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Roxy and Coco: A Novel
Roxy and Coco, sisters and glamorous harpies (mythical bird women), work to save the world by stopping child abuse, while also trying to evade capture. For readers of Neil Gaiman and Karen Russell.
“[A] wry and rambunctious fable….The book offers brief and staggered visions of family, in all its complex permutations. Here, flocks settle into wonderfully unlikely formations. It’s possible that the most dangerous thing for anyone, harpy or human, is the decision to fly alone.”
— Hilary Leichter, New York Times Book Review
Sisters Roxy and Coco are two glamorous harpies—mythical bird women—attempting to outrun extinction and fix the planet by preventing child abuse, one child at a time.
When Roxy is suddenly attracted to her human supervisor at a social work agency a hundred years too early, Coco is very suspicious. Luring Roxy with his scent, Tim is also on the payroll of a fake conservationist intent on her less-than-legal collection. Coco swoops in to vet Tim, but Interpol is hot on her trail for a series of curious homicides. (Surveillance has a very hard time convincing his boss of what he’s monitoring.) When the sisters find themselves trapped, Chris, a bipolar skateboarding truant, tries his best to rescue them but it’s Stewie, Coco’s colleague, who turns the story inside out. Roxy and Coco climaxes at a gala of egg fanciers who scramble to escape the harpies’ talons.
Action figure–worthy, for readers of Neil Gaiman and Karen Russell, this modern take on these fabled women touches on mental illness, racism, animal rights, and the rights of children.
“[A] wry and rambunctious fable….The book offers brief and staggered visions of family, in all its complex permutations. Here, flocks settle into wonderfully unlikely formations. It’s possible that the most dangerous thing for anyone, harpy or human, is the decision to fly alone.”
— Hilary Leichter, New York Times Book Review
Sisters Roxy and Coco are two glamorous harpies—mythical bird women—attempting to outrun extinction and fix the planet by preventing child abuse, one child at a time.
When Roxy is suddenly attracted to her human supervisor at a social work agency a hundred years too early, Coco is very suspicious. Luring Roxy with his scent, Tim is also on the payroll of a fake conservationist intent on her less-than-legal collection. Coco swoops in to vet Tim, but Interpol is hot on her trail for a series of curious homicides. (Surveillance has a very hard time convincing his boss of what he’s monitoring.) When the sisters find themselves trapped, Chris, a bipolar skateboarding truant, tries his best to rescue them but it’s Stewie, Coco’s colleague, who turns the story inside out. Roxy and Coco climaxes at a gala of egg fanciers who scramble to escape the harpies’ talons.
Action figure–worthy, for readers of Neil Gaiman and Karen Russell, this modern take on these fabled women touches on mental illness, racism, animal rights, and the rights of children.
285 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2024
2 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
About the author
Terese Svoboda
39 books77 followersTerese Svoboda has published 19 books of fiction, poetry, memoir and biography. Svoboda's writing has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Slate, BOMB, Columbia, Yale Review, and the Paris Review. She lives in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 26, 2023
Having loved Terese's novel Dog on Fire, when she reached out about an arc for this one, I just couldn't say no.
Roxy and Coco are harpy sisters, the terrifying bird women of Greek mythology, and in an attempt to escape extinction, they have assimilated into human culture and entered the world of child social services.
As Coco continues to get too close to her caseload, taking her rage out on abusive parents, Roxy finds herself falling hopelessly in love with her boss Tim. And both are oblivious to the dangers they are inviting into their lives.
Coco's caught the attention of a private investigator and is under surveliance for a series of strange deaths that have Interpol baffled, while Tim's being manipulated by an entirely too aggressive bird conservationist to hurry his wooing along, because she's certain she knows what Roxy is and she's desperate to get her hands on her eggs.
I love how Terese merges the mythical with the here and now. The elements of magical realism melt comfortably into this narrative around mental illness, animal captivity, the lengths someone might go to in order to protect the ones they love, and the costs associated with hiding our true nature.
A truly engaging and original read!
Roxy and Coco are harpy sisters, the terrifying bird women of Greek mythology, and in an attempt to escape extinction, they have assimilated into human culture and entered the world of child social services.
As Coco continues to get too close to her caseload, taking her rage out on abusive parents, Roxy finds herself falling hopelessly in love with her boss Tim. And both are oblivious to the dangers they are inviting into their lives.
Coco's caught the attention of a private investigator and is under surveliance for a series of strange deaths that have Interpol baffled, while Tim's being manipulated by an entirely too aggressive bird conservationist to hurry his wooing along, because she's certain she knows what Roxy is and she's desperate to get her hands on her eggs.
I love how Terese merges the mythical with the here and now. The elements of magical realism melt comfortably into this narrative around mental illness, animal captivity, the lengths someone might go to in order to protect the ones they love, and the costs associated with hiding our true nature.
