Publication Date: February 10th, 2026
Hardcover. 320 pages.
“Unique, haunting, riveting, and beautifully magical.”—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop
“Anderson has conceived of such a rich world, and such a textured mythology. I can’t remember a time when cryptids felt more . . . real.”—Justin McElroy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Adventure Zone series
Green trips on the curb, falls flat into the street, and sees the city bus speeding toward him. And then . . . blink. He’s back on the curb, miraculously still alive. A five-foot-tall crow watches him from atop a nearby sign, somehow unseen by the rushing crowd of morning commuters.
Desperate for answers and beset by more visions of impossible creatures, Green finds his way to a remote campsite in the Appalachian Mountains, where he meets a centuries-old teacher and begins an apprenticeship unlike anything he could imagine.
Under his new mentor’s grouchy tutelage, Green studies the time-bending rag moth, the glass fawn, and the menacing horned wolf. He begins to see past hidden nature’s terrors and glimpse its beauty, all while befriending fellow misfits—and finding connection and community.
Along the way come clues about the forces that set him on this path—and, most incredibly, a sense of purpose and fulfillment like nothing he’s felt before.
But Green’s new happiness promises to be short-lived, because alongside these marvels lurks a deadly threat to this place he’s already come to love.
Creepy, cozy, and beautiful, Strange Animals is a fantasy about home, belonging, and the fearfully wonderous nature all around us."
This was such a unique and interesting book.
We meet Green as he is journeying to the Appalachian mountains after abruptly departing from his old life in search of something new. On his first night, he encounters otherworldly moths, strange—but highly endearing—characters, and even more haunting, ethereal creatures that leave him feeling entirely out of his depth. Soon, he ends up in the hands of Valentina, a woman who studies the cryptonatural world—a world Green has now been swept up in.
I found Strange Animals it to be very much a "live in the present" type of story. We are essentially dumped into this narrative alongside Green in his current situation. While we get tiny bits and pieces about his past and how he came to be there, there is no heavy focus on his history in this book, other than one very key past event that has led Green to be on his endeavor. I honestly found that to be a bit of a breath of fresh air, as I find many books get bogged down in backstory, whereas this one felt free to just move forward with Green on this very weird journey.
Along those same lines, we are meant to simply accept and move on with different events in the story, just as Green is expected to do. There is a strikingly eerie quality to this book, overlaid with such wonder and intrigue that I couldn't tear my eyes away from the pages and the possibilities that lay within them. I was enamored by the ideas of these cryptids, this "otherworld," and the endless opportunity of it all.
I also really loved all of the characters. I don't think there was anyone I didn't like, and I can’t say how nice it was to read a book without annoying characters or traditional villains. Green, Dancer, and Valentina are all brilliant and amusing in their own right, though my favorites had to be the two gas station employees, X and X. They stole every scene they were in, and I suspect there is more to those two than meets the eye--or maybe they are exactly as depicted, which also feel enigmatic and delightful.
There's a lot that happens in this book, but it's also a "quiet" story in some ways. It’s very thoughtful and explores some deeper themes. I really loved Strange Animals' focus on the natural world and how it is full of such endless marvels that we, as humans, could never fully understand, and the idea that we don’t need to understand them, yet we can still exist and belong in this world with them. Although some elements of this book could be interpreted as pessimistic, I actually think this book has an overarchingly positive, beautiful tone that overrides the darkness. It seems to me to accept that there is balance in this world of known and unknown, and darkness and light, and all the grey areas between, and that resonated a lot with me. It left me feeling like there is so much more to this world than we can know, and that is a wonderful thing. And also, that we must do what we can to protect this world and any other, whatever that means.
The writing itself completely captured me as well and made me want to read more from Jarod K. Anderson. There were bits of narrative and dialogue that I had to re-read and highlight because I found them so relevant, striking, and beautifully written. If you pick up Strange Animals (which you should!), make sure not to rush through it so you can really enjoy Anderson’s prose, as it’s really half the beauty of this story, at least in my opinion.
Overall, I really enjoyed this weird, imaginative, and intriguing novel. I don't think it's going to be for everyone, but I think plenty of people will appreciate it and have as great a time with it as I did.
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