A review by emleemay
Only a Monster by Vanessa Len

4.0

“I mean it,” she said. “You’re dead.”
He gave her his familiar solemn smile, the one that he’d given her all the time at the house. “Aren’t we all,” he said. “Somewhere on the timeline.”

[b:Only a Monster|58210340|Only a Monster|Vanessa Len|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624641211l/58210340._SY75_.jpg|80140444], as of my writing this, does not release for another five months. I didn't actually mean to read it right now. I was just going to sample the arc, read a few pages, see if it was something that might interest me down the line... then somehow I seem to have ended up here at the end, a little bleary-eyed and disoriented.

I burned myself out on YA urban fantasy some years back, but it looks like I'm ready to get back in the game because I inhaled this. It contains some tropes of the genre-- teen girl comes into new powers, hints of a love triangle, heroes vs villains --but it subverts some too. In this book, you find yourself on the side of the monsters: moral dilemmas, grey areas, and all.
“Monsters look like giant spiders,” Joan said. “Or like robots.” She’d seen enough cartoons to know. Gran sometimes told jokes without smiling. Maybe this was one of those times.
But Gran’s eyes weren’t shiny with a held-in joke. They were serious. “That’s pretend monsters,” she said. “Real monsters look like me and you.”

The protagonist, Joan, comes from a family of time-travelling monsters on her mother's side. They can leech time from humans, essentially shortening their lifespan, in order to travel through time themselves. But there's long been rumours and myths about a hero who will come along and slaughter them, saving humans from their life-sucking powers.

As luck would have it, it turns out said hero is much closer to Joan than she could ever have guessed, and his presence causes a horrible tragedy that threatens everyone Joan cares about. She is forced to travel back in time to try and right some wrongs before they even happen.

I found a lot of this story thrilling. The stakes were high, the potential losses catastrophic, and the secrets mysterious and exciting. Different monster families have different powers and discovering them all is an adventure in itself. I also loved the references to British history and the strong sense of place I got from all the different settings. I am very glad to see we can expect two more books, though, because I still have SO MANY QUESTIONS. Not in a bad way. I can't wait!
“You’re a hero and I’m a monster,” she whispered. “There’s only one way that story ever ends.”

As for the romance(s), I didn't mind it. To be fair, while there were some flirty elements, the romance mostly waits in the wings until the end of the book. Unless the author is my kind of evil, I think it's pretty obvious what the endgame is on this front. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going for the main ship. Partly because star-crossed isn’t my jam, and partly, I think, because I’m a masochist who likes to hitch myself to sinking ships.
SpoilerAlso, Aaron is just more fun than Mr Morality over there.


The ending wraps up this chapter, but it is FAR from over. Now, I wait.

Quotes taken from advance review copy and subject to change.