This is a book that I was convinced to pick up after reading many positive reviews of it through Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, and I’m so happy I did! Now that I’ve read it, I’m going to link it back up and see what else people are reading.

Little Monsters

by Máire Roche

Aladdin, 2026.

ISBN 9781665988643.

Read from a library copy

Thus opens this contemporary fantasy re-envisioning of Little Women, told solidly from Meg’s point of view and set in Salem, Massachusets. As the oldest of the four (all pale-skinned), Meg has made it her job to keep the orphaned sisters together, trying to keep all of them happy and out of the way so that their foster family won’t send them away. As the story opens, that means the 13-year-old is trying to find odd jobs to earn enough money to buy costumes. But always it means trying to keep their secrets hidden – and all of them have very awkward, very difficult to hide secrets, involving (depending on the sister) fur, fangs, wings, and mermaid tails. Marmee, their current foster mother, is the first to act like she doesn’t expect Meg to parent her sisters, but Meg can’t bring herself to trust this. Marmee’s kindness is only one of the current threats, though – a monster has been prowling through Salem at night, damaging property and threatening Mr. Laurence’s chickens. Mr. Laurence, Laurie, and Brooks are all portrayed as Black. Caring for those chickens is Meg’s current job, but as she’s been waking up outside at night with no memory of how she got there, she’s terrified that she herself might be the monster. And then there’s Brooks, Laurie’s slightly older, very cute cousin, who also knows what it’s like to be orphaned and shuttled from one household to another, even if between family members rather than official foster care. Things build to a head as the meanest girl in Meg’s class threatens to blackmail her…

I’d never read Máire Roche before, so I hadn’t set any expectations going into this. I found myself really enjoying Meg’s point of view and the translation of the sisters into this reimagining. Meg’s is a journey to accept care and affection, and it is a heartfelt one, deepening her relationship with her sisters as well as beginning new ones with Marmee and Brooks. Meg herself is described as having had a crush on a female friend before Brooks, while Jo is scornful of all things crush-related, and Laurie enjoys wearing dresses. Where in the original, Meg’s love of pretty dresses is described as something to overcome, here, with a caring adult providing for her, she’s allowed to want something pretty for herself. At just 275 pages, there isn’t much time to develop Beth and Amy’s characters, but that is a small weakness in an otherwise wonderful story. The threats of monsters and people looking for the monster finding the sisters instead adds just the right sense of danger to the story. I might need to look for the author’s adult fantasy books Bromantasy and Situationship, at least until she comes out with another middle grade book.

I’ve heard that Little Women is sadly not as popular as it once was, though it’s always been a personal favorite of mine. Still, there have been a number of excellent retellings of it lately, including So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow for teens and Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, a contemporary middle grade graphic novel by Rey Teciero and Bre Indigo. If you have any others to share, please let me know in the comments!