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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-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
dark
emotional
My favorite of the Monstrous series so far. Ghost and Aury are adorable. The audiobooks are great.
When I finished this book, I was thinking of it as a 3.5, but upon reflection, I think it's gotta be more of a 3. 3.25 at most. It's definitely my least favourite in the series so far. Which is a shame! Because I did really like certain parts of this. Ghost and the Rycke are really cute, and they both have personalities that I think I'd usually really gravitate towards in a romance novel. But they were written in ways that weren't my favourite. This book also had that same sense of plotlessness that I got from book 1, and alas, the relationship didn't have the magnetic pull that Wyn and Danny had.
We've heard about the Rycke in previous books, and I did really like meeting him, after seeing how he terrifies the other monsters. I love the concept of a really gentle soul who's been through so much, but refuses to fight on his own behalf, no matter how much other people hurt him... but it's a different story when it comes to the person he loves. But I didn't love the execution. Firstly, it was sooooo insta-love, way more so than the other two books. Even with Hunter and Edin, who started hooking up relatively early on, if I recall correctly, they still had a great trajectory to the emotional side of their relationship. With these two... there was a bit of early friction, and the misunderstanding where Ghost thought Aury hated him, but the attraction was so instantaneous, and it felt like it took the blink of an eye for them to act on it. And it felt even faster because Aury was nonverbal for a lot of the early parts of the book. I guess we were supposed to believe that they developed a deep connection during the times they sat silently and read to one another. All of that was really sweet, and again, I did like the foundation of the relationship? But the book didn't do the greatest job of building on it. And I really did think we'd do a bit more with the exploration of Aury's trauma, and his backstory with the camp, but that just fell by the wayside.
Ghost is exactly the kind of character that I would THINK I would really love, but in actuality, he sorta irritated me, lol. He's really avoidant, a bit of a pushover, super anxious. I empathise with all of that so much. He reminds me a bit of myself, which, alas, might be why I didn't like him so much, haha. But see, I really sympathised with his feelings about his place in camp, how he resented having to go out and scout and do all these dangerous things. I mean, I actually really liked Anchor a lot. (Perhaps I just kneejerk wanted to like her; she's the first main female side character we've had in the series so far, and I was annoyed she immediately got shoehorned into 'failing leader'.) But I was still kinda mad at her, that she knew exactly how much danger Ghost faced out there, but was still adamant about sending him out. ...................Except it turned out she DIDN'T know the dangers he faced, and how much he hated it, because he never said!! LOL that did annoy me a lot. Like, Ghost, you can't say that people don't take your feelings into consideration if you don't TELL them your feelings. I get that he's anxious, and again, I empathise, but the people around you aren't mind readers. If you don't say something, how will they know!!! It was also mildly irritating seeing him go through the entire book mentally berating Anchor for believing that Cat is alive, and meanwhile, we know that he IS.
Just like in Edin, the ending of this book petered out, rather than building towards something explosive, like I'd previously thought it would. Unlike in Edin, I didn't really like it? Or at least, idk, I felt a little deflated by the way this ended. I did enjoy a lot of the things that came before. The moment at the Topeka camp was... something, but I did like it. And I'm really glad that that wasn't the thing to provoke the third act break up; that would have been too predictable. Aury's monstrous reveal ultimately not being enough to change Ghost's feelings... yessss. That's the fucked up romance I'm looking for. Truly, this couple had so many elements I loved; I just didn't love either of them as characters that much. I pretty much enjoyed all the side characters way more than Ghost and Aury. I know there probably won't ever be an Anchor book, but I really loved Lilac and Rig and Moth, and I'm excited for their romances. The setup for Gloam was great.
Oh but while I'm under a spoiler cut, I might as well mention the other petty reason I didn't like Aury/Ghost as much: all the comeplay. Lol, obviously that's completely subjective, but oh man, I don't like it as a kink, even when there's a normal amount of it. And Aury producing so much of it.... eugh. Lol sorry sorry, it's real petty hours over here, but I just think it's gross. This is the second book in a row where a kink I don't like has been enough to lower my rating. The picky bitch in me will never die.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Michael Lesley, and enjoyed it once again. I do like how all his voices are so distinctive. Aury didn't sound quite like what I expected, but the voice really grew on me. And I'm kind of obsessed with Lilac's bored psychotwink voice. Amazing. While this was my least favourite book so far, I'm still really enjoying the series. Even if I didn't love this, it still made me excited for upcoming books.
