Found Family vs. Blood Family: The Chosen Bonds of Ordinary Monsters

The Thematic Claim: Family as Choice, Not Bloodline

In Ordinary Monsters, J.M. Miro constructs a world where blood family is almost universally absent, broken, or weaponized, while the bonds forged among orphaned talents and their protectors emerge as the only reliable form of kinship. The novel's central claim is that family is not a matter of biology but of choice and care—a claim voiced most explicitly by Marlowe when he tells Mrs. Harrogate, “Sometimes family is what you choose.” The narrative tests this claim repeatedly, showing how institutions and individuals exploit blood ties as instruments of control, while the children themselves build families from shared vulnerability and mutual protection.

Marlowe and the False Promise of Blood

Marlowe's story begins with the absence of blood family. Found as a glowing baby beside his dead mother in a railway boxcar, he is taken in by Eliza Grey, a sixteen-year-old fugitive who names him and raises him through his early years. Eliza is not his blood relative, yet she is his mother in every meaningful sense—until the threat of hunters forces her to leave him with Brynt, the tattooed circus woman who becomes his next protector. Neither Eliza nor Brynt shares Marlowe's blood, but both risk their safety for him.

The novel's most pointed critique of blood family arrives when Alice Quicke appears at the circus with a legal injunction. Marlowe, she claims, is actually Stephen Halliday, kidnapped as a baby from a wealthy Norfolk family. The Hallidays are his blood family, and the law demands his return. But the narrative frames this claim as cold and instrumental: the Hallidays are absent, represented only by documents and a birthmark shaped like a key. When Marlowe asks if Brynt can come with him, Quicke refuses. The blood family's claim is enforced through legal paperwork, not love.

Mrs. Harrogate later tells Marlowe that Dr. Berghast is his father, his guardian, his family. But Marlowe, who has already learned to distrust such claims, responds with quiet wisdom: “Sometimes family is what you choose.” This line crystallizes the novel's thematic position. Berghast's claim to fatherhood is revealed as a lie—he is not Marlowe's biological father, and his “guardianship” is a pretext for using the boy as a lure to absorb the drughr's power. The man who claims Marlowe as his son plans to drain his blood and sacrifice him. Blood family, in this instance, is not merely absent; it is predatory.

Charlie and the Unknowable Father

Charlie Ovid's relationship to blood family is defined by absence and mystery. Born in London, he survives his father's death in Texas and his mother's death, keeping only her silver ring with a crossed-hammers crest. He has no memory of his parents, only artifacts. When he discovers his own file at Cairndale, he finds a second folder—his father's. Hywel Owydd was a Welsh talent who came to Cairndale as a boy, a “clink” or strong, who left the institute and became an exile in London, presumed dead. The file is sparse and cryptic: “H. O. disappeared. No further details.”

Charlie's discovery is devastating precisely because it offers no connection. His father was a talent like him, walked the same halls, but Charlie never knew him and never will. Ribs, the invisible girl, offers the novel's blunt assessment: talents don't descend through bloodlines; they're random. Parents, she says, usually throw out their talented children when they see what they can do. Blood family, for the talents, is not a source of belonging but of rejection.

Charlie's true family forms around him at Cairndale. He and Marlowe share a bed “like brothers,” curling up together in the four-poster as if they'd always had each other. Alice Quicke, the detective who initially came to collect them, becomes their protector, sitting up at night to watch over them. The novel repeatedly shows these chosen bonds superseding blood ties: Charlie's loyalty to Marlowe drives him to stab Berghast and later to vow to find the second orsine to rescue his friend.

The Found Family at Cairndale

Cairndale Manor is presented as a sanctuary for talents, but its founder, Dr. Berghast, deliberately discourages intimacy among the children. Mrs. Harrogate tells Alice that the children are “discouraged from intermingling” and that Berghast believes it best to keep their intimacies limited. This policy is a form of control: Berghast wants the children isolated, dependent on him, unable to form the bonds that might challenge his authority. The found family that forms despite this policy—Charlie and Marlowe's brotherhood, Alice's protective care, the camaraderie of Komako Onoe, Oskar, and Ribs—represents a quiet rebellion against the institute's design.

Miss Davenshaw's lesson on teratologies reinforces the theme. She shows the children specimens of “monsters”—conjoined twins, cyclops syndromes—and tells them that difference is not monstrous but natural. “You are each of you different, in precisely this manner,” she says. The talents are not aberrations to be feared but variations to be understood. This lesson extends to family: the talents are not broken because they lack blood families; they are complete in their chosen bonds.

