A review by crothe77
House of the Beast by Michelle Wong

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

House of the Beast by Michelle Wong is a first person-POV Gothic fantasy. Alma is the illegitimate daughter of the brother of the First Hand to the Dread Beast, but has been raised away from her father. When Alma’s mother gets ill, for the first time in her life, Alma contacts her father to see if there is a way to save her mother. Instead of doing so, her father whisks her away to his home and makes her a servant to the Beast, which involves her losing one of her arms as a way to create a bond between her and the Beast and to wear a metal arm to replace it. Alma’s new residence is far from a home and her father’s family doesn’t accept her as one of her own, but Aster, a boy only she can see, is her main companion and has plans for her.

I would not call this a Romantasy. The marketing has been calling it a love story and even that feels like a bit of a stretch to me because there isn't that much romance happening on the page and there is very little love between Alma and most of the other characters in ways that actually drive the plot. Alma’s desire for revenge against her father for his actions and inactions are a much bigger motivation for what is happening on page. Yes, Aster is present, but he’s not present in a way that translates to Romantasy to me because the story never felt like Alma and his story; it felt like Alma’s story and a hard requirement for me on Romantasy is that the story belongs to all people who are in the relationship.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. Michelle Wong did the Legend of Korra comics and this uses a similar anime-style though the backgrounds are kept fairly minimal. Most pictures are of objects important to the scene or one or two characters, usually Alma or Aster. There aren't any full page spreads like might be found in some Middle Grade as the art is more to enhance the text and be a special treat rather than push the story and reader through the text.

I was happy to see Alma have a relationship with Sevelie, her distant cousin who is engaged to another distant cousin, Kaim. It would have been easy for Sevelie to hate Alma because Alma stands in the way of Kain being the next First Hand as well as the fact that Sevelie eventually develops a deep attraction to Alma's father that Alma doesn't understand nor support for several reasons. Instead, the two strike up a sort of kinship, the one of only two relationships within her father's side of the family that Alma can really claim is not antagonistic and I want to see more female friendships in fantasy even if they are messy.

Content warning for depictions of child death 

I would recommend this to fans of Gothic fantasy and readers of Gothic fantasy who don't want a strong focus on romance