Reviewed by Inga Buccella for Readers' Favorite

Among the Beautiful Beasts by Lori McMullen is a historical journey told in the first-person voice of Marjory Stoneman Douglas. But it is also the story of Miami. In its infancy, Miami, Florida, in 1919, began growing with all the awkwardness of a petulant child. Paralleling what was happening in Miami and Miami Beach was a restless young woman from the North who rose to become a journalistic force of nature. Marjorie Stoneman Douglas had a tumultuous childhood. Her relationship with her parents suffered when her undependable father abandoned her and her unstable mother. After her mother died, young Marjory, feeling a bit lost, married an emotionally void man 15 years her senior, who turned out to be a convicted criminal. Years later, Marjory reconnects with her father in Miami, where he remarries Lilla, his new wife, and manages the Miami Herald newspaper. Since childhood, Marjory and her father shared their love of classic books. He offers her a job at the paper, where she continues to work for many years. At first, she is assigned only to fluff society news, but later, to more serious topics. Among the Beautiful Beasts is an adventure story that begins in Taunton, Massachusetts, escapes to Miami, touches down in France and Italy during the Great War, and eventually lands back in Miami.

Lori McMullen is my new favorite author. I have never read such a gripping biography in a historical novel. Through this character-driven story, McMullan has paid homage to the pioneer Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. She makes us admire and care for this real "character" by including details of Marjory's progressive personality, such as wearing trousers in 1920, and authoring prose on her beloved Everglades (considered environmentally conscious writings today). The descriptive imagery is the best I have ever read. Her words had me fantasizing about a delicate orchid aroma wafting through messy mangrove waters. What affected me the most was McMullen's talent for writing a poetic testament to this perennially independent woman. Like the prehistoric Everglades she marveled at, Marjory Stoneman Douglas was energetic, chaotic, brackish, passionate, and often unpredictable and mysterious. But most of all, I have learned of her resilient and enduring nature from Among the Beautiful Beasts. Thank you for this gem, Lori McMullen!