Book Review: Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson

Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 10, 2026)

Length: 320 pages

Author Information: Website | Twitter

In all honesty, Jarod K. Anderson’s Strange Animals is not typically the kind of book I would stick with, which is why it surprised me as much as it did. The novel is a strange kind of beast itself, but now I use that term affectionately. As weird and metaphysical and quirkily magical as it is, it somehow managed to overcome my usual struggle with these types of stories.

The novel follows an ordinary guy named Green, whose life suddenly goes completely sideways after a near-death experience involving a bus that most definitely ran him over. But then it also kind of didn’t. Like, what? At the moment of impact, time experienced something like a reset, and Green finds himself alive and well, like his fatal encounter never happened. From then on, he feels pulled towards the Appalachian wilderness, eventually ending up alone at a remote campground with a mysterious little acorn appearing in his pocket and tucked away like a good luck charm.

Not long after arriving, Green also realizes the woods around him are hiding more than he thought possible. He starts seeing things like creatures that shouldn’t exist, such as giant death moths, a fawn that looks like its made of brittle glass, and of course, the terrifying horned wolf that seems intent on stalking him. Fortunately for our discombobulated protagonist, that’s when a fellow camper steps in, an ancient looking woman named Valetina who is clearly more than she seems. She informs Green that his ability to see impossible creatures makes him something called a cryptonaturalist, just like her. She then agrees to take him under her wing, teaching him how to observe and understand the strange new world around him, just as a very real threat begins to emerge from the mountains.

Not gonna lie, the beginning of Strange Animals nearly lost me. To say the intro to this one is completely bizarro is an understatement. Green’s accident and subsequent inexplicable survival read like a fever dream, I had no idea what was going on, and I wasn’t even confident there would be much of a story here. The abstractness made me come close to calling it quits, and if it hadn’t been for Anderson’s easy, welcoming writing style, I very likely would have. Even when things got weird (and trust me, they did), the prose and Green’s personable voice was what kept things grounded and approachable, so I stuck with it. And I’m glad I did. Once the pieces started coming together, it became much easier to settle in, and yes, a coherent plot did eventually materialize.

What really worked for me were the themes. At its heart, Strange Animals is about humankind’s connection to nature and the idea that there’s more to the world than we notice in our day-to-day lives. As we have the ability to adapt the environment to ourselves and not the other way around, we also have the responsibility to act as its guardians. The cryptids in this book aren’t spectacles or monsters to be hunted down; they’re just like the more mundane and earthly animals around them that need conservation and the basic needs to survive. The best part is that none of these messages come across all that heavy-handed since they are universally relatable or simply common sense.

Of course, the characters also helped to sell it. Green is a likeable protagonist, and even as part of the supporting cast, Valentina easily stood out. The dynamic between them is fun, with the two of them playing their respective roles as the slightly in-over-his-head apprentice and the world-weary mentor. While their conversations frequently turn into philosophical discussions, the light humor keeps things from getting too tedious.

In the end, Strange Animals really caught me off guard. Admittedly, it’s a little odd and difficult to categorize, but somehow the novel made its little eccentricities work in its favor. Crazy to think how close I came to abandoning it, but I’m glad I didn’t. For some, it might take a bit of patience to get into, especially if you’re like me and not into the abstract or weird fiction. But stick with it, and you might also be surprised.