Summary:
The Lambros family has never fit in with the town of Pandora, even from the very beginning. Since their ancestors immigrated from Greece with magical creatures in tow, the townsfolk have never trusted them and that hasn’t changed in the centuries since. Now, Melpomene, Calliope, and Thalia struggle to live their every day lives.
When new girl, Asha Singh moves to town, everything changes. Thalia, once determined to escape Pandora upon graduation, finds herself growing closer to the heiress of the new resort in town and puts her plans on hold as their relationship develops. All the while, a man has entered the grounds, sent by their mother to help prepare for the newest creature en route to the house. His intentions come into question as he tries to befriend the distrustful Calliope, whose own abilities with the animals seem something out of a fairytale. With their mother missing, Melpomene struggles to keep the house together amidst the changes in the town, the newcomers to their lives, and the impending threat of their secret life being exposed to the community and the world.
As the three sisters deal with their own personal problems, the divide between them grows wide when they need to band together the most or else it may end with one of them in the hands of their greatest enemy.
Review:
*This book is a finalist in the 10th annual SPFBO (Self-published Fantasy Blog-Off) competition, & because I’m also a finalist, I won’t be giving this a rating to remain impartial, but I want to support my fellow finalists by hyping their books. Please give them all a look!*
I won’t lie, I’m not the biggest reader of contemporary or cozy stories but The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids really grew on me, and I found it to be a wonderful read, biases be damned. This was a story of growth, of reflection, of overcoming past trauma, and of persistence, all with some amazing, mystical creatures aplenty. For real, the creatures are ridiculously awesome and very central to the plot.
THSfCaC has a really interesting structure and I found it to be one of the best parts of the story. There are only about 18 chapters here, but there are 4 separate POV characters, and each POV has at least one point-of-view scene in each chapter, so these chapters are on the longer side. Now, this isn’t exactly a new style, but what I found really neat was that before the chapter, we get a dossier file on one of the cryptids/creatures featured in the book, specifically playing a major part in said chapter. Not only was there a very cute image of each creature, but we get a breakdown of where it was found, its personality, diet, behavior, etc. And like I said, these dossiers play a vital role in each chapter. I really liked this idea because it helps showcase the wonderful imagination Gillis has, but also to flesh out these great creatures in a fun, yet simple manner.
This all-female POV cast is as different as can be and that was a major strength of this story. The three Lambros sisters, Thalia (the youngest), Calliope (the middle), and Mel[pomene] (the eldest) are extremely different and come with their own limitations, powers, and problems. The fourth POV is Asha, the newbie to the town and the proxy info-dump/lore receiver, but don’t let that fool you, she was great in her own right. Thalia just wants out of her family business, is a bit of a troublemaker, can make potions with the creature’s powers, and is the snarkiest of the bunch. She instantly falls for Asha. Mel is the unfortunate elder sister who has to take on the brunt of the business since Mom is wandering the world and Dad is dead. She’s stuck with no way out and that drags on her. Calliope is my favorite character of the bunch. She’s a terraglossa (one who can tame the creatures and the series name) and she’s the most broken one of the three sisters, the one with so much on her shoulders, the one with the harrowing past trauma, you can’t help but want her to succeed. She’s also the main source of the plot’s drama (more on that below).
Now, the plot is the slice of life stuff you expect from a cozy story with all the trappings of a romance, but there is some darker things happening in the background that comes to play in the latter half of the story. Romance is a huge facet of this book, as all three sisters find it along the way. Thalia/Asha is a little more on the YA side with an instant attraction, but Mel’s and Calliope’s really tap into the adult, as both must overcome their different pasts. Calliope’s is really the standout here (again, why she is my fave character). As hard as it was to read about her past sexual abuse, seeing her overcome it through her bond with her sisters and her feelings for Liam, really shone through. It was uncomfortable to read, but I felt it was handled with extreme care, and it really showcased a great character arc can be buttressed by a past trauma, not solely defined by it, as Calliope’s was.
Although the romance took a large portion of the beginning half of the book, the plot about the wayward sisters coming together to protect their family’s legacy was the driving force of the book in my opinion. The sisters needed healing, and it took multiple strangers coming into their lives to bring them out of their funk (romances and other dangers). The second half of the book became much more intense and thriller-esque as some nefarious ‘creature protectors’ want to use the Lambros sisters’ abilities for greed. This part of the story flew by for me as the creature in question is based in Greek Myth and that’s my jam, so I was all for it!
But again, the true joy of this story are the creatures. I just loved every single one of them. We have Harriet the Bigfoot. A couple of saberwolves with gems in their heads. An owl creature speaking in rhyme. Snotlings stealing shiny objects. Hedgehog/penguin/things that teleport. A spider with pearls in its body that can cause nightmares. Crystal eating bats. A bear with stars in its fur. A lake monster that lives in the pool (a cousin of Nessie, no less). Monkeys that can foretell death. 3 legged raven. And others I’m probably forgetting. Each of these creatures and cryptids play a part in the story, some larger than others, but damn, the imagination in this menagerie is just so much fun.
Despite its 525+ page length, this story flies by. Sure, the romance of Asha/Thalia reads YA with their school-age stuff, and Mel’s/Darius’ blossomed a bit quickly, there was never a moment where it felt rushed. And with all the amazing creatures introduced, there was always something going on to keep me reading past my intended stopping point. The prose is regularly solid, if teetering a tad younger reading level, but it definitely fit with the vibe of the story.
All in all, The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids was an engrossing read and a worthy spot in the finals of SPFBOX for its originality, tackling of harsh topics, and just overall fun with some fantastical beasties.
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