Oh! One thing: I do really like the cover. For the longest time, when I looked at it, I swore there were two characters. I thought the huge black thing was the Rycke, and his hands were touching the human's back. Only to discover that those are the Rycke's wings, growing out of his back. I know that that probably wasn't intentional, but it's kinda cool.
We've heard about the Rycke in previous books, and I did really like meeting him, after seeing how he terrifies the other monsters. I love the concept of a really gentle soul who's been through so much, but refuses to fight on his own behalf, no matter how much other people hurt him... but it's a different story when it comes to the person he loves. But I didn't love the execution. Firstly, it was sooooo insta-love, way more so than the other two books. Even with Hunter and Edin, who started hooking up relatively early on, if I recall correctly, they still had a great trajectory to the emotional side of their relationship. With these two... there was a bit of early friction, and the misunderstanding where Ghost thought Aury hated him, but the attraction was so instantaneous, and it felt like it took the blink of an eye for them to act on it. And it felt even faster because Aury was nonverbal for a lot of the early parts of the book. I guess we were supposed to believe that they developed a deep connection during the times they sat silently and read to one another. All of that was really sweet, and again, I did like the foundation of the relationship? But the book didn't do the greatest job of building on it. And I really did think we'd do a bit more with the exploration of Aury's trauma, and his backstory with the camp, but that just fell by the wayside.
Ghost is exactly the kind of character that I would THINK I would really love, but in actuality, he sorta irritated me, lol. He's really avoidant, a bit of a pushover, super anxious. I empathise with all of that so much. He reminds me a bit of myself, which, alas, might be why I didn't like him so much, haha. But see, I really sympathised with his feelings about his place in camp, how he resented having to go out and scout and do all these dangerous things. I mean, I actually really liked Anchor a lot. (Perhaps I just kneejerk wanted to like her; she's the first main female side character we've had in the series so far, and I was annoyed she immediately got shoehorned into 'failing leader'.) But I was still kinda mad at her, that she knew exactly how much danger Ghost faced out there, but was still adamant about sending him out. ...................Except it turned out she DIDN'T know the dangers he faced, and how much he hated it, because he never said!! LOL that did annoy me a lot. Like, Ghost, you can't say that people don't take your feelings into consideration if you don't TELL them your feelings. I get that he's anxious, and again, I empathise, but the people around you aren't mind readers. If you don't say something, how will they know!!! It was also mildly irritating seeing him go through the entire book mentally berating Anchor for believing that Cat is alive, and meanwhile, we know that he IS.
Just like in Edin, the ending of this book petered out, rather than building towards something explosive, like I'd previously thought it would. Unlike in Edin, I didn't really like it? Or at least, idk, I felt a little deflated by the way this ended. I did enjoy a lot of the things that came before. The moment at the Topeka camp was... something, but I did like it. And I'm really glad that that wasn't the thing to provoke the third act break up; that would have been too predictable. Aury's monstrous reveal ultimately not being enough to change Ghost's feelings... yessss. That's the fucked up romance I'm looking for. Truly, this couple had so many elements I loved; I just didn't love either of them as characters that much. I pretty much enjoyed all the side characters way more than Ghost and Aury. I know there probably won't ever be an Anchor book, but I really loved Lilac and Rig and Moth, and I'm excited for their romances. The setup for Gloam was great.
