Menagerie
Rachel Vincent
ISBN: 077831605X (ISBN13: 9780778316053)
Publishing September 29, 2015
MIRA
Millions of children are killed by their mesmerized parents, and the nation blames cryptids.
Decades later, animal cryptids no longer roam the wild, and part human cryptids no longer live and work side by side with regular humans. Stripped of all rights, cryptids can only be found in research labs, prisons, walled reserves, private collections, and circus menageries.
Delilah has never been comfortable with how cryptids are treated, so when her boyfriend buys tickets to Metzger’s Menagerie for her birthday, she’s not really sure she wants to go. Seeing beautiful creatures caged, and ones who look all too human in chains is almost too much to bear.
When a circus employee goads a young werewolf child to perform for the crowd with a cattle prod, something in her snaps and breaks free. Delilah finds a dark taloned creature inside, screaming for justice. She leaves the circus in chains, only to return as their newest exhibit.
Delilah must become something stronger if she is to free the captives of the Menagerie.
Vincent’s Menagerie is an impactful, powerful commentary on inhumanity. The characters are stripped of their personhood for a perceived danger, blamed for a tragedy that Vincent never makes clear they were ever responsible for in the first place. The characters struggle to exist, as society has stripped them of that most basic right.
Menagerie is a must buy for 2015, and I’d hardly be surprised if it didn’t get at least one award nod.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.