Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance

“The greatest magic in the world is the love we have for each other”

3.75 stars

What a sweet well written imaginative story. Magical realism done well. Found family, cozy, quirky, unique, whimsical!

Cute. However, I find that for my personal tastes magical realism is rarely as magical nor as realistic as I would like it to be. This book ultimately felt like it lacked something essential.

This is a fascinating story told from the POV of many different characters as they interact with our main character Weylyn. There's something different about Weylyn mysterious things around him...not to mention the part where he's literally raised by wolves. I found this book beautifully written. I love the storyline. Sometimes I got a little overwhelmed by the change of voice that occurs between all these different characters but they come together to create a beautiful story.

I adore this book. This is my second time reading it and it's just as fantastic as it was the first time. Everything about this book makes me happy. The magical elements, the different characters and their distinctive perceptions of the main character, all the animals, etc. I just love it so much. Weylyn is hands down my all time favorite fictional character. I love how close this story rides the line between absolute chaotic nonsense and incredibly romantic love story. This is one of those books that you don't pay attention to how many pages you have read or how long until you finish the book. You just want more. If you want a book that will make you forget about quarantine, this is the one.

*4.5 stars. I wanted to give this wonderful, quirky tale 5 stars. It's full of beauty and exquisite characters. Just one section toward the end kept it from that - that section just seemed to have a tonal shift that was off from the rest of the novel. It only lasted for about 40 pages or so, but was enough to hold me back from a perfect score. Still, what a fantastic book and one I will be recommending.

The author clearly has a wonderfully creative imagination and I enjoyed the story. But I'm not sure the decision to write from the POV of everybody except Weylyn was a good one, because he came across more as a symbol than a real person. Meanwhile the other characters are nuanced and multi-dimensional, even many of the antagonists. I would be interested to see where Ruth Emmie Lang goes from here; this certainly is a unique debut novel.

This was a book I wasn't expecting to love. The premise wasn't grabbing, too quirky to be set in this world, too realistic to take place in a fantasy one.

But Lang made it work beautifully. The plot spans Weylyn's lifetime, introducing and carrying several characters through the story. I have to applaud the author's ability to give each minor character body and emotional complexion.

By the end, I was rooting for the world where animal-telepathic Weylyn and magic-pig Merlin exist.

★ ★ ★½

Catching up on mini reviews for books that I haven't written anything on yet. For Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance though, it was less a matter of not wanting to write a review and more a matter of not knowing what to write. This book is beautiful. It's the exact kind of magical realism that I love, where everything feels completely plausible and yet you also feel transported. The multiple narrators were done excellently. The chapters were evenly weighted, and full of all kinds of magical happenings. Even the ending was a perfectly satisfying, and that's not something that I say a lot. So, in summation, this book was my perfect kind of read. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I'll likely read it again! To the favorites pile it goes.

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

DNF @ 39%

2.5 stars

Alright, so I did try to read through this one, but I have so much to read in such a short amount a time that reading something I don't care about, felt like a waste of time.

So, I think this book is well written. This is one of the reasons I almost got through it all. The writing flows and is easy to read through. There are jumps in time, but the year is clearly stated which helps keep everything together.

I found the fact that we don't (at least up til I was) ever read through the main character's POV even though this is a story about him. Weird, but I feel this is done well.

Unfortunately, none of the character's grabbed me. While most have their own quirks, the voices mostly sounded the same to me, except for Roarke who is a wild child. So, a switch from a junior high student to a teacher POV was hard to tell apart.

So, what is it that had me putting down this book? I was bored.
See, I think I'm just not a fan of magical realism??? If I needed to read this book for a challenge or with a group I could totally do it, but I just don't want to... For me, nothing is happening. I like the classic beginning, middle, and end to a story, but I don't think this one was going in that direction. Plus, magical realism tends to have a certain tone or atmosphere which I think is suppose to inspire awe in the reader or tries to create magic in the real world - I can't explain it, mostly because it doesn't work for me at all. It mostly has me rolling my eyes.

BUT, now I know this is a thing for me and can stay away from magical realism unless pushed.

Therefore, I do hope others will give this decent book a try if magical realism is a good factor for them.

Weylyn Grey has always been different. Orphaned at a young age, he lived undiscovered with a wolf pack for years until he befriended a human girl and was later placed with a foster family. His alternative upbringing is not the only unusual thing about Weylyn though - nature appears to behave oddly whenever he's around, whether it's the cluster of animals visiting his room in the night or the storms that appear whenever he's upset. Weaving through time and the perspectives of the people who meet him along the way, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance tells the story of Weylyn's life.
The unique, well-developed characters and short chapters engage the reader immediately and keeps the story moving until the end. The hint of magic appeals to fantasy fans without putting off those who prefer to stay grounded in reality. A great read for anyone who loves books revolving around interpersonal relationships.

NOTE: I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Review to be posted on my blog Nov 1, 2017.

I downloaded Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance off NetGalley by chance. My account there had been languishing for, well, years. I decided to hop back on and see if I could find anything worth reading. And after just a few minutes, I stumbled across BoEC. I loved the cover and thought the synopsis seemed intriguing, so I downloaded my copy and set off.

To be honest, I didn't really enjoy the book as I was starting out! It took me a bit to get used to the first-person POV and the writing seemed a little infantile. I did note that the characters we heard from at first were children, so infantile was realistic. And I'm glad I pushed through and gave it a chance, because it just got better and better.

BoEC is a story set in modern America about a boy named Weylyn Grey who has inexplicable abilities, namely communicating with animals and influencing the weather. The book is a story of his life, told almost entirely through the perspective of others. The POV switches frequently, and we get to see Weylyn through many different eyes, though almost never through his own. I don't want to get too much into the plot because it's easy to give things away, but I will say that it kept me interested and that I was never quite sure what was going to happen next.

There were a couple characters that I wish had been touched on more. First, Weylyn's parents. They do come up, and we quickly learn that he's an orphan, but they just sort of feel really hollow to me. It's obvious that they were just killed in order for Weylyn to have this journey. They never really come up except when convenient to the plotline at hand. I also wish there had been more about Weylyn's adopted mom and Mary's dad. They both kind of just vanish after they serve their purpose, making them feel more like plot points than characters. This is true of some of the other secondary characters as well, but these folks feel like they should have been of more importance to both Mary and Weylyn's lives.

Overall, though, I loved this book. Once I got into the rhythm of things, I didn't want to put it down. I almost missed my T stop several times while reading. I really felt immersed in the world Ruth Emmie Lang created and sympathized so much with the characters. No spoilers, but the ending made me SO emotional and gave me so many goosebumps. Lang really knows how to thread an ending together.

Takeaway: This book is beautiful. Please read it. Please, please read it.