Spoiler
(I was pretty let down by the author's note, when she revealed what book 3.5 would be about. A few reviews ago, I mentioned that one thing I loved about this series is that we got HEAs, even with the lifetime angst for couples like Wyn/Danny and Edin/Hunter. But apparently, we're just going to get an easy fix-it for all that. Sigh. I truly don't know why it annoys me so much. Romance is my favourite genre; I LOVE getting my HEAs. But I truly thought both those love stories were beautiful, even knowing that Wyn and Edin are immortal and their boyfriends are not. There's something really ovely about knowing that Wyn and Edin will cherish their guys with all their hearts, for the limited time they have. The fact that we're just gonna fix that... idk. I know I need to read it before I complain about it. And I already bought the audio, so I know I'm going to read it. Maybe it will be less annoying than I predict.)Oh but while I'm under a spoiler cut, I might as well mention the other petty reason I didn't like Aury/Ghost as much: all the comeplay. Lol, obviously that's completely subjective, but oh man, I don't like it as a kink, even when there's a normal amount of it. And Aury producing so much of it.... eugh. Lol sorry sorry, it's real petty hours over here, but I just think it's gross. This is the second book in a row where a kink I don't like has been enough to lower my rating. The picky bitch in me will never die.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Michael Lesley, and enjoyed it once again. I do like how all his voices are so distinctive. Aury didn't sound quite like what I expected, but the voice really grew on me. And I'm kind of obsessed with Lilac's bored psychotwink voice. Amazing. While this was my least favourite book so far, I'm still really enjoying the series. Even if I didn't love this, it still made me excited for upcoming books.
Oh! One thing: I do really like the cover. For the longest time, when I looked at it, I swore there were two characters. I thought the huge black thing was the Rycke, and his hands were touching the human's back. Only to discover that those are the Rycke's wings, growing out of his back. I know that that probably wasn't intentional, but it's kinda cool.
adventurous
emotional
medium-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
this is for sure my favorite book & favorite relationship we’ve explored in this series so far
ghost was SUCH a good main character to follow, & i really adored his relationship with aury
despite the fact that there wasn’t a super clear plot to this one, the characters more than made up for that for me, & i lost my mind when i found out we’re getting stories for rig/lilac as well because i loved them on page so much
very excited to hop into rig’s story next, & i really hope we get more of aury/ghost in this one because i’m not ready to say goodbye to these two yet <333
ghost was SUCH a good main character to follow, & i really adored his relationship with aury
despite the fact that there wasn’t a super clear plot to this one, the characters more than made up for that for me, & i lost my mind when i found out we’re getting stories for rig/lilac as well because i loved them on page so much
very excited to hop into rig’s story next, & i really hope we get more of aury/ghost in this one because i’m not ready to say goodbye to these two yet <333
medium-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
Gage/Ghost and Aury (the rycke)
PLEASE be aware that this review is meant for my own purposes only in order to help me recall this book and is in no way a reflection of what I think anyone else will like or want out of a book. It is simply a memory aid and a rough voice-to-text which is completely unedited/reviewed for errors. Read at your own discretion.
When Gage and Rig go to scavenge items at the former military base, they find a monster chained up and badly hurt. They take him back to their camp to be treated. It turns out that the leader of the camp, Anchor, knows him because he helped build the original camp many years before. The monster is in shock and traumatized and does not speak for a while. It becomes clear that he is soothing by Gage’s presence. Gage is inexplicably attracted to him. Fairly soon, he begins to communicate and says his name is Aury. As he heals, he and Gage fall into a relationship. Out of nowhere, a weird woman named Mary shows up with an RV pulled by two monsters and another one who drags a warhammer. We had seen this little caravan in the previous book. Turns out she is a collector of monsters and is there to take to take Aury. She knows what he is. We find out that he is a monster called a rycke and we know that they are considered very dangerous. This monster type was brought up previously in the prior books. Aury’s nature is incredibly docile and sweet. Eventually, Gage and Ari decide to leave the camp to draw Mary‘s attention away and also to further their search for the former coleader of the camp, Cat. We know from Edin’s book that Cat is being held in the fighting facility, but his raider camp has no idea. When they get to the next camp over, they find it has been taken over by hostile raiders. They threaten Gage and Aury essentially loses it and becomes a giant monster who kills everyone in the camp. That has never happened to him before and he is devastated by it. They decide that they can’t go back to the camp because he can’t control his transformation and is dangerous. They come across a bunch of soldiers who try to kill them and.Aury is better able to control himself. They steal a bunch of weapons and decide to take them to the camp. Aury unilaterally decides that.Gage is safer at the camp and so he leaves.Gage becomes depressed.Moth who is half monster and has been hanging around camp intermittently, goes out and finds Aury. There is an incident where a guy named Cutter who hates Gage almost killed him by pushing him off the wall. Aury saves him, and Cutter is turned out into the waist. Meanwhile, Rig who is Gage‘s best friend has left with Collector Mary to try to free the monsters she has held captive. At the end of the book, gauge and Aury have decided to be together but are going to leave to try to track down Rig.
