Strange Lights

by Mira González, Vico Ortiz (Narrator), Nick Walther (Narrator)

Parenting is never easy, but it’s a hell of a lot harder when your toddler is a chupacabra.

Paranormal investigator and cryptozoologist Reggie has embraced her fate as parent to an adopted toddler, Eldi—a bloodsucking chupacabra with a fondness for goats. Reggie wants nothing more than to put her complicated past in the rearview mirror and fade into as much obscurity as her toddler will allow. But a rash of UFOs in the night sky and a couple of crop-circle-carving Roombas force Reggie into an investigation that attracts the attention of an old enemy, an anti-supernatural agency hunting for creatures like Eldi. To outwit them, Reggie must team up with Calvin, a podcaster-turned-werewolf whose charm is a real threat to Reggie’s rule against romantic attachments.

With Reggie’s history quickly catching up to her and Eldi in the agency’s crosshairs, any shred of normalcy evaporates. Reggie must Can she confront her dark past to save Eldi—and an entire alien species—from getting wiped out of the universe?

For fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here , Strange Lights is a joyride in a sentient Winnebago with a quirky cast of cryptids.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Paranormal, Fiction, LGBT, Adult

Audible Audio

First published October 6, 2026

About the author

Mira González is a full-time chaos manager of three small humans and the author of Strange Lights. You can find her escaping into novels when she isn’t traveling. Mira currently resides in Fiji, but she grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and worked on oil rigs under the northern lights in Alaska. Equal parts personal experience and a wildly overactive imagination inspire her stories, which center the queer and diverse characters she relates most to.

Though her children are the inspiration for the monster toddler in her book, her husband is regrettably not a werewolf, and she can only dream of a sentient Winnebago.

Reviews

[Chewable Orb]

Strange Lights by Mira González
3.85 rounded up to 4🔮orbs
Pub. Date: Oct. 6, 2026
Bindery Books



Deciphering the ruse….

💡 Orbs Prologue: As a cryptid hunter, Orb has compiled a vast number of naysayers. And sure, for those ill-equipped to dream or fathom these creatures' existence, I understand. Along the winding backroads, I have crossed paths with quite a few rather eccentric individuals myself. So I understand humanity's trepidations. That said, this planet, on its surface, fosters corporate greed and human suffering for fun, but alas, we forget the wonderful resources at our disposal. What if I told you beings watch in wonder as they escape their faraway planets, searching for a home and safety from a wretchedness humans can’t possibly imagine?

🧐 A small glimpse: Reggie and her young daughter Eldi are cryptid hunters. Living out of a technically advanced Winnebago, they travel around America in search of strange sightings. Along their adventures, Reggie reluctantly befriends a podcaster named Calvin St. James, who, despite his good looks, should be their natural rival in the beast-hunter sector. But neither Reggie nor Eldi is what they appear to be. As romantic sparks begin to flare, a complicated relationship remains hampered by an underlying cloud of deception. These lies run deep, to the very fabric of Reggie’s existence, to whom she herself remains a mystery. For who is Reggie, and where did Eldi come from? As the torrential downpour lashes down upon a forest landscape, author Mira González floods readers' minds with a tantalizing story that will have everyone understanding the saying, “We are not alone!”


👍 Orbs Pros:
👏 Creative. It’s not every day you pick up a sci-fi book full of Chupacabra goodness!
👏 Character depth!
👏 Fun, in a zany kind of Guardians of the Galaxy-type of way!
👏 Romance!
👏 Invokes quite a bit of emotion!

👎 Orbs Cons:
🤔 Pacing! This one started so strong through the first half, only to be upended by some slow-paced character backstory that, while necessary, caused my experience to wane.

Recommended! This was a good read, and one that I can see many readers loving. Behind everything remains a sci-fi novel laced with some humor and smatterings of romance. Pacing issues aside, I do recommend this one if you want to try a more sci-fi-centric book that doesn’t always take itself too seriously. With that said, González’ ability to create scenes of real emotional depth was impressive. In particular, the interactions between Eldi and Reggie may have a few shedding a tear!

💡 Orbs Epilogue: I have seen Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Perhaps I have even seen the Wendigo and the Jersey Devil. Would you believe me? Most certainly, you would ask for proof. For which I would gladly provide numerous pictures and videos, yet society would debunk their authenticity. So here I am, a simpleton imploring all to take heed of the Chupacabra. For they are unlike anything I have ever encountered. A cunning resilience and otherworldly strength render people paralyzed in a stupor. However menacing one might appear, they mean you no harm. They live among us, quite fashionably concealed. But Orb, how do you know this? How can you see them when to all of us they remain a myth? Dear readers, let me demonstrate. Centering myself, I step into the camera’s frame. My glowing orbish layer begins to dissipate, replaced by two glowing crimson eyes and green-scaled skin. Fully transformed, four strong wolf-like legs hold up my beastly shape. I look like some sort of hellhound, and yet I am the furthest thing from that. “This is me, Orb, a Chupacabra, a cryptid hunter, and avid book reader. And I just want to be friends…"

Many thanks to Bindery Books for the ARC through NetGalley. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Christine Garrow]

Reggie is a cryptozoologist, the inhabitant of a possibly sentient Winnebago, and the adoptive parent of Eldi, a toddler chupacabra-like creature. As if parenting an unknown species isn’t complicated enough, she spends much of her time keeping Calvin, a handsome supernatural podcaster, from discovering that many of the things he investigates are actually real.

Her efforts to keep Calvin in the dark become pointless when he is transformed into a werewolf. At about the same time, Reggie encounters strange creatures that resemble automatic vacuums with insect-like legs and are capable of carving crop circles. Reggie is a cryptozoologist, so when she comes across something even she cannot identify, it’s not good news.

Reggie also has a complicated past with an anti-supernatural organization appropriately named the Area 51 Agency, and she has no desire to put herself back on its radar, especially with Eldi in her care. But between UFO sightings, Calvin’s new supernatural status, and mysterious creatures of unknown origin, keeping a low profile becomes increasingly difficult. When Reggie’s worst fears come true, she must join forces with Calvin and some unexpected allies to uncover secrets the Area 51 Agency would prefer to keep hidden.

Strange Lights is an unusual mixture of terrestrial and extraterrestrial paranormal phenomena, science fiction, romance, comedy, and something much more emotionally serious. For all its wonderfully strange elements, I found its strongest focus to be the relationship between parent and child. Reggie may not know exactly what species Eldi is, but she knows Eldi is her child. More importantly, she knows she will do absolutely anything to protect her.

That fierce protectiveness becomes even more meaningful as the story reveals more of Reggie’s own past.

Surprisingly, the most disturbing part of Strange Lights has nothing to do with werewolves, chupacabras, aliens, or potentially cognizant vehicles. It is the cruelty of a single person from Reggie’s past. Strip away the supernatural elements, and there is something painfully recognizable about the toxic and abusive relationship Reggie wishes she could forget. Yet the events unfolding around her pull her back into the orbit of the last person she ever wants to see.

This creates a significant tonal shift from the quirky absurdity of the novel’s beginning. The story ventures much deeper into Reggie’s past and her state of mind than I initially expected, but I ultimately found that shift important. There are people who can break pieces of us and leave us responsible for figuring out how to put those pieces back together. Reggie’s story explores what happens when moving forward suddenly requires confronting the person and experiences she has spent so long trying to leave behind.

I also appreciated the contrast between Reggie’s past and her relationship with Eldi. Someone once used intimacy and trust to hurt Reggie, yet she has built a relationship with her child around fierce, unconditional protection. In a story filled with questions about what is human, alien, supernatural, or monstrous, some of its most meaningful answers come from the choices people make rather than what species they happen to be.

Vico Ortiz and Nick Walther narrate the audiobook, and their performances fit the unusual range of the story well. Ortiz is particularly talented at creating distinct feminine and masculine character voices, while both narrators use inflection effectively to capture the book’s absurd humor without losing the seriousness of its more emotional moments. That versatility becomes especially valuable as the story moves between comedy and much darker subject matter.

