Unlikely Animals
Ratings11
Average rating4.5
“This tragicomic novel is heartfelt, touching, and delightfully quirky. You’ll fall in love with the offbeat cast of characters (both living and dead) and find yourself rooting for them right through the last page.”—Good Housekeeping (Book Club pick) A lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR (SO FAR) BY BOOKRIOT It was a source of entertainment at Maple Street Cemetery. Both funny and sad, the kind of story we like best. Natural-born healer Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she’s lost her way. A medical school dropout, she’s come back to small-town Everton, New Hampshire, to care for her father, who is dying from a mysterious brain disease. Clive Starling has been hallucinating small animals, as well as having visions of the ghost of a long-dead naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, once known for letting wild animals live in his house. This ghost has been giving Clive some ideas on how to spend his final days. Emma arrives home knowing she must face her dad’s illness, her mom’s judgment, and her younger brother’s recent stint in rehab, but she’s unprepared to find that her former best friend from high school is missing, with no one bothering to look for her. The police say they don’t spend much time looking for drug addicts. Emma’s dad is the only one convinced the young woman might still be alive, and Emma is hopeful he could be right. Someone should look for her, at least. Emma isn’t really trying to be a hero, but somehow she and her father bring about just the kind of miracle the town needs. Set against the backdrop of a small town in the throes of a very real opioid crisis, Unlikely Animals is a tragicomic novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the possibility of resurrecting that which had been thought irrevocably lost.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
I read this as part of a book club and I'm so glad I did! The characters are complex and endearing and more, and the author does a great job of interweaving their stories. This one has a mystery to solve, a dash of magical realism thrown in, themes of family and home and friendship and addiction and community. It is a good story that is well-crafted and there is so so much to discuss it is an excellent selection for a group!
First of all, I'm so thankful to Ballantine Books via NetGalley for letting me read Unlikely Animals before it comes out. This was one of my favorites of the year so far!
I tend to really enjoy books with quirkiness done well, and this one just hits that out of the park. I mean, it's narrated by the ghosts of people in the town who've died and are now buried in the town's graveyard. One of the main characters sees and interacts with a ghost (and not-real animals), and another main character is doing her job of teaching a group of endearing 5th graders without any prior experience (or education) in education.
All of that made this story so unique, fun, funny, and heartwarming. If you've read Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, I'd compare this book to that one in terms of quirkiness and endearing-ness.
I think my favorite character in this story was Clive. He continue losing some of his cognitive function to a brain disease as the book goes on, but he's just the most interesting guy with a heart of gold. I loved that he told his daughter to do a C-average job at teaching the kids so nobody expected too much of her. And of course, the fact that he interacts with a ghost on a daily basis makes him rather interesting.
Here's my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/03/review-unlikely-animals-by-annie-hartnett/
I'm feeling a lot more charitable towards this book after reading the author's note. I now understand what the author was trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, the narrative itself didn't quite manage to accomplish in 340 pages what the author's note did in 4.
As much as I signed on for a quirky/morbid book with the dead narrating and dipping into animal's perspectives, suspension of disbelief was not possible when confronted by a person with no training, experience or certification being hired as a long term substitute teacher, a senior in a retirement community having unrestricted access to a loaded gun, and a person doctor-recommended for full-time care, with no mention of financial barriers to such, REPEATEDLY being left alone. It might have been necessary for the plot, but alongside perfunctory prose and inconsistent characterization, I spent a lot of time feeling detached from the story.
It has its moments, and a heck of a twist, but whether it was emotional outbursts or big reveals, it never quite felt earned, like there was a steady build up that the reader could be invested in. The side effect of too many characters? Too many plotlines?
Turns out the passages I found the most charming were actually excerpts from another writer.
Personal thing, admittedly, but the whole ‘domesticating wild animals' thing also really bugs me, though the last bear scene might be inferred as a powerful statement against such.
Safe to say, it wasn't for me.
⚠️ Infidelity, terminal illness, drug addiction