In this book, we learn much more about rykes and we meet Moth who is half monster half human and had a thing for Gage for a while that never really went anywhere. He is a nomad. We know that Cat is still in the fighting complex but no one in the camp knows this yet. Lilac is the camp assassin and voice of reason. He’s kind of creepy and never shows emotion but he is a good friend to Gage and Aury and we see little hints of his gentle side and humanity.
Overall, I liked this book a lot. It was a very different take on the most terrifying monster also being the most docile and sweet. Gage is a pushover and afraid all the time that he’s going to get kicked out of camp. He has a lot of anxiety and not great self-worth.
PLEASE be aware that this review is meant for my own purposes only in order to help me recall this book and is in no way a reflection of what I think anyone else will like or want out of a book. It is simply a memory aid and a rough voice-to-text which is completely unedited/reviewed for errors. Read at your own discretion.
When Gage and Rig go to scavenge items at the former military base, they find a monster chained up and badly hurt. They take him back to their camp to be treated. It turns out that the leader of the camp, Anchor, knows him because he helped build the original camp many years before. The monster is in shock and traumatized and does not speak for a while. It becomes clear that he is soothing by Gage’s presence. Gage is inexplicably attracted to him. Fairly soon, he begins to communicate and says his name is Aury. As he heals, he and Gage fall into a relationship. Out of nowhere, a weird woman named Mary shows up with an RV pulled by two monsters and another one who drags a warhammer. We had seen this little caravan in the previous book. Turns out she is a collector of monsters and is there to take to take Aury. She knows what he is. We find out that he is a monster called a rycke and we know that they are considered very dangerous. This monster type was brought up previously in the prior books. Aury’s nature is incredibly docile and sweet. Eventually, Gage and Ari decide to leave the camp to draw Mary‘s attention away and also to further their search for the former coleader of the camp, Cat. We know from Edin’s book that Cat is being held in the fighting facility, but his raider camp has no idea. When they get to the next camp over, they find it has been taken over by hostile raiders. They threaten Gage and Aury essentially loses it and becomes a giant monster who kills everyone in the camp. That has never happened to him before and he is devastated by it. They decide that they can’t go back to the camp because he can’t control his transformation and is dangerous. They come across a bunch of soldiers who try to kill them and.Aury is better able to control himself. They steal a bunch of weapons and decide to take them to the camp. Aury unilaterally decides that.Gage is safer at the camp and so he leaves.Gage becomes depressed.Moth who is half monster and has been hanging around camp intermittently, goes out and finds Aury. There is an incident where a guy named Cutter who hates Gage almost killed him by pushing him off the wall. Aury saves him, and Cutter is turned out into the waist. Meanwhile, Rig who is Gage‘s best friend has left with Collector Mary to try to free the monsters she has held captive. At the end of the book, gauge and Aury have decided to be together but are going to leave to try to track down Rig.
In this book, we learn much more about rykes and we meet Moth who is half monster half human and had a thing for Gage for a while that never really went anywhere. He is a nomad. We know that Cat is still in the fighting complex but no one in the camp knows this yet. Lilac is the camp assassin and voice of reason. He’s kind of creepy and never shows emotion but he is a good friend to Gage and Aury and we see little hints of his gentle side and humanity.
Overall, I liked this book a lot. It was a very different take on the most terrifying monster also being the most docile and sweet. Gage is a pushover and afraid all the time that he’s going to get kicked out of camp. He has a lot of anxiety and not great self-worth.
Reread via audiobook
5 stars for the audio
The voices that Michael Lesley used for gage and Aury are just precious.
And MOTH GAHHH
And LILACCCCCCC
5 stars for the audio
The voices that Michael Lesley used for gage and Aury are just precious.
And MOTH GAHHH
And LILACCCCCCC
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Blood
Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, Grief