Strange Lights may draw readers in with its bizarre combination of chupacabras, werewolves, UFOs, mysterious creatures, and an oddly aware Winnebago, but underneath all that weirdness is a surprisingly human story about parenthood, trauma, survival, and protecting the family you have created.

Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for providing an advanced listener copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Sadie E]

I seriously don't know how the author made this work. On paper this sounds like a clusterfuck. Imagine if someone took The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then sprinkled in a baby chupacabra, magical roombas, werewolves, every cryptid you can think of, and a sentient Winnebago, and decided whatever the hell came out would be a novel.

And somehow this is also a surprisingly wholesome found family story.

Reggie and her adopted daughter/hellspawn Eldi are an absolutely bizarre little family unit (Eldi's a blood-sucking toddler with a particular enthusiasm for goats). Watching their world gradually expand to include Calvin and the rest of the increasingly strange cast was seriously lovely.

It's one of those books where trying to explain the plot to another person makes you sound like you’ve suffered a nervous breakdown. Every time I thought we’d reached the full extent of the weirdness, the author would pull another supernatural creature, conspiracy, backstory, or plot twist out of a hat.

But underneath all the cryptids and supernatural nonsense, the book tackles much heavier questions about family, trauma, identity, loneliness, connection, and what actually makes someone a monster.

Which is kinda rude, because I came here for weird shit, not feelings.

My biggest issue is that this book has too many ideas. Not necessarily bad ideas. Just… so many.

There are enough characters, twists, supernatural lore, traumatic backstories, and mythology here to comfortably fill several books, and occasionally it feels like the author refused to leave anything on the cutting room floor. The result is a story that can feel both overstuffed and rushed. There’s a huge amount of backstory and world building, but some of the emotional beats I actually cared about could have done with a little more room to breathe.

Like the flashbacks. I’d be happily following the increasingly unhinged present-day story, completely invested in the weird little found family, and then 💥 here’s another lengthy detour into someone's tragic history. And some of those sections were interesting and added important context, but they also repeatedly killed the momentum when I wanted to get back to the main storyline.

But this is a book that commits hard to its own brand of nonsense. I loved how unapologetically weird it is. Sentient vehicles? Sure. Paranormal vacuum cleaners? Why not. Werewolves and aliens? We're doing that too. The whole thing has this wonderfully chaotic energy that could very easily have tipped into complete insanity, but the author keeps enough emotional grounding underneath it that I was happy to follow wherever the story wanted to go.

I had a great time. It's funny, strange, unexpectedly emotional, and completely unlike what I expected going in. If you told me beforehand that one of my emotional attachments from this book would be to a magical Winnebago, I would have questioned your judgement.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC

[Mya Joan Emma]

Strange Lights by Mira Gonzalez is an unforgettable, quietly powerful book that completely exceeded my expectations. From the very first page, it establishes a tone that is intimate, unfiltered, and strangely comforting in its honesty. It feels less like reading and more like being allowed into someone’s unguarded thoughts at 2 a.m.—raw, self-aware, and piercingly real.

Gonzalez has a remarkable ability to capture complex emotional states in deceptively simple language. The writing is spare yet incredibly layered, exploring loneliness, desire, insecurity, mental health, relationships, and the surreal absurdity of modern life. There’s a dry, almost deadpan humor threaded throughout, which makes the heavier themes hit even harder. You might find yourself laughing at a line, only to feel it settle into something much deeper moments later.

What stands out most is the emotional precision. Nothing feels exaggerated or melodramatic. Instead, there’s a steady, deliberate honesty that makes every page feel authentic. Gonzalez doesn’t try to resolve the messiness of being human or (non human)—she presents it plainly, and that directness is what makes it so powerful. The vulnerability never feels performative; it feels lived-in.

It manages to feel deeply personal while also being universally relatable, which is a rare and special balance.

Strange, tender, funny, and devastating in equal measure, Strange Lights is a five-star read through and through. It’s a book I know I’ll return to again—and one I’ll be recommending to anyone who appreciates writing that is bold in its vulnerability and fearless in its truth.

[Rebecca]

I received a copy of this audiobook ARC from NetGalley. Thank you to all involved.

I rated this book a 3.5 rounded up to a 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The audiobook itself was a fun listen. It was narrated by Vico Ortiz and Nick Walther. I think that’s they did a great job with bringing the characters to life inside the audiobook. The audio was clean and done well. 5/5 for the narration.

Things I liked about this book:
⭐️ I was immediately hooked on this story. Eldi and Reggie were a great pair and the cryptid/paranormal investigation stuff started immediately which I was happy about.
⭐️I love all the supporting characters- Calvin (who is more of a main character), the robots,Winnie and all of her contents.
⭐️the thoroughness. It was really detailed. All of my questions were answered. Everyone had a really extensive and detailed back story.

I was super into this book for the first 30%. I loved Reggie and eldi and Calvin driving around trying to figure out what’s going on with the “haunted” appliances. When we got to the flashback to Reggie’s life before she was out on her own I just didn’t feel like it was totally necessary. I feel like a lot of it could have been cut out/ trimmed down and it wouldn’t have affected the story. Same with Orion’s flashback. It wasn’t bad- I just don’t feel like it made it better to have it.

I think this is a solid listen and I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for an extraterrestrial read!

[Nora (NoraLeest)]

Blood-sucking toddlers, an undead raccoon, aliens, werewolves, magic, a strange self-driving RV with hidden backrooms

"I was never waiting for you to be good enough. Love isn't perfection."

Going into this book I expected a light hearted, quirky book about cryptids. Although it started out that way, I am so happy it turned out to be so much more than that. In this book we follow Reggie, a paranormal investigator with an adopted toddler. Not a normal toddler, though, her daughter is a blood-sucking chupacabra (and I love her). Reggie mainly attempts to make people believe cryptids are hoaxes, while Reggie in fact knows they are as real as can be.

The story quickly picks up pace and develops into a wonderfully exciting, emotional and raw story. What it means to be human, blood ties and found family ties are explored in a very intricate way. The story occasionally shifts perspective, which keeps the reader engaged and allows us to understand the perspectives and experiences of other characters. This is done in such a wonderful way that really adds to the story, rather than taking you out of the flow.

This is such an exceptionally wonderful, heartfelt and hilarious story and so much more than I anticipated before picking it up. I'm so glad I got to read this!

"And what's in this bag?"
"Dead mice. From the walls."
"You hit me with a bag of dead mice?"

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC copy.

[Nic & Ry Meltdownerz]

Now that I've stopped crying, here is my review. Thank you NetGalley and the author for the audiobook of this fantastic book!

I genuinely didn't have high expectations for this, it's not my usual type of book but personally this ended up being a 5 star read for me.

I adore the characters and I'm sick and sad that I am finished with this story. I need a 2nd book ASAP. I will be pre-ordering a physical copy so I can read it again and again.

The plot twists and reveals and bigger picture, knocked me off my feet. My boyfriend is genuinely worried for my mental health the way I was crying and reacting to that ending. I'M NOT JOKING, I DON'T KNOW HOW I'LL BE ABLE TO STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK, THE STORY AND THE POSSIBILITIES.

The message in this has left a lasting impact on me. I feel changed. This was so creative and fun and wacky and everything I needed in this season of my life.

The voice actors were phenomenal! Had to look them up cause they did their biggest one! Congratulations on creating such a magical world that I now feel is real and I believe in 100%.

I need another book. I don't know what else to say. Anyone reading this, get your hands on this sci-fi, supernatural, wacky, found family, emotional, funny and weird as hell book. I don't understand how anyone could not see this as a 5 star read. Anyway goodbye and thank you.

[Dee]

Okay, this one started out so freaking amazing 😻 Then it took a way too long hard left into back story mode 😳It got dark and sometimes unnecessary, but still the storytelling value was top notch. I’m not going to lie for me that middle back story was such a slow burn, I almost didn’t finish. Fortunately, Reggie was a deep rooted character for me so I was able to pull through.