A truly engaging and original read!
January 4, 2024
Some stories break your heart - and then do it again, in the next generation, "mother after mother after mother." To tell a story like that, you need a narrator who - if not immortal - has seen it play out for centuries and whose eyes have "irises which, like many animals’, reveal that I’ve seen everything". Enter Coco.
Coco and her sister Roxy are harpies, creatures given their name by ancient Greeks and feared throughout human history. They are not anacronysms, however; far from it. Certainly, Coco and Roxy have harpy problems: shrinking habitat, poor water quality; the cyclical pressure to attract an appropriate mate; the need to remain discreet and blend into the human society. They have human problems too: vast volumes of paperwork to do (they are social workers); an occasional arrest warrant; breaking the generational cycle of abuse. Rescuing children. Says Coco, "I’m
tweaked a little past Superman on the rescue side. Things happen."
Love - or at least infatuation - also happens: Roxy is falling for their supervisor, Tim, and has convinced herself that Tim is a fellow harpy. Things are not what they seem, however, and Coco's suspicions are very well justified. Now she has a sister bound for heartbreak, a private investigator following her, and a troubled teen-ager who must somehow learn to live with his dad.
The plot moves in a tightening spiral, until all forces at work inevitably clash and must endure the consequences. Svoboda's sentences, like her characters, refuse common strictures. When they lull the reader into a false sense of security, they do so only in order to deliver a shock, a jolt, like an impatient horse, or a woman suddenly opening a pair of claw-tipped wings. Physical details come into focus under the pressure of emotion; the reader learns to hold a bird's eye view of the plot.
Not until the very end of the novel, an ultimately hopeful denoument to a tragedy, do you realize you've been given a fable that is both timeless and excruciatingly apt. "We argue the perennial question," Coco says, of the harpykind: "How long do you wait before you push a hatchling out of the nest?" Svoboda's is a story of navigating the world mother-less, as all living things must, and the act of telling it is as brave as the story-teller's defiant insistence on finding hope.
Coco and her sister Roxy are harpies, creatures given their name by ancient Greeks and feared throughout human history. They are not anacronysms, however; far from it. Certainly, Coco and Roxy have harpy problems: shrinking habitat, poor water quality; the cyclical pressure to attract an appropriate mate; the need to remain discreet and blend into the human society. They have human problems too: vast volumes of paperwork to do (they are social workers); an occasional arrest warrant; breaking the generational cycle of abuse. Rescuing children. Says Coco, "I’m
tweaked a little past Superman on the rescue side. Things happen."
Love - or at least infatuation - also happens: Roxy is falling for their supervisor, Tim, and has convinced herself that Tim is a fellow harpy. Things are not what they seem, however, and Coco's suspicions are very well justified. Now she has a sister bound for heartbreak, a private investigator following her, and a troubled teen-ager who must somehow learn to live with his dad.
The plot moves in a tightening spiral, until all forces at work inevitably clash and must endure the consequences. Svoboda's sentences, like her characters, refuse common strictures. When they lull the reader into a false sense of security, they do so only in order to deliver a shock, a jolt, like an impatient horse, or a woman suddenly opening a pair of claw-tipped wings. Physical details come into focus under the pressure of emotion; the reader learns to hold a bird's eye view of the plot.
Not until the very end of the novel, an ultimately hopeful denoument to a tragedy, do you realize you've been given a fable that is both timeless and excruciatingly apt. "We argue the perennial question," Coco says, of the harpykind: "How long do you wait before you push a hatchling out of the nest?" Svoboda's is a story of navigating the world mother-less, as all living things must, and the act of telling it is as brave as the story-teller's defiant insistence on finding hope.
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July 9, 2024Weird!
October 22, 2025
Roxy and Coco by Terese Svoboda is a darkly inventive, genre-defying modern myth a story that fuses fantasy, satire, and social consciousness with dazzling originality. In a world where ancient legends collide with modern injustices, Svoboda reimagines the harpy not as a monster, but as a messenger fierce, flawed, and unflinchingly female.
Roxy and Coco, two immortal sisters with wings of fury and hearts of defiance, set out to save the world one child at a time. But their mission part cosmic atonement, part rebellion against extinction quickly becomes tangled in human corruption, forbidden love, and a web of moral complexity. With a cast that includes a bipolar skateboarder, an Interpol investigator, and a conservationist with sinister intentions, the novel unfolds as a wild, intelligent blend of myth and modern mayhem.
Svoboda’s prose crackles with wit, empathy, and fearless imagination. Beneath its surreal surface, Roxy and Coco explores urgent themes mental health, environmental decay, and the systemic failures that harm both nature and humanity. It’s at once funny, poignant, and unsettling, a work that asks what redemption looks like when even angels fall.
