of place, and the enigmatic Coulton. Both seem marginal figures like Charlie and Marlowe themselves, so perhaps they're on the right side. But what became sin the future, I don't know.

What I do know is that the opening of the story is atmospheric, intriguing and very readable. Miro depicts tow very different settings - the dire poverty of London's East End, in an age when the poor might resort to picking up coal in the street or raking through the filthy river mud for lost trinkets. When an avenging "gentleman" can more or less have his way regardless of police or the legal system. It's the dark side of Sherlock Holmes, the disease-ridden, starving and tainted end of town. And then there's Natchez, Mississippi, where an overseer can wield a whip 'just like it was still 1860, just like no war had ever happened and nothing had been abolished and freedom wasn't yet the lie it was proven to be.'

Perhaps, actually, there isn't a great difference. But the story switches fluidly from one locale to another with the special atmosphere of each delineated and within them, as well as the, well, the different weirdness of the two special people who will be important to the later story. Miro is good with character, taking in Alice and Cotton as well, and a number of almost Dickensian personages in London, especially the tattooed wrestler Brynt and her mountebank evangelist friend, Reverend Walker, who take in Marlowe and his saviour Eliza for a time.

All in all, what I've read of this book promises a cracking good read which goes to the weird size of Victoria's time without getting all steampunky.

This was a truly intriguing and wonderful first two chapters. I loved the setting, and the humanity of the characters. I've now pre-ordered this book as it's beautifully written and completely engaging.
Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with a exclusive extract.

I loved what I read and found only a defect: it's not the entire book. World building and storytelling are excellent.
Can't wait to read the rest
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Ordinary people with extraordinary powers in Victorian England and the Wild West.

Fast paced, but Miro relies too heavily on stereotypes and tropes. Scenes in Victorian England include Americanisms, such as boxcar.

My thanks to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for the ARC.

I only had an extract of this. Unfortunately (for me) I was so absorbed in the story that I forgot until the narrative suddenly came to a halt! I will have to go out and buy it as soon as it is published, because I really need to know what happens to these characters.

I loved the extract, cannot wait to read the entire book! I already feel this will be a 5 star read!

This novel is ticking ALL the boxes for me. Victorian set speculative fantasy with an original plot and fascinating characters. Who, and what, are Charlie and Marlowe? This has all the promise of an amazing trilogy and I cannot wait to read more. I predict a booktok frenzy!

I thoroughly enjoyed this extract from Ordinary Monsters and cannot wait to read the rest of it!

Excellent prose, captivating right from the start, atmospheric and unique!

That wasn't my cup of tea unfortunately.

I'd like to thank the publisher Bloomsbury and netgalley for providing me with this extract in exchange for an honest review.

Fascinating start, well written with interesting characters. Very excited to see how this book comes together

I loved and hated this extract in equal measure, loved because the few chapters were intrigued and captivating. It reminded me of an adult Miss Peregrines home for particular children. And hated because that’s all it was, just an extract. It’s safe to say I will be pre ordering this, J M Miro, take my money!

An intriguing introduction to Ordinary Monsters which has me even more excited for its release than I already was.

Ordinary Monsters jumps straight into the action, and within these first two chapters we meet the two ‘talented’ children - Marlowe and Ovid - who appear (from the description) to be the main focus of the novel, as well as the detectives assigned to escort them to the Cairndale Institute outside Edinburgh which specialises in these ‘unusual’ cases.

Intriguing in its premise, and enjoyable in its execution, I can already tell from the extract that I’m going to love this book, and can’t wait until June to read it!

This excerpt for Ordinary Monsters gives an intriguing, promising glimpse into this book, introducing us to Eliza Grey, a woman on the run after killing her rapist who finds a baby with the ability to glow and harm people. There’s also Charlie Ovid, a mixed race young man who, after being put in jail following an accident that kills a white man, discovers he can be hurt but he can’t be killed, his scars and wounds healing, and Alice Quicke, a detective looking for people with such special skills for the mysterious Cairndale Institute.

I was quickly invested in the characters, Eliza was wronged by her employer, in fighting back she killed him and now she’s being chased by her rapist’s son and the law. However despite how the world has treated her, she takes in a baby she finds next to his dead mother, and in a short number of pages you feel her love, her sense for freedom, and the injustice you hope is challenged. Charlie is gentle and misunderstood and a victim of racism and I want to know him better. Alice is outraged at how Charlie is treated, she is a defiant woman who believes in right and good and I really look forward to Charlie (hopefully) being under her wing.

I can’t wait to read more

A really good extract and I am really excited to read the full story. If the rest of the book continues as the extract started, all who read it will be in for a treat!

This excerpt sets the story up extremely well. Miro has a wonderfully descriptive voice and it is easy to picture the familiar and the not so familiar parts of the world the characters inhabit.

The pacing of the plot moves well and the reader is left wanting to know where the characters will go next, what the fall out of their choices will be.

If the rest of the book continues in the same vein as this started, it'll be excellent. There's the feel that something isn't right, the suggestion of remarkable creatures that the world has no comprehension of, but rather than the feel of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, larger than life and with villains interspersed with heroes, this is something new. These aren't creatures that have lived a while and understand who and what they are, these are children and young adults, and their abilities are either uncontrolled, or if they are controlled, speak to the true horror of massive power in the hands of children.

Loved the taster, hope the full book will be as good.

Really liked this extract. I'm very curious to see where this story goes and how this characters develop....
This book is on my list to read this year!

I didn’t realise this was just an extract; however, it’s firmly cemented my determination to read this book. A Victorian version of X-Men perhaps, but so far it’s gripping and interesting. No doubt it will continue in this way…

This was a great excerpt, I was so disappointed when it ended as I’d like to carry on and see where this story takes us