This story brings you wild adventures and serious paranormal fun of all kinds. More than anything, there’s MAGIC!! Honestly this one has it all and what an imagination this author ✍🏽 has and for that I say….well done thank you!

[Kari]

4.5
“Humanity isn’t built from a few pieces of DNA spliced together. It’s built from connection and community. We’re tethered to our friends and our family by something more than shared blood. Life isn’t about the destination; it isn’t about the answer. The meaning we crave is in the journey. It’s with the people we travel through life with. It’s in the company we keep as we make our way around the sun.”

There are books that have found family and then there are books that are ABOUT found family. This one has the most ragtag assortment of members that includes a cryptozoologist, werewolves, chupacabras, crop-circle creating roombas, and a sentient Winnebago for starters. It’s one of those stories where the nonhuman characters really make you think about humanity and relationships and community. And there are so many relationships to examine in the book, including the many facets of sisterhood and parenthood and species-hood. There is an intense longing to be loved and deemed good enough by a parent and there is hesitation about leaning into vulnerability and hoping to be accepted, flaws and all. There is a battle between self-preservation versus self-sacrifice to protect loved ones. The book dives deep into the ways we tether ourselves to others, and all the good and bad that comes with this.

This book is deep, and it’s heavy, and it’s bizarre and wild and funny and witty. There are sci-fi elements that had me scratching my head and telling myself to just go with it, there are silly and ridiculous (in the best way) moments that made me laugh aloud, and there are scenes with brutality or intense vulnerability that made me cry. There are layered characters who are so lovable even though I wanted to throttle a few of them more than once.

I enjoyed the pacing and the sometimes-nonlinear-timeline and the slow character development the main character makes. But overall one of the aspects of the book I most loved was how somehow this wild ride of a paranormal adventure felt so cozy. Unhinged and chaotic and harrowing, sure, but also heartfelt and comforting and delightful.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Bindery/Ezeekat Press for the advanced copy!

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos]

Come for the Chupacabra Toddler, Stay for the Ethics of Classification
Mira González’s “Strange Lights” hides a serious argument about evidence, parenthood, institutional power, and moral revision inside goat blood, haunted appliances, werewolves, and an RV with boundary issues
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | September 29th, 2026

Drenched in goat blood before the novel has properly introduced itself, Reggie Quinn’s favorite sunny-yellow Chuck Taylors are already ruined. The culprit is Eldi, a fanged toddler whom Reggie insists she keeps mostly from scientific curiosity, a theory that survives only until Eldi lifts her arms and says, “Up, Ma!” Reggie picks her up before thought can object. Mira González builds “Strange Lights” around that tiny defeat of naming by behavior. A specimen behaves like a daughter; a monster may be a refugee, a parent, a lover, or all three. The pleasure is not simply learning what something “really” is. It is watching the moral verdict lag behind the evidence, then scramble to catch up.

Even before extraterrestrials enter the frame, “Strange Lights” moves like a road comedy stocked from American folklore. Reggie is a cryptozoologist living in Winnie, an impossible Winnebago whose interior has more rooms than its exterior can plausibly contain. Eldi appears to be the source of chupacabra legends. Calvin St. James, Reggie’s handsome debunker friend, investigates the same mysteries until a werewolf bite rather firmly revises his priors. Rogue robotic vacuums carve crop circles; strange lights pulse overhead; Agency 51 hunts, studies, and weaponizes beings it cannot classify. Reggie knows that agency from the inside, though she has spent years treating the past like something a full tank of gas might eventually outrun.

Most of the book’s charm comes from the scale at which González makes the extraordinary matter. Eldi’s bloodlust is less revealing than Reggie checking whether she is breathing. Calvin’s transformation matters because the man who explains monsters away must now schedule his life around becoming one. Winnie’s impossible rooms fill with laundry, research equipment, stuffed animals, lovers, siblings, sentient machines, and eventually goats. That domestic pressure places “Strange Lights” near Kevin Wilson’s “Nothing to See Here”, another novel in which an impossible child turns caregiving into a comic assault on adult self-deception. González is much more maximalist, but she keeps returning cosmic expansion to household logistics.

Elsewhere the humor might simply season the premise. Here it is Reggie’s preferred defense mechanism. Her first-person narration is quick, profane, contemporary, and forever revising itself. She calls Eldi a menace while arranging her life around the child’s sleep, food, fear, and routines. She renames attraction as inconvenience, dependence as risk, secrecy as protection, abandonment as sacrifice. The jokes work best when the next sentence betrays the joke’s premise. Reggie can finish the quip; her hands still reach for the child. González makes her less an unreliable reporter than an unreliable reader of Reggie. Facts usually arrive intact. The verdict is where shame, fear, and habit begin editing.

That gap between event and verdict is why Part Three matters. “Somewhere in the Nevada Desert” interrupts the present-day rescue plot for eleven chapters and makes us live inside the childhood and young adulthood Reggie has been rationing out as explanation. We watch Regina Kingsley raise Zara and Meredith, fall in love with the imprisoned Luca, participate in experiments she increasingly understands as monstrous, and create the Gauntlet that Adele later turns against her. The detour slows the chase, but it does something more valuable than supply motive. The present-day plot has trained us to resent Reggie’s withholding; the retrospective makes that withholding feel less like a mystery-box tactic and more like a survival habit that keeps producing fresh damage. Adult Reggie can no longer compress herself into victim, perpetrator, protector, or fugitive. The reader has to hold all four descriptions at once.

Reggie’s tenth-birthday mask is the cleanest expression of that doubleness. Adele gives her a black, featureless covering, and the child discovers that she can grin, grimace, cross her eyes, even rage while the reflected figure stays blank. González lingers on the mismatch between the busy face behind the mesh and the still figure in the mirror, so concealment first arrives as relief. Regina no longer has to school every expression before someone can use it against her. Then the paragraph shifts from facial freedom to naming. Behind the mask she becomes “Kingsley”, the presence that commands deference, or “Regina” when Adele requires it, but never simply Reggie, the name she wants. The object protects a private self by manufacturing a public one. Later, other women can inhabit that public identity too. The mask that saves Regina from being read also teaches the institution how to replace her.

If masks govern visibility, tethers govern attachment. Magic users survive the metaphysical void by anchoring themselves to other people, and González keeps worrying the difference between support and possession. Reggie is exceptionally good at tethering but ashamed of needing anyone; Adele treats dependence as weakness while repeatedly turning other people into extensions of her will. Reggie stays too long at Agency 51 partly because she refuses to abandon her sisters. Calvin and Luca become stabilizing bonds. By the time a tether can save a life or drag one downward, the magic system has stopped feeling like lore and started behaving like an argument about intimacy.

Part of Calvin’s usefulness is that he prevents the novel from equating openness with credulity. He is a professional debunker who often reasons well from incomplete evidence. He spots frauds, looks for ordinary causes, and changes his mind when ordinary causes stop accounting for what is in front of him. His error is not skepticism itself but a framework too narrow for the evidence he eventually receives. A robot vacuum really can be nonhuman intelligence; a werewolf can really be sitting across the table. Yet González keeps one foot on firmer ground: astonishing truths do not make every astonishing claim true.

Agency 51 supplies the more sinister version of the same appetite to classify. Its reflex is to convert the unfamiliar into a specimen, then a file, then a weapon. Reggie’s work on lycanthropy gives that violence an uncomfortable intimacy. She engineers the altered strain while secretly pursuing vaccines and treatment, proof that the same knowledge can move toward cure or coercion depending on who controls it. Scientific curiosity does not vanish simply because the institution funding it is monstrous. Reggie is clever enough to make dangerous things, frightened enough to comply, and ashamed enough to imagine that disappearing from everyone’s life will settle the moral account. The question is not whether her motives were mixed; the book has already shown that they were. The question is what responsibility survives coercion. It does not disappear merely because Adele was worse.

