Reviews with content warning for Death - Only a Monster

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Only a Monster by Vanessa Len

74 reviews

animetee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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kanra's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

This book is something else. It takes you on a journey with Joan, a half human half monster that is left in the dark by her family. She learns a lot about a world she's half a part of after something horrible happens that she tries desperately to fix. This book was so good, each turn it took had me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what steps Joan and the people stuck on her journey with her would take. The end had my heart beating fast and left me feeling sad, hoping for more about the side characters we got to know. I feel like this ends as a standalone but could be have a sequel, which I really hope it does. This is a fantasy book, but it doesn’t scream fantasy like many others do. I was happy with the level of fantasy there is and how different it is from fantasy I've read before. 5/5 stars, this will be a book I remember for a long time.

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sunlit_music's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

This book was so intense, oh my god. The world building is incredible - so well thought out and creative. I loved the way the book explained the magic system, time traveling, how monsters steal years off people's lives, and the differences and similarities between the monster world and the human world.

The romance is absolutely heartbreaking. I would say the ending is bittersweet, because the main character Joan manages to

save her family members, but she is never able to see her love interest ever again.

The choices that Joan has to make to save the people she loves are gut wrenching. There are no truly good choices that save everyone. She has to choose between letting her family die, or taking years off strangers' lives to save her own family.

I like how the book makes you sympathise with Joan and other morally grey characters, even when you don't always agree with them. That's the sign of a truly great writer.

I would recommend this book for anyone who likes fast paced action, morally grey characters, main characters with supportive loving families, and characters who grow and evolve over time.

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vicktorea's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-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

3.5

liked the concept!

I really enjoyed the concept of time travel and how the main character was the "monster" / "villain" in this story. I loved the author's incorporation of their Asian Heritage; this added to the enrichment of the story and the lush writing and storytelling.

I did find that this dragged in certain areas towards the middle and I couldn't get myself back into it past a certain point and skimmed a little to get to the end. The ending was shattering and I'm intrigued to see how things will pick up in other books since this is set to be a series (and this ending felt kind of definite) but I'm not sure if I'm intrigued enough to pick up book two (yet...).

Also, this was YA and felt very YA at times (especially the romance and Joan read as very YA [but not juvenile]), but there was also swearing (like f-bombs, which didn't bother me) but felt jarring considering how YA this felt.

Overall, a decent debut! 3.5 Stars.

Thank you to HarperCollins / HCC Frenzy for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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rowanleereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

Beautifully written magical fantasy that flips everything you know about monsters and heroes on its head. This book drew me in quickly, and then continued to tear apart my heart page by page until the end. Joan's character growth is incredible. Her character arc is perfectly written.

The ever changing settings are immersive, and even with the time travel you never lose where you are.

Absolutely will read this book again and again.

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azrah786's review against another edition

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4.25

[This review can also be found on my BLOG]

**I was gifted an ARC through the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

CW: violence, blood, murder, death, death of parents/family members, weapon use, brainwashing, interrogation, involuntary drug use, racist microaggressions, xenophobia
--

[AUGUST 2023]

Bumping my rating up to 4.25 Stars as I enjoyed this even more on the reread!
--

[FEBRUARY 2022]

Full of high stakes, a dash of doomed romance and time travel shenanigans, Only A Monster introduces us to an all new version of our world and an unconventional take on monsters which absolutely blew me away!

Joan’s life changes forever when one summer while she is staying with her mum’s side of the family in London, she discovers that they are monsters who steal life from humans in order to travel through time. In fact there is a whole community of monster families with distinctive powers living in secret and as a member of the Hunt family, Joan is one of them.
To make matters worse the cute boy who she has been working over summer with and has finally managed to score a date with turns out to be a monster hunter from legend destined to purge the world of them all. And so Joan is forced to embrace who she is and reluctantly team up with a fellow monster from a family that hates her own in order to save not just her family but the whole of monster-kind.

“You’re a hero and I’m a monster,” she whispered. “There’s only one way that story ever ends.”

Vanessa Len has written an exciting and unique story about fighting for your loved ones whilst flipping some well-loved tropes in the best way.

There really aren’t enough books with a monster protagonist / hero antagonist storyline and I really enjoyed how the central themes of identity and morality were explored through the various characters we meet. The pacing from the get go is quite fast which did make for a slightly unsteady beginning but in a handful of chapters the narrative smooths out and the easy flowing plot and intriguing reveals keep you hooked.

The worldbuilding though quite simple and subtle was so effective. I will always be down for a story set in London because fictional characters running around a place you are familiar with is always a whole lot of fun, but what I loved in particular was the addition of history as a facet to the setting. I mean paranormal worlds secretly coexisting within our own with spots hidden from human eyes may not be anything new but places hidden within history!? I was instantly obsessed!

In fact I really loved that history was so embedded into the essence of the story what with Joan’s love for the subject and how the time travel allowed us to visit significant places of the past in such a cool way! I’m a sucker for time travel stories despite them having the tendency to sometimes be tricky to get your head around, but Len has woven together a storyline that is not too overly convoluted that I think worked so well!

"We can't change what we've done but... we don't have to be the people we were made into."

Another highlight of this book has got to be the banter between Joan and Aaron, I loved the relationship that formed between them so much! However, I’ve got to admit that some of the other relationships (the main romance included 👀) didn’t stand out as much for me..

Though everything does take a very interesting turn as we come to the end of this first book, which along with my curiosity to learn more about the other monster families has me eagerly awaiting the rest of the series!
Final Rating – 4/5 Stars

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sqacedvst's review against another edition

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Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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anxiousnachos's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

4.5

4.5 stars! THIS BOOK! This book deserves as much hype as Iron Widow got last year, it is my Iron Widow of 2022, that is how much I loved it. This is YA fantasy at its absolute best. I could not stop reading this as soon I picked it up, why do humans need sleep?! It is wild and dark and absolutely incredibly plotted, the pacing was so excellent. There is a tragic romance between a monster and a monster slayer, a kind-of-maybe-possibly-love-triangle-ish with a monster/monster potential relationship? The ending was truly impeccable. (We know I love tragedy 🥲) My only small thing that docked half a star was that I wished we’d had more on page time between Nick and Joan so their relationship hit just that little bit harder. Otherwise, this was absolutely stunning!

Thank you so much to A&U for sending my an ARC of this one! This has not affected my review.

Content warnings: blood and gore, violence, murder, torture, death of parents and family members, forced drug use, confinement

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giulsfloris's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.25

Monsters aren’t the villains in this amazingly written story. The hero is the enemy, monsters can travel in time and there’s a mystery to solve. I loved the found-family trope, one of my favorites, and the impossible heist was just *chef’s kiss*
I enjoyed the characters and how they interacted with each other. The story is both plot and character-driven. I hope it gets the hype and success it deserves!

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Vanessa Len for the opportunity to read the ARC. I loved this novel and I can’t wait to read its sequel!

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annikareads_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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