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Anima: The Bird House
Just getting started in life, Lyall is a young college student trying to balance school and life. When he finds himself affected by a strange condition that causes its victims to slowly change. Wether it is growing feathers or fighting off the hawk’s instincts Lyall is not alone. Meeting a group of other avian hybrids, Lyall will learn that there is more to the transformation than meets the eye, and find out what happens when the final change takes his humanity. Will Lyall save himself? What lies between human and hawk?
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Published October 27, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 13, 2025
This is Eric's debut novel and it delivers on what it might be like to slowly turn into a bird over the course of several months, including the problems, fears, sorrows, and, ultimately, the joys of becoming something new.
The story is written from the first-person perspective of Lyle, an average young man who is living at home while attending community college. A syndrome, known as Anima, is striking humans randomly and causing them to gradually transform into any of a variety of animals. The process varies for each individual, sometimes moving quickly, often taking months to years, but always, inevitably, completely transforming them into their destination animal. How the syndrome spreads (or if it is a communicable disease at all), how it works, and how the destination species is selected are completely unknown. Those so stricken immediately find themselves ostracized by society and, so, form their own support groups and rely on help from out-of-network health care providers who are dedicated to serving these special cases.
Lyle learns early on that his destination species is a red-tailed hawk. The process starts with minor things such as eye color and visual acuity, but soon progresses, in stages, to growing a tail, feathered torso, a beak, and so on over the course of about four months. He falls in with a group of other "hybrids" in a sort of halfway house where they share their experiences and offer emotional and physical support to each other during the frightening and difficult adjustments that occur with each phase of change. Lyle makes new friends, gives and receives support, and, ultimately, must watch his friends pass into their final animal forms. Whether they still possess human emotions or memories is completely unknown, adding to the anxiety of their ordeals.
As a person who has, his whole life, desired to be a bird, I love this book. There are many ways to tell the story of what a journey into being another animal might be like, but I think that Eric has chosen the most relatable one. Lyle is completely clueless about birds and is surprised by every new layer of change and describes the experience in non-technical terms that anyone would understand. This perspective will be relatable to more than just those of us that are dedicated transformation-lovers. At the same time, his fear of losing his humanity is acutely apparent, both as he changes and his friends change around him. Their final moments of transformation are both frightening and beautiful, much like dying from the perspective of their friends. Eric handles these emotions wonderfully and ultimately has crafted a deeply personal journey into what it means to be human, even if we lose our outward humanity.
Whether you are a Therian, a person who carries a feeling of "species dysphoria," or simply someone who fantasizes about being something else, I think you will love this book. There are soft cover and digital editions available on Amazon or from the author. Check it out:
https://anima.ericmalves.com (warning, site may be under construction so be patient)
Disclosure: There was no compensation for this review. This is a copy of a review from my website at https://aetusart.com/blog/hal-s-news-...
The story is written from the first-person perspective of Lyle, an average young man who is living at home while attending community college. A syndrome, known as Anima, is striking humans randomly and causing them to gradually transform into any of a variety of animals. The process varies for each individual, sometimes moving quickly, often taking months to years, but always, inevitably, completely transforming them into their destination animal. How the syndrome spreads (or if it is a communicable disease at all), how it works, and how the destination species is selected are completely unknown. Those so stricken immediately find themselves ostracized by society and, so, form their own support groups and rely on help from out-of-network health care providers who are dedicated to serving these special cases.
Lyle learns early on that his destination species is a red-tailed hawk. The process starts with minor things such as eye color and visual acuity, but soon progresses, in stages, to growing a tail, feathered torso, a beak, and so on over the course of about four months. He falls in with a group of other "hybrids" in a sort of halfway house where they share their experiences and offer emotional and physical support to each other during the frightening and difficult adjustments that occur with each phase of change. Lyle makes new friends, gives and receives support, and, ultimately, must watch his friends pass into their final animal forms. Whether they still possess human emotions or memories is completely unknown, adding to the anxiety of their ordeals.
As a person who has, his whole life, desired to be a bird, I love this book. There are many ways to tell the story of what a journey into being another animal might be like, but I think that Eric has chosen the most relatable one. Lyle is completely clueless about birds and is surprised by every new layer of change and describes the experience in non-technical terms that anyone would understand. This perspective will be relatable to more than just those of us that are dedicated transformation-lovers. At the same time, his fear of losing his humanity is acutely apparent, both as he changes and his friends change around him. Their final moments of transformation are both frightening and beautiful, much like dying from the perspective of their friends. Eric handles these emotions wonderfully and ultimately has crafted a deeply personal journey into what it means to be human, even if we lose our outward humanity.
