J.M. Miro is a poet and novelist who lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest. He is currently a professor of fiction and poetry at the University of Victoria. Ordinary Monsters: A Novel (Flatiron Books) is set in Victorian London in 1882, where two children with paranormal powers find themselves targeted by a man made of smoke. Despite surviving a brutal childhood, Charlie Ovid doesn’t have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. Given their powers, a detective is recruited to escort them to safety. All three begin a journey into the nature of difference and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous. This is a story of wonder and betrayal, from the gaslit streets of London and the wooden theaters of Meiji-era Tokyo to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh, home to other children with gifts – like Komako, a witch-child and twister of dust, and Ribs, a girl who cloaks herself in invisibility. As they discover the truth about their abilities, a new question arises: What truly defines a monster?
