Why I love it

Steph Opitz
BOTM Judge
This wonderful, whimsical, warm-hearted novel is filled with subtle and not-so-subtle nods to the books I loved as a child. White Fang, The Jungle Book, The Wizard of Oz, Charlotte’s Web, and even Lord of the Rings—they’re all in there. Reading Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance made me realize that there’s nothing better than a novel that feels both new and familiar at the same time.
Beasts follows the lovable Weylen Grey, a lone wolf (pun intended), whose life is the stuff of fairy tales: his parents die in a blizzard, he was raised by wolves, he struggles with a foster family, meets a magic pig, stops a tornado, struggles to fit into society, and wanders the country on all sorts of grand adventures. And, he falls love.
This story defies all meteorological, botanical, and geographical laws. Thunderstorms and blizzards show up seemingly out of nowhere, forests grow overnight, and wild animals seem to be able to communicate with humans. It’s both a fairy tale and a love story, but love and affection seems to envelop so many different things: the natural world, a family, a partner, and the unexpected joys of navigating life’s ups and downs.
Reading this book is so comfortable and uplifting, you almost feel as if you could conjure a herd of fireflies to get through a power outage, or a field of daffodils to celebrate a loved one’s birthday. Beasts is exactly the book I needed right now, and it made me so happy I wanted to howl at the moon.