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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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:
Yes
Where do I even start? You meet Alma as a small child, get some background knowledge on her and then leap a few years to her present self. She is now accustomed to life as the outcast family member to a noble family. You learn as she does the dark truth to what she thought was real and find some unexpected companions along the way. While my review makes it seem bright and happy this book is definitely not. Be ready for some dark and gruesome stuff because this book full of it (but in the best way possible right?).
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
This is hands-down the most emotionally gripping book I have read this 2025. I finished this book at 8:45pm, stayed up until 2:00am just thinking about it, and the next day I found myself making playlists and edits, which I have not done in probably 6 years?!
House of the Beast is a thrilling YA fantasy romance, with a great blend of action, character drama, tension, lore - and of course romance! While this is not technically shelved/marketed as YA, it is definitely a YA book in style, voice, and exploration of theme (this is not meant as a put down or criticism). It is honestly fairly different than what the blurb implies.
It is really the main relationship (Alma, our protagonist, and her companion-god Aster) that carries the story: the emotional arc of their meeting totheir ultimate parting is so well done, and flows both organically and dynamically. I don't often get invested in romance plotlines - much less straight YA M/F ones - but they are both so well crafted as characters in their own right and and as foils to each other that their relationship feels so alive and compelling.
I especially have to applaud how Aster really comes off like ayoung half- god in his interactions with Alma and the rest of the cast: switching between being familiar and friendly and cold and eldritch, both modes reading equally true to the character. Alma is also a great protagonist with a strong narrative voice, and her character growth throughout the book is done well. Her intensity of emotion, conflicted POV, and ultimate determination are common traits in YA fantasy heroes, but she embodies them excellently. To me she was very much an active, sympathetic protagonist with her own inner dignity.
Since I don't usually care for romance I may be out of my depth saying this but I think most dark romance stories are in some way, knowingly or not, trying to follow in the footsteps of the classic Wuthering Heights. Many don't nail it, in part because you can't nail this type of romance without it being a tragedy of an irresistible but ultimately destructive chemistry. Characters like this, who are brought together by the darkness in one calling out to the other, often cannot be together, because they will destroy each other. That is what this book understands. Now the dynamic between Aster and Alma itself isn't really comparable to what happens in Wuthering Heights, but the trajectory it takes makes sense with this lens: either Alma would become more like Aster, more vengeful, violent, and ruthless, or she would preserve her own self, broaden her worldview beyond what he has fed her, and end him. Their genuine affection and care for each other just makes it more tragic.
There are many ways that this book plays upon typical, tried-and-tested tropes in the YA and overall fantasy tradition: a sullen, unfriendly main character who feels isolated and unwelcome, but gradually opens up; having to face a series of trials; an evil dad and a dead mom; different factions characterised by one main trait or skill, etc. Similarly, I kind of pieced together most of the twists between the 60-70% mark. It is not really a complex book, if that is what you are looking for - very telegraphed, not a lot of subtext or layers. Still, being able to predict the story didn't diminish how much I was emotionally affected by it. And honestly the big twist makes how characters thought and behaved previously make more sense.
As much as I really loved the story, there are some gaps in its construction: world-building and magic that is somewhat hand-wavey and inconsistent (although I thought all the scenes exploring Aster's godhood were METAL as HELL!), and prose that starts off decent but later stumbles, awkwardly mixing contemporary, even casual phrases with more affected fantasy-style narration. The political intrigues are also all fairly simple and surface-level, just enough for set dressing. There are some things that I thought we could have explored more deeply or gotten a better explanation for that the book just skates over. If I were to review this book objectively on craft, it is probably a 3.75... but the enjoyment, immersion, and sheer staying power of the story for me brings it up to 4.25.
I leave you guys with this as final credits music for this book: https://youtu.be/Ya0DvyGfzkk?si=4f4OBd-BTjQQK2gy
House of the Beast is a thrilling YA fantasy romance, with a great blend of action, character drama, tension, lore - and of course romance! While this is not technically shelved/marketed as YA, it is definitely a YA book in style, voice, and exploration of theme (this is not meant as a put down or criticism). It is honestly fairly different than what the blurb implies.
It is really the main relationship (Alma, our protagonist, and her companion-god Aster) that carries the story: the emotional arc of their meeting to
I especially have to applaud how Aster really comes off like a
Since I don't usually care for romance I may be out of my depth saying this but I think most dark romance stories are in some way, knowingly or not, trying to follow in the footsteps of the classic Wuthering Heights. Many don't nail it, in part because
There are many ways that this book plays upon typical, tried-and-tested tropes in the YA and overall fantasy tradition: a sullen, unfriendly main character who feels isolated and unwelcome, but gradually opens up; having to face a series of trials; an evil dad and a dead mom; different factions characterised by one main trait or skill, etc. Similarly, I kind of pieced together most of the twists between the 60-70% mark. It is not really a complex book, if that is what you are looking for - very telegraphed, not a lot of subtext or layers. Still, being able to predict the story didn't diminish how much I was emotionally affected by it. And honestly the big twist makes how characters thought and behaved previously make more sense.
As much as I really loved the story, there are some gaps in its construction: world-building and magic that is somewhat hand-wavey and inconsistent (although I thought all the scenes exploring Aster's godhood were METAL as HELL!), and prose that starts off decent but later stumbles, awkwardly mixing contemporary, even casual phrases with more affected fantasy-style narration. The political intrigues are also all fairly simple and surface-level, just enough for set dressing. There are some things that I thought we could have explored more deeply or gotten a better explanation for that the book just skates over. If I were to review this book objectively on craft, it is probably a 3.75... but the enjoyment, immersion, and sheer staying power of the story for me brings it up to 4.25.
I leave you guys with this as final credits music for this book: https://youtu.be/Ya0DvyGfzkk?si=4f4OBd-BTjQQK2gy
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Mental illness, Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse
it was great… until it wasnt😭
Taken away by her absent father while he’s letting her mom die, Alma wanted revenge. Her father is controlling her, but he doesn't know that Alma is hiding a secret from him: she has a god on her side all the time, a monster who's been taking care of her after grief consumed her. He's taking form of a charming boy with starlit hair, and she's the only one who can see him. he feed her ideas to plot her revenge, help her excel in her training, and convinced her to compete for the position of first hand of the beast herself, instead of being the second hand like her father had planned.
I loved Alma & Aster’s dynamic even though sometimes I felt uneasy about it. Their power imbalance is clear as day. I understand why Alma caught feelings, but if they really "happened" i would not know what to feel. Thank god Alma is very strong willed... and now I'm rambling. Anyway.
Slowly Aster’s destructive nature affected her and she’s scared to lose her good conscience. She’s trying to cling to it and sometimes it angered Aster. Cue power imbalance, Alma was always at his mercy. Good thing he at least care for her too so he’s not totally exploiting her.
And this internal turmoil frustrated me. At 75%-ish mark there’s something happened that confounded me so bad I wanted to grab both of her arms and shook her. Part of me understood where her action's coming from but part of me was like ok you’re acting weird WHERE DID YOUR AMBITIONS GO??? No wonder Aster got frustrated and left her for a while.
I'm glad the author didn't follow the romance arc because I think Alma & Aster's arc is perfect as is, i have no complaints. It's bittersweet, made me ache just so but didn’t completely devastated me. Thank god. I don't think I could handle emotional devastation at this moment.
All in all it was a fantastic debut but the plot progression needed some polishing. I do sense the loose inspirations from Avatar since the author is one of the illustrator for Avatar Korra Comics, which makes this book felt fresh but familiar. Gotta mention that she illustrated this book to!! I will never not in awe of author+artist combo. The sheer talent!
This also reminded me of Breath of the Dragon from the way Alma forged a path for herself despite everyone's opposing her, her selfish goal, losing the only person who’s dear to her. And the godly stuff reminded me of The Raven Scholar somehow. I enjoyed this! I will definitely seated if the author decided to write a sequel.
I loved the audiobook. I've never listened to audiobooks by Jeanne Syquia before but she did a fantastic job narrating this book. This book was more enjoyable for me because of her performance.
Taken away by her absent father while he’s letting her mom die, Alma wanted revenge. Her father is controlling her, but he doesn't know that Alma is hiding a secret from him: she has a god on her side all the time, a monster who's been taking care of her after grief consumed her. He's taking form of a charming boy with starlit hair, and she's the only one who can see him. he feed her ideas to plot her revenge, help her excel in her training, and convinced her to compete for the position of first hand of the beast herself, instead of being the second hand like her father had planned.
I loved Alma & Aster’s dynamic even though sometimes I felt uneasy about it. Their power imbalance is clear as day. I understand why Alma caught feelings, but if they really "happened" i would not know what to feel. Thank god Alma is very strong willed... and now I'm rambling. Anyway.
Slowly Aster’s destructive nature affected her and she’s scared to lose her good conscience. She’s trying to cling to it and sometimes it angered Aster. Cue power imbalance, Alma was always at his mercy. Good thing he at least care for her too so he’s not totally exploiting her.
And this internal turmoil frustrated me. At 75%-ish mark there’s something happened that confounded me so bad I wanted to grab both of her arms and shook her. Part of me understood where her action's coming from but part of me was like ok you’re acting weird WHERE DID YOUR AMBITIONS GO??? No wonder Aster got frustrated and left her for a while.
I'm glad the author didn't follow the romance arc because I think Alma & Aster's arc is perfect as is, i have no complaints. It's bittersweet, made me ache just so but didn’t completely devastated me. Thank god. I don't think I could handle emotional devastation at this moment.
All in all it was a fantastic debut but the plot progression needed some polishing. I do sense the loose inspirations from Avatar since the author is one of the illustrator for Avatar Korra Comics, which makes this book felt fresh but familiar. Gotta mention that she illustrated this book to!! I will never not in awe of author+artist combo. The sheer talent!
This also reminded me of Breath of the Dragon from the way Alma forged a path for herself despite everyone's opposing her, her selfish goal, losing the only person who’s dear to her. And the godly stuff reminded me of The Raven Scholar somehow. I enjoyed this! I will definitely seated if the author decided to write a sequel.
