Review of The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

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Synopsis: "In the early years of the 20th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.

These are the facts.

Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice."

My Review: This is way outside my normal comfort zone but being a relatively short read and it was offered as a free download, I thought I would give it a try. I found it to be a really interesting alternate history. I remember hearing only briefly at some point about Topsy so I like that it took a minor side history and brought it to light. I absolutely loved the perspective of the elephants and the way their family network and history is presented. It was certainly an interesting and intriguing story to read, though I did feel like it was incomplete at the end, yes we know what happened to Topsy, but the rest of the fabricated events needed just a little more conclusion for me. Definitely worth giving it a try if you have a little time and are looking for something new and unique.

My Rating: This one was really outside my comfort zone but I try to push those limits from time to time and short stories are a great way to try something new.  While I did struggle a bit to wrap my head around it at the beginning, I ended up really enjoying this book even with the dark subject.  I give it a rating of Three Paws.