Early Reviews & Long Gone Animals
As promised, the Unnatural History newsletter is here to provide a novel mix of history, crime, science, and mystery. I wasn’t expecting to span the gamut quite so comprehensively so soon, but here you go: A Scientific American article I wrote this week about the possible de-extinction of the dodo. See below for a quick story about this surreal proposition—one I will return to again.
But first, some great news for Ghosts of the Orphanage. Prepublication reviews in the US are really important. Book reviewers, book sellers, librarians and other industry people read them to get a sense of what’s coming down the pipeline. Attention in Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, or Library Journal can be incredibly helpful. A starred review in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal is even better. Excerpts below.
Last but not least, up top, a relaunch of sorts, with the new Unnatural History banner, designed by the very talented, hard-working, Shejal. Check out her work here.
Prepublication Reviews for Ghosts of the Orphanage
Publishers Weekly
★ Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice
Journalist Kenneally (The Invisible History of the Human Race) paints a beyond disturbing picture of human cruelty in this shocking exposé of decades of abuse of children housed in orphanages across multiple countries in much of the 20th century… This harrowing true crime story is essential, if deeply difficult, reading.
Read the full review at Publishers Weekly.
Kirkus Reviews
When these stories first came to light in the 1990s, notes the author, they were too often dismissed as fabrications, but now, says one reporter, “Finally in 2022…people are willing to hear these stories and believe them.” Kenneally makes a strong case for prosecuting still-living monsters and providing reparations for their still-living victims.
A powerful work of sociological investigation and literary journalism.
Read the full review at Kirkus Reviews.
Library Journal
★ The history of orphanages in the 19th and 20th centuries is secretive, dark, and vast. This thorough account focuses on St. Joseph’s in Vermont, but it also looks at orphanages around the world…. Kenneally (The Invisible History of the Human Race), who spent 10 years investigating the case to get at the truth, provides firsthand accounts, transcripts of court depositions, and many other official records to detail the children’s trauma, which is clearly not used for shock value.
VERDICT An important look into the dark past of orphanages globally. It’s also a deep dive into the ways these horrific stories were kept out of the public eye for so long.
Read the full review at Library Journal
A Dodo-Like Animal
Colossal Biosciences, the headline-grabbing, venture-capital-funding juggernaut of de-extinction science, announced plans on Tuesday to bring back the dodo. Whether “bringing back” a semblance of the extinct flightless bird is feasible is a matter of debate.
…
In the world of extinct animals, the dodo carries some heavy symbolic weight. Native to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, it went extinct in the mid-to late 17th century, after humans arrived on the island. The ungainly bird, which stood around one meter tall and weighed about 15 to 20 kilograms, represents a particular kind of evolutionary misfortune: It should have been afraid of humans, but it wasn’t. The birds blithely walked up to sailors, so received history goes, and didn’t flinch as their peers were killed around them. The dodoes, which reproduced by laying a single egg on the ground, were also predated by other species, such as monkeys and rats, which humans brought with them. Now the creature represents extinction itself—you can’t get deader than a dodo.
Read the full article at Scientific American (free sign in).