Title: Strange Lights
Author: Mira González
Genre: Sci-fi/fantasy
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Parenting is never easy, but it’s a hell of a lot harder when your toddler is a chupacabra.
Paranormal investigator and cryptozoologist Reggie has embraced her fate as parent to an adopted toddler, Eldi—a blood-sucking chupacabra with a fondness for goats. Reggie wants nothing more than to put her complicated past in the rearview mirror and fade into as much obscurity as her toddler will allow. But a rash of UFOs in the night sky and a couple of crop-circle-carving Roombas force Reggie into an investigation that attracts the attention of an old enemy, an anti-supernatural agency hunting for creatures like Eldi. To outwit them, Reggie must team up with Calvin: a podcaster-turned-werewolf whose charm is a real threat to Reggie’s rule against romantic attachments.
With Reggie’s history quickly catching up to her and Eldi in the agency’s crosshairs, any shred of normalcy evaporates. Reggie must decide: Can she confront her dark past to save Eldi—and an entire alien species—from getting wiped out of the universe?
Me, trying to tell a friend what this book was about, “Werewolves, aliens, chupacabras. Maybe some Men in Black vibes.” There was quite a bit going on here, I’m not going to lie. I loved Eldi! The relationship between her and Reggie was so great! Definitely a relatable parent/child relationship. This felt a little bit like a bad sci-fi movie, but I really liked the characters and the action level.
Mira González lives in Fiji. Strange Lights is her debut novel.
(Galley courtesy of Bindery Books in exchange for an honest review.)
