FERAL CREATURES by Kira Jane Buxton – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton
Series: Hollow Kingdom #2
Published by Grand Central Publishing on August 24 2021
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 368
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Kira Jane Buxton does it again in this funny and poignant follow up to Hollow Kingdom, a unique genre mash-up that made me laugh and cry.

I had been wrong to call Dee a flower. Dee was not a flower; she was a fucking weed. Beautiful and tenacious as a tiger. Misunderstood and mislabeled. Spiny and spiraling unapologetically toward life. Flowers live in short, delicate bursts, but Dee had thorns and tangled roots and would fight for every chance at a life. Blackberry bush’s darling pride. My, my, what a beautiful and deadly thing she was growing into.

Kira Jane Buxton is a gift to the writing community, and I’m so grateful to have experienced her wisdom and humor once again. Her sparkling prose brings the story to life, and her love and respect for animals leaps off the page. Just as she did in Hollow Kingdom, Buxton manages to combine humor, emotion, horror and thoughtful moments of beauty together into one thrilling adventure, told in the unique voice of a crow who was raised by a human.

You must read Hollow Kingdom first, as this is a direct sequel and references many of the events and characters from that book. And there will be mild spoilers for the first book, so do beware!

Note: “MoFo” is S.T.’s word for “human.”

Once again, the story is narrated by the intrepid potty-mouthed, MoFo-loving crow known as Shit Turd, or S.T. for short. The story picks up about a decade or so after the events of Hollow Kingdom, when S.T. left his beloved home of Seattle, Washington for Alaska. The first book ended with S.T. finding a baby MoFo, the last human on earth, and since then he has been protecting and raising his “nestling,” a girl named Dee, along with a group of owls and a musk ox named Oomingmak. S.T. is determined to raise Dee to be a proper MoFo, but Dee has an almost magical connection with the natural world and is able to communicate with bees and birds and even flowers. As the years go by, S.T. is afraid that his fervent teachings about the glorious wonders of the MoFo world have become lost on Dee, as she becomes more and more of a wild child.

But in a changed world without humans, overrun by grotesque creatures, their idyllic life can’t last forever, and one day their lives implode when an unexpected disaster forces them to flee their safe cabin in the woods. Even more distressing, S.T. has lost touch with the Aura, the communication network he shares with other birds. Back in Seattle, S.T. is terrified at how much his city has changed—his murder is gone, and everywhere are the Changed Ones, hideously malformed creatures who used to be MoFos. The creatures seem to want Dee for some nefarious purpose, and S.T. knows that a crow with a broken wing is going to need a lot of help to keep her safe.

I have to admit I loved Hollow Kingdom just a little bit more than Feral Creatures, although I’m still giving this five stars because it deserves it. And I think part of the reason is that Dennis (S.T.’s beloved bloodhound friend) isn’t in this story. Luckily, S.T. does a lot of reminiscing, so we do get a few sweet memories of the times spent with Dennis. And because S.T. has raised Dee on stories about Big Jim and Dennis, it was as if he was keeping Dennis’ memory alive. We also learn more about Big Jim—S.T.’s human owner who turned into a zombie—and his sometimes girlfriend Tiffany S. from Tinder (that’s how S.T. always refers to her). S.T.’s love of his MoFos hasn’t died with them, and he often manages to slip memories of them into the conversation.

Once again, animal lovers will really connect with this story, especially if you love animal POV narratives, like Watership Down, for example. And boy does Buxton give us a bunch of animals! There are plenty of new ones (Tom Hanks the cockatoo and Oomingmak the musk ox were two of my favorites!), and we are reunited with some old favorites from Hollow Kingdom as well (like Orange the Orangutan).

Just like she did in Hollow Kingdom, Buxton includes short chapters from the points of view of various creatures besides S.T., mostly as a way to show how the apocalypse is affecting the wider world. For example, we hear from a baby humpback whale in Western Australia and a Myrmarachne jumping spider from Borneo. My favorite was Nubbins, a Scottish donkey with a lovely brogue. Other than acting as nice interludes, these short chapters seem to reinforce Buxton’s theme of climate change and how it’s threatening the world, a serious topic that I think works well up against some of the more lighthearted moments.

But as far as themes go, this is really a story about parenthood and watching your child grow up and leave the nest (so to speak). For most of the story, S.T. is determined to raise Dee as the MoFo he knows she can be, a human who loves all the human things that S.T. loves. And the more Dee fights S.T., the more wild and animal-like she becomes. As Dee slips further away from him—for example, she refuses to speak MoFo but rather buzzes like the bees or caws like the crows—both S.T. and Dee seem to sink into a depression, what S.T. calls “the Black Tide.” It isn’t until much later in the story, and the wise counsel of some of S.T.’s animal friends, that he realizes how miserable he’s making her. There is a wonderful moment at the end of the book between the two, an emotional connection that both broke my heart and gave me warm fuzzies, and it’s these moments I treasure most from this book.

Fans of Hollow Kingdom need not worry: Feral Creatures is a heartwarming and satisfying follow up from one of the most interesting and unique writers I’ve ever read. Highly recommended for MoFos everywhere.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy. Above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.

Read my review of Hollow Kingdom