Add Unlikely Animals to my list of this year's best quirky books. Much like Lessons in Chemistry, which I compared to a Fredrik Backman novel, Annie Hartnett's Unlikely Animals tells the story of a lot of characters whose lives intermingle in surprising ways.
Emma was born with charmed hands, meaning she could heal people and things. She leaves her small New Hampshire town to go to med school in California, but when she returns home for Thanksgiving, she doesn't bring good news about what she's been doing all these months on the West Coast. However, her problems pale in comparison to what her father is going through - let go from his professorship due to a mysterious degenerative brain disease that causes him to hallucinate and speak to a ghost. Emma's mother is overwhelmed with her husband's diagnosis and keeping tabs on her son, who is home from rehab because of opioid addiction. Adding to the mix is the fact that Emma's best friend from high school has been missing for months.
I know this doesn't make the book sound very lighthearted and happy, but it manages to find the humor in tough situations. Did I mention that the story is also narrated by the ghosts living in the town cemetery? They see all!
Unlikely Animals is published by Ballantine Books and is available to purchase now. I received a free e-ARC.
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