What lives in her now doesn’t sleep. A young woman in California inherits a power that begins in the body and echoes out to the edges of the world. It isn’t explained and doesn’t come with rules. It gathers underneath the skin, waiting for direction. As she begins to understand what the power can touch, rearrange, and dismantle, her decisions grow heavier. The results, stranger. Two friends join her—one driven, one deliberate—and the movement that forms between them gathers momentum until it starts to shift the balance between what is and what could be. Together they learn that transformation isn’t an event. It is a state. And not every becoming is safe. Animal Control is a literary novel of restraint and reach, exploring how power circulates through the living world. How it settles and disturbs, seduces and transforms. In sparse, electric prose, the novel explores the ethics of influence, the sources of allegiance, the cost of reshaping communities, and the boundaries between care and control, persuasion and responsibility. It tells a story of instinct, intent, and a future taking shape before the world is ready. And of a young woman who must decide what she is willing to change, and what she is willing to become. Kirkus Best Indie Books of 2025 Honoree "The protagonist's story feels light-years from the typical hero's journey, consistently focusing on more existential themes—and the result is something unusually unsettling and unforgettable. A strange, inventive tale that evolves into a challenging and rewarding odyssey."
- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Otherwise Award nominee and Kirkus Best Indie Books of 2025 Honoree Jonathan R. Miller is an author of "magical realism" literary fiction novels, as well as sci-fi thrillers featuring diverse, complex characters.  Miller was born in Illinois, lived in New Mexico for most of his childhood, and then became a California transplant after undergraduate school at Stanford University. He was an 8th-grade teacher for 7 years in the Oakland public school system and has worked as a writer/marketer in the San Francisco Bay Area ever since. Miller's own multiracial heritage has had a strong influence on his thought processes and writing approach. His novels deftly explore issues of identity while providing storylines that are layered, thought-provoking, and moving.