For readers of Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, or Karen Russell, this is mythic fiction at its most human, where myth becomes metaphor for survival, and sisters become symbols of both rage and grace. Roxy and Coco is bold, beautifully strange, and utterly unforgettable.
Roxy and Coco, two immortal sisters with wings of fury and hearts of defiance, set out to save the world one child at a time. But their mission part cosmic atonement, part rebellion against extinction quickly becomes tangled in human corruption, forbidden love, and a web of moral complexity. With a cast that includes a bipolar skateboarder, an Interpol investigator, and a conservationist with sinister intentions, the novel unfolds as a wild, intelligent blend of myth and modern mayhem.
Svoboda’s prose crackles with wit, empathy, and fearless imagination. Beneath its surreal surface, Roxy and Coco explores urgent themes mental health, environmental decay, and the systemic failures that harm both nature and humanity. It’s at once funny, poignant, and unsettling, a work that asks what redemption looks like when even angels fall.
For readers of Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, or Karen Russell, this is mythic fiction at its most human, where myth becomes metaphor for survival, and sisters become symbols of both rage and grace. Roxy and Coco is bold, beautifully strange, and utterly unforgettable.
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August 3, 2024This is a book I found on my shelf, and I have no idea why I got it. Was it a review? Was it gifted to me by someone? I'm not sure!
It is an interesting premise: Harpies are real, closely related to humans, can mate with a human and have a fertilized egg that survives (if the female is the harpy), but this will likely kill the mother (as happened to Roxy and Coco, sister harpies). They live for a very long time, barring accidents; they blend in well with humanity; they pick some aspect of justice to mete out (social work, for these sisters), and when they mete it out, it gets messy. They tend to have big noses, a beak if you will.
So, great premise, interesting plot, author has accolades in literature.
But....
It didn't work that well for me.
Its plot is kind of a mishmash.
The characters are not very clear--not the protagonist, not any of the others, including the black-hearted and gray-hearted villains and the Kid in Jep.
It feels as though it was written with the climax in mind, and the climax is very cinematic--lots of visuals--but without an emotional heart. When a tragedy occurs involving one of the sisters, it's only a few pages until a big reunion party is in full swing. This reminds me of the way my fourth grade students write dramatic fiction: something terrible happens and then it all ends with a pony or a party.
It is an interesting premise: Harpies are real, closely related to humans, can mate with a human and have a fertilized egg that survives (if the female is the harpy), but this will likely kill the mother (as happened to Roxy and Coco, sister harpies). They live for a very long time, barring accidents; they blend in well with humanity; they pick some aspect of justice to mete out (social work, for these sisters), and when they mete it out, it gets messy. They tend to have big noses, a beak if you will.
So, great premise, interesting plot, author has accolades in literature.
But....
It didn't work that well for me.
Its plot is kind of a mishmash.
The characters are not very clear--not the protagonist, not any of the others, including the black-hearted and gray-hearted villains and the Kid in Jep.
It feels as though it was written with the climax in mind, and the climax is very cinematic--lots of visuals--but without an emotional heart. When a tragedy occurs involving one of the sisters, it's only a few pages until a big reunion party is in full swing. This reminds me of the way my fourth grade students write dramatic fiction: something terrible happens and then it all ends with a pony or a party.
August 4, 2024
My new favorite book by Terese Svoboda (I have read and loved Cannibal, Black Glasses Like Clark Kent, Bohemian Girl, Great American Desert, and quite a bit of her poetry and translation). What does it mean to have loved Roxy and Coco? Well, I fell like I got to know them, Roxy and Coco, as individuals and especially as one another's siblings. The conceit of a novel about two harpies who are sisters is fantastic, of course, but so is Svoboda's swift plot and all of her prose. These aren't exactly spoilers if you know already this is a harpy novel, but be forewarned: I dogeared Chapter 8 (the description of flying) and p. 90, for this memorable line: "No one lives forever, stuffed or otherwise." And the boisterous harpy gathering that comprises the novel's final chapter, its energy and its global sweep, is just outstanding. I also admire Svoboda's use of negative space: not everything has to happen on the page. Toward the end, for instance, the all-important egg is found in the blank space between chapters 54 and 55. Bravo! On a craft level, Roxy and Coco is a perfect, egg-like example of structure and development. It has the thrill of a caper and the complexity of fine art. Bravo!
February 20, 2024
I liked Roxy and Coco -- undeniably sisters and undeniably harpies. Their motivation for saving abused children made sense, so their position of millenia-old beings in the contemporary USA worked. I appreciated the difficulty of hiding wings under a leather jacket. And I shared their fury at the injustices done to children. That they were facing extinction -- unable to guess how many harpies still lived -- added to my sympathy for them.
The spare writing and the changing first person point of view made the story hard for me to read. I like to see the settings and the characters.
