Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - The Monsters We Defy

The Monsters We Defy is a historical fantasy set in the capital of the United States mid-1920s. In author Leslye Penelope's own description, it's a "fantasy heist novel set during the Harlem Renaissance." Jazz clubs, intellectual soirées, balls, Prohibition and illicit bootleg facilities, speakeasies conjure a heady atmosphere. Racism and threats of violence against Black Americans are a constant danger, with KKK marching on the streets. Protagonist Clara Johnson is inspired by the real life of Carrie Johnson, unwarranted police gun violence in their homes with devastating consequences. The parallels to what happened to Breonna Taylor a century later immediately comes to mind.

Each member of the heist team is given an intro with background, their particular talent. With chapter headers like 'The Actor,' 'The Musician,' 'The Thief' one can imagine an Oceans Eleven style focus. All of them with the exception of Zelda have made a deal with spirits called Enigmas such that they have a Charm (special talent/magic) and Trick (curse) each. Clara is both a scryer and seer, with the ability to peer to the Other Side and summon Enigmas. Her curse is in facilitating Faustian deals between the desperate humans who seek her help and the often conniving Enigmas. Clara's particular Charm is not revealed till the very end.

In the action scenes, I would have liked more non-standard descriptors and less stock phrases. At times, the way a scene was set up did not sufficiently build up tension eg. when Clara and Israel pretended to be Afflicted and were bundled into a truck.

Character-wise, Aristotle and Jesse Lee felt indistinct. Part of Jesse Lee's backstory is like Fifty First Dates. Israel is obviously the hot sexy male lead, his appearance and descriptions a Harlequin romantic hero. Clara especially in the team meetings seems to be ornery for the sake of being ornery, I'm not really on board the narrative of how she just wants to be helpful. I don't understand why protagonists always have to be so morally 'pure,' never craving power or being 'selfish'/ambitious for once. Clara doesn't want the all powerful object- the ring to control all.

( Does she end up with it? Why, of course.)

There was also a rather questionable passage where Clara and Israel go to an expert to determine the provenance of the ring, telling him 1. It's a very old ring. 2. From Africa (!) 3. With these markings... and the expert miraculously is able to identify it based on these nebulous clues.

The Monsters We Defy does not shy away from addressing head-on colorism and classism within the Black community. It's also fascinating to read in the Author's Note that Duke Ellington contributed to the fund of Carrie Johnson and intellectual greats of that time such as Du Bois are also mentioned.

Thanks to Redhook Books for providing an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/29/police-defund-abolition-mariame-kaba-andrea-j-ritchie

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/8/29/the-blue-wall-of-white-supremacy

Content Warnings

booktribe's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.0

Clara Johnson, a woman able to commune with spirits, notices that something strange is going on in her community. When a spirit offers Clara a deal to save her people, and gain her freedom back from the debt she owes this spirit, she must assemble an unlikely team and complete a heist to save everyone, and herself.

The writing hooked me from the first sentence and stayed consistently engrossing! I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout and never got bored. The pacing was great. There was also a great plot and characters. i had to know what was going on in this community and with all these spirits and I wanted the best for all of the characters. I also loved that spirits were characters too. The spirit of Clara’s grandmother was one of my favorite characters. She loved Clara so much and really protected her. I also enjoyed the mention of a few important people from The Harlem Renaissance. I never read historical fiction, but I loved the atmosphere of this novel and the time period brought so much to the story.

There were a couple of things I would’ve liked to have seen though. I wish there had been more character development for some of the characters, specifically Aristotle and Jesse Lee. They didn’t have as much personality as everyone else. And the only other problem I had was that we spent almost 80% of the novel not knowing what Clara’s special gift from a spirit was because she said it was so shameful that she couldn’t speak of it and would never use it again. But, when we finally found out what it was, I was disappointed because it was so simple. I was thinking “she hates her gift so much, so it must be something that’s a big deal, like necromancy”, but it was something that’s pretty common in fantasy books. So I thought that reveal was a little lackluster.

I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I feel like there’s potential for a sequel, so I’m hoping! I’ll definitely be reading more by Leslye Penelope. Anyone who enjoys historical fantasy, heists, and spirits who may or may not be trustworthy should check this out!

Thank you Redhook Books and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: police brutality, colorism, parental abandonment, mention of miscarriage

Content Warnings

ninjamuse's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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