Audiobook Review – The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander, Narrated by Courtney Patterson (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Alternate History
Length: 2 hours and 1 minute
Publisher:‎ Tantor Audio
Release Date: October 18, 2019
ASIN: B07Z9KYMXL
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Early in the twentieth 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 and publicly put to death by electricity.

These are matters of historical fact.

Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternative history of rage, radioactivity, and wrongs crying out to be righted. Brace yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling cruelties both grand and petty while searching for meaning and justice.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from the library.

Thoughts: I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. It combines some intriguing elements from history into an alternate history that is witty, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

A woman works at a radium plant even after the settlement, knowing it is killing her. She needs the money, and her new job is a unique one; she is teaching sentient elephants how to do the painting of the face clocks that used to be done by girls. Meanwhile, in the future humans are trying to bargain with the elephants, the very descendants of the elephants that were used so horribly.

This is a combined retelling of the elephant electrocution that happened on Coney Island and the Radium girls that died working in radium plants; both true historical events that are combined in this crazy world with sentient elephants that have a rich mythology. It is a different story and a bit odd; I am not sure I fully understood everything that happened. However, I will keep thinking about it for a long time and really enjoyed my time reading it.

The characters from the girl to the elephants are incredibly well done and easy to engage with. The bouncing back and forth between past and present was a bit confusing at first but beautifully done. The story feels somewhat unfinished, but somehow that feels right for this story. The dialogue is highly entertaining and witty. Bad things happen here, but they are strangely full of heart. The story seemed to have a lot of contradictions and does a wonderful job of drawing parallels to issues we are fighting against still today (workers rights, animal conservation, etc). This very short novella packs a lot of punch and story into a small space which takes a lot of skill and is something I always enjoy.

I listened to this on audiobook, and the audiobook was very well done. I really enjoyed the narration. I would definitely recommend listening to this on audiobook if you enjoy audiobooks.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I really enjoyed this. I was pleasantly surprised at how complex, witty, and entertaining this short novella was. I will definitely check out more of Bolander’s stories. It takes a lot of skill to pack such a thought-provoking, witty, and entertaining story into such a small page space. I loved how Bolander combines some historical elements and reimagines them with elements of the fantastic.