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Invisible Beasts
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Longlist
Orion Book Award Finalist
O, The Oprah Magazine “Title to Pick Up Now”
“An amazing feat of imagination.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“ Invisible Beasts is a strange and beautiful meditation on love and seeing, a hybrid of fantasy and field guide, novel and essay, treatise and fable. With one hand it offers a sad commentary on environmental degradation, while with the other it presents a bright, whimsical, and funny exploration of what it means to be human. It’s wonderfully written, crazily imagined, and absolutely original.” — ANTHONY DOERR , author of All the Light We Cannot See and The Shell Collector
Sophie is an amateur naturalist with a rare genetic gift: the ability to see a marvelous kingdom of invisible, sentient creatures that share a vital relationship with humankind. To record her observations, Sophie creates a personal bestiary and, as she relates the strange abilities of these endangered beings, her tales become extraordinary meditations on love, sex, evolution, extinction, truth, and self-knowledge.
In the tradition of E.O. Wilson’s Anthill, Invisible Beasts is inspiring, philosophical, and richly detailed fiction grounded by scientific fact and a profound insight into nature. The fantastic creations within its pages—an ancient animal that uses natural cold fusion for energy, a species of vampire bat that can hear when their human host is lying, a continent-sized sponge living under the ice of Antarctica—illuminate the role that all living creatures play in the environment and remind us of what we stand to lose if we fail to recognize our entwined destinies.
Sharona Muir is the author of The Book of Telling: Tracing the Secrets of My Father’s Lives. The recipient of a Hodder Fellowship and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, her writing has appeared in Granta, Orion magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. She is a Professor of Creative Writing and English at Bowling Green State University. Invisible Beasts is her first novel.
Orion Book Award Finalist
O, The Oprah Magazine “Title to Pick Up Now”
“An amazing feat of imagination.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“ Invisible Beasts is a strange and beautiful meditation on love and seeing, a hybrid of fantasy and field guide, novel and essay, treatise and fable. With one hand it offers a sad commentary on environmental degradation, while with the other it presents a bright, whimsical, and funny exploration of what it means to be human. It’s wonderfully written, crazily imagined, and absolutely original.” — ANTHONY DOERR , author of All the Light We Cannot See and The Shell Collector
Sophie is an amateur naturalist with a rare genetic gift: the ability to see a marvelous kingdom of invisible, sentient creatures that share a vital relationship with humankind. To record her observations, Sophie creates a personal bestiary and, as she relates the strange abilities of these endangered beings, her tales become extraordinary meditations on love, sex, evolution, extinction, truth, and self-knowledge.
In the tradition of E.O. Wilson’s Anthill, Invisible Beasts is inspiring, philosophical, and richly detailed fiction grounded by scientific fact and a profound insight into nature. The fantastic creations within its pages—an ancient animal that uses natural cold fusion for energy, a species of vampire bat that can hear when their human host is lying, a continent-sized sponge living under the ice of Antarctica—illuminate the role that all living creatures play in the environment and remind us of what we stand to lose if we fail to recognize our entwined destinies.
Sharona Muir is the author of The Book of Telling: Tracing the Secrets of My Father’s Lives. The recipient of a Hodder Fellowship and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, her writing has appeared in Granta, Orion magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. She is a Professor of Creative Writing and English at Bowling Green State University. Invisible Beasts is her first novel.
256 pages, Paperback
First published June 23, 2014
8 people are currently reading
728 people want to read
About the author
Sharona Muir
5 books13 followersSharona Muir is the author of The Book of Telling: Tracing the Secrets of My Father’s Lives, a collection of poetry, a collection of literary criticism, and the novel Invisible Beasts. Her writing has appeared in Granta, Orion magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Alfred Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University; two Ohio Arts Council Fellowships; the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Fellowship; the Bernard F. Connors Prize, and other awards. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing and English at Bowling Green State University.
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December 22, 2017
I received this book for free with another book that I won from LibraryThing.
The concept of this book is very unique so I loved that aspect.
This book contains a series of vignettes and I liked some more than others. Some were boring, but others were really interesting and thought provoking. Some of my favorites were, “The Keen-Ears,” “Truth Bats,” “The Riddle of Invisible Dogs,” The Antarctic Glass Kraken,” “The Spiders of Theodora,” “The Hypnogator,” “Grand Tour Butterflies,” and “Think Monkey.”
What this book really lacked were illustrations. I would have loved to seen pictures and diagrams of these invisible beasts.
Overall, this was a different but intriguing read.
The concept of this book is very unique so I loved that aspect.
This book contains a series of vignettes and I liked some more than others. Some were boring, but others were really interesting and thought provoking. Some of my favorites were, “The Keen-Ears,” “Truth Bats,” “The Riddle of Invisible Dogs,” The Antarctic Glass Kraken,” “The Spiders of Theodora,” “The Hypnogator,” “Grand Tour Butterflies,” and “Think Monkey.”
What this book really lacked were illustrations. I would have loved to seen pictures and diagrams of these invisible beasts.
Overall, this was a different but intriguing read.
July 9, 2014
Invisible Beasts is a love affair with the natural world. A beautifully written experimental book that catalogs exactly what the title states..."Invisible beasts." This unusual book is not plot driven; in fact, there is only the barest of plots sketched in a few sections of the book. A couple modest relationships are indicated between the central character, Sophie, and others, primarily her sister. I yearned for more story between them because their relationship had so much charm to it. That being said, this just isn't that kind of book. It's a character study, a look at Sophia's feelings about life and what she learns from the natural world, blended with a remarkably believable guide to imaginary (and literally invisible) animals.