Parenthood gives the book one of its most painful sentences, and one of its shortest. After revealing that Reggie is her clone, Adele says, “I want to love you.” Reggie hears the missing present tense at once: not I love you, but I want to. Adele treats love as a condition she might achieve if the child becomes useful enough, familiar enough, restorative enough. Reggie’s parenting of Eldi reverses that grammar. Eldi is inconvenient, messy, opaque, attached to another history, and never required to become the child Reggie imagined. A smaller object makes the contrast even sharper: Meredith’s painted cactus pot, rejected as a Mother’s Day gift by Adele, survives because Reggie keeps it, Eldi breaks it, and Calvin repairs it. Care here keeps changing hands.

Adele’s late history makes that opposition harder, which is one of the book’s best decisions. She is not revealed as a secretly innocent woman but as a perpetrator whose grievance is real. Her original species lived on Orion and Eldi’s world through an unusually interconnected form of consciousness and was largely overlooked even while helping protect the planet. When the Beasts destroyed that world, Adele experienced the collapse of her community with an intimacy no ordinary survivor could bear. She loses almost everyone, falls into the magical void, takes a human body, and builds the rest of her existence around resurrection and revenge. Fuller knowledge changes the temperature of judgment without reversing it.

Danger itself keeps “Strange Lights” from collapsing into the sweeter moral that unfamiliarity creates every monster. Orion’s memories make the refusal unavoidable. The Beasts are predators. His siblings die because he cannot save them. He survives through concealment, suspicion, speed, and brutal triage. Calvin’s misplaced trust in Adele also helps expose Reggie and Eldi. Secrecy damages people, but disclosure can endanger them too. The harder ethic is not “trust the strange.” It is to keep judgment revisable without surrendering judgment altogether.

In Orion’s memory sequence, González finds an aptly intrusive form for that ethic. Instead of letting him summarize planetary extinction, she has his Helper transmit memory directly, forcing Reggie and the others to inhabit his fear, hunger, grief, and impossible choices. The device is blunt but exact for a novel about the damage of secondhand classification. Orion stops being a cryptid to decode and becomes a consciousness through which the others must look. Even “chupacabra” is demoted from essence to accident, a frightened human word attached to him after he crashes on Earth protecting the child who will become Eldi.

More than monsters, then, the novel is fascinated by interpreters. Calvin has a podcast; Reggie has privileged knowledge; Agency 51 has laboratories, cages, and files; Adele has institutional authority and an invasion story; Orion has memory; the public receives livestreams. The interludes track Calvin’s explanatory voice as evidence outgrows his earlier categories. First contact becomes a contest over who gets to verify what happened, who gets to narrate it, and who gets to make fear sound reasonable.

In June 2026, the International Academy of Astronautics approved updated SETI detection principles stressing independent verification and accurate public communication around a possible extraterrestrial detection. The SETI Institute described the revision as a response to a media environment shaped by social platforms, synthetic misinformation, and deepfakes. “Strange Lights” was already far along, so the resemblance is contextual rather than causal. Still, Adele’s fear campaign and Calvin’s public correction land at an apt moment. González understands that first contact would also be a crisis of credibility.

The novel’s chief weakness is explanatory duplication. By Chapter 39, Reggie announces that her decisive advantage over Adele is “Tethers.” Luca later gives a speech about loving imperfect people. The beings in the void assure Reggie that she is wanted and not alone. Calvin’s final podcast translates cosmic loneliness into the need for companionship. None of this is false, and some of it is moving. Accumulated, however, the explanations reduce the pressure of images that already carry the argument. González is excellent at letting meaning gather inside masks, ropes, broken pots, names, and rescue procedures. When she follows those objects with a speech that tells us what they mean, the prose can feel like a caption placed beneath an image that was already legible.

Reggie’s attempted sacrifice is stronger because the form itself objects to her interpretation. She severs every magical tether and throws herself with Adele into the void. At that exact moment the first-person narration leaves her too. Chapter 43 shifts to Calvin, who experiences what Reggie has framed as noble sacrifice as absence, betrayal, and terror. The maneuver is brief but exact. Reggie has spent the novel controlling how much of herself other people can know; when she removes herself from them completely, she also loses control of the story her disappearance tells.

Once rescue begins, the book cashes in a whole lexicon. Reggie has spent hundreds of pages imagining relationships as ships, storms, wrecks, lifeboats, doomed voyages. Before jumping, she leaves Luca one word, Carpathia, the ship that rescued survivors of the Titanic. Calvin and Luca understand the instruction. They enter the void tethered to the others; Luca rigs climbing gear; Calvin descends on a rope. The vocabulary abruptly becomes manual rather than metaphorical: harness, anchor, handhold, carabiner, pull. Reggie is gripping the wall when Calvin reaches her. “Get in your lifeboat,” he says. She cannot unclench her hands even to take the carabiner, so he clips it to her harness and waits. Release happens in stages: first the clip, then the embrace, then the upward pull; only afterward can she let the stone go. Trust becomes a small choreography of muscles and equipment. Reggie has always known how to die for people. Her harder education is consenting to be kept alive.

Plenty remains harder to rescue. The coda is generous with Reggie’s intimate world: Eldi stays, Orion finds meaningful work, Zara and Meredith return, Calvin and Luca settle into a workable relationship with Reggie, and the alien survivors begin rebuilding. The warmth is earned, but the institutional aftermath is thinner. Agency 51 has spent decades imprisoning beings, disappearing subjects, engineering dangerous technologies, and turning research into coercion. A household can be repaired around a campfire; an institution leaves a different kind of debris. The novel is much more interested in whether Reggie’s loved ones can forgive her than in what accountability might mean for people outside that circle.

One cost of the book’s preference for repair over punishment is that consequence becomes increasingly domestic just as the plot becomes institutional and planetary. Reggie’s culpability is real: she helped develop the werewolf project, made the Gauntlet, sometimes chose compliance because resistance hurt, and abandoned people she loved. González does not erase those facts, but the people allowed to weigh them most heavily are also the people most invested in keeping Reggie. That is emotionally coherent and morally incomplete. Love can refuse to reduce a person to the worst thing she has done; it cannot, by itself, determine what repair is owed elsewhere.

Under the Mothership’s glare, Eldi supplies the book’s most graceful answer to belonging. González declines an easy biological-homecoming fantasy. Eldi has another species, another history, and an older brother who loved her before Reggie knew she existed. None of that cancels Reggie. Nor does Reggie’s motherhood require Eldi to reject where she came from. Asked whether she will leave, Eldi points toward Winnie and Reggie and says, simply, “Home.” Chosen family here is addition rather than replacement.

Late in the coda, that addition becomes almost aggressively practical. Winnie holds lovers, siblings, children, Helpers, goats, work projects, quarrels, meals, and the mundane negotiations of staying in one another’s lives. Reggie jokes that she now has someone to man the lifeboats and someone to throw her a rope. The repaired cactus still lives. Orion is no longer a constellation Eldi points toward but a brother sitting nearby. González repeatedly shrinks the cosmic back to logistics: who feeds whom, who sleeps where, who remembers the stuffed goat, who comes when called.

On my scale, “Strange Lights” earns 85/100, translating to 4/5 Goodreads stars. It is inventive, emotionally persuasive, often very funny, and structurally more intelligent than its buoyant voice initially advertises. Its long retrospective, Orion’s memory transfer, and the Calvin point-of-view switch all change the reader’s position rather than merely deliver information. What keeps the book outside the highest tier is its reluctance to leave enough unsaid. González too often writes the image and then explains the image, while the late cosmology occasionally expands faster than consequence can settle.

Shoes, fittingly, get the last word. Eldi’s first goat meal splashes blood across Reggie’s yellow Chuck Taylors; hundreds of pages later Calvin approaches the campfire with a present, a new pair in the same sunny color. Reggie does not get her old life back. She gets another pair of shoes inside a life now crowded with people who know what she has lost, what she has done, and roughly what size she wears. That is “Strange Lights” at its best: not the promise that every strange thing is harmless, but the hope that a name can stay provisional long enough for a person to emerge.

[Robin (Bridge Four)]

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

When your latest read includes a found family that consists of a toddler Chupacabra, potentially possessed electronics (including a rumba that makes crop circles) and a magical, maybe semi sentient Winnebago that defies the laws of physics, it is going to hard to explain the story coherently. Strange Lights is a standalone novel exploring X-file levels of strange and somehow it all comes together in the end.

