Writer and Editor C.B. Calsing/ G.G. Royale

Polly Hall’s The Taxidermist’s Lover is unlike anything I’ve listened to before. Scarlett meets Henry on the beach one day, and their love affair begins, both between them and between Scarlett and Henry’s taxidermy. They move in together, and the book follows about a year of their relationship, jumping between Christmas day in the present and the previous months of the year. As time goes on, the narrator slowly reveals exactly how their relationship has ended, and it’s not what the reader expects.   To be honest, if I’d picked up the novel, I probably would not have finished it. I’m not terribly fond of second-person narration, but it worked really well as an audiobook. The second-person perspective is what makes or breaks this story, and for the audiobook it suits. Listening to the narrator, Justine Eyre, really brought this novel into itself, and I was completely invested in following it through to the end. Her voice matched that of the narrator. I have to admit I sort of bing...

Dickens meets Marvel’s X-Men is the best way I can describe Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro. Orphans with extraordinary abilities from all over the world are taken to the mysterious Cairndale Institute in Scotland. Is it for their own protection and instruction, or does the owner have more nefarious plans to carry out? This book follows the adventures of one set of these orphans, each with an amazing power, as they discover whom they should trust and from whom they should run.  Many reviewers have complained about the length of the audiobook, but I enjoyed the extended time I got to spend in this amazingly well-crafted world. Miro has shown a great ability in world building, and though it takes some time to follow all the threads, the reveals are worth it in the end. The themes of trust and family run throughout. Though many of these children are alone in the world, they have each other.  I have to say I did enjoy the narrator, Ben Onwukwe. His accent lent the correct character...

One of my favorite genres to read is the updated, canon tale told from a new perspective. I remember reading Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea in college, and it was one of the few titles I returned to later in life. For those that don’t know, that novel tells the backstory of Edward’s first wife in Jane Eyre : what drove her to madness and why he keeps her locked away. I recommend it for fans of the original story.  Silvia Moreno-Garcia's The Daughter of Doctor Moreau gives a similar treatment to the classic by H.G. Wells. Moreno-Garcia resets the story in the lush Yucatan, and the hybrid human/animals have their sources in the creatures that stalk those forests, and Merida is the nearest city where one might find civilization. It is told in a close third-person perspective, alternating between Montgomery, the caretaker, and Carlota, the doctor’s “natural daughter.” The plot revolves around Moreau attempting to secure funding to continue his experiments by securing a marriage between...