If you have ever enjoyed reading animal encyclopedias or naturist guides as a child, then you will surely love this. And even for those who don't have particular intimacy with those forms, Invisible Beasts brings forward some wonderfully poetic writing. Muir provides us a highly imaginative account of invented creatures from the perspective of one who loves and romanticizes the natural world. Sophie is Greek for wisdom, and although she is a bit naive and innocent, Sophie also represents the wisdom of protecting our endangered environment and the creatures that inhabit it. The animals presented, despite being both fictional and invisible, are portrayed with plausible scientific attributes...if invisibility were possible. And even more interesting, the character Sophie reflects how the behaviors and qualities of these animals teaches us something about human nature. We are after all animals, too.
As a metaphor, the idea that animal species are invisible to us is quite apropos. Animals do not appear in our GDP equations. Our interactions with them are relatively modest compared to our ancestors. They have little effect on public policy and as far as corporations go they are either objectified as food, used for testing, or ignored. But all these things will come back to bite us. Invisible Beasts is a cry for greater attention to be brought to the natural world as it is, although not a depressing one. In fact, it's downright lighthearted at points. But without a doubt, Muir expresses a clear passion for preserving wildlife through her character.
The near poetic writing does sustain this book, and it moves quickly, but I do feel it is a bit long for the nature of it. The 19 animals are each interesting in their own way, but given the book as a whole lacks forward momentum, they work better as short "stories" than as a novel. I'm all for new forms of books; I quite enjoy authors who break ground and do original work. But that work still needs to be engaged with by the reader. I think there is a great deal of enjoyment that can be gained from this book, but it might be better read in short chunks between other books. The kind of book you might pick up occasionally, read a story, and then put back down until it calls you again.
To give you a taste of the animals featured, here is a partial list:
The Couch Conch
The Pluricorn
Truth Bats
The Antarctic Glass Kraken
The Spiders of Theodora
Beanie Sharks
The Hypnogator
Fine-Print Rotifers
Overall, an interesting work with a great message worth considering.
Note: I received this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program.
If you have ever enjoyed reading animal encyclopedias or naturist guides as a child, then you will surely love this. And even for those who don't have particular intimacy with those forms, Invisible Beasts brings forward some wonderfully poetic writing. Muir provides us a highly imaginative account of invented creatures from the perspective of one who loves and romanticizes the natural world. Sophie is Greek for wisdom, and although she is a bit naive and innocent, Sophie also represents the wisdom of protecting our endangered environment and the creatures that inhabit it. The animals presented, despite being both fictional and invisible, are portrayed with plausible scientific attributes...if invisibility were possible. And even more interesting, the character Sophie reflects how the behaviors and qualities of these animals teaches us something about human nature. We are after all animals, too.
As a metaphor, the idea that animal species are invisible to us is quite apropos. Animals do not appear in our GDP equations. Our interactions with them are relatively modest compared to our ancestors. They have little effect on public policy and as far as corporations go they are either objectified as food, used for testing, or ignored. But all these things will come back to bite us. Invisible Beasts is a cry for greater attention to be brought to the natural world as it is, although not a depressing one. In fact, it's downright lighthearted at points. But without a doubt, Muir expresses a clear passion for preserving wildlife through her character.
The near poetic writing does sustain this book, and it moves quickly, but I do feel it is a bit long for the nature of it. The 19 animals are each interesting in their own way, but given the book as a whole lacks forward momentum, they work better as short "stories" than as a novel. I'm all for new forms of books; I quite enjoy authors who break ground and do original work. But that work still needs to be engaged with by the reader. I think there is a great deal of enjoyment that can be gained from this book, but it might be better read in short chunks between other books. The kind of book you might pick up occasionally, read a story, and then put back down until it calls you again.
To give you a taste of the animals featured, here is a partial list:
The Couch Conch
The Pluricorn
Truth Bats
The Antarctic Glass Kraken
The Spiders of Theodora
Beanie Sharks
The Hypnogator
Fine-Print Rotifers
Overall, an interesting work with a great message worth considering.
Note: I received this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program.
Read
February 24, 2022Had some quite nice language, here and there. More of a collection of vignettes, rather than a novel or even short stories. Also, weird inconsistencies (can visible animals see invisible animals or not?), so it was fairly obvious that these pieces were written separately, originally published separately, and not edited carefully enough to come together as a novel. The ideas were better than the execution, though on a sentence level there were good moments.
November 17, 2024
This novel? collection? of essays? or stories? or whatever it is I just read is going to be difficult to get my thoughts together on. I started this over a month ago and really kind of disliked it at first, but this past week it finally started to click a little bit. Each “invisible beast” described had an incredibly different tone to it which both made it more interesting to read, but also more frustrating. Some chapters would lean incredibly lyrical and fanciful whereas others would be much more to the point. It did genuinely feel like I was reading an autobiographical series of essays at times despite everything being obviously fictitious. It was occasionally irritating when stories would reference one another in ways that seemed a little repetitive and not thought through. Sophie as a character was lacking much substance, in my opinion, but as a “naturalist,” she painted a rather pretty picture of the things she saw. I did particularly like the fireflies and the foster fowl. Each section felt different and some felt more connected than others, despite the initial and most coherent section being by far my least favorite. The general commentary on environmental activism and the intersection of science and the humanities was interesting, but didn’t necessarily click for me always. This was an incredibly innovative concept that I think was quite effective, but it wasn’t especially enjoyable.