I also had difficulty -- as I do with other stories like this -- turning a deeply troubling issue into an action tale. The rising action wasn't about child abuse but about a select group of nutso billionaires. The steps of the climax didn't hold together. And, at the end, the discovery of other harpies was too neat. Had the suffering and deaths that littered the story been worth this?
Now -- I will be fair. I don't watch TV or movies. I prefer romance tales. And, I read Roxy and Coco because a friend told me it's a good example of spare writing. So it definitely deserves the 4 rating.
The spare writing and the changing first person point of view made the story hard for me to read. I like to see the settings and the characters.
I also had difficulty -- as I do with other stories like this -- turning a deeply troubling issue into an action tale. The rising action wasn't about child abuse but about a select group of nutso billionaires. The steps of the climax didn't hold together. And, at the end, the discovery of other harpies was too neat. Had the suffering and deaths that littered the story been worth this?
Now -- I will be fair. I don't watch TV or movies. I prefer romance tales. And, I read Roxy and Coco because a friend told me it's a good example of spare writing. So it definitely deserves the 4 rating.
March 3, 2024
With her customary weird brilliance, Svoboda revisits the figure of the Harpy. Now, flying about earth with feathers and talons hidden, the modern Harpy is a conflicted and endangered species. Roxy and Coco, harpy sisters work in social services, the sad burden of investigating abusing families makes them mad enough to sometimes do unsanctioned interventions. Meanwhile, the Cruella DeVille of Oology is attempting to collect an egg from this rare bird, and hires a private dick to seduce, roofie and kidnap the gals. And you thought a Harpy's biggest prob was tailored suit coats that fit neatly over wings? A magic potion renders Roxy lovesick, while Coco remains eternally vigilant about the machinations of those morally suspect humans. Hiding in plain sight, the sisters do occasionally drop clues to their hybrid status, such as sneaking snacks of termites or clumsily explaining away a gulped gutted fish as an excess passion for sushi. The tale of child endangerment, extinctions, tragic interspecies love and eco-doom proceeds at a rollicking pace.
April 7, 2024
I’m normally too jealous of immortal creatures to enjoy them in print, but these harpies live in (almost) immortality the most ethical way possible, so I’ll allow it. The inhumanness is convincing. I don’t know why harpies don’t get the same treatment as vampires, but I’d be into a series on social working harpies. The child abuse aspect is disturbing because they are all based on real cases, but handled well. I’m fairly sure the case of Gabriel Fernandez is referenced to. I hope people reading this call their representatives to increase pay for social workers. Excellent, gripping book, I read it in one night
March 27, 2024
I really enjoyed this book! I saw and heard Ms. Svoboda at a bookstore in Evanston, and was so impressed. She chose wildly imaginative characters, who make it impossible for you look away. Even the cover art is special in today's publishing world. The title itself draws you in. One of the things the author spoke about was how to imagine these characters, harpies, existing today, hidden by jackets that cover their wings. She had to really be very creative in describing their movements, how they ate, how they might date. Loved it.
November 5, 2025
I really enjoyed the premise of this book and the basic plot lines. However, there may have been too many characters and I wished I had gotten to know a few of them better when it was done.
The writing style was a bit problematic for me. No quotation marks, which is fine and many authors pull that off fairly seamlessly, but too often I couldn’t tell what was dialogue and what was thought or action. Also, some sentences are constructed in an odd manner. Artistic choices, I get it, but I had to re-read sections and I’m not sure I should have been made to work so hard. I felt frustrated.
The writing style was a bit problematic for me. No quotation marks, which is fine and many authors pull that off fairly seamlessly, but too often I couldn’t tell what was dialogue and what was thought or action. Also, some sentences are constructed in an odd manner. Artistic choices, I get it, but I had to re-read sections and I’m not sure I should have been made to work so hard. I felt frustrated.
April 23, 2025
The writing style and lack of quotations was very hard to adjust to. I couldn't tell if some things were just thought or if people were speaking.
I did like the concept of mythological harpy sisters saving kids but I never felt super attached to Roxy or Cocoa. This might be why the book seems to drag in the first half. The second half picks up and by then you get used to the writing style.
Overall, I really liked the story, not so much the execution.
I did like the concept of mythological harpy sisters saving kids but I never felt super attached to Roxy or Cocoa. This might be why the book seems to drag in the first half. The second half picks up and by then you get used to the writing style.
Overall, I really liked the story, not so much the execution.
August 28, 2024
Tried this book on a whim, quickly realized it wasn't for me. Weird, and not in a way I liked. I felt like it was trying too hard to be eccentric. But people in its target audience will probably like it.
January 24, 2025
The last half picked up and was quite good. Writing style isn’t typical in literature today so it took a while to get used to.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews