Reviews - House of the Beast

219 reviews for:

Wonderfully crafted darker fantasy.

When Alma’s mom is dying from illness, her long forgotten father has come to save her and bring her to the house Avera in exchange for her mother to be treated. her father’s house that has been dedicated to the Beast god. Her father forces her to become a dedicated servant after sacrificing her arm against her will. After finding out her mother has now passed from the illness her father promised to help treat, Alma is in a revenge streak to participate and win in the pilgrimage for the beast.

The narrator crafted this beautifully and the writing took you in from the beginning. I loved my whole time listening to the story.

7_minutes_of_weeping's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious 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

In this dark fantasy novel, we follow Alma, a young woman forced into a bargain with a powerful god by her estranged father and his noble family to save her sick mother. After tragedy strikes despite the deal, Alma seeks revenge against her father, aided by her unique connection to the god that only she can see.

This book’s atmosphere and world building sucked me in from the start. The story is rich in dark lore and fantasy, and Wong did an incredible job at building this world.

This book has everything I love in my fantasy books: political intrigue, deadly trials, unique monsters, and rich action-packed battle scenes. I found that Wong’s writing was strongest during the action scenes. They were fluid and so well written.

What I struggled with were the characters. I didn’t particularly enjoy any of them, and the FMC was very childish to me. There was a weird time jump near the start of the book that aged her, but her character never seemed to mentally age and I kept picturing her as 11 due to how she acted throughout the rest of the book. The dialogue between all the characters just felt childish despite the content.

I honestly struggle to rate the narrator in this one, because I can’t tell if I didn’t enjoy her voicing of the characters, or if I just didn’t enjoy the characters. After further reflection, I believe Jeanne did a great job despite the dialogue.

Overall, I wanted to love this one due to so many people praising this story. While I loved the world building, plot, and action, I just couldn’t get over the characters. I can absolutely see why so many people enjoyed this one, though!

Special thanks to HarperAudio Adult/Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the access to this ALC in exchange for my honest review!

stacey_unchecked's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This story opens with a pretty shocking prologue of an 11 year old Alma having her arm cut off by her father so she can join his house of the Dread Beast. This DB then comes to her in the guise of a young boy to be her friend and confidant but what he really is, is evil and controlling.
The story skips ahead 8 years, so we join Alma again when she's spent that time in her awful, abusive fathers home (along with his wife who is worse) and trains for the pilgrimage. This is something that she's not supposed to compete in. Her father is destined to be the next First Hand of the God and she is just to be silent and support that. But he left her mother to die and so Alma has harboured revenge in her heart and is set to see that revenge bear fruit. There is a ton of training, trials and political machinations. All the while the Dread God, now her closest invisible friend/love Astor is manipulating Alma like a puppet.
As we get closer to the actual Pilgrimage the pace picks up quite a bit finally. I loved the battles and twists that the story brings in this section. I do think that Alma would be a bit more blood thirsty at this point...as she's getting closer to her goal of revenge against her father. That doesn't seem to come across in feelings though and so it fell flat for me.
This wants to be dark and wants to be fantasy but didn't really hit either mark for me. There is a lot to like for sure...the audiobook was beautifully narrated by Jeanne Syquia and the production quality is top tier and lush!
My rating is 3.75 rounded
I want to thank Avon and NetGalley for the ARC and HarperAudio for the ALC opportunity to read/listen and review. My thoughts are my own.

gafforama's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

serenology's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the e-arc.

I personally loved the various parts of the story, from the complexity of the characters to the magic of the world. I especially loved the gothic themes of monster vs human and the challenges Alma faces to define that line especially for love and revenge. The illustrations in particular added another layer of depth that really had me engaged.

From the beginning, red flags were everywhere, but not in a problematic way but rather a "there is so much doing on here that we as readers are not yet seeing but is definitely danger to be on the lookout" kind of way. That tension could be felt throughout the entire book.