June 26, 2014
I got this book thru the good graces of Bellevue Literary Press and the Early Reviewer program on LibraryThing. The book is basically a collection of short stories (some printed in other publications), loosely tied together as the memoirs of Sophie. She is an amateur naturalist with a unique ability. She can see invisible creatures that live among us. One member of her family per generation inherits this gift.
Some of the "beasts" that she's discovered are the likes of Feral Perfumier Bees, to Truth Bats, to Beanie Sharks to the Hynogator.
For the most part very enjoyable, if not eclectic stories that use these fictitious animals to draw our attention to the natural world around us. Not all of them connected with me, but a majority did, and I would still recommend giving this book a try.
A few quotes that stood out for me....
From "Feral Perfumier Bees" : "It nourished them, roughly, but somewhere in its aromatic heart lurked an indigestible dissonance, where the chemistries of received wisdom wrestled with the nectars of circumstance."
From "Hypnogator" : "The trail smelled like arboreal body odor, a musk of indescribable antiquity that made my lungs strain to remember their gillhood.
S: 6/6/14 F: 6/15/14 (10 Days)
Some of the "beasts" that she's discovered are the likes of Feral Perfumier Bees, to Truth Bats, to Beanie Sharks to the Hynogator.
For the most part very enjoyable, if not eclectic stories that use these fictitious animals to draw our attention to the natural world around us. Not all of them connected with me, but a majority did, and I would still recommend giving this book a try.
A few quotes that stood out for me....
From "Feral Perfumier Bees" : "It nourished them, roughly, but somewhere in its aromatic heart lurked an indigestible dissonance, where the chemistries of received wisdom wrestled with the nectars of circumstance."
From "Hypnogator" : "The trail smelled like arboreal body odor, a musk of indescribable antiquity that made my lungs strain to remember their gillhood.
S: 6/6/14 F: 6/15/14 (10 Days)
April 23, 2021
Sophie and numerous blessed members of her family through numerous generations have the ability to see life the majority of us can not. Throughout her life, she has studied them and made her own form of notes. These she shares with others in her family, for all are aware of this gift, tho not all have been bestowed.
This is a book of them: appearance, attributes, quirks, and reasons for existence. Nestled in their own chapters, we are left wanting them real, tangible, visually appreciated.
Quite imaginative, very poetic, and tastefully erotic, these beasts, as they may, extend our emotions into the physical, albeit just as unseen as auras. The magic of nature - just close your eyes and see them too.
This is a book of them: appearance, attributes, quirks, and reasons for existence. Nestled in their own chapters, we are left wanting them real, tangible, visually appreciated.
Quite imaginative, very poetic, and tastefully erotic, these beasts, as they may, extend our emotions into the physical, albeit just as unseen as auras. The magic of nature - just close your eyes and see them too.
June 13, 2021
At first, I was so taken with the writing and the author's imagination that I thought this would be a great read. Unfortunately, the exuberant style wasn't enough to draw me in, it was all descriptions of various made up animals, fascinating, but failed to sustain me.
March 26, 2019
This is a near perfect book. I didn't understand how the average rating could be anything lower than 4.5, so I read the reviews, and I blame the lower than deserved rating on the marketing department.
This is not a novel. This is a narrative collection of short stories. This is a genre perfected by Italo Calvino, by Borges, by Ocampo; A fantasy that approaches truth by looking at fiction through fictional eyes. This book is the only one I have ever found that could have a conversation with Calvino's Invisible Cities. The story isn't straightforward, anymore than truth is. The story is, instead, randomly and cyclically beautiful; sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes contemplative, sometimes pedantic, always truer than non-fiction.
This is not a novel. This is a narrative collection of short stories. This is a genre perfected by Italo Calvino, by Borges, by Ocampo; A fantasy that approaches truth by looking at fiction through fictional eyes. This book is the only one I have ever found that could have a conversation with Calvino's Invisible Cities. The story isn't straightforward, anymore than truth is. The story is, instead, randomly and cyclically beautiful; sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes contemplative, sometimes pedantic, always truer than non-fiction.
November 4, 2015
"It's no consolation to think that even if most people saw invisible beasts, they still might not care."
That quote pretty much sums up how I feel about this book. I don't care. There is no story here, reads like your niece Megan tried to write her science book, but Megan is crazy and is just writing about her boring hallucinations.
That quote pretty much sums up how I feel about this book. I don't care. There is no story here, reads like your niece Megan tried to write her science book, but Megan is crazy and is just writing about her boring hallucinations.
May 27, 2015
This is one of the best books that I have read in a while.
December 4, 2022
Very high concept. Very creative. Great message. Pretty boring.
February 21, 2024
The writing was beautiful and the ideas behind this novel were completely original. I absolutely loved that this combined science with fantastical elements. Not to mention that a lot of the science behind the invisible beasts makes sense. Some of the scientific explanation was confusing but it wasn't anything a quick re-read couldn't fix. To be fair, a few of the chapters were boring but most of them were truly exceptional. This was an easy four-star rating. I was very surprised that this did not have more ratings. Truly a hidden gem.
