A review by clummo
The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

3.0

Quite a fun, fast read. It felt a lot more (dark) fantasy than horror to me which isn't my usual niche, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The worldbuilding was vivid and the stakes clear, but it always felt like the story lacked something.

I liked Johan as a character but never got entirely on-board with Florian, which took away from the revenge plot a bit.

Spoiler

The romance between the two appeared quite suddenly and their 'flirting' was a bit repetitive but also quite surface-level. I never got much of a sense as to why they fell for each other.

The ending was also a tad unsatisfying.

Spoiler

Towards the end of the novella there are talks of doomsday and apocalypse, but none of that comes to fruition. The epilogue depicts Johan arriving in a new city to spread Florian's plague, which would make for a very interesting story in its own right, however it's not quite as grandiose an ending as was being set up earlier.