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Ordinary Monsters

The dark and dazzling Sunday Times bestseller and first book in the Talents Trilogy

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Ordinary Monsters

By: J M Miro
Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
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$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.

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Bloomsbury presents Ordinary Monsters by J M Miro, read by Ben Onwukwe.

* THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *

'An enthralling read' GUARDIAN
'A thrilling blend of fantasy and horror, richly imagined and masterfully executed' SFX
'Terrific . . . A book that creeps up on you, wearing brass knuckles' CONN IGGULDEN
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The first in a captivating new historical fantasy series, ORDINARY MONSTERS introduces the Talents with a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world, and the gifted, broken children who must save it.

There in the shadows was a figure in a cloak, at the bottom of the cobblestone stair, and it turned and stared up at them as still and unmoving as a pillar of darkness, but it had no face, only smoke . . .

1882. North of Edinburgh, on the edge of an isolated loch, lies an institution of crumbling stone, where a strange doctor collects orphans with unusual abilities. In London, two children with such powers are hunted by a figure of darkness – a man made of smoke.

Charlie Ovid discovers a gift for healing himself through a brutal upbringing in Mississippi, while Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight, glows with a strange bluish light. When two grizzled detectives are recruited to escort them north to safety, they are confronted by a sinister, dangerous force that threatens to upend the world as they know it.

What follows is a journey from the gaslit streets of London to the lochs of Scotland, where other gifted children – the Talents – have been gathered at Cairndale Institute, and the realms of the dead and the living collide. 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 the force that is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts.
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'A dazzling mountain of wild invention, Dickensian eccentrics, supernatural horrors and gripping suspense' JOE HILL

'Expansive in scope and storytelling, Ordinary Monsters builds an electrifying Victorian world' CARI THOMAS

J.M. Miro's book 'Ordinary Monsters' was a #5 Sunday Times bestseller w/e 04-06-2022.©2022 Macmillan Publishing Action & Adventure Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Magical Realism England Paranormal Emotionally Gripping Scotland
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Critic Reviews

Ordinary Monsters is a towering achievement: a dazzling mountain of wild invention, Dickensian eccentrics, supernatural horrors, and gripping suspense. Be warned... once you step into this penny dreadful to end all penny dreadfuls, you'll never want to leave (Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author of HEART-SHAPED BOX)
Expansive in scope and storytelling, Ordinary Monsters builds an electrifying Victorian world: grimy but luminous, magical but deadly, with a cast of diverse and gripping characters that feel entirely modern (Cari Thomas, bestselling author of THREADNEEDLE)
Haunting, tense, earth-shattering … A riveting mix of magic and terror (Tamora Pierce)
Murky as London smog, dark as black pudding, this is a gaslit gothic tour de force . . . The fantasy is so rich and the atmosphere so immersive in this stand-out debut, that it’s easy to overlook the crispiness of the writing and the brilliantly propulsive plotting. And while drughrs, litches, keywrasses and orsines make for a wonderful new language of dread, it’s the characters that carry the day
An engrossing piece of Gothic, Dickensian fantasy, centred around children gifted with magical powers . . . Miro’s meaty, detailed execution lends his story weight and depth and commands respect
A thrilling blend of fantasy and horror, richly imagined and masterfully executed
A fantasy series so ambitious that it makes The Lord of the Rings look like a stroll in the Shire . . . Spanning the globe and crammed with good versus evil battles and hair’s breadth escapes, this book is great fun despite frim subject matter, thanks to J. M. Miro’s darkly witty style . . . Remarkably fresh
All stars
Most relevant
my only complaint is that book 2 isn't out until next year. i would have waited if i'd thought to check. i wish audible would flag incomplete series ...
ben's performance is great. some of the voices grated a little for a while, but there were a lot of them, so well done!
the lovely language & unhurried story telling sustained excellent character development & detailed back grounding: a deep & satisfying read.
the monsters were new & novel, & fit nicely into the victorian setting. interesting exploration into how monstrous humanity can be & how humane some monsters...

original and well crafted

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Amazing story…. a little different….. gets ‘a bit dark’ and a little scary.
GREAT narration.
Bring on book 2.

Riveting

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Absolutely loved this book 📖
I fell in love with the characters . I wanted to never leave this place . I could not stop reading and listening. This book became an obsession to the end.
you just had to keep reading, just one more page, one more chapter. The best book i have read for a long time. I cant wait for the next book.
I wont say the story line, as a magical discovery is waiting inside these pages, A beautiful world to discover and a family of characters good and bad. you will love them all.
I give this book 10 out of 10 , more if i could.
You will not be disapointed.

Loved it, Loved it ,Loved it !!!

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A slow burner for me but intriguing and easy enough listening to keep me going, until I was hooked 😅. The narrator was great for the main story but his voices were so grating, it made it harder to listen to. I did enjoy it though, think I would have preferred reading it myself than listening to the audio.

Intriguing and different, very gothic

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Narrator was amazing and was honestly the only reason I sat through this.

The actual book is big, and so I expected a slow start. But by the end, I still didn't care about any of the characters. The development and exploration of characters was incredibly poor; they all felt like caricatures the whole way through.

There were also excessive shifts in POV. A more creative writer could likely have done this much more efficiently and effectively. As it was, this was a disappointing drag with only the narrator's pleasant voice and narration managing to carry me to the end.

Great performance, story not so much

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