Menagerie (Menagerie, #1)

by Rachel Vincent

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Menagerie is seriously one of the coolest books I have ever read. It's deep, dark, depressing and utterly wonderful! I don't even know how to really describe it. It's genre-defying! It's like Alternate History Dystopia Magical Realism Urban Fantasy Mythological Circus Fiction. I don't even know. It's so weird. Metzger's Menagerie is unlike any circus you've ever been to. Instead of a Bearded Lady and Lobster Boy, you've got a minotaur, mermaids, and...Delilah. It's her 25th birthday, her boyfriend got her tickets to the Menagerie, and neither expects her to wind up as part of the exhibit.

I was hooked on Menagerie from that first chapter. 25 years ago, Delilah's mother prayed for a quieter, well behaved infant and that's exactly what she got. Meanwhile, thousands of parents of multi-child families killed all of their kids but one. All of those kids were rounded up, and discovered that they weren't human. And weirder still, they were all "born" in March of 1980. Since then, anyone deemed not human or unnatural fauna was stripped of rights to be studied, tortured and gawked at. Delilah was never okay with how these "cryptids" were treated, and now she's considered one of them.

Menagerie is completely twisted and disturbing. The way cryptids are treated is completely awful. The majority of the story is from Delilah's POV, and she's treated no better. Maybe even worse at times, since one of the handlers is trying to "break" her. They want her to perform as a sideshow freak, but she truly has no idea how to unleash her inner beast, whatever it may be. Then we also get the perspective of several other characters, which at times broke my heart. I mean, they're people...but not really, but they do have feelings and personalities, and just aaaaah! I may even have a crush on a Minotaur!

The only thing that kind of bothered me about Menagerie, but not really, was that I wanted to know more about the world before 1986 when all of the craziness went down. It seems like cryptids were accepted parts of society back then. The humanoid ones lived among people, and the animal-like ones lived free. But is that really what it was like? There's not much about it. That's just what I was able to put together with little bits of information scattered throughout, which is why I included Alternate History in my long genre classification. I also wondered how these things came to be: did they just appear one day (like those changeling kids) or were they always there? Either way, this world is fascinating and I need to know more!

Menagerie was all kinds of fabulous! Just about every kind of mythical creature is on display, including whatever the heck Delilah is. It is revealed, but I won't tell you what. It's very cool! And while most of the book is dark, there is light at the end of the tunnel! I totally think this could have worked as a standalone, but I desperately want more!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.