Reggie is raising a toddler that just so happens to be a Chupacabra. Dropped on her Winnebago doorstep, they have been traveling companions for the last eight years. Eight years that Eldi, the Chupacabra hasn’t really aged, which may or may not be normal for Chupacabra. Her day job is to travel around and deal with paranormal phenomenon while trying to stay far away from her past. But things are getting really weird for Reggie since lights in the night sky showed up. Her past might be right behind her and they are threatening to take the thing she loves most in this world.

Told from first person, the story follows Reggie through her present life as she and semi friend/maybe more one day friend Calvin. She has kept Calvin at a distance for years now to make sure he doesn’t accidentally spill the beans about Eldi on his podcast. But things turn weird when he becomes a werewolf and finds out not all the things he has been debunking for years on his podcast are debunkable. If werewolves are real, then the lights in the sky might just be aliens and things are about to get crazy.

Strange Lights is my first book by Mira Gonzalez. Her plotting for this was a bit chaotic as there were two very significant side stories of the past that thrust the reader out of the present and the momentum it was gathering into some long stretches of time. While this did add to the overall roundness of the story and the characters, it was a bit choppy in the delivery and disrupted the flow of the story. There are also a lot of different ideas happening all at once. Aliens, Cryptids, Secret Societies, child rearing, possessed rumbas not to mention some kind of planar dimensional magic hocus pocus. It was a lot of put all together and at times made it hard to track the story. Still I can’t say it was ever dull or uninteresting but sometimes it was a little too much.

The culmination to the ending was so satisfying. It is a crazy hodge podge of things going on but the wrap up after all the plot bombs and big reveals left me feeling warm and cozy. This is going to work the best for people who liked X-files, Warehouse 13 and Resident Alien type shows.

Narration:

Performance: ★★★
Character Separation: ★★★
Diction: ★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★★
Sound Effects: none

I had not listened to a book narrated by Nick Walther or Vico Ortiz prior to Strange Lights. Overall, the narration is good but there were multiple times in the story where the voice for one character was being used when it was clear that a different character was talking. Even though there were a few voice change issues the overall performance was good as the pace and flow of the narration stayed consistent and the words were clear and easily decipherable. I liked how the narration added to the story and I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.

Listen to a clip: HERE

[Taylor Reads Chaos]

This definitely made me glad I only have to take care of a human toddler and not a chupacabra toddler 😂

📖 The Plot:

Reggie has a very sordid past and is doing everything she can to run away from her family when a toddler suddenly shows up on her doorstep and refuses to leave.

Oh, and the toddler is a chupacabra.

She can shapeshift, eats goats, is basically indestructible, and somehow Reggie ends up adopting her. Reggie and Eldi begin traveling around investigating paranormal activity, along with Calvin, the extremely hot paranormal podcaster turned werewolf who they just cannot seem to shake.

But when a group of Roombas starts making crop circles, their latest case brings them face-to-face with an anti-paranormal agency that hunts creatures like Eldi… and just so happens to be connected to the past Reggie has been running from.

Now Reggie has to confront everything she’s tried to leave behind, figure out what truly makes a family, and wade through galaxies of trauma, all while towing her chupacabra toddler along for the ride.

💭 My Thoughts:

Going into this, I really thought the story would focus mostly on Reggie and Eldi, and while their relationship is definitely a huge part of the book, the heart of the story is really Reggie confronting her past and finally coming to terms with everything she’s been carrying.

And wow, I was NOT prepared for how much this book would have to say about family and relationships. There were so many moments that were genuinely beautiful and heartbreaking, especially when it came to what family means, who gets to be considered family, and the people we choose to keep beside us.

The character growth was so well done, and I truly ended up loving all of them. Reggie, Eldi, and Calvin made such a weird little paranormal found family, and I was completely invested.

I will say the second half of the book took a turn I absolutely did not see coming, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up loving where it went.

Also, side note: I am OBSESSED with the sentient Winnebago 😂 I would 1000% read an entire series of Reggie, Eldi, and Calvin traveling around in it solving increasingly ridiculous paranormal cases.

Thank you to RBmedia for a copy of the audiobook via NetGalley. All opinions are my own!

[Nikola]

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this ARC.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it is a perfect book to move toward spooky season. Eldi was definitely my favorite character. She was just so adorable even if she was a bit crazy and loves to eat goats. I just loved every time Eldi popped on the page. I also liked the interactions between Reggie and Calvin and how they growed into their relationship. I also liked the uniqueness of this book. I have never read a paranormal quirky book with a paranormal investigator who has an adopted toddler who is also a blood sucking chupacabra. It was so interesting that I was engaged from start to end. It also helped that I felt the pacing of this novel was good and the audiobook had very good narrators that helped me stay in the story.

[Luna and Co]

Wanted to start it again the minute I finished! I had high expectations for this book, but it surpassed them all! I got hooked right away because the writing style is so engaging. The characters were likable, and I kinda wanted to be friends with Reggie and Eldie! This book was everything: funny, sad, suspenseful and unique. The story was so well woven that even with all the different layers, it was easy to follow. The chosen/found family is well represented here. The narrator for the audio version was amazing to listen too!

Thank you, Netgalley and RBmedia for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

[Sarah Sorace]

I was honored to be able to ARC read Strange Lights by Mira Gonzàlez and boy was I surprised by how much I absolutely loved this book.

BLURB:
Paranormal investigator and cryptozoologist Reggie has embraced her fate as parent to an adopted toddler, Eldi—a blood-sucking chupacabra with a fondness for goats. Reggie wants nothing more than to put her complicated past in the rearview mirror and fade into as much obscurity as her toddler will allow. But a rash of UFOs in the night sky and a couple of crop-circle-carving Roombas force Reggie into an investigation that attracts the attention of an old enemy, an anti-supernatural agency hunting for creatures like Eldi. To outwit them, Reggie must team up with Calvin: a podcaster-turned-werewolf whose charm is a real threat to Reggie’s rule against romantic attachments.



With Reggie’s history quickly catching up to her and Eldi in the agency’s crosshairs, any shred of normalcy evaporates. Reggie must decide: Can she confront her dark past to save Eldi—and an entire alien species—from getting wiped out of the universe?

MY REVIEW:
I have never been super into sci-fi until now. The story is more than just extra terrestrials, it’s about loneliness, finding yourself, love, and life. Reggie seems hard on the outside but her soft spot is Eldi. Calvin acts like he has it all together but he longs for love himself. Zara and Meredith feel betrayed by Reggie for leaving them, but they have no idea what it really cost Reggie to go. Adele just longed to be able to love and reunite with her people, but never realized the pain and chaos she caused around her.

All in all, I adored this book. I loved the growth, the found family, the resilience and the absolute love and adoration each character brought to the story. It’s fast paced and so fun. Who knew raising a chupacabra toddler, while traveling in a sentient Winnebago with a Mary poppins basement, a werewolf podcaster, and some alien roombas could be so entertaining.

4/5 chupacabra toddlers 👹

[Kate Smith]

Initially I was really enjoying Strange Livhts. It has an eclectic cast of characters with queer representation. There is a romance subplot that was cute and developing slowly.
I lost interest when we started to add in the background stories to the characters. The books tone changed from quirky and comfy to something a bit darker. I also would have appreciated some more background gradually built in rather than being dumped back in time for large chunks of the book on multiple occasions.

[Ally]

Strange Lights by Mira González was such a fun, weird, and atmospheric audiobook. It has paranormal mystery, supernatural creatures, humor, found family, and a little romance mixed together, which made for a pretty unique story.

I really liked Reggie as the main character. She’s tough, independent, and definitely has her walls up, but seeing her softer side especially when it comes to Eldi, her adopted chupacabra daughter was one of my favorite parts of the story. Their relationship gave the book a really sweet found-family element, and I loved how protective Reggie was of Eldi.

