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tyler_j's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
How could you end it like that?! I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW.
This has gods, mythology, crea (like manticores and other mythological creatures, they change during the full moon but it's not from a bite, it's inherited through ancestry), danger, action and a romance I ship so hard between the lesbian woc mc (that's also a manticore! and her mother is Venus, the Goddess) and a bisexual human girl who is awesome! They both are! The mc also has a trans boy for a friend. ALL OF IT is used ON THE PAGE.
The characters are complex as well, getting to know the mc especially as it's told from her POV but getting to know the others as well. I really felt for her and understood her feelings at times on a personal level.
It took me a little bit to get into the story but by the 1/2 way mark I was incredibly invested and didn't want to stop reading and now I need to go out and get the rest of the series, STAT, because REASONS.
This was my 100th book of the year and as it's now New Year's Eve 2017 i'm sure the last book I finish this year too and I am so glad to end this year with an amazing book and number 100 at that! :D
It is currently FREE for kindle. I don't know if that's an always thing or just a now thing but as of writing this it's free for kindle!
Edit: I wanted to add that while I am white and cis so I can't really comment on that rep I am bisexual and loved the bi rep. It wasn't a big deal, it was just a thing. I personally loved this book.
It's much more than just a romance book. I know I mentioned that but the romance has me swooning so much I wanted to reiterate it. There is mythology that I loved learning, there is danger and action too. The Gods can be assholes, there is fighting, there is drama and conflicts. I just loved how it all wrapped up together.
Edit 2 years later on Dec 25th, 2019 because a like reminded me this review existed: I am not cis after all and I never did continue with this series though I have them all now. I probably should re-read this one before continuing with the series which i'd love to do next year.
This has gods, mythology, crea (like manticores and other mythological creatures, they change during the full moon but it's not from a bite, it's inherited through ancestry), danger, action and a romance I ship so hard between the lesbian woc mc (that's also a manticore! and her mother is Venus, the Goddess) and a bisexual human girl who is awesome! They both are! The mc also has a trans boy for a friend. ALL OF IT is used ON THE PAGE.
The characters are complex as well, getting to know the mc especially as it's told from her POV but getting to know the others as well. I really felt for her and understood her feelings at times on a personal level.
It took me a little bit to get into the story but by the 1/2 way mark I was incredibly invested and didn't want to stop reading and now I need to go out and get the rest of the series, STAT, because REASONS.
This was my 100th book of the year and as it's now New Year's Eve 2017 i'm sure the last book I finish this year too and I am so glad to end this year with an amazing book and number 100 at that! :D
It is currently FREE for kindle. I don't know if that's an always thing or just a now thing but as of writing this it's free for kindle!
Edit: I wanted to add that while I am white and cis so I can't really comment on that rep I am bisexual and loved the bi rep. It wasn't a big deal, it was just a thing. I personally loved this book.
It's much more than just a romance book. I know I mentioned that but the romance has me swooning so much I wanted to reiterate it. There is mythology that I loved learning, there is danger and action too. The Gods can be assholes, there is fighting, there is drama and conflicts. I just loved how it all wrapped up together.
Edit 2 years later on Dec 25th, 2019 because a like reminded me this review existed: I am not cis after all and I never did continue with this series though I have them all now. I probably should re-read this one before continuing with the series which i'd love to do next year.
yccngz's review against another edition
4.0
The Beast of Callaire surprised me. I forgot the synopsis before starting it and I went into it thinking it would be a cheap wlw werewolf book. It wasn't. The characters in this novel are are mythical creatures of some kind, found in myths and legends from all around the world. It's kind of a "if-all-the-stories-were-true" book.
The cast of characters is diverse, and it was so refreshing to see diversity without the stereotypes for each group. The characters had real, human qualities to them that made you feel like you knew them. From early on in the novel I found myself laughing to Vic and Minnie's jokes and rooting for Guy. There was also something wonderful with their relationship to eachother. The way they all cared so much without always saying so explicitly. The only character I found somewhat bland was Fray... her characterization was a little more vague and I hope we see more of who she is in the next book.
I also loved the point of view. In plotlines like this, the narrator is often the newcomer and in this story, it would have been Fray. Having Yasmin as protagonist gave us inside information and it was interesting to see how she was reluctant to tell the truth to Fray. It showed us internal struggles we would of missed otherwise. It was also nice to have that "human finds she ain't human and joins group of supernaturals" type story with POC, trans characters and characters with different sexualities without their "differences" being a problem or a part of the problem. It was a twist on a trope and I really enjoyed it!
Overall I really enjoyed this light but gripping story. It was easy to read and I'm looking forward to starting the sequel!
The cast of characters is diverse, and it was so refreshing to see diversity without the stereotypes for each group. The characters had real, human qualities to them that made you feel like you knew them. From early on in the novel I found myself laughing to Vic and Minnie's jokes and rooting for Guy. There was also something wonderful with their relationship to eachother. The way they all cared so much without always saying so explicitly. The only character I found somewhat bland was Fray... her characterization was a little more vague and I hope we see more of who she is in the next book.