Favorite Stories:
-"The Keen Ears"
-"Truth Bats"
-"Grand Tour Butterflies"
Favorite Stories:
-"The Keen Ears"
-"Truth Bats"
-"Grand Tour Butterflies"
March 26, 2017
This is a charming little book that will be popular with anyone who likes Fantastic Beasts. Invisible Beasts is a work of fiction but follows the same narrative style as Newt Scamander. Instead of telling a story it serves as a collection of stories and anecdotes about Invisible Beasts, creatures that exist but can only be seen by a lucky few. The narrator is Sophie, a human born with the ability to see the invisible beasts and who is documenting their existence to preserve their history.
In Invisible Beasts we're introduced to Truth Bats, Hypnogators, Invisible Dogs, Beanie Sharks and and Think Monkeys. Muir describes them all in vivid, beautiful detail. This isn't just a book about made up creatures but a fantastic commentary on life and love.
In Invisible Beasts we're introduced to Truth Bats, Hypnogators, Invisible Dogs, Beanie Sharks and and Think Monkeys. Muir describes them all in vivid, beautiful detail. This isn't just a book about made up creatures but a fantastic commentary on life and love.
May 17, 2019
Sweet, clever and whimsical. But I needed something with a little more escapism and plot at the moment.
August 22, 2020
The writing was beautiful but....not my bag, baby.
January 1, 2022
Didnt finish. Writing ok but subject uninteresting and a bit farfetched.
July 23, 2022
So beautifully written! Reading this made me want to go for a walk in a forest and just take everything in and appreciate nature.
March 27, 2025
The concept is so cool, but this was not narrative driven at all. It is a collection of short stories—some really cool and some very boring.
It’s very rare that I dislike a book, so I’m bummed!
It’s very rare that I dislike a book, so I’m bummed!
July 21, 2014
The nitty-gritty: A strange and magical look at some very unusual animals, a narrator with an insatiable curiosity, no plot to speak of, but beautifully written.
Imagine, however, some unlucky person who would die without ever having encountered a flower, a person whose footfalls regularly met cement, whose raised eyes bumped off a dead layer of clouds, whose hopes consisted of daily crusts, and whose fears were so familiar they couldn’t be bothered to wear faces. Smelling the Parfumiers’ honey, that sad soul would know precisely what a flower was and what it meant—the heart of change that makes hope possible. Our bees had become like the invisible sisterhood of the Muses: their honey was pure poetry.
Invisible Beasts is described as “fiction,” but honestly it felt more like non-fiction to me, a scientific and clinical look at our natural—and unnatural world. Muir has crafted a character named Sophie who comes from a family of people who can see invisible animals, and what sounded like an awesome premise for a story was instead a mostly dry observation about different types of invisible animals, all with their own odd names, as seen by a woman with an eye for very detailed descriptions. This book is meant to be a journal where Sophie writes down details of all the invisible animals she discovers, but unfortunately, there is no plot to this book at all. For a girl who loves a good story—I mean, who among us doesn’t?—it was a bit disappointing.
However, Muir is a lovely writer and I enjoyed many of her made-up creatures. I believe most, if not all, of these stories appeared in literary journals prior to being bundled together into this book, and on their own, some of them are perfectly crafted short stories. Sophie is a playful and wry character who infuses subtle humor into her observations of the creatures that only she can see. Her sister Evie is a biologist who knows her secret, and together they have many lively discussions about the natural world. And even though the talent of being able to see invisible beasts is supposed to skip a generation, Evie’s son Leif has the ability as well (although he only makes one appearance in the book).
Of all the creatures in this story—including the Fine Print Rotifer, the Wild Rubber Jack, the Glass Kraken, and the Feral Parfumier Bees—my favorites were the Truth Bats. Truth Bats are able to detect whether a person is telling the truth or not by the timber of their voice. They are small fuzzy creatures that hang around in honest people’s hair, but a lie will send them flying away. Sophie “loses” her Truth Bats when she lies to her sister, and the only way she can get them back is to tell her the truth.
I also loved the Grand Tour Butterflies, whose wings show beautiful designs of vistas and cities. When the butterflies flock, they can join together and mimic their surroundings just by changing the pattern on their wings. I found myself wishing that some of these creatures were real, so I could see them for myself, although some of them were just too strange and horrifying, and I wanted nothing to do with those.
The story ends with an odd Epilogue that for me, strayed from the topic of animals and biology and dealt with the nature of love. It felt completely out-of-place, but then perhaps I just didn’t understand what the author was trying to say. By that time I had grown bored with Muir’s fascinating creatures and I was ready to read something else.
If you are the sort of reader who loves science, and animals in particular, I believe you will love this book. Don’t get me wrong—it was fascinating to read Sophie’s descriptions of “her” animals, especially when she delves into the stories of how they evolved. Invisible Beasts is a love letter to animals, and Muir’s poetic and fervent writing even made me see the beauty of spiders (at least as long as that chapter lasted!). The obligatory cautionary message about global warming and destroying our environment was subtle, and while I normal cringe at such “messages,” in this case I whole-heartedly agreed with the author. Quirky, odd, and at times beautiful, this is definitely a book that will make you think.
Many thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. The above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof, and may differ in the final version.
This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy.