Then there’s Calvin, who brings a completely different energy to the story. His skeptical attitude and podcasting made for some entertaining moments, especially as he gets pulled deeper into the supernatural world he doesn’t believe in. I enjoyed watching his relationship with Reggie develop. Their banter and chemistry added some humor and romance without completely taking over the story.

González’s writing was another highlight for me. There’s a great balance between creepy and funny, and I liked how she could take something strange or unsettling and still make it feel fun. The supernatural elements were imaginative, and the characters gave the story a lot of personality. I did feel like some areas of the plot and character development could have been explored a little more, which is what kept this from being a higher rating for me.

I listened to this one as an audiobook, and the narration really worked for the story. With such a quirky cast of characters, I appreciated having distinct voices and personalities come through. It made the banter and some of the more ridiculous moments even more enjoyable.

Overall, Strange Lights was an entertaining and unusual listen with a great mix of supernatural weirdness, humor, found family, and romance. Reggie and Eldi’s relationship was definitely a favorite, and I enjoyed watching Reggie and Calvin’s relationship evolve. It wasn't a perfect read for me, but it was definitely memorable and a fun audiobook experience.

If you like paranormal stories with quirky characters, found family, humor, and a little romance, this one is worth checking out!
This was an Audiobook provided be Netgalley for review. My opinion is my own.

[James]

HAPPY PUB DAY TO MY WEIRD LITTLE CRYTID FAMILY

Sometimes a family is just a genderfluid paranormal investigator, a chupacabra in the shape of a human toddler, and a sentient magical Winnebago—Reggie makes it work, or at least she's trying to until her friend Calvin, a skeptic and podcaster, gets turn into a werewolf and there's a sudden uptick in UFO sightings. Their weird little family is drawn into the machinations of an agency against all things supernatural, and in order to protect the ones she loves, Reggie must face her demons and her family she left behind.

This book gave me exactly what I wanted out of it, and I liked it way more than I was expecting to! Not that I was expecting to dislike it, but I was a little worried that it would end up being another cozy book without the grit and the angst that I need to get emotionally engaged. Rest assured, this book has angst, and it does a great job balancing the humor and inherent ridiculousness of the premise with the darker moments. I definitely got teary at a few points, especially towards the end. I was reading some of the last chapters in my college library and I'm glad I was wearing a hat that mostly hid my face because I was very obviously on the verge of tears.

There's a lot to love about this. It's got a great cast of characters, including an antagonist who has actual backstory and isn't just evil for no reason. I love Reggie and her weird little family. I love Eldi the chupacabra and Bandit the haunted taxidermy raccoon and Doug and Dave the extraterrestrial Roombas. I love the haphazard combination of sci-fi and fantasy that somehow still makes sense, and I love the idea of a guy who has a podcast where he debunks the paranormal getting turned into a werewolf. I of course always love and appreciate queer rep, in fact I don't think there's a quicker way to my heart. I was just saying in my roundup last week that Alex Fierro from the Magnus Chase series is one of the only genderfluid main characters I've seen in a book, but now I have Reggie to add to that list.

The only critique I'll say is that the kind of "flashback" sequence of Reggie's backstory takes up a weirdly large portion of the book. It wasn't unimportant and it didn't necessarily feel dragged out, but for a flashback segment mainly meant to give us context...it's like 30% of the actual book which is just weird to me. I don't really know how this would be remedied, but I read so much that there's a part of my brain that inherently understands how stories are structured and it was a little thrown off.

That aside, this book is a really great time! It kind of reminded me of Monsters & Mainframes by Barbara Truelove (family of lovable misfits, blend of sci-fi/fantasy, ridiculous yet weirdly emotionally intense) which makes sense since they were both published by Ezeekat Press. I will absolutely be on the lookout for Mira González's next book and I'd like to read more from Ezeekat Press since they're now 3/3 on me enjoying their books!

Thank you to Mira González and Bindery Books / Ezeekat Press for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

[Bri_grey]

Thanks to Bindery Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Have you ever wondered what if the TARDIS came in campervan form? Have you ever wondered what if chupacabras were a lot more an alien life form than "wait, chupacabras aren't even real"? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you merged family drama with paranormal? I guess the author did wonder.

First thing first, I applaud the author for the ideas and the ambition. It must be acknowledged that the thoughts and ideas were there.
But where it failed was the execution. I was telling my friend about this book while I was reading it and I remember saying "I have read 22 percent, 18 of those consisted of infodumping". There was not a lot of real action in the book, because we got background info and new background info and then flashbacks and then some lore and then even more lore and then some new flashbacks. Too much of everything for the book of 400 pages (though it felt like a lot longer). And based on the writing style, it seemed more like a script than a book - maybe the author should think about pitching this idea as a tv show? A movie would be too short for all of this. Also I was not impressed with the writing. There was a lot of telling, not showing. I would even say, TELLING. A lot of "I say sharply" or "I say coldly" and I am sure the first person POV would have allowed the author to express the same thing quite differently.
Oh, and overexplaining: just one example would be "My heart beats wildly in my chest. What fate did I choose for the others, I wonder. I hope I made the right choice". Second and third sentences basically serve the same purpose. And there is a lot of instances where the author repeats the same point in one paragraph. I certainly felt the author didn't trust the reader to get the point.
And did I mention the twists? Some of them were extremely obvious and the others were, sorry to say, a bit absurd.
So all in all I think I'll remember the book for all the unusual parts but grieve the way it could have been.

[Gosia]

This review is based on advanced reader copy kindly provided by NetGalley.

DNF @31%

This book offered one of the best opening chapters I’ve read in a long time. It set my expectations really high for a good book about one strange paranormal family.

I’m deeply hurt that it didn’t deliver. I’m DNFing mainly because of the writing, which is poor. I’m tired of the constant insult to my intelligence when the author explains EVERYTHING. Give me some slack, people. I can handle a bit of complexity.

[Keely Kovacevic]

3.5 ⭐️

This kinda of felt like 3 different books. I enjoyed all of them, but it wasn’t a smooth transition between the different parts of this story.

Strange Lights follows Reggie, a paranormal investigator who is raising a toddler chupacabra and harbouring secrets of her own.

This story, while absolutely unique, at times felt disjointed and confusing. Did I miss something or were things just glossed over? At times I had to reread pages to make sure I hadn’t missed something.

I fear I spent the back half of the book being nostalgic for the front half. What started as a cosy paranormal adventure quickly transformed into an exploration of trauma and loneliness… plus also thruples?

I did enjoy this book, but It definitely felt like three distinct stories mashed together.

[Maureen Hester]

Strange Lights by Mira González was a really fun, 4-star-cozy-SciFi-adventure novel. I am really glad I had the opportunity to read this ahead of publication, and I’m itching to chat with people about it in October! The bright colors on the cover are honestly what first caught my attention, but the deal was sealed when I realized the worlds of sci fi and camping would collide if I picked this book up.

Strange Lights delivered everything it promised. Think Grimm meets Friends meets Lilo and Stich, with a dash of The Demon in the Freezer, and some nonbinary representation for good measure!

I don’t even know where to start, because this book was so different, and so fun, and I enjoyed it soooo much. Even though the plot itself is SciFi/supernatural, the dialogue and interactions throughout felt extremely realistic and authentic. All of the descriptions- scenery, characters, mood- are all super vivid and well done. Every character in this book has so much ~PERSONALITY~ and I so enjoyed getting to know everyone (even Manny, Dave & Doug, & the raccoon, hahah). The flashbacks to young Reggie are SO different than she is now, so you really get more depth to her and why she keeps people at arms distance. I like the contrast from Reggie before to Reggie after and Reggie when everyone learns the truth about her (a hybrid in terms of her past and present).

That being said- I much preferred the present to the flashbacks. I think I’m just being critical because I enjoyed the parts written in the present SO MUCH, that I feel a lot of the flashback could’ve been abbreviated. The flashback felt really long, and did not hold my attention as well. Along with that, I initially thiught the magic wasn’t overdone and the creatures were the main focus, but as the book progresses within the flashback. the magic take a more prominent roll. Towards the end of the flashback stuff, and when e come back from the flashback I honestly found the magic a bit confusing.

