Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Only a Monster

There is so much to like about this book! Not only does it have great characters and an interesting, refreshing premise, but it also moves along at a good pace. It's easy to jump into the story and you're immediately hooked, right from the beginning. While it does use some typical YA fantasy tropes, the world and the characters make up for it, 100%.

The only reason this isn't getting a full five stars is because time travel and "the one true timeline" thing always throws me a for a loop. Time travel is confusing! But other than that, this was definitely an enjoyable read. And I'd recommend the audio because the narrator does a great job!

Content Warnings

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
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[AUGUST 2023]

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

Content Warnings

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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