As we witness shifting political ground, an emerging AI race, continued efforts to extract the earth’s resources, devastating war, extreme suffering, and flashes of violence, even those of us who consider ourselves measured and forgiving will sometimes feel outrage growing inside us. It seems we give political leaders and podcast personalities – and ourselves – more permission to exhibit rage than twelve-year-old girls who want to see injustice end.

A father reviews Katherine Rundell’s The Poisoned King, the second installment in her Impossible Creatures series.