I loved the audiobook. I've never listened to audiobooks by Jeanne Syquia before but she did a fantastic job narrating this book. This book was more enjoyable for me because of her performance.
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a pretty solid dark fantasy story over all, but didn’t live up to how excited I was for it for a couple reasons. To start with what I enjoyed, I liked the world building a lot—it was all so interesting, and incorporated the horror elements in a really fun way for me! I also personally enjoyed the slower pacing, though that could be negative for some people, and liked Alma’s character growth and her bonds with the other characters. The ending did make me emotional at times too! This was a very atmospheric read and, as I said, pretty solid.
I think the biggest reason that it didn’t quite work for me was just because of my own expectations; I assumed for whatever reason that the book was going to really be a game of cat and mouse between Alma and Aster as they both try and use and manipulate each other, but their deal at the beginning really just leads to friendship tinged with romantic feelings. This isn’t a flaw of the book or anything, but I definitely had to reshuffle my expectations a lot, and think I would’ve enjoyed the former more. On a similar note, the story is moreso about Alma coming into her own agency and making her own decisions over time (though she is driven by her desire for revenge from the beginning), which again is fine, but I tend to enjoy protagonists who are super driven and active from the very start. I also just really didn’t care about Alma and Aster’s relationship, platonically or romantically. Not sure why it just didn’t click for me, aside from the fact that the majority of it is really established in a time jump and we don’t actually get a lot of the development on-page. I also just didn’t find Aster to be an especially interesting character even though he really could’ve been. On the note of all of those critiques,I REALLY wanted Alma to be way angrier at the end when Aster literally uses her body to kill her allies and takes control completely away from her. Like she’s angry for a bit and then it feels like that totally deflates when she understands his sad backstory (which I also just didn’t care about, sorry) but that is such a huge violation. While I think the arc of her coming to make her own choices and actually forming bonds with the people around her is a good and compelling one, I just kinda wish she had more agency, more anger, and honestly was a little bit worse? To be clear this is less of a real critique of the book and moreso just explaining why I didn’t end up loving it, but I wish the tone was darker over all—as I said above, I thought it was going to focus more on the controlling and manipulative aspects of Alma and Aster’s relationship, and there were times where we touched on that, but the whole thing just felt, like, sweeter and simpler than I wanted it to. I left a note in like the first 250 pages that I was liking the book but that I wanted her to kill and eat him at the end when he would betray her (hyperbole) so I think that captures the kind of dynamic and arc I really wanted from this story, and it was just really doing something different. Again, that’s fine, just not exactly what I wanted. on the note of things feeling a little simple, this read at times like a YA book more than an adult one despite the gothic and horror elements. At times I liked that Alma genuinely felt like a 19 year old struggling with her place in the world and her feelings, but the character dynamics and lack of more depth to the politics of the world weren’t necessarily what I’m looking for in an adult fantasy. At times it even felt like the book was shying away from the darker themes it was setting up and could’ve leaned more fully into the horror realm in tone (though I did appreciate all the monsters and bloody swordfights and eldritch beasts) and especially the messiness, complexities, and dark sides of its relationships.
On the whole I think this ultimately is a good fantasy standalone and I might check out more of Wong’s work in the future! Just that it wasn’t a perfect fit for my personal taste/inaccurate expectations.
I think the biggest reason that it didn’t quite work for me was just because of my own expectations; I assumed for whatever reason that the book was going to really be a game of cat and mouse between Alma and Aster as they both try and use and manipulate each other, but their deal at the beginning really just leads to friendship tinged with romantic feelings. This isn’t a flaw of the book or anything, but I definitely had to reshuffle my expectations a lot, and think I would’ve enjoyed the former more. On a similar note, the story is moreso about Alma coming into her own agency and making her own decisions over time (though she is driven by her desire for revenge from the beginning), which again is fine, but I tend to enjoy protagonists who are super driven and active from the very start. I also just really didn’t care about Alma and Aster’s relationship, platonically or romantically. Not sure why it just didn’t click for me, aside from the fact that the majority of it is really established in a time jump and we don’t actually get a lot of the development on-page. I also just didn’t find Aster to be an especially interesting character even though he really could’ve been. On the note of all of those critiques,
On the whole I think this ultimately is a good fantasy standalone and I might check out more of Wong’s work in the future! Just that it wasn’t a perfect fit for my personal taste/inaccurate expectations.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was very slow and the characters weren’t very interesting. Everyone hated Alma, and I prefer more nuance. Maybe that would come later in the book, but there wasn’t enough action to keep me invested that long.
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Aster is my favorite part in this book although I really liked Alma too
It drags so much in the middle though, after they get to the city I just found it difficult to pick up the book cause I wasn’t interested.
Made it to page 300 (chapter 23) and found myself skimming.
I liked the setting, characters and writing I just wish the plot didn’t slow down and at times it got a bit confusing.
It drags so much in the middle though, after they get to the city I just found it difficult to pick up the book cause I wasn’t interested.
Made it to page 300 (chapter 23) and found myself skimming.
I liked the setting, characters and writing I just wish the plot didn’t slow down and at times it got a bit confusing.