I loved the way everything wrapped up, and I really hope to see more of Reggie in the future. I would HAPPILY continue to read about more of their adventures with the paranormal… and the normal… and I really hope Mira’s book gets the enthusiast reception it deserves! I would recommend this one to any and all chupacabra enthusiasts looking for a cozy read that’ll tug at your heartstrings… while making you laugh out loud A LOT.

[J. Blake Myersmann]

I adored the first two parts of this book. Found family monster-hunting travelogues are my jam, and the cast was SO unique. A non-binary investigator with a mysterious past, a chupacabra/alien in the form of a toddler with a foul mouth, and a Scully-esque thirst trap podcaster with a heart of gold, all traveling in a magic Winnnebago that's bigger on the inside and contains its own cast of minor freaks? Sign me up! The dynamic between Reggie and Calvin is delicious, both from a practical (I need to hide the real magic from this skeptic) and the romantic.

The mysteries are compelling and the action sequences are exciting and visceral! This novel is just dripping with character, and even the single-scene "NPCs" feel three-dimensional (please help me with my haunted vaccuum - I've tried everything, including reading the instructions). Reggie would fit right in with Sam and Dean Winchester, and their episode of Supernatural would be one of the best in the series, I'm positive.

But when the third part began and we flashed back to Reggie's abusive DECADES with the Agency the entire book screeches to a halt. It's not that this section is poorly written - there are some beautiful passages and I feel like it's a grounded description of parental abuse, but it just doesn't fit with the story I'd been reading. I struggled a lot, and nearly made it to the end of the flashback chapters, but I eventually had to stop. When I realized that 1) this had become a completely different book over the course of this QUARTER of the page count, and 2) that it could not going to go back to the kind of book it was in the first half when we eventually jumped back to the present.

I generally don't review books that I don't finish, but since NetGalley and the publisher were so gracious to provide an ARC, I was convinced to adjust that personal rule. Perhaps there's still time to adjust before publication, perhaps not, but at least folks will know going in. If you enjoy the extended flashbacks for the immortals in Buffy and Angel, or perhaps the Six Months Ago episode of Heroes, you may like this book!

[Carmen]

I received a copy from Bindery Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Reggie enjoys life on the road in their beat up old Winnebago. It’s not exactly a normal RV… and their daughter may or may not be a Chupacabra. They spend their days investigating all things paranormal while making sure their so-called mortal enemy and paranormal podcaster crush, Calvin, doesn’t stumble on anything legit. Things were going well until the anti-supernatural agency that Reggie’s been hiding from finally catches up to them, and their poor daughter, Eldi, is caught in the cross-fire! Now Reggie is ready to put everything on the line as long as they’re able to help Eldi escape to safety.

While I enjoyed reading this, I felt like the story was told out of order. We follow Reggie through the book, which is told in five parts. The first half was one crazy and wild ride that’s told in two parts. There was so much going on that it occasionally got overwhelming, but I was fully entertained and having a great time while reading it. Part 3 was totally out of place and should’ve actually been part 1. I was extremely confused at first because the story suddenly jumped into a very serious prequel detailing years of parental abuse without warning.

Other than this feeling like three books squished into one while being told slightly out of order, I did enjoy reading this. Just prepare to get your heart stomped on several times! I highly recommend starting with part 3 and then read parts 1-2 and 4-5. Trust me, it will make so much more sense this way!

[Stacey Markle]

I really didn't anticipate loving this story as much as I have. I mean what's not to love about a toddler who isn't exactly as she seems, a sentient RV, werewolves, science and magic, and a very cool main character in Reggie. Oh and don't forget aliens because why not?!?
Strange Lights has all the found family vibes I look for and while this is a little cozy, it's much higher stakes than that. It has an edge and looks closely at what being human means.
The characters are all so very readable. Reggie and Eldi, joined by Calvin and a cast of characters like the twin Roombas (Dave and Doug), Manny and of course the undead Raccoon. What fun!!
I think this was really well done and other than a few rough-ish spots, I was happy with the time I spent in this paranormal, scifi world.

I was lucky enough to be able to do an immersive read with the audiobook as well and the narrators Rico Ortiz and Nick Walther did a fabulous job with all the different character.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bindery Books and of course, RBMedia for the opportunity to read/listen and review this title. My thoughts are my own.

[Cara]

Strange Lights is such a unique story following a paranormal investigator, a chupacabra toddler, and a podcaster-turned-werewolf. If that doesn't hook your attention, there are also mysterious Roombas creating crop circles and a magical Winnebago.

The characters are the best part of this book by far. Reggie and Eldi make a great team, and I also loved Calvin. This is a great read for anyone who loves cryptids and possible alien lore. There are plenty of comedic moments but also a great found family formed.

My only critique is that it was overly long at times. I appreciate the backstories in the latter half of the book, but they slowed the plot and could have been condensed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Kels Taylor]

I would like to start by expressing my gratitude to NetGalley and Bindery Books for granting me access to this ARC. Additionally, I want to thank the author for crafting such a cool and cosmic story; I truly enjoyed it!

Summary - A story revolving around Eldi, a chupacabra adopted by Reggie, a paranormal investigator who has retired from a hectic past, only to be thrown back in when strange UFO activities start happening. She has to face old enemies, an anti-supernatural agency, and Calvin, an old nemesis turned friend turned lover? What happens when he threatens her strict rules of no romantic attachments? Oh, and he has turned into a werewolf. Together, they must protect those they love against the threat that will tear them apart. Follow Reggie, Eldi, and Calvin on a paranormal adventure to save worlds.


Thoughts - As soon as I saw this on NetGalley and that it was from Bindery Books, I knew I wanted to read it. Cryptids and paranormal activity? Yes, please! It started off great, and I loved it so much. The world of cryptids with chupacabras, werewolves, and the adventure of riding around in a Winnebago to investigate activity was such a fun vibe. I loved the different relationships created and the dysfunctional elements portrayed within the story. I, however, did find Reggie extremely frustrating as a character. I understand the reason for her being the way she is; however, I found her character development slow. That was the only downside to this, and maybe not enough cryptids. The first part was great, but as it dove deeper into the story, it kind of veered away from those elements and more toward everyone's backstories.


Now, while I normally hate being in the middle of a book and then suddenly being thrown into the past with backstories, the author did well in how this book was written. I was always captured within the pages, and the little twists and mysteries really emphasised the plot. Mira created complex yet vulnerable characters in her process, and each was relatable in some way, even when they had many layers. The worldbuilding and the paranormal parts of this book were outstanding.

While I do not want to give away spoilers, I will say that in this book, the relationships were frustrating and brilliant all in one. As I said, I felt Reggie's character development was quite frustrating; she often felt as if she had a chip on her shoulder. She was always negative, almost mean, and unnecessary in parts. I just wanted her to chill. That being said, I didn’t hate her at all, and I empathised with her after finding out her past. I just wish she weren’t so "woe is me" right until the very end. I loved how the author wrote about Reggie's family and past—very clever and well done.

The relationship between Eldi and Reggie was both cute, heartwarming, and sad. I loved that she adopted her, and their bond really showed, as well as the love they expressed in their own ways. It wasn’t easy for either of them, and with Eldi's lack of vocabulary, it was hard for them to communicate, but they both cherished one another, and Reggie really stepped up as a mother to Eldi.

It was also sweet Eldi was attached to her toy goat and her relationships with the mismatched weird creatures within the Winnebago. The whole magical RV and its counterparts really made the fun and exciting elements pop, especially when Reggie and Eldi went werewolf hunting and paranormal investigating. Speaking of werewolves, they take center stage in the story, especially when Calvin accidentally transforms into one. He sneaks after Reggie and Eldi to a werewolf pack, attempting to protect Reggie as chaos ensues and gets bit. This marks the beginning of Calvin's adventures in the supernatural realm. It’s particularly amusing that Calvin runs a podcast aimed at debunking the existence of the paranormal and supernatural.I think he will have to change his content.