The novel's climax tests the found family against the blood family's claims. Berghast, the false father, betrays Marlowe. Margaret Harrogate, who served the institute loyally, dies protecting the children. The old talents are killed fighting Jacob Marber. What survives is the small group of children and their protectors: Charlie, Alice, Komako, Oskar, Ribs, and Miss Davenshaw. In the epilogue, they gather in London, read Berghast's burned journal, and plan to find the second orsine to rescue Marlowe. This is the novel's final image of family: not blood, not institution, but a group of survivors bound by shared purpose and love.

Symbols of Connection

The orsine, the passage between the world of the living and the dead, functions as a symbol of the boundary between blood family and found family. Blood family is the past—the dead parents, the lost lineages, the Halliday estates. The orsine threatens to let the dead through, just as the claims of blood family threaten to reclaim the children. Marlowe's sacrifice, wading into the orsine to seal it, is an act of protection for his found family, not his blood family.

The blue shine, Marlowe's dangerous power, both harms and heals. It burns Eliza's hand, melts a hunter's flesh, but also heals Alice's knee and seals the orsine. Like family bonds, it is double-edged: the same connection that can destroy can also save. The keywrasse, the creature that guards Cairndale, is another protector figure—not blood, not human, but loyal to the children's safety. The weir-bents, tools of the talents, similarly represent the children's shared inheritance—not from parents, but from their own kind.

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel does not present found family as an uncomplicated ideal. Mrs. Harrogate genuinely cares for the children, yet she serves Berghast's exploitative agenda. Alice Quicke initially works to collect orphans for the institute, and her own mother was committed to an asylum for burning eleven people—a blood family that was itself destructive. The children's bonds are forged in trauma, and the novel does not romanticize them: Charlie loses his healing talent, Marlowe is lost in the orsine, and the survivors are left with grief.

Nor does the novel entirely condemn blood family. Eliza, though not Marlowe's blood, is the closest thing to a mother he has. Brynt, also not blood, is a fierce protector. The Hallidays, the blood family, are absent and instrumental, but the novel does not suggest that all blood ties are false—only that they are insufficient without care. The claim “sometimes family is what you choose” is not a rejection of blood but an expansion of what family can mean.

Study Questions

1. How does Marlowe's response to Mrs. Harrogate—“Sometimes family is what you choose”—function as the novel's thematic thesis?

Marlowe's statement, made when Mrs. Harrogate insists that Dr. Berghast is his father and guardian, directly challenges the institutional claim that blood or legal guardianship defines family. The novel validates this claim by showing that Berghast's “fatherhood” is a lie used to exploit Marlowe, while the bonds Marlowe forms with Charlie, Alice, and Brynt are genuine and protective.

1. What does Charlie's discovery of his father's file reveal about the novel's treatment of blood lineage?

Charlie learns that his father, Hywel Owydd, was a talent who left Cairndale and became an exile, presumed dead. The file offers no connection, only cryptic notes. This reinforces the novel's claim that talents do not descend through bloodlines and that blood family offers no reliable identity. Charlie's true family is the one he forms with Marlowe and the other children.

1. How does Berghast's false claim to fatherhood complicate the theme of family?

Berghast claims Marlowe as his son and guardian, but his “care” is predatory: he plans to use Marlowe as a lure to absorb the drughr's power. This shows that family claims can be weaponized, and that the language of kinship can be used to justify exploitation. The novel argues that care, not claim, defines family.

1. What role does the orsine play in the novel's family symbolism?

The orsine is the passage between the living and the dead, symbolizing the boundary between blood family (the past, the dead) and found family (the present, the living). Marlowe's sacrifice to seal it is an act of protection for his found family, and the survivors' plan to find the second orsine to rescue him is a continuation of that chosen bond.

1. How does the epilogue's formation of a new family unit challenge or reinforce the novel's thematic claim?

The epilogue shows Charlie, Alice, Komako, Oskar, Ribs, and Miss Davenshaw gathering in London, reading Berghast's journal, and planning to rescue Marlowe. This group is bound not by blood but by shared trauma and purpose. It reinforces the claim that family is chosen, while also acknowledging the cost: Marlowe is lost, Charlie's talent is gone, and the family is built on grief as much as love.