Imagine, however, some unlucky person who would die without ever having encountered a flower, a person whose footfalls regularly met cement, whose raised eyes bumped off a dead layer of clouds, whose hopes consisted of daily crusts, and whose fears were so familiar they couldn’t be bothered to wear faces. Smelling the Parfumiers’ honey, that sad soul would know precisely what a flower was and what it meant—the heart of change that makes hope possible. Our bees had become like the invisible sisterhood of the Muses: their honey was pure poetry.
Invisible Beasts is described as “fiction,” but honestly it felt more like non-fiction to me, a scientific and clinical look at our natural—and unnatural world. Muir has crafted a character named Sophie who comes from a family of people who can see invisible animals, and what sounded like an awesome premise for a story was instead a mostly dry observation about different types of invisible animals, all with their own odd names, as seen by a woman with an eye for very detailed descriptions. This book is meant to be a journal where Sophie writes down details of all the invisible animals she discovers, but unfortunately, there is no plot to this book at all. For a girl who loves a good story—I mean, who among us doesn’t?—it was a bit disappointing.
However, Muir is a lovely writer and I enjoyed many of her made-up creatures. I believe most, if not all, of these stories appeared in literary journals prior to being bundled together into this book, and on their own, some of them are perfectly crafted short stories. Sophie is a playful and wry character who infuses subtle humor into her observations of the creatures that only she can see. Her sister Evie is a biologist who knows her secret, and together they have many lively discussions about the natural world. And even though the talent of being able to see invisible beasts is supposed to skip a generation, Evie’s son Leif has the ability as well (although he only makes one appearance in the book).
Of all the creatures in this story—including the Fine Print Rotifer, the Wild Rubber Jack, the Glass Kraken, and the Feral Parfumier Bees—my favorites were the Truth Bats. Truth Bats are able to detect whether a person is telling the truth or not by the timber of their voice. They are small fuzzy creatures that hang around in honest people’s hair, but a lie will send them flying away. Sophie “loses” her Truth Bats when she lies to her sister, and the only way she can get them back is to tell her the truth.
I also loved the Grand Tour Butterflies, whose wings show beautiful designs of vistas and cities. When the butterflies flock, they can join together and mimic their surroundings just by changing the pattern on their wings. I found myself wishing that some of these creatures were real, so I could see them for myself, although some of them were just too strange and horrifying, and I wanted nothing to do with those.
The story ends with an odd Epilogue that for me, strayed from the topic of animals and biology and dealt with the nature of love. It felt completely out-of-place, but then perhaps I just didn’t understand what the author was trying to say. By that time I had grown bored with Muir’s fascinating creatures and I was ready to read something else.
If you are the sort of reader who loves science, and animals in particular, I believe you will love this book. Don’t get me wrong—it was fascinating to read Sophie’s descriptions of “her” animals, especially when she delves into the stories of how they evolved. Invisible Beasts is a love letter to animals, and Muir’s poetic and fervent writing even made me see the beauty of spiders (at least as long as that chapter lasted!). The obligatory cautionary message about global warming and destroying our environment was subtle, and while I normal cringe at such “messages,” in this case I whole-heartedly agreed with the author. Quirky, odd, and at times beautiful, this is definitely a book that will make you think.
Many thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. The above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof, and may differ in the final version.
This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy.
March 11, 2017
Though original and inventive and well-written, this collection of vignettes about beasts that only the narrator can see does not fit together in a satisfying way. The strongest story - The Hypnogator - makes strides at character development and motivations in such a way that the other stories seem less complete. The other trouble with this book is that it's difficult to write about imaginary nature in a way that's more interesting than nature already is.
Still, it's a great premise and a terrific experiment, and Muir should get credit for that. Her meditations on extinction pair well with Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction.
Still, it's a great premise and a terrific experiment, and Muir should get credit for that. Her meditations on extinction pair well with Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction.
August 19, 2014
This is a hard book to categorize - short story collection, novel, bestiary, philosophical contemplation and of course magic realism, all could be used in the book's description and all somehow fall short. Some people will have problems with that. But those of us who love magic realism also love the playing with boundaries, with ambiguity.
Each chapter is a description of a species of invisible animal, narrated by Sophie. These could be cutesy bits of fantasy, but instead in Sharon Muir's hands they are used to explore our human relationship with animals. This could in turn simply be an environmentalist parable, but Ms Muir also uses it to reflect on human nature and indeed what is humanity.
The subjects of the tales move the enormous, such as the continent-sized sponge, to the minuscule, such as the wonderful Fine Print Rotifers (FPR). The stories are at times laugh-out-loud funny - the FPR eat the ink on printed documents, thus making the fine print unintelligible - and sometimes sad and profound. The story of the invisible dogs falls into the latter category - the dogs in question being so low in canine social order that they choose to be invisible.
The animals featured in this book may be fictional, but the stories are strengthened considerably by the obvious scientific knowledge that underpins them. That knowledge feeds into the writer's imagination, whilst at the same time making it clear that there is nothing that human beings can imagine that is more remarkable than that which is created in reality by Mother Nature.
The use of a narrator, Sophie, adds commentary to the stories as well as personalizing them. Through her narration we catch glimpses of Sophie and her family. Sophie is a likable young woman who is struggling with a sense of responsibility for the invisible animals that she can see.