I also loved the point of view. In plotlines like this, the narrator is often the newcomer and in this story, it would have been Fray. Having Yasmin as protagonist gave us inside information and it was interesting to see how she was reluctant to tell the truth to Fray. It showed us internal struggles we would of missed otherwise. It was also nice to have that "human finds she ain't human and joins group of supernaturals" type story with POC, trans characters and characters with different sexualities without their "differences" being a problem or a part of the problem. It was a twist on a trope and I really enjoyed it!
Overall I really enjoyed this light but gripping story. It was easy to read and I'm looking forward to starting the sequel!
melbsreads's review against another edition
2.0
Trigger warnings: death, murder, blood, probably other stuff but tbh I vagued out a LOT reading this.
Look, here's the thing. I bought this book like 4 years ago when I saw it on a list of books about asexual characters. I bought a whole lot of books from that list on a whim, and then promptly put off reading all of them. And honestly, I'm not sure why this book was on that list, because no one in this book is ace.
Anyway. I put off reading this for like 4 years, and I kind of wish I hadn't bothered to read it at all because it was just...underwhelming. There's insufficient worldbuilding. You're just thrown right into the deep end and there are a ton of terms that are never explained, a ton of magic that's never explained, a ton of history that's never explained. I...didn't really care about any of the characters. Like, at all. And I wasn't mad keen on the writing either. So...yeah. This just wasn't for me. At all.
Look, here's the thing. I bought this book like 4 years ago when I saw it on a list of books about asexual characters. I bought a whole lot of books from that list on a whim, and then promptly put off reading all of them. And honestly, I'm not sure why this book was on that list, because no one in this book is ace.
Anyway. I put off reading this for like 4 years, and I kind of wish I hadn't bothered to read it at all because it was just...underwhelming. There's insufficient worldbuilding. You're just thrown right into the deep end and there are a ton of terms that are never explained, a ton of magic that's never explained, a ton of history that's never explained. I...didn't really care about any of the characters. Like, at all. And I wasn't mad keen on the writing either. So...yeah. This just wasn't for me. At all.
reluming's review
1.0
(Find the original review at Jellyfish Reads.)
**Thanks to the author Saruuh Kelsey for providing me with a free review copy! This in no way affects my opinion of the book.**
Actual rating: one and a half stars
I really, really wanted to like this book. My first thought upon seeing this book somewhere on the Internet was, "A PoC on the cover!" Then I read the blurb. Yay, the female MC likes girls! I thought it sounded pretty awesome, although I was a little sceptical about the word Majick. I still can't take that word seriously. The spelling just seems so ridiculous and kind of... juvenile? I thought it might've been better if the author had picked just another word entirely, maybe a Latin word to go with all the other Latin words she uses in this book, or even just stuck with the ordinary spelling of the word magic, which would have been adequate.
Anyway, my point is: the cover and the blurb together made me really excited about this book. A YA fantasy series with a lesbian PoC protagonist! And she can change into a manticore, which is a pretty original idea. It seemed like a book where a lot of cool things might happen.
Unfortunately, I just couldn't warm to this book no matter how hard I tried.
First off, let's talk about the romance, which I was really looking forward to. Admittedly, Fray is an interesting character. She's brave and inquisitive and instead of being frightened by Yasmin and all that she might mean, she does all this research into mythology to find out more about her and her kind. But god, if only the romance had been more well-written.
Yasmin and Fray's relationship develops so slowly, but it's not like there's actually any kind of slow burn feel to it. At some point, a character comments on Yasmin and Fray's sexual tension. What sexual tension? I don't experience any of it as a reader. Though the book is narrated from Yasmin's POV, we don't really see her think about how hot Fray is, at all; she never even thinks about wanting to kiss Fray until after the sexual tension has been commented upon. Surely this should have come before. The only time we really get much description of Fray, it's just vague flowery prose:
Fray is a ray of sunlight made human. Her eyes are lucent, the gold vines of her irises brought out by yellow eye shadow, and her face glitters.
It's pretty, but it's just... not very sexual tension-y. Yasmin just thinks of Fray as pretty all the time. There are plenty of people I think are pretty, but I don't want to make out with them. You know how I can feel the sexual tension between characters as a reader? When I want them to kiss – and then, once the characters have finally kissed, I should feel a sense of triumph and relief and satisfaction. That's when I know the sexual tension has been there and the relationship is well-written. When Yasmin and Fray finally kissed, I didn't feel much of anything at all.
One thing I can say though is that the kisses got better, and Yasmin and Fray's relationship was definitely a lot more enjoyable to read about once they'd actually got together. The author just isn't very good at writing the initial build-up, I think.
Yasmin and Fray's relationship isn't the only thing that moves slowly. The plot crawls. The book isn't long – fewer than 200 pages. But hardly anything happens at all. I kept reading because I hoped it would pick up. There were some intriguing moments at the beginning of the book, after all, even though the prophecies regarding Yasmin's fate that were dropped at the start were just a tad over-the-top and somewhat clichéd (their love is going to be so powerful! Yasmin is going to fall! someone is going to die!). I wanted to find out how everything would be resolved.
