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Ordinary Monsters
- The Talents, Book 1
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins
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Ordinary Monsters
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Summary
Bloomsbury presents Ordinary Monsters by J M Miro, read by Ben Onwukwe.
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.
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)
"From the very first page, you're pulled into a world of hope and fear, dark and light, the known and the unimaginable. A world that is equal parts magic and pain. Readers should prepare themselves: there's nothing ordinary about Ordinary Monsters." (Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor and Hunger)
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What listeners say about Ordinary Monsters
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Duncan
- 26-07-22
Brilliant
Absolutely loved this book, characters really come to life,. Story is well written. can recommend.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ali
- 29-07-23
Rollicks along but rather wearying..
like an amalgamation of X men, Harry Potter and snippets of the classics.
A good yarn, well performed but slightly spoiled by the narrator's godawful, one and only, non geographical "Scottish" accent - where is the R in "thought"? It was all hoots mon and Janet get yer tits oot the purridge - surely someone could have taught him a couple of real ones??
It it least brought humour where there wasn't meant to be any....
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Nicole van Overveld
- 12-03-23
Great wordlbuilding, very longwinded prose
The way the material is read is sublime, and I thoroughly enjoyed the alternate history world. The story is however often bogged down by endless narration of surroundings, stances, attitudes and by the many many thoroughly unlikeable heroes and foes. Even the kids have little to no agency and are generally just swept along and being drowned. Not sure if I'll even bother buyibg the sequel, although I'll be looking for more audio books by this narrator. Overall it leaves me unsatisfied.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 16-05-23
Terrible accents bit sitck with it!
About Chapter 15 you think this book will never end and you'll consider stopping as the narrators terrible attempt at accents (Americans straight from The Simpsons, Cockneys straight from Mary Poppins and don't even start me on the Scottish ones....) and seemingly random bits of info and characters get dropped everywhere, make it drag.
However, stick with it! All the randomness comes together in the last 5 chapters and it all makes sense... Will wait for the sequel. That is If the narrator goes to Scotland to listen to what they actually do sound like!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Judd_IV
- 21-10-22
Absolutely incredible
I’m completely blown away by this book. An epic story and amazingly narrated. Simply spectacular
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jannette
- 13-07-22
A beautifully written.......
... deep delve into its characters and other world. I loved it. There are a lot of characters in this book, but because the author did a fantastic job taking his time letting us, the reader/listener getting to know them, I found myself emotionally connecting to them and this is the real art of a book. It takes you out of yourself, you're somewhere else, with the children as they face everything from racism in the USA to poverty on the streets of London, to having the one person they should be able to trust, betray them.
Read by Ben Onwukwe, he gives every character their own voice and has a genuine empathy for the children as they traverse their very singular worlds, he is a wonderful reader and the perfect choice for this book.
J M Miro is one to watch, this is a future classic in the making.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sophie
- 27-08-23
Excellent
Wonderful story and audiobook.
There's a fantastic depth to the story and its world, told by a narrator I could listen to forever. The 'Scottish accents' are painful, but it's so, so worth it.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 08-10-23
As a Scot, the accents didn't bother me.
It was ok, wandered somewhat but I would give a sequel a read ...... probably.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Cfc Caumartin
- 03-07-22
Marathon
This is an interesting listen, with strong echoes of Ransom Riggs’ peculiar children. However, I really struggled with the last quarter. It is far, far too long. This really dims any sense of danger and urgency. Learning that there is more to come made my heart sink rather than soar. Maybe I am having a bad week but for me, it was an endurance test towards the end.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 08-11-22
great story.
I loved the characters and their journeys.
Narrator was good though his Scottish accents could do with work, at the very least, sort out the difference between "loch" and 'lock". Very different pronunciations. Once I'd got over that, I loved it!
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