I spoke earlier of the philosophical nature of this work. To my mind it is influenced by the Renaissance bestiaries and by Renaissance philosophers such as Erasmus. The book hints at its debt to the great Dutchman: the FPR erase the lines with which Erasmus's In Praise of Folly was censored, revealing the truth of what he had written and Sophie's influential granduncle is called Erasmus, who in turn quotes from the poetry of Erasmus Darwin. Erasmus Darwin's poems combined fiction and scientific observation and proposed evolution seventy years before his better-known grandson Charles published his theories.
At the heart of this book is an exploration of the relationship between imagination and science. "You," laughed my sister, "totally have an imagination. And you care about animals. You know what I think? Without imagination, we can't stop extinction."
The publisher Bellevue Literary Press' mission statement states that they are devoted to publishing literary fiction and nonfiction at the intersection of the arts and sciences because we believe that science and the humanities are natural companions for understanding the human experience. I shall certainly be watching out for more of their books.
I received this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Books Blog http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.com
Each chapter is a description of a species of invisible animal, narrated by Sophie. These could be cutesy bits of fantasy, but instead in Sharon Muir's hands they are used to explore our human relationship with animals. This could in turn simply be an environmentalist parable, but Ms Muir also uses it to reflect on human nature and indeed what is humanity.
The subjects of the tales move the enormous, such as the continent-sized sponge, to the minuscule, such as the wonderful Fine Print Rotifers (FPR). The stories are at times laugh-out-loud funny - the FPR eat the ink on printed documents, thus making the fine print unintelligible - and sometimes sad and profound. The story of the invisible dogs falls into the latter category - the dogs in question being so low in canine social order that they choose to be invisible.
The animals featured in this book may be fictional, but the stories are strengthened considerably by the obvious scientific knowledge that underpins them. That knowledge feeds into the writer's imagination, whilst at the same time making it clear that there is nothing that human beings can imagine that is more remarkable than that which is created in reality by Mother Nature.
The use of a narrator, Sophie, adds commentary to the stories as well as personalizing them. Through her narration we catch glimpses of Sophie and her family. Sophie is a likable young woman who is struggling with a sense of responsibility for the invisible animals that she can see.
I spoke earlier of the philosophical nature of this work. To my mind it is influenced by the Renaissance bestiaries and by Renaissance philosophers such as Erasmus. The book hints at its debt to the great Dutchman: the FPR erase the lines with which Erasmus's In Praise of Folly was censored, revealing the truth of what he had written and Sophie's influential granduncle is called Erasmus, who in turn quotes from the poetry of Erasmus Darwin. Erasmus Darwin's poems combined fiction and scientific observation and proposed evolution seventy years before his better-known grandson Charles published his theories.
At the heart of this book is an exploration of the relationship between imagination and science. "You," laughed my sister, "totally have an imagination. And you care about animals. You know what I think? Without imagination, we can't stop extinction."
The publisher Bellevue Literary Press' mission statement states that they are devoted to publishing literary fiction and nonfiction at the intersection of the arts and sciences because we believe that science and the humanities are natural companions for understanding the human experience. I shall certainly be watching out for more of their books.
I received this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Books Blog http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.com
October 3, 2014
Invisible Beasts by Sharona Muir is the first book of its kind that I have experienced. The reason this book is so unique is that it mimics the journals of nature watchers, with each chapter being dedicated to a different creature. The fantasy twist that this book places on the animals is that the creatures that Sophie views are invisible to all but her and a few other individuals.
Some of the creatures are twists on animals you are already familiar with (puppies, bats, bees) as well as new creatures that I wont spoil. Because this novel is set up similar to a field journal, there is not a large amount of plot, and some of the chapters don't contribute anything to plot at all, and feel like they were only put in to extend the book (its only 250 pages).
The book was not a difficult read, and if I were to place the book on difficulty alone I would describe it as a young adult book. However, Muir is someone who is quite comfortable talking about female anatomy and sex (she even goes into detail of the Knife Ears, a group of invisible humanoids), which would usually cause me to bump the book up an age group. I would dub this book a transitional book between young adult and adult literature. An example of what I am talking about occurs in the very first chapter, which takes place immediately after Sophie has an erotic encounter with a male guest the night before.
Muir also comes off as a server environmentalist, vowing to protect the critters that she is writing about and one of the (few) plot points revolving around how she has lied to her sister in order to protect the creatures only she can see. This was not off putting to me due to my chosen field in life, but I can easily see how someone outside of this field would be off put by how often the topic came up. Those who are concerned about the conservation of habitats as well as the critters that inhabit these habitats will have a field day with this book. Ironically, one of the creatures called “The Wild Jack” has emigrated and now finds it home in the business district of cities.
Through this and another story about dogs, Muir is able to convey that while it is important to protect habitats that may house critters, she brings up one of the necessary traits for survival. Adaptation. There are critters who have learned not only how to coexist with humanity, but how to actually farm humanity for food. Many books that I am familiar with that have taken an environmentalist agenda forget that over time creatures evolve to new habitats, assuming that they have been given enough time to do so, and that was a breath of fresh air in this book that I will not soon forget.
While I did enjoy this book, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, ecology or a positive female body attitude. I don't think that other readers will enjoy this book nearly as much. That is not to say that others will not enjoy this particular book, simply that they may find aspects of this book unnecessary, weather it be some of the themes, or particular chapters. I would give this book a 3/5 star rating, mostly because I would either have liked a larger story within the book, or for Muir to cut the personal narrative and simply make it a field journal.
