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A review by bickleyhouse
We Shall Be Monsters by Tara Sim
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This is my first encounter with this author, and I am glad I got to read this! It is steeped in Indian/Hindu mythology, about which I knew virtually nothing. I find it fascinating, after reading this tale.
The story begins with Kajal bursting out of her coffin, in which she was about to be burned/cremated. She's alive. Now, I was never quite clear if she had been dead and came back. That's one point that wasn't made clear, unless I missed it.
Kajal's sister, Lasya, remained dead. Something went wrong. Horribly wrong.
From this point, Kajal sets out to hone her skills and gather ingredients needed to revive Lasya. But in the process, she runs into a couple of rebels who appear to be willing to help her. They aren't quite honesty, though, and force her to work toward reviving the crown prince, Advaith, who was killed in battle twenty years ago.
Things don't quite go as planned (do they ever) and the story gets more and more complex as it goes. And that's all the plot reveal I will give.
I became totally engrossed in this story and its characters and found that I couldn't wait to finish. As already mentioned, there is a lot of Hindu mythology in this, and I wasn't really aware of any of it. I looked a few things up along the way, and then discovered the afterword, in which Ms Sim explained most of it. This is an ARC edition, and it might be nice if the "afterword" was a "foreword," instead, for those of us who don't know any of this mythology.
I believe this is geared toward the YA audience, but that didn't affect my enjoyment at all. I rather like a lot of the YA material that I see. The character development is great, I think, and one thing that keeps it interesting is that it is kind of hard to tell who are the "good guys" and who are the "bad guys." It may be, perhaps, that there is really only one "bad guy" in this story, but we are exposed very much to him. It does appear to be a series, so I'm sure we will see more of him, later.
At one point, the story takes a huge detour, which was slightly off-putting, at first, but the more I got into it, the better and more interesting it got. A lot was explained in that part, about what had gone before and what was coming up. That may sound confusing, but it's the best I can do.
To wrap it up, I absolutely loved this book! I look forward to reading more by this author, and hope to continue in the series, when more volumes become available.
As stated, this was an ARC, which I received from NetGalley, and this is a voluntary review.
The story begins with Kajal bursting out of her coffin, in which she was about to be burned/cremated. She's alive. Now, I was never quite clear if she had been dead and came back. That's one point that wasn't made clear, unless I missed it.
Kajal's sister, Lasya, remained dead. Something went wrong. Horribly wrong.
From this point, Kajal sets out to hone her skills and gather ingredients needed to revive Lasya. But in the process, she runs into a couple of rebels who appear to be willing to help her. They aren't quite honesty, though, and force her to work toward reviving the crown prince, Advaith, who was killed in battle twenty years ago.
Things don't quite go as planned (do they ever) and the story gets more and more complex as it goes. And that's all the plot reveal I will give.
I became totally engrossed in this story and its characters and found that I couldn't wait to finish. As already mentioned, there is a lot of Hindu mythology in this, and I wasn't really aware of any of it. I looked a few things up along the way, and then discovered the afterword, in which Ms Sim explained most of it. This is an ARC edition, and it might be nice if the "afterword" was a "foreword," instead, for those of us who don't know any of this mythology.
I believe this is geared toward the YA audience, but that didn't affect my enjoyment at all. I rather like a lot of the YA material that I see. The character development is great, I think, and one thing that keeps it interesting is that it is kind of hard to tell who are the "good guys" and who are the "bad guys." It may be, perhaps, that there is really only one "bad guy" in this story, but we are exposed very much to him. It does appear to be a series, so I'm sure we will see more of him, later.
At one point, the story takes a huge detour, which was slightly off-putting, at first, but the more I got into it, the better and more interesting it got. A lot was explained in that part, about what had gone before and what was coming up. That may sound confusing, but it's the best I can do.
To wrap it up, I absolutely loved this book! I look forward to reading more by this author, and hope to continue in the series, when more volumes become available.
As stated, this was an ARC, which I received from NetGalley, and this is a voluntary review.