Book Review: Impossible Creatures

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2024).

When Impossible Creatures hit it big in Great Britain last year, it was hailed by many as a modern classic, in the tradition of some of the greatest British storytellers of modern times. That’s a lot for a story to live up to.

Now that the book has made it across the pond, I won’t attempt to make that judgment myself—it’s generally a good idea to wait and see if a book stands the test of time before declaring it a true classic. But I will say that Katherine Rundell is a powerful and moving storyteller. In Impossible Creatures, she gives us two adventurous young protagonists, Christopher and Mal, and sends them on a quest with hair-raising twists and turns in a beautiful but dangerous world (gorgeously illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie).

The story comes at you fast. On the first page, something is trying to eat Christopher; on the second page, someone is trying to murder Mal. Thrown into the middle of major events, and then suddenly drawn backward in time to be given some backstory, the reader may feel a little out of his or her depth at first. But Rundell’s narrative effectively pulls us in as it races along. At the same time, she has a gift for striking turns of phrase. “Stars shone down on the murderers’ streets” is one example that sticks in my mind.

The children at the center of the story are instantly appealing: clever, loyal, and magnificently brave (if a little bit prone to nose-picking). The adult characters aren’t fleshed out as fully, but they too have their virtues and their appeal. And as the title indicates, the story is filled with strange and wondrous animals, most of them drawn directly out of old myths and legends, but several of them given all kinds of new quirks and traits that allow them to aid the children in their quest.

Impossible Creatures is life-affirming in many ways, but not lighthearted. Some dark and difficult tasks are required of the children they seek to discover why the animals and the environment in Mal’s world are beginning to suffer from a mysterious malady. And Rundell doesn’t shy away from killing off her characters—even major characters. You should go into this one expecting your heart to take a beating.

It may be too early to say whether Impossible Creatures and its forthcoming sequels will become classics. But it’s fair to say that Rundell has taken old traditions and tropes and done something new and exciting with them.

(Cover image copyright Knopf Books for Young Readers.)

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