Some of the creatures are twists on animals you are already familiar with (puppies, bats, bees) as well as new creatures that I wont spoil. Because this novel is set up similar to a field journal, there is not a large amount of plot, and some of the chapters don't contribute anything to plot at all, and feel like they were only put in to extend the book (its only 250 pages).
The book was not a difficult read, and if I were to place the book on difficulty alone I would describe it as a young adult book. However, Muir is someone who is quite comfortable talking about female anatomy and sex (she even goes into detail of the Knife Ears, a group of invisible humanoids), which would usually cause me to bump the book up an age group. I would dub this book a transitional book between young adult and adult literature. An example of what I am talking about occurs in the very first chapter, which takes place immediately after Sophie has an erotic encounter with a male guest the night before.
Muir also comes off as a server environmentalist, vowing to protect the critters that she is writing about and one of the (few) plot points revolving around how she has lied to her sister in order to protect the creatures only she can see. This was not off putting to me due to my chosen field in life, but I can easily see how someone outside of this field would be off put by how often the topic came up. Those who are concerned about the conservation of habitats as well as the critters that inhabit these habitats will have a field day with this book. Ironically, one of the creatures called “The Wild Jack” has emigrated and now finds it home in the business district of cities.
Through this and another story about dogs, Muir is able to convey that while it is important to protect habitats that may house critters, she brings up one of the necessary traits for survival. Adaptation. There are critters who have learned not only how to coexist with humanity, but how to actually farm humanity for food. Many books that I am familiar with that have taken an environmentalist agenda forget that over time creatures evolve to new habitats, assuming that they have been given enough time to do so, and that was a breath of fresh air in this book that I will not soon forget.
While I did enjoy this book, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, ecology or a positive female body attitude. I don't think that other readers will enjoy this book nearly as much. That is not to say that others will not enjoy this particular book, simply that they may find aspects of this book unnecessary, weather it be some of the themes, or particular chapters. I would give this book a 3/5 star rating, mostly because I would either have liked a larger story within the book, or for Muir to cut the personal narrative and simply make it a field journal.
February 2, 2017
This wasn't bad, the premise is really interesting and is what drew me in initially, but there are just other things I'd rather be reading right now. It does feel like a series of disjointed vignettes more than something entirely cohesive. Sometimes the writing gets too abstract and trying to be too magical realist for the way the rest is written - it's just really not consistent, and I love magical realism.
Also, I adore animals, generally more than humans, and I love nature and the planet, but some of it was heavy handed on the shouting to fight climate change - which I'm totally an advocate for. It seemed to crop up in each individual story, which makes sense considering some of the stories were originally published separately, previously, but I agree with some other reviews that mention it could have done with some better editing to make the book more uniform and less repetitive with its themes. Perhaps I'll come back to this and finish it one day, but I don't feel like it will be so necessary because of this.
I also did enjoy her biologist sister, but the fact that she spoke with so many 'likes,' as though she was a valley girl, got irritating..
I got to page 162 (more than half way), so I'm calling it done.
Also, I adore animals, generally more than humans, and I love nature and the planet, but some of it was heavy handed on the shouting to fight climate change - which I'm totally an advocate for. It seemed to crop up in each individual story, which makes sense considering some of the stories were originally published separately, previously, but I agree with some other reviews that mention it could have done with some better editing to make the book more uniform and less repetitive with its themes. Perhaps I'll come back to this and finish it one day, but I don't feel like it will be so necessary because of this.
I also did enjoy her biologist sister, but the fact that she spoke with so many 'likes,' as though she was a valley girl, got irritating..
I got to page 162 (more than half way), so I'm calling it done.
July 23, 2014
Sharona Muir's Invisible Beasts is whimsical and very intelligently written. It's hard to pin down exactly what it is. It's a novel, but it reads more like a series of essays. It's fantasy, yet it parallels the human experience; it may, in fact, be the human experience. It's witty and dry, a field guide to those invisible beasts that teach us to see things differently.
Aside from theme, I'm not sure these short pieces come together to make a singular story. Each pretty much stands on its own. And I think that's how they're best kept. Muir's story is the kind of story I'd appreciate in a literary magazine, a distraction from the monotony of Chekhov- and Carver-emulators. In the context of a complete “novel,” however, these stories become tedious. As I neared the end of this work, I wanted to hurl it across the room, convinced of a two-star ranking at best. But looking at these pieces individually, I can appreciate them.
I think this book is best viewed as a collection of pieces to be read when one is in a meditative mood: a journal of exploration by an author who truly sees what others cannot. Let's not lose sight of an author's true talent here.
Aside from theme, I'm not sure these short pieces come together to make a singular story. Each pretty much stands on its own. And I think that's how they're best kept. Muir's story is the kind of story I'd appreciate in a literary magazine, a distraction from the monotony of Chekhov- and Carver-emulators. In the context of a complete “novel,” however, these stories become tedious. As I neared the end of this work, I wanted to hurl it across the room, convinced of a two-star ranking at best. But looking at these pieces individually, I can appreciate them.
I think this book is best viewed as a collection of pieces to be read when one is in a meditative mood: a journal of exploration by an author who truly sees what others cannot. Let's not lose sight of an author's true talent here.
December 26, 2016
Charming, more of a short story collection than a novel. Some of the stories are clunky; the imaginary couch conch, which mysteriously appears the morning after sex and is imprinted with images of the act, was a particularly weak start to the book. A later story of microbes(? don't remember) that glow in the pattern of lovers' movements had a similar feel but was more enjoyable, more like magic than science fiction.
