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    Once There Was
    Once There Was
    Once There Was
    Audiobook11 hours

    Once There Was

    Written by Kiyash Monsef

    Narrated by Nikki Massoud

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    An Odyssey Award Finalist

    A New York Times bestseller!
    A Morris Award Finalist

    Impossible Creatures meets Neil Gaiman in this “striking and heartfelt” (Kirkus Reviews) novel about an Iranian American girl who discovers that her father was secretly a veterinarian to magical creatures—and that she must take up his mantle, despite the many dangers.

    Once was, once wasn’t.

    So began the stories Marjan’s father told her as a little girl—fables like the story of the girl who sprung a unicorn from a hunter’s snare, or the nomad boy who rescued a baby shirdal. Tales of mythical beasts that filled her with curiosity and wonder.

    But Marjan’s not a little girl anymore. In the wake of her father’s sudden death, she is trying to hold it all together: her schoolwork, friendships, and keeping her dad’s shoestring veterinary practice from going under. Then, one day, she receives a visitor who reveals something stunning: Marjan’s father was no ordinary veterinarian. The creatures out of the stories he told her were real—and he traveled the world to care for them. And now that he’s gone, she must take his place.

    Marjan steps into a secret world hidden in plain sight, where magical creatures are bought and sold, treasured and trapped. She finds friends she never knew she needed—a charming British boy who grew up with a griffon, a runaway witch seeking magic and home—while trying to hide her double life from her old friends and classmates.

    The deeper Marjan gets into treating these animals, the closer she comes to finding who killed her father—and to a shocking truth that will reawaken her sense of wonder and put humans and beasts in the gravest of danger.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateApr 4, 2023
    ISBN9781797150789
    Author

    Kiyash Monsef

    Kiyash Monsef is an Emmy Award–nominated producer and director; a writer of short stories, videos, comic books, and games; and a designer of innovative conversational and voice interface experiences. He’s the author of Once There Was, which was a finalist for the Morris Award, and Bird of a Thousand Stories. 

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    Reviews for Once There Was

    4.5/5

    28 ratings3 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this. I was upset that the gryphon wasnt a bigger part of the story. And the earlier chapters were a bit meh. But the gryphon still has a satisfying role by the end of the book. And the early chapters are important to the much better middle to end of the book. I really do recommend this. I really do recommend this. It has care for the creatures in it. And the reader does a good job.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful story! Blends fantasy, myths, & mystery with memorable characters & a fascinating plot.
    • 4/5
      My favorite part is when Marjan discovers the real identity of David or, should I say, the physical David and the revealing of the Genie in the storyline.