Ordinary Monsters

 Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro, 660 pages.

At the end of the 19th century children with unusual abilities, Talents, are appearing all over the world. And some of them are being hunted by a man made of smoke The Talents have a special relationship with the realm of the dead, and that barrier is getting dangerously thin.

It's hard to give a good synopsis for this book because the best word to describe it is sprawling. It follows a large cast and drifts between continents and across decades constantly. It's deeply atmospheric and completely engrossing, and trying to describe it briefly would probably end up doing it a disservice (as evidenced by the fact that the synopsis on the book itself feels like it's hardly accurate). Threads are constantly picked up, then left for a while, before eventually coming in from an entirely new angle. It was very smoothly done and touches on some really cool things. I was definitely impressed by this one.