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seraphiina's review against another edition
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse
bratatouille's review against another edition
2.25
This accomplishes what it sets out to do. I’d even argue that it does it well. This book is essentially the “society if leftists took over” that right wing people are so afraid of. It discusses the demons that live within people who know and love and how impossible it can be to identify them. It normalizes gender queerness, non cis-het relationships, accessibility, and has a fuckin cool/scary angel creature. The reason the rating is so low is because it has the Barbie Movie problem. Everything is perfectly spelled out for the reader because it’s meant to introduce them to broad strokes of clear concepts. As someone who is not new to any of these topics, I found it to be like reading a middle grade woke book. Which is good for new audiences but I am not that; so it impacts my experience. All of the conflict was predictable, even down to the character responses to it. Similarly, the resolutions were underwhelming. I like some of Emezi’s writing and do believe this story holds a lot of merit. It just wasn’t intended for me.
rereader33's review against another edition
3.0
I'm very conflicted on this novel. While I am thrilled that Emezi wrote about crime (specifically sexual violence) in the form of monsters and from the perspective of people wanting/choosing to forget monsters exist in order to live in ignorant bliss, for me this novel ended up being...good. It's incredibly quote-worthy, I'll give it that. But I don't have any other feelings for it aside from it being good. Here are some of my criticisms to explain why:
1. The characters were fine, but I wasn't particularly attached to any of them and while their reactions to certain events/situations were spot-on, they were almost TOO spot-on. As in, they reacted EXACTLY how you would imagine they would. While that's great for character consistency, it was almost too perfect and felt unnatural as a result.
2. The writing style was fine, but the overabundance of passive-voice and metaphors got old pretty fast. Make no mistake, some of the metaphors were hard hitting and well written, but they were used so much eventually they lost their charm.
3. While I loved the idea that people have "forgotten" monsters exist and Jam and Redemption have a hard rode ahead of them getting others to believe them, honestly that only REALLY comes into the equation towards the last maybe 50 pages of the book. I was kind of expecting it to be a reoccurring issue, but aside from Jam's info-dump about the society's past and present, Jam's parent's assuaging her fears about monsters not existing, and the last 50 pages, it only comes up as a thought but not an action. In fact, most of the time she doesn't bring up hunting monsters to people because she feels like they won't believe her. I would have liked to have SEEN people disprove her fears of monsters (aside from the instances previously mentioned) and have it more in the forefront rather than Jam CONSTANTLY holding back out of fear. Yes, it still plays to the same notion, but it's not as strong as SHOWING us why Jam won't be believed.
All of that being said, I do recommend this novel because it is dealing with an important message and the subject manner was handled very well. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more books by this author; I may not have loved it, but I can't deny they re quite talented and I look forward to seeing what they write in the future.
1. The characters were fine, but I wasn't particularly attached to any of them and while their reactions to certain events/situations were spot-on, they were almost TOO spot-on. As in, they reacted EXACTLY how you would imagine they would. While that's great for character consistency, it was almost too perfect and felt unnatural as a result.
2. The writing style was fine, but the overabundance of passive-voice and metaphors got old pretty fast. Make no mistake, some of the metaphors were hard hitting and well written, but they were used so much eventually they lost their charm.
3. While I loved the idea that people have "forgotten" monsters exist and Jam and Redemption have a hard rode ahead of them getting others to believe them, honestly that only REALLY comes into the equation towards the last maybe 50 pages of the book. I was kind of expecting it to be a reoccurring issue, but aside from Jam's info-dump about the society's past and present, Jam's parent's assuaging her fears about monsters not existing, and the last 50 pages, it only comes up as a thought but not an action. In fact, most of the time she doesn't bring up hunting monsters to people because she feels like they won't believe her. I would have liked to have SEEN people disprove her fears of monsters (aside from the instances previously mentioned) and have it more in the forefront rather than Jam CONSTANTLY holding back out of fear. Yes, it still plays to the same notion, but it's not as strong as SHOWING us why Jam won't be believed.
All of that being said, I do recommend this novel because it is dealing with an important message and the subject manner was handled very well. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more books by this author; I may not have loved it, but I can't deny they re quite talented and I look forward to seeing what they write in the future.
readingafrica's review against another edition
5.0
Love the plot and all the representation & inclusivity. It's a little surprising (maybe, refreshing) to see children deal with such heavy topics. The last chapter really made me think about justice, and who gets to define the 'just outcome' in a scenario.
berryydiaries's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
An interesting exploration of “monsters”. It was heartbreaking & heavy at times, but it felt like one of those fables that teach a lesson at the end (in a good way). Jam goes on a journey with a seeming monster called Pet to hunt monsters in a place built on having no monsters, but that’s because no one wants to look. It also breaks down the classic conflict of good vs evil. What is good? What is evil? What is a monster? Pet looks like a monster, but he is a savior.
TW: child abuse, S.A, violence, pedophilia
TW: child abuse, S.A, violence, pedophilia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia
beefgameplays's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book at the same time as not. It felt very repetitive at times and overly simple. It is already a short book, and I still felt like so little happened in the time it took. Still, it was a good learning story, and it had a just ending. It felt weird to read a book where the main character is trans, and that fact is fully irrelevant to the story and has almost no impact on the character’s life. As a trans man, that identity impacts every experience I have daily.
bookish_withsky's review against another edition
5.0
I feel like I say this all the time, but I didn’t have any clue what this book was genuinely about. I had heard the writing was beautiful and that’s all I wanted to know going in. This was absolutely magnificent and gut-wrenching. It’s straightforward and has SO much to say. I can’t wait to buy the physical book to annotate and I definitely can’t wait to read more from this author.
aliciasgoodwin's review against another edition
5.0
Incredible. This is one of the best YA books I have read in my life I think so many younger people would benefit from reading this!
irisdagmar's review against another edition
5.0
Astonishing and inventive. The writing is so lucid! Defies description, a genre-bending book but so much more - a vision of a future I hadn’t imagined. My only critique is that the cover design of this book, plus its slightly shorter length, make it appear juvenile, but the ideas, complexity and nuances place this securely in YA.