But very little actually happens until the last 30 pages of the book or so, where some mysterious thing happens and then there's a very rushed battle scene, and then we get a cliffhanger and it turns out most of what I was looking forward to finding out, all the promises of what might happen – apparently I'll have to wait until the next book for all of that. And I'm just not sure whether I care enough to read the next book.
Plus all these terms were used: Legendary, Crea, Dei, etc. etc. that weren't really fully explained until halfway through the book. It was confusing, and even though the meanings of these terms could kind of be guessed earlier on, I would have appreciated it if the explanations didn't come so late. By that time I was almost expecting them never to be explained.
The writing was more tell than show. So many times I was just really frustrated at how the book spent so much time telling me things when it could have spent more time showing me these things.
The Classicist in me bristled at some of the mistakes I found: Yasmin, as a descendant of Venus, is often called Yasmin ex Venere, which is fine, since Venere is the correct ablative form of Venus and the ablative case is what you need after the preposition 'ex', but Minnie, descendant of Apollo, was called Minnie ex Apolle. The ablative of Apollo isn't Apolle, it's Apolline. (I don't know whether this has been corrected since the ARC though.)
Some mythological details also struck me as wrong, such as Mavers, a descendant of Mars, collecting bows because they're apparently a symbol of Mars? No. Bows are the symbol of Apollo!
But hey, I'm being nitpicky, I guess, and these things probably would go unnoticed by other people. It's just that when the story is so entrenched in mythology, and when the author has decided that she wants to use Latin phrases and words, I would appreciate it if more care was paid to the accuracy of these little things. Otherwise these mistakes really throw me off, as a Classicist.
I did like a few of the side characters. There's Guy, Yasmin's brother. Their relationship is a pretty prickly one which gradually improves over the course of the book, and Guy's dialogue was refreshing and funny.
Then there's Yasmin's friend, Minnie. I wish we could have got more of her backstory and more of a sense of the history of her friendship with Yasmin. (I feel like I'm always talking about the history of friendships in my reviews, but trust me: the books where I get the most profound sense of the history of the characters' friendships are usually my favourite books, and vice versa – that can really make or break a book for me.) Minnie was also pretty funny and competent, a good friend to Yasmin.
Finally, I was intrigued by Ran, a character who appears fairly late in the book. He's very flirtatious and rebellious and just super duper interesting, and we definitely did not see enough of him. His interactions with Minnie were great. I almost wish the book was about them instead, because I feel like their relationship would probably be a lot more fiery than Yasmin and Fray's.
(And dammit, because now I've kind of talked myself into wanting to read the next book just to find out more about what happens with Ran and Minnie.)
I just. I'm so disappointed, because I really did think that this book could have been awesome. But the pace was entirely too slow. I'm convinced that half of this book could have been cut out and whatever takes place in the next book could definitely be put into this book. That might have made for a much thrilling ride than what this book ended up being.
(But hey, if you like the sound of the blurb, you should give the book a go anyway! It might work out much better for you.)
rm206's review
2.0
The Beast of Callaire throws you into the hidden world of myth and magic in modern day England from the perspective of Yasmin, a young, independent Manticore. Once a month she and others like her transform into creatures of legend and roam the woods near the Red Academy, where Yasmin once lived with others like her.
Written in first person, The Beast requires patience and persistence from readers, as the narrator knows a great deal about her world that she is reluctant to share or do more than hint at. The text measures out her explanations but doesn't hesitate to use her people's jargon, an approach that might frustrate anyone that skipped the author's notes and isn't willing to wade around in the dark for however many chapters before Yasmin attempts to explain these things to a newcomer.
What The Beast has in its favor is a lesbian woman of color as its loner Chosen One protagonist and a sapphic romance (that both isn't overwrought and claims the label soulmates) without the YA genre's love triangle trope at its center. Her best friend is a trans man, her love interest is a stated bisexual, and these identities are a non-issue compared to their in/human status.
If you like contemporary fantasy and YA and want more diversity among the characters, this is likely a good book for you. If you want a quick and easy read, you might want to give The Beast a pass.
Read more at: Cherry-picked Reviews
Written in first person, The Beast requires patience and persistence from readers, as the narrator knows a great deal about her world that she is reluctant to share or do more than hint at. The text measures out her explanations but doesn't hesitate to use her people's jargon, an approach that might frustrate anyone that skipped the author's notes and isn't willing to wade around in the dark for however many chapters before Yasmin attempts to explain these things to a newcomer.
What The Beast has in its favor is a lesbian woman of color as its loner Chosen One protagonist and a sapphic romance (that both isn't overwrought and claims the label soulmates) without the YA genre's love triangle trope at its center. Her best friend is a trans man, her love interest is a stated bisexual, and these identities are a non-issue compared to their in/human status.
If you like contemporary fantasy and YA and want more diversity among the characters, this is likely a good book for you. If you want a quick and easy read, you might want to give The Beast a pass.
Read more at: Cherry-picked Reviews
synth's review
1.0
Writing a superficially black main character is not enough, especially when it is so poorly done (like the most basic problematic thing to avoid: describing only the skin color of the characters of color, especially when the writing is first person from the black MC POV, including her own...).
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