Take a photo of a barcode or cover
readsbyness 's review for:
The Monster
by L.J. Shen
2.5 stars
the books i've read from l.j. shen have always been hit or miss for me, but after i read and completely adored the villain, i was honestly pretty excited for this book and the idea of sam and aisling together. especially because there were so many different theories about their story with so much hype surrounding them.
while there were some aspects of this story that i liked, i was unfortunately pretty disappointed with the overall result. the more i had time to sit with this story and think it over, the more issues i had with how it all played out.
--------
✰ WHAT WORKED FOR ME ✰
→ in my opinion, the prologue was actually a pretty decent set up for a story. it was unnecessarily long, yes, but i thought it gave good insight into both characters and their histories. i really loved the idea of sam and aisling having met before and having had a whole encounter that no one else knew about that set up the foundation for her infatuation with him. i actually really enjoyed to entire carnival scene and i thought it led to a lot of potential for their relationship development.
→ for the most part, i liked aisling. the parts of her character that we've seen in the previous books was only a fraction of who she really was, and i liked seeing the newer sides to her. i also really liked her development throughout the story, and the parts where she began to stand up for herself against different characters and in different situations.
→ there were definitely some cute moments between the two main characters, with my personal favourites being aisling taking care of sam while he was sick, and sam renting out the entire carnival for their date.
→ CILLIANPERSY + ASTOR crumbs were adorable. whenever characters are featured in books after their own, i get nervous about them potentially being OOC. thankfully that wasn't the case in this book. the crumbs we got were few and far between, but they were definitely a highlight of the story. that's my family y'all <3
→ even though most people seem to hate the focus on the family drama in this book, i actually found it pretty entertaining. the fitzpatricks are a ridiculous family that all need serious therapy, but i can't say that i wasn't laughing during some parts of this book because of their dramatics.
---
✰ WHAT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME ✰
→ there is a very big difference between utilizing the "obsessed girl" trope and making that girl look embarassingly desparate. while aisling seemed to bounce back and forth between the two, she came across as desparate way too often for my liking. there were MULTIPLE scenes of her literally begging sam for him to sleep with her. BEGGING. and when he would turn around and insult her to her face, she didn't even flinch. this wasn't a scenario like cillian and persephone, where he was never outright disrespectful toward her. sam was incredibly rude and mean to aisling for more than half of this book, and aisling pretty much turned a blind eye to it until over halfway through, and continued to beg him for attention. it was honestly painful to read at times.
→ sam's character arc was essentially nonexistent. he was set up to be this intimidating, genius mobster who ended up getting fooled not once, but twice in the same book. while i can somewhat understand him getting blindsided by aisling, his willingness to believe cat's story without checking everything 100% just didn't sit right with me. he set out to destroy the fitzpatrick family for something that ended up being a complete lie, and he didn't even bother to confirm it before hand. not to mention that he treated aisling like dirt for most of the book, and then developed feelings for her and abandoned his hatred of women in the blink of an eye. it made no sense.
→ there was a literal scene where sam and aisling screwed around in the doctor's clinic and did doctor-patient roleplay. fine. but how about the fact that they roleplayed him giving her a pap smear? let that sink in.
→ the friendship between the guys, specifically between sam and cillian, was one of my favourite parts of the villain. for some reason, the author decided to throw that all away in this book, as sam decided to ruin the fitzpatrick family out of some hidden hatred he has for the brothers and their wealth. don't even get me started on the girls' friendship that is barely existent here, despite the fact that it's the third book in the series centered around them.
→ i was really hopeful that we would get some cute scenes with the fitzpatrick siblings bonding. that obviously didn't happen.
→ aisling working in the field of euthanasia does not make her a monster. that's all i'm going to say about that.
--
i knew going into this book that the monster was the last book i planned on reading by this author, but the disappointment of this story only confirmed that further for me. i will be taking cillianpersephone + astor + their unborn child and putting this series out of my mind.
the books i've read from l.j. shen have always been hit or miss for me, but after i read and completely adored the villain, i was honestly pretty excited for this book and the idea of sam and aisling together. especially because there were so many different theories about their story with so much hype surrounding them.
while there were some aspects of this story that i liked, i was unfortunately pretty disappointed with the overall result. the more i had time to sit with this story and think it over, the more issues i had with how it all played out.
--------
✰ WHAT WORKED FOR ME ✰
→ in my opinion, the prologue was actually a pretty decent set up for a story. it was unnecessarily long, yes, but i thought it gave good insight into both characters and their histories. i really loved the idea of sam and aisling having met before and having had a whole encounter that no one else knew about that set up the foundation for her infatuation with him. i actually really enjoyed to entire carnival scene and i thought it led to a lot of potential for their relationship development.
→ for the most part, i liked aisling. the parts of her character that we've seen in the previous books was only a fraction of who she really was, and i liked seeing the newer sides to her. i also really liked her development throughout the story, and the parts where she began to stand up for herself against different characters and in different situations.
→ there were definitely some cute moments between the two main characters, with my personal favourites being aisling taking care of sam while he was sick, and sam renting out the entire carnival for their date.
→ CILLIANPERSY + ASTOR crumbs were adorable. whenever characters are featured in books after their own, i get nervous about them potentially being OOC. thankfully that wasn't the case in this book. the crumbs we got were few and far between, but they were definitely a highlight of the story. that's my family y'all <3
→ even though most people seem to hate the focus on the family drama in this book, i actually found it pretty entertaining. the fitzpatricks are a ridiculous family that all need serious therapy, but i can't say that i wasn't laughing during some parts of this book because of their dramatics.
---
✰ WHAT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME ✰
→ there is a very big difference between utilizing the "obsessed girl" trope and making that girl look embarassingly desparate. while aisling seemed to bounce back and forth between the two, she came across as desparate way too often for my liking. there were MULTIPLE scenes of her literally begging sam for him to sleep with her. BEGGING. and when he would turn around and insult her to her face, she didn't even flinch. this wasn't a scenario like cillian and persephone, where he was never outright disrespectful toward her. sam was incredibly rude and mean to aisling for more than half of this book, and aisling pretty much turned a blind eye to it until over halfway through, and continued to beg him for attention. it was honestly painful to read at times.
→ sam's character arc was essentially nonexistent. he was set up to be this intimidating, genius mobster who ended up getting fooled not once, but twice in the same book. while i can somewhat understand him getting blindsided by aisling, his willingness to believe cat's story without checking everything 100% just didn't sit right with me. he set out to destroy the fitzpatrick family for something that ended up being a complete lie, and he didn't even bother to confirm it before hand. not to mention that he treated aisling like dirt for most of the book, and then developed feelings for her and abandoned his hatred of women in the blink of an eye. it made no sense.
→ there was a literal scene where sam and aisling screwed around in the doctor's clinic and did doctor-patient roleplay. fine. but how about the fact that they roleplayed him giving her a pap smear? let that sink in.
→ the friendship between the guys, specifically between sam and cillian, was one of my favourite parts of the villain. for some reason, the author decided to throw that all away in this book, as sam decided to ruin the fitzpatrick family out of some hidden hatred he has for the brothers and their wealth. don't even get me started on the girls' friendship that is barely existent here, despite the fact that it's the third book in the series centered around them.
→ i was really hopeful that we would get some cute scenes with the fitzpatrick siblings bonding. that obviously didn't happen.
→ aisling working in the field of euthanasia does not make her a monster. that's all i'm going to say about that.
--
i knew going into this book that the monster was the last book i planned on reading by this author, but the disappointment of this story only confirmed that further for me. i will be taking cillianpersephone + astor + their unborn child and putting this series out of my mind.