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A review by vrstal
Monilinia by Free Mints
4.0
4/5. Highlights may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.
Content Warnings for book: Gore, blood, cannibalism and flesh-eating, mutilation, unhealthy power dynamics, reference to animal cruelty and animal death, book banning, Christianity, religious trauma, disordered eating and starvation, self-harm, substance abuse, vomit, stalking, misogyny, bullying, eldritch possession (?), ero-guro, implied incestuous desires, sexual assault and rape, necrophilia, flaying
Kink: D/s, bondage, chastity, sex toys, voyeurism, praise kink, sadism, masochism, tentacles, wound-fucking
Monilinia… I have thoughts.
I’ll start with the good stuff!
I AM LOUKAS PILLED. Meaning, omg! I love him. The dichotomy of cute and sweet and woobie he is to the horrors beneath are great. I love being in his mind, the push and pull, and also seeing a man so desperate for blood and gore — mhmm. That is the stuff. I love a man who is beautiful covered in blood, and I’m imagining this scrawny tall ginger looking nightmarishly angelic while in his kitchen. (IYKYK).
I can’t just write about Loukas the whole time so I’ll move on. Hide is whatever to me… I didn’t particularly like him but I understand him as a character foil and where the build up is to lead these two together. I’ll be interested to see how this is handled in the sequel. I am not even sure I want to see Loukas romanced, though I do want him to be happy.
There’s a lot of questions without answers, which I again hope to learn from the next book.
Mints’ writing style is pretty good! Sometimes I felt that Hide’s PoV wasn’t even really necessary but I understand why it was used occasionally. I also liked that it wasn’t obnoxiously long — it felt to be a really good length for me. He also knows how to be descriptive with his horror because I was certainly uncomfortable at some points.
Finally, some small stuff: noticed a couple typos and continuation errors. Not the end of the world.
My one “major” criticism is that this is mislabeled imo. As someone who reads a lot of queer romance, if I handed this to another romance reader (which the title calls itself) they’d be upset. The two MCs aren’t together in any capacity — and yes, slowburn series exist, but those books tend to be romantic subplot — and we actually see Hide have sex with other people rather than Loukas. Funny thing is: I’m not mad about it. I don’t even really like Hide.
Author, I’d suggest sticking to the label “queer horror”, and not tacking on romance unless you really do have an HEA/HFN planned. If so, you may want to communicate the expectations of needing a series finale to reach that.
All of that aside — if you, too, want to become attached to this awkward, adorably sweet blorbo who eats people you should read this book.
This was an ARC review.
Content Warnings for book: Gore, blood, cannibalism and flesh-eating, mutilation, unhealthy power dynamics, reference to animal cruelty and animal death, book banning, Christianity, religious trauma, disordered eating and starvation, self-harm, substance abuse, vomit, stalking, misogyny, bullying, eldritch possession (?), ero-guro, implied incestuous desires, sexual assault and rape, necrophilia, flaying
Kink: D/s, bondage, chastity, sex toys, voyeurism, praise kink, sadism, masochism, tentacles, wound-fucking
Monilinia… I have thoughts.
I’ll start with the good stuff!
I AM LOUKAS PILLED. Meaning, omg! I love him. The dichotomy of cute and sweet and woobie he is to the horrors beneath are great. I love being in his mind, the push and pull, and also seeing a man so desperate for blood and gore — mhmm. That is the stuff. I love a man who is beautiful covered in blood, and I’m imagining this scrawny tall ginger looking nightmarishly angelic while in his kitchen. (IYKYK).
I can’t just write about Loukas the whole time so I’ll move on. Hide is whatever to me… I didn’t particularly like him but I understand him as a character foil and where the build up is to lead these two together. I’ll be interested to see how this is handled in the sequel. I am not even sure I want to see Loukas romanced, though I do want him to be happy.
There’s a lot of questions without answers, which I again hope to learn from the next book.
Mints’ writing style is pretty good! Sometimes I felt that Hide’s PoV wasn’t even really necessary but I understand why it was used occasionally. I also liked that it wasn’t obnoxiously long — it felt to be a really good length for me. He also knows how to be descriptive with his horror because I was certainly uncomfortable at some points.
Finally, some small stuff: noticed a couple typos and continuation errors. Not the end of the world.
My one “major” criticism is that this is mislabeled imo. As someone who reads a lot of queer romance, if I handed this to another romance reader (which the title calls itself) they’d be upset. The two MCs aren’t together in any capacity — and yes, slowburn series exist, but those books tend to be romantic subplot — and we actually see Hide have sex with other people rather than Loukas. Funny thing is: I’m not mad about it. I don’t even really like Hide.
Author, I’d suggest sticking to the label “queer horror”, and not tacking on romance unless you really do have an HEA/HFN planned. If so, you may want to communicate the expectations of needing a series finale to reach that.
All of that aside — if you, too, want to become attached to this awkward, adorably sweet blorbo who eats people you should read this book.
This was an ARC review.