Only a Monster: The captivating YA contemporary fantasy debut

Product Information

Aaron said that monsters belong to the family whose power they exhibit more strongly and Joan lost the Hunt power, so does this mean that her ‘undoing’ power came from her dad? Her dad isn’t part of one of the twelve main monster families in London, but surely there are monster families in other places. Maybe there are some in Malaysia. Also, maybe Joan’s mother ISN’T dead. maybe she’s on some monster mission or something. Maybe Joan’s dad knows where she is? What if Joan’s other power isn’t a monster power- maybe her dad has powers for some other reason, which is why Aaron can see something strange in Joan. Perhaps her dad is something more dangerous than a monster, which is why Aaron was told to kill anyone like that immediately. 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.” Also i don't know half of the people in this book, I sorta zoned in and out because i was so freaking bored and wanted to get it over and done with so i don't actually know what to say lmao. And that ending, wow, that ending. It’s complete in itself but also making me excited and impatient for the next book.

I don’t know what I thought the magic system would be like but it wasn’t what I thought it was gonna be with the title and premise. It was slightly more magical but still had that tinge of dark if you give it more than a second's thought. Given that I’ve read a great deal of fantasy with their fair share of magic systems, I get extra excited whenever one still manages to surprise me, especially in urban fantasy. Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me this e-ARC in exchange of my honest review. Mind-bending, heart wrenching, and unputdownable!' Stephanie Garber, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Caraval series and Once Upon a Broken Heart Possibly myself too because I hyped this up for too long, KNOWING that the outcome would be less than perfect.

Popular on the AU

By now you know me, I love vilains, I love dark, I love fantasy and I hate false advertisement. Do not make your book into something it's not. There is nothing wrong with YA or MG fantasies, you don't need to sell your book under the Dark, NA banner to be successful. 𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲.

If I had to compare them to anything, I would say vampires would be the closest, but using time versus blood. If you've read Doctor Sleep this won't be a foreign concept to you. I couldn't put this book down. It was such a unique storyline and had a great cast of characters. I loved that Joan really had to struggle between what was expected of her as a monster and her own set of principles about what is right. During the story, Joan is forced to work with Aaron, an heir to a rival monster family. There was such a great dynamic between Joan and Aaron, which constantly had me guessing which way their relationship would go. First of all, thank you for such an amazing readalong, Shannon! I had so much fun reading everyone’s thoughts and I hope I will manage to catch you guys next time.Although the theme of monstrosity is rather forced at times, Len does provide a great counterpart to it in the form of Joan’s biracial identity. By showing how Joan is perceived as an oddity on two levels, Len conveys these different conflicts with astounding sensitivity to the fantasy of Joan’s circumstances and her real life.

This book is a stunning, dark, romantic, and time travel fantasy with fascinating historical details of England. The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.Most of the book was just everyone talking and discussing and planning what to do next. There was barely any action. The pacing was so goddamn slow. Overall, I think this book had a good concept but it just wasn't for me. It's definitely on the younger side of YA so if that's your jam then I would recommend it. But if you normally look for the more mature YA, NA or even adult books, then this probably won't be for you. But man, I would never have guessed the thing that made the monsters so……monstrous. I’m gonna put this part in spoiler tags in case people haven’t seen anything about this plot detail yet. The time travel and method for doing so was so beyond what I thought this book was going to do. I’m not really a big time travel person, but it was so cleverly incorporated and the other family ‘power’ so minor in comparison. Maybe it’s that we’re so desensitized to time travel as a plot device at this point that I hadn’t considered the ramifications fully of ‘stealing time’ until Vanessa Len laid it all out so clearly. OAM is a hard book to review since I don't really like or hate it. Overall, I think it was an average ride, there was an attempt at writing a character-driven story (that failed miserably in my opinion) and the plot is not strong enough to stand on its own. However, I was still able to enjoy the story in a large part, and I am excited to know about the sequel.

i always feel stressed reading/watching time travel but this was done so well !! it was refreshing to see our MC on the morally grey side for once! we have one love interest that's morally grey and one love interest who is the hero, and the hero obviously has to get rid of the bad guys right?Some that surprised me and made my eyebrows strive to meet my hairline (however impossible it may seem). Aaron tells her of a time when his power was tested. They took him to a man with eyes like Joan and told him if he ever sees someone with eyes like them again, to kill them. Is this why Edmund wanted to kill Joan immediately? What IS her power? Except I think you should read it anyway. I mean, no, you should do what works for you. On this occasion, however, I think there’s a pretty strong case to be made that it’s worth reading the book when it comes out rather than waiting for 3. I can definitely understand wanting to see a story through to its ultimate conclusion in one fell swoop but—having thought about why I was okay with Never A Hero when I’ve been less okay with other on-going book series—my sense is that cliff-hangers are only emotionally unsatisfying if they feel like they’re the *only* