Set in Manchester, England, All the Hidden Monsters by Amie Jordan tells the story of werewolves and other supernatural characters who live Downside. One of the author’s favored worlds, Downside is patterned after the tunnels where bodies were often piled during the Bubonic Plague. Here, Jordan imagines a supernatural society who lead alternate lives Upside.
When one of Sage’s friends, Lucinda Hague (aka Lucy), another werewolf that Sage met in the orphanage, shows up dead, Oren Rinallis of the Arcāmum is called in to investigate. Led by Roderick, the Arcānum is a warlock institution comprised of those with powerful magic who uphold law and order throughout the supernatural world. The Arcanum holds files on every supernatural occupant—magic police for a supernatural government. As a human child, Sage always wanted to grow up and become a police officer, so as a young adult, she pesters Roderick for a position, a request he repeatedly denies. “After the deaths of her family, [Sage] cannot imagine any other purpose for herself than trying her best to ensure other children do not grow up like her, orphaned and lost” (182). She refuses to join a police force Upside because she can’t leave P, a poltergeist with whom she has a complicated history.
With Lucy’s death, Sage again offers her skill as a detective in solving the mystery of what turns out to be murder. In a turn of fate and because of Roderick’s vindictive sense of justice in a dispute with Oren, Sage is granted a trial period. Having stated that he works alone, Oren is appalled at having to take on Sage as a partner. Soon, she has enlisted her friends Rhen, Danny, Harland, and P to collaborate on solving the mystery amidst several other deaths in what appears to be a serial killer.
Although not written in the same style as Stephanie Meyers in her Twilight series, Jordan does pen a love story as the mystery of a werewolf killer plays out. Sage finds herself trusting her safety to Oren, who himself is a killer whom she simultaneously despises. As the two unravel the clues, they realize they have more in common than not. Both were orphaned at age eight, both fill the gaps of their loneliness with guilt and grief and self-loathing, and both seek to take back control with a sense of purpose.
At the story’s conclusion, the reader will likely experience surprise when the killer is revealed, hidden in plain sight. Readers also come to accept that some obstacles can’t be fixed with violence.
- Donna