Just a book that interested me based on the cover. I do like the idea of winged canines. Let’s see what it’s like. Spoilers ahead.
Castor is a wolfdog living on the streets in a futuristic city. One day, he is taken captive by humans and genetically altered, alongside some other animals of various species who undergo the same treatment. This alteration leaves Castor different: He now has wings and talons like an eagle. He and his fellow mutated animals are trained by the humans to participate in arena fights for the human’s amusement. Castor is desperate to find a way to escape, but it seems impossible. Meanwhile, a human boy named Marcus and a girl named Leesa learn about the genetically altered animals, the Unnaturals, and try to do their part in helping them.
Overall not the greatest story I’ve ever read, but it I did mostly enjoy it. I wouldn’t call it perfect, but it was pretty solid.
I am not usually one for dystopian futuristic settings, but this one executed this aspect okay, at least if you ask me. It’s definitely a very bleak future, but it did feel like a real and lived-in setting.
The characters were a bit of a mixed bag. I did like Castor as a protagonist, but honestly I did find him to be one of the less interesting characters among the main cast. He was fine, don’t get me wrong, but he doesn’t have that big of an arc or anything. I did find the side characters much more interesting, though, especially Jazlyn, Castors best friend (a rabbit-panther cross) and Enza, an initial antagonist-turned-heroine (a saber-toothed bear-tiger).
If I do have a main gripe with the characters, though I’d have to be that I simply didn’t care for the two human-POV characters in this at all. Leesa and Marcus just feel like generic kids without main flaws or quirks or whatever, they kinda feel like audience stand-ins almost. I get that they’re here to add a more human element to the story and provide more context from the human side of things, rather than it being all Castor’s POV, but man, I really didn’t care about their chapters. They do end up being plot-relevant as they end up helping the Unnaturals escape, but eh, I personally could’ve done without their chapters, or at least with their presence toned down a bit. Or, if they have to present, make them interesting and distinct characters. Because right now both of them feel pretty bland and forgettable.
I do have to say though, that this book is honestly kind of miserable. It’s a book for younger readers, which is fine, but I was unprepared for just the sheer amount of misery involved in this story. It’s almost three-hundred pages of near constant animal abuse and suffering, with very little breaks throughout. Even the brief human-POV chapters don’t offer much of a relief because they’re still about the Unnaturals and even the human world is suffering in this dystopia. This book is legit depressing to read (despite the slightly happier ending) and I really wasn’t in the right headspace for this when getting into it. So yeah, if you do read this: Please be prepared for how utterly depressing this book is. And if animal suffering or abuse is a trigger for you, maybe you shouldn’t pick this one up at all. Even if it’s fictional fantasy/science-fiction violence and abuse, it’s still violence and abuse these creatures have to suffer near constantly.
So yeah, a pretty solid book, but man, also very depressing and the human-POV chapters could’ve used some work. I probably will pick up book two eventually, but I do hope that it’ll be less bleak.
Rating: 3.5/5
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