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A review by aksmith92
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Spooky!
The Setup: Delicious Monsters follows two girls - Daisy and Brittany. Daisy is a seventeen-year-old living in Toronto who recently just went through a rather challenging breakup with some scum named Noah. She also has a tumultuous relationship with her single mom and distant dad. Daisy and her mom, Grace, soon find out that they inherited a house within their family - a mansion in Timmins, many miles from Toronto and a place where instead of the word "forest," "the bush" is used to describe the area surrounding the house; so, a big change! Grace leaves the decision to go up to Daisy since she has rather complicated feelings about the area and the mansion. Daisy decides she wants to start a new life away from her school and a rather horrific incident when she was younger, and of course, away from Nolan. Daisy and Grace pack their bags and head to the mansion to start a new life. Grace plans for her and Daisy to stay in the "bunkie" on the property while Airbnb the mansion. Daisy is ready to lay low for a huge reason: she can see dead people. Plot twist (but not; the summary on the back of the book mentions this, so it is not a spoiler)! Much of the story follows the rather interesting events at the mansion.
The story also follows Brittany, a college-aged woman working at a film company. She and her best friend Jayden are brainstorming what to film next after their massive success of Haunted and land on a story from 10 years prior about a mansion in Timmins. All we know is that Brittany wants to ensure this film series is a success since she wants the world to know about forgotten Black girls.
We know these two stories intersect, and while you can likely suspect how so, we don't find out until the end. Delicious Monsters is a good story about complicated familial matters, race, and very real monsters that may not look like you think.
What I liked: There was a lot packed into this book. While the two main protagonists, Brittany and Daisy, read a bit young, they were layered and nuanced, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them. They were complicated, messy, and imperfect, but their characters (and many others) seemed very real. I also thoroughly enjoyed the plot of the ghosts (seeing dead people) and a haunted house. The connection between the two was clever and unique. While some elements were undoubtedly predictable, the sub-plot ties were fascinating to witness. Overall, the plot was intriguing, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to the end to see what would happen. Liselle Sambury also did an excellent job integrating important topics like race into this novel and shared a critical topic about missing Black girls. I don't want to give too much away because of spoilers, but this was vital to read. But please be aware that while this read YA, it was dark. There were very challenging topics here to read, and please check some of the content warnings before proceeding (Sexual Assault, Rape, Suicide Attempt). Sambury also has some trigger warnings in her author's note before the story even begins.
What I didn't like: This was so long. While I read through this pretty quickly for how long it was (500+ pages), many things in the beginning might not have needed to be in there. A lot of the background helped paint the characters better, but at times it dragged. I almost DNF'd this book in the beginning. Thankfully, I kept going! After pages 50-75, it picks up more and even more after the halfway mark. A big reason why I almost DNF'd was that this read REALLY YA to me. Daisy was truly dramatic, a typical seventeen-year-old struggling with very VALID traumas. However, the writing made it seem so young to me, and as an almost 32-year-old, it was initially challenging for me. I started getting used to it at about the 1/3 mark and was glad I kept going to the end because it turned out to be a pretty good book. But, the young writing style was still challenging for me. This is a me thing and most certainly might not be a you thing!
Overall, it was well done and an interesting tale that included some important topics. I recommend it for a YA Fantasy with some spooky elements.
The Setup: Delicious Monsters follows two girls - Daisy and Brittany. Daisy is a seventeen-year-old living in Toronto who recently just went through a rather challenging breakup with some scum named Noah. She also has a tumultuous relationship with her single mom and distant dad. Daisy and her mom, Grace, soon find out that they inherited a house within their family - a mansion in Timmins, many miles from Toronto and a place where instead of the word "forest," "the bush" is used to describe the area surrounding the house; so, a big change! Grace leaves the decision to go up to Daisy since she has rather complicated feelings about the area and the mansion. Daisy decides she wants to start a new life away from her school and a rather horrific incident when she was younger, and of course, away from Nolan. Daisy and Grace pack their bags and head to the mansion to start a new life. Grace plans for her and Daisy to stay in the "bunkie" on the property while Airbnb the mansion. Daisy is ready to lay low for a huge reason: she can see dead people. Plot twist (but not; the summary on the back of the book mentions this, so it is not a spoiler)! Much of the story follows the rather interesting events at the mansion.
The story also follows Brittany, a college-aged woman working at a film company. She and her best friend Jayden are brainstorming what to film next after their massive success of Haunted and land on a story from 10 years prior about a mansion in Timmins. All we know is that Brittany wants to ensure this film series is a success since she wants the world to know about forgotten Black girls.
We know these two stories intersect, and while you can likely suspect how so, we don't find out until the end. Delicious Monsters is a good story about complicated familial matters, race, and very real monsters that may not look like you think.
What I liked: There was a lot packed into this book. While the two main protagonists, Brittany and Daisy, read a bit young, they were layered and nuanced, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them. They were complicated, messy, and imperfect, but their characters (and many others) seemed very real. I also thoroughly enjoyed the plot of the ghosts (seeing dead people) and a haunted house. The connection between the two was clever and unique. While some elements were undoubtedly predictable, the sub-plot ties were fascinating to witness. Overall, the plot was intriguing, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to the end to see what would happen. Liselle Sambury also did an excellent job integrating important topics like race into this novel and shared a critical topic about missing Black girls. I don't want to give too much away because of spoilers, but this was vital to read. But please be aware that while this read YA, it was dark. There were very challenging topics here to read, and please check some of the content warnings before proceeding (Sexual Assault, Rape, Suicide Attempt). Sambury also has some trigger warnings in her author's note before the story even begins.
What I didn't like: This was so long. While I read through this pretty quickly for how long it was (500+ pages), many things in the beginning might not have needed to be in there. A lot of the background helped paint the characters better, but at times it dragged. I almost DNF'd this book in the beginning. Thankfully, I kept going! After pages 50-75, it picks up more and even more after the halfway mark. A big reason why I almost DNF'd was that this read REALLY YA to me. Daisy was truly dramatic, a typical seventeen-year-old struggling with very VALID traumas. However, the writing made it seem so young to me, and as an almost 32-year-old, it was initially challenging for me. I started getting used to it at about the 1/3 mark and was glad I kept going to the end because it turned out to be a pretty good book. But, the young writing style was still challenging for me. This is a me thing and most certainly might not be a you thing!
Overall, it was well done and an interesting tale that included some important topics. I recommend it for a YA Fantasy with some spooky elements.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Death of parent
Suicide attempt is on paper - towards the end of book. Please take care.
Rape and sexual assault are written about frequently; there are some descriptive parts scattered throughout the book. Please take care.