There's a fair amount of actual biology here, which I didn't realize until reaching a description of spiders that infiltrate ant colonies in part by walking on six legs and holding up their front pair of legs like antennae. This sounded ludicrous - it isn't as though ants recognize other ants by counting their legs, right? - but turned out to be true. Some of the moral lessons are too heavy-handed (tiny bats that abandon you when you tell a lie were too implausible), but others are just the right level of fantasy (rotifers that eat fine print and evolve to devour particular words...resulting in extinction of varieties that eat misspellings), and the general theme of conservationism works well.
There's a fair amount of actual biology here, which I didn't realize until reaching a description of spiders that infiltrate ant colonies in part by walking on six legs and holding up their front pair of legs like antennae. This sounded ludicrous - it isn't as though ants recognize other ants by counting their legs, right? - but turned out to be true. Some of the moral lessons are too heavy-handed (tiny bats that abandon you when you tell a lie were too implausible), but others are just the right level of fantasy (rotifers that eat fine print and evolve to devour particular words...resulting in extinction of varieties that eat misspellings), and the general theme of conservationism works well.
April 7, 2025
I must say this was a hard book for me to get into because of how fanciful it was, and for that, I did appreciate it as it pushed my imaginative brain in a way that I have not since I was little. Each story had a completely different tone and even way of writing and that was tricky to navigate as well. I appreciated some of the biological facts interwoven into the imaginative writing and I think that each animal she created was so peculiar. While I do not think this book was for me, I didn't mind having my creative mind explored when reading it.
"Can nonhumans be artists? I suppose "art" is a human concept, yet anyone who has heard a mockingbird singing under a spring moon has heard an animal out-riff Bird; it's hard to believe they do it without some aesthetic sense."
"The Keen-Ears and the 'Flu-huggers' share an ancient human problem: love is too big a task for our allotted time."
"So if our bodies have invisible parts - call them souls - they would surely be animals. They would be the symbionts of a creature who sometimes claims to be the image of God, and in embryo resembles nothing so much as a shark."
"Love is the name for the desire and pursuit of wholeness"
"Can nonhumans be artists? I suppose "art" is a human concept, yet anyone who has heard a mockingbird singing under a spring moon has heard an animal out-riff Bird; it's hard to believe they do it without some aesthetic sense."
"The Keen-Ears and the 'Flu-huggers' share an ancient human problem: love is too big a task for our allotted time."
"So if our bodies have invisible parts - call them souls - they would surely be animals. They would be the symbionts of a creature who sometimes claims to be the image of God, and in embryo resembles nothing so much as a shark."
"Love is the name for the desire and pursuit of wholeness"
June 2, 2014
This is a short novel about an amateur naturalist named Sophie who has inherited an unusual trait from her family - the ability to see animals and other organisms that are typically invisible to the average person. She decides that she must share this ability with the world by telling the tales of some of these creatures. Her descriptions of the different types of creatures she has seen or come across are unique and interesting. At times, there does seem to be a bit of social satire in some of the creatures - like the organisms that like to eat the ink of the fine print in contracts. Each creature's story is almost like a short story though there is the loose plot of Sophie and her family that runs throughout most of them. I wish there had been a bit more connecting the creature stories, but it is a fun little book. A quick read for sure.
I won this copy in one of the Goodreads giveaways.
I won this copy in one of the Goodreads giveaways.
June 29, 2015
While the premise was interesting, the execution was lacking. This is really more akin to a collection of short stories than it is to a novel. There is no plot at all and the character development is minimal at best. The main character only appears in a few of the chapters and you learn almost nothing about her when she does show up. I had actually forgotten what the character's name was at one point and had to look at the book description to find it. The tone of the writing is often very scientific, so it can be hard to understand and pretty dull. The beasts were kind of interesting, but some of them were so outlandish. I had a hard time picturing them and they were just far enough into fantasy to seem out of place in a book set in the modern world.
July 9, 2016
WHATS IT ABOUT?
this fine well thought science girl named Sophie and her enciclopedic diary about her gift (jealous) of observing and living among invisible animals (beasts).
first things first. This is a collection of 'short storytellings' (which i adore). There is this here and there glitch of inconsistency in the way the tales were organized and retold( the excessive wording for some of the stories! almost had to start them again) . period. i thinks this is the only con i can find.
(AND YES, I KNOW HOW MAGICAL REALISM WORKS!)
Some chapters i will have to re-read in moments of higher clarity some chapters are loved at the moment they were finished.
I feel soothed by the beasts and their role in the authors life. ( i yearn for a pair of those beasts for my personal diary).
this fine well thought science girl named Sophie and her enciclopedic diary about her gift (jealous) of observing and living among invisible animals (beasts).
first things first. This is a collection of 'short storytellings' (which i adore). There is this here and there glitch of inconsistency in the way the tales were organized and retold( the excessive wording for some of the stories! almost had to start them again) . period. i thinks this is the only con i can find.
(AND YES, I KNOW HOW MAGICAL REALISM WORKS!)
Some chapters i will have to re-read in moments of higher clarity some chapters are loved at the moment they were finished.
I feel soothed by the beasts and their role in the authors life. ( i yearn for a pair of those beasts for my personal diary).
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