Impossible Creatures

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Hello to 2025!  Guess what, I've been reading up a storm!  It's been lovely!

 Impossible Creatures, by Katherine Runnell

I heard this middle-grade story, from the UK, described as comparable to Diana Wynne Jones, so I tracked down a copy to see.  While, naturally, it cannot compare in my mind, I do have to say that this is an excellent, primo-grade fantasy story, with as imaginative and intense an ending as anyone could hope for.  Highly recommended!

Christopher, whom all critters love, is reluctantly headed to Scotland to stay with his grandfather for a while, as his dad has to travel for work.  But he finds that his grandfather is another animal-attractor, and it's because they're hereditary guardians of a portal...

Mal loves to fly in her flying coat, which was given to her (along with her name) at birth by a seer.  Flying makes her easy to spot, and a murderer is after her....

The two meet as Mal escapes through the portal, begs for Christopher's help (he being the only one around), and drags him back through, to the Archipelago, the collection of islands in the Atlantic Ocean where magic and mythical creatures still live, hidden by that magic long ago to protect them.  But something is draining the power and killing the creatures.  The last hundred years have been kind of a mess, and no one knows how to solve it, but Mal and Christopher are on the run, and have stowed away on a ship, and if they don't solve it who will?

Mal and Christopher develop a wonderful partnership and friendship, and of course collect a motley crew of friends along the way, including a Berserker, a marine biologist, a ratatoska, and a miniscule golden dragon.

At first I was only medium into the story, but pretty soon it drags the reader in, and Runnell is not pulling her punches.  I ended up really impressed; I think this story is a good cut above a lot of current middle-grade fantasy.  And the illustrations are fantastic.

Comments

  1. Jenna @ Falling LettersJanuary 7, 2025 at 9:28 AM

    I read an ARC of this so it didn't have the final illustrations - now I've read so much praise for the illustrations that I'm starting to think I need to track down a finished copy! It also took me some time to warm up to the story but overall I enjoyed it. (Personally Rundell's The Wolf Wilder is more my style, which I also read in 2024.)

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    Replies
    1. JeanJanuary 12, 2025 at 4:25 PM

      I've never read anything else by her, but I'm inclined to try. I do encourage you to track down a complete copy of this book just to see the illustrations, they really are good.

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