Calvin and Reggie were an ideal pairing, and I initially felt a pang of sadness for him because, honestly, Reggie was quite challenging. However, as their relationship blossomed throughout the story, it was wonderful to witness how Calvin helped Reggie emerge from her shell. Their love was unique, and in the best possible way—especially with Luca joining the mix. Reggie and her sisters, truly embodied the essence of sisterhood. Although they weren’t related by blood, their bond was unbreakable; no one could take that away from them.

But I think what really made this story stand out from it all was Orion's backstory and what Eldi and Orion went through when they were just babies themselves. The brutality of it and how this was such a big part of the book, with so many backstories and the main story starting differently from where it finished, the Orion backstory was the link to bring them all into place, helping readers to understand what was happening and how it all fit into the main plot. It gave you a much clearer understanding of the antagonist, the relationship between all characters, and the answers to a lot of questions. It was a different sort of sci-fi paranormal plot that I enjoy immensely.

[Laura]

I was hooked at the beginning of the story. I was enthralled with Reggie and Eldie’s story. Reggie is a spitfire and I loved the story. But, then it switched stories and followed two different POVs, it was like 3 stories mashed into one and I wasn’t prepared for that. I love Reggie so much that I wanted more and I wasn’t ready I guess to follow two other characters within this world. So I was honestly a bit put off and thrown for a loop. I didn’t have any former connection with the other characters and that brought my experience down unfortunately.
The narrators, Vico Ortiz, and Nick Walther did an amazing job portraying Reggie, Eldie, and several other characters. They kept me engaged when I struggled and kept me listening till the end. The tones and inflections were great.

A very special thank you to Recorded Books for the gifted ALC.

[Jane B]

4⭐️
Thank you RBmedia and NetGalley for an advanced listening copy of this wonderful novel by Mira González. Between the excellent narration and the compelling characters this book was just so fun, exciting, and had the most satisfying ending. Eldi reminded me of both Lilo and Stitch were one single being, and Calvin was my favorite character. The podcast snippets at the beginnings of the chapters were some of my favorite parts.

[Libby]

Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery Books for the ARC!

Strange Lights is big, bold, and full of heart, even while dealing with the darkest of subjects. If you like ambitious sci-fi world building, found family, and the power of friendship, love, and family winning against all obstacles, this is the book for you!

The vibe at the beginning of this book was absolutely immaculate, perfectly matching the feel of the beautiful cover. The story focuses on the found family vibes between the main character, Reggie, her adopted chupacabra child Eldi, and her rival-turned-friend Calvin. I loved every part of the section where they’re on the road, especially the magical, TARDIS-like Winnebago! The descriptions of the magical rooms, the little details of their life on the road, and their paranormal investigations, were all so so good! I actually am in this slightly odd position of wishing we could’ve stayed with the travelling camping found family vibe for much longer, despite enjoying the other parts of this book - I suppose that speaks to how much I loved this vibe!

Speaking of found family, this book places it front and centre, with perhaps the strongest force in this book's universe being our bonds of love to each other. I was totally won over by the hopeful tone of this book, and how the power of love is key to solving things at the end. While I do love thoughtful explorations of the perils of the dark forest idea, I also love anti-dark forest narratives that envision hopeful, friendly contact with alien life, which this novel does to a T. There was a lot of ambitious worldbuilding in this book, which while it sometimes veered close to being a little too much, I definitely admired the author’s vision in getting it all to work together. I absolutely loved the idea of magic being scientifically explained as leftover energy from the cosmos!

However, I think the strongest part of this novel was the characters. There were some structural and writing quibbles which I’ll mention below, but these kind of paled into insignificance to me because González made me just love the characters so much! I loved the range of people she included, and how each character practically jumped off the page with personality the moment they were introduced. González has a knack for making you understand exactly what each character is about the moment they’re introduced, and making you feel for them. The section in which the alien boy Orion’s backstory was shown was so heartbreaking it literally made me cry!

This grasp of characters was really shown off to its best extent with the antagonist and her relationship with Reggie. González creates a really realistic portrayal of abusive parenting; it hurt, it made me angry at both the antagonist and FMC at times, but everything about it made horrible, twisted sense. You could see exactly how Reggie got her twisted vision of herself, and I’m glad she was able to break out of it. The genius of the plot, though, was that as much as González made me hate the antagonist’s guts throughout the first sections, she then showed all these other sides to her, making her into a complicated, tragic-yet-abusive figure. At the end of the novel I was caught between mourning for all she’d suffered while still hating her for everything she did wrong. A++ way to do an antagonist!

I was kept guessing by the plot until the very end; it was amazing to see the story go in so many directions I didn’t expect! González was great at giving me enough clues to work some things out, while also keeping me guessing at what was really going on; I totally didn’t guess the antagonist’s motivation until the reveal, but then it made perfect, if horrible, sense.

Also, maybe a small thing, but the dream/nightmare sequences were so good in this novel. Finally, someone who understands how to accurately portray the weird, surreal nature of an actual nightmare, where what happens is symbolic of the character’s fears, rather than just being obvious representations that could happen in the real world! Adored the accuracy of this.

And I’m always here for threesome/polyam rep!!

There were a few things that knocked my rating down from a perfect five stars, though I’ll say upfront that they didn’t detract from my reading experience all that much. The prose in places could be a little choppy, and there were moments where the author was technically telling and not showing for large sections (though, to be honest, she had got me so interested in the characters by that point that it didn’t particularly bother me). There were parts where Reggie chastising herself for her flaws, and also the arguments between the sisters and their mother, got repetitive and a bit boring. I could see that the author was trying to realistically portray Reggie’s personal issues, but reading the same thing multiple times, or reading extended conversations where people were saying the same things and it became hard to track what was going on, got to be a bit of a drag. I did think there was no way to fully show the effect Adele’s horrible parenting had on Reggie and her sisters except the extended flashback, but I can definitely see why others said it threw off the rhythm of the book. I had become invested enough by then to push through it, but that section could’ve been trimmed quite substantially imo.

One of the main problems was that there was just a lot going on in this novel. At some points it felt like “wow, this is so ambitious, look at this author go!” but at others it seemed that too many things were being squeezed into the metaphorical suitcase. Characters were one of these areas; I’m not especially sure we needed two characters who were Reggie’s point of contact in the paranormal investigators organisation, and I’m not sure Reggie really needed two sisters when the story would’ve worked well enough with one. Having Meredith there as well felt redundant, because she and Zara essentially performed the same narrative function of helping Reggie from the inside, and introducing Meredith was the main thing that made the backstory flashback go on for too long. There were other moments where the narrative really needed to linger longer, to describe more, where it instead barrelled ahead, making some things feel skimmed over. The ending was one of these moments; the whole area really needed more description and weirdness to come alive and make it feel impactful as the big set piece for the ending of the novel.

This is a pretty specific quibble, but there was also one really clunky moment in the final reveal that stood out to me like a sore thumb. The antagonist told Reggie everything, but for some reason the author decided to first conceal the specifics from the reader by only saying “and then [antagonist] told me everything”… only to then have the antagonist tell the whole cast (and by extension the reader) everything in the next chapter. This was an incredibly clunky way to go about things, especially as we’re in a tight first person POV in the protagonist’s head. There seemed to be no narrative reason behind Reggie learning these secrets before the reader and the other characters; in fact, doing it this way muted the impact of this final reveal, because we didn’t get to experience her initial moment by moment reactions. It was such a strange, unnecessary choice that seemed to serve no purpose but to fill page time that could have been much better used elsewhere. It stuck out to me so much that I just had to go on a little rant about it!

In all, though, I really enjoyed Strange Lights, devouring the whole book over the course of just one day. The characters jumped up and grabbed me by the heart, and I got so invested in seeing where their journey took them and hoping they got their happy ending. The camping section was my favourite, the found family vibes were immaculate throughout, and González even had me crying and feeling genuinely touched that even her antagonist got her happy ending. There is so much heart in this novel, I think it wins over any structural problems. I’m very interested to see what the author does next, and I’d highly recommend you pick this one up!