Whether you are a Therian, a person who carries a feeling of "species dysphoria," or simply someone who fantasizes about being something else, I think you will love this book. There are soft cover and digital editions available on Amazon or from the author. Check it out:
https://anima.ericmalves.com (warning, site may be under construction so be patient)
Disclosure: There was no compensation for this review. This is a copy of a review from my website at https://aetusart.com/blog/hal-s-news-...
July 25, 2023
I just finished the book. Is this his first book? I can’t believe it!
I bought the book after I’ve read some of the pdf file. But scrolling down each time on my tablet to find the page I stopped the last time, is pointless. After I found out about the book , I ordered it without hesitation. I wanted to read the full story.
One word is not enough to describe how much effort is been put in this work!
Each single characters is fleshed out thoughtfully. Not one is just for ‘filling in’ . that made the story even more believable! I liked every one of them!
The mental as well psychical changes that Lyall goes through were vividly described .
Through the whole story, you can feel what he’s feeling.
the emotions , problems , struggles and friendship with the others while going through this , up to the end , are so real. It felt like it could be happening here , to anyone, in OUR world!
The (bird)anatomy and behavior is another thing worth mentioning . the author did an AMAZING job on this ! It’s actually very rare to read about in books with ‘transformation’ themes.
Going into so much detail, and actually know how a bird works. I ( a bird freak myself!) found it such a joy to read . is the author actually a human? Or at least former-human? It almost seemed written from bird perspective…
the characters, transformations, friendships .. etc. All intertwined in one stunning story!
There are some minor text issues (some uncompleted words, missing a ‘dot’ sign somewhere a few times) , but not that big to disturb my reading :). I truly enjoyed it, finished inside a week ( the book I mean!)
I hope the book reach many people all around the world .
I Wish the author luck with (hopefully ) more future stories !
I bought the book after I’ve read some of the pdf file. But scrolling down each time on my tablet to find the page I stopped the last time, is pointless. After I found out about the book , I ordered it without hesitation. I wanted to read the full story.
One word is not enough to describe how much effort is been put in this work!
Each single characters is fleshed out thoughtfully. Not one is just for ‘filling in’ . that made the story even more believable! I liked every one of them!
The mental as well psychical changes that Lyall goes through were vividly described .
Through the whole story, you can feel what he’s feeling.
the emotions , problems , struggles and friendship with the others while going through this , up to the end , are so real. It felt like it could be happening here , to anyone, in OUR world!
The (bird)anatomy and behavior is another thing worth mentioning . the author did an AMAZING job on this ! It’s actually very rare to read about in books with ‘transformation’ themes.
Going into so much detail, and actually know how a bird works. I ( a bird freak myself!) found it such a joy to read . is the author actually a human? Or at least former-human? It almost seemed written from bird perspective…
the characters, transformations, friendships .. etc. All intertwined in one stunning story!
There are some minor text issues (some uncompleted words, missing a ‘dot’ sign somewhere a few times) , but not that big to disturb my reading :). I truly enjoyed it, finished inside a week ( the book I mean!)
I hope the book reach many people all around the world .
I Wish the author luck with (hopefully ) more future stories !
January 8, 2026
This was a story of slow transformation that I feel was done very well. The gradual change over several months was a really interesting story, and kept up a lot of intrigue throughout.
I feel like this story wanted to lean more into the psychological horror aspects at times, but didn't quite go for it. As a consequence of the premise, the stories of a few side characters end a bit abruptly.
Some of the technical prose was a little rough and could use some extra work, but this didn't personally detract from the story for me.
If you like slow burn transformation stories that flirt with a lot of horror tones, then this could be a great read for you.
I feel like this story wanted to lean more into the psychological horror aspects at times, but didn't quite go for it. As a consequence of the premise, the stories of a few side characters end a bit abruptly.
Some of the technical prose was a little rough and could use some extra work, but this didn't personally detract from the story for me.
If you like slow burn transformation stories that flirt with a lot of horror tones, then this could be a great read for you.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews