The Menagerie Novel

Janelle 1 story

Summary

THE MENAGERIE Five Species. Five Leisures. One Beautiful Lie. In the heart of what used to be Washington State lies Olympia, a shimmering capital of order and peace. Here, humanity has evolved. To keep the world safe, every citizen is a hybrid, sorted into one of five “Leisures” based on the animal they become: the protective Wolves, the brilliant Ravens, the immortal Vampires, the soaring Dragons, or the sacrificial Phoenixes. To sixteen-year-old Nyx, life as a Wolf is a gilded promise. As the daughter of a legendary Sentinel, her path is clear: train, shift, and protect the city’s perfect borders. But beneath the mist-covered rainforests and the neon lights of the Capital, a secret is rotting. When Nyx’s mandatory "Shift Evaluation" goes wrong, she realizes she is a genetic glitch the Vampires have spent centuries erasing: The Perplexed. Nyx doesn’t just belong to the pack—she is a cocktail of forbidden DNA that threatens the very foundation of the Menagerie. Now, she must navigate a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with High Curator Julian Valerius, the Vampire who rewrites history to hide the truth. To survive, Nyx must turn to a group of unlikely allies: a Dragon who refuses to kill, a Raven who knows too much, and a Phoenix living off the grid. Together, they must decide: is it better to live as a beautiful specimen in a cage, or die as a monster in the wild? Welcome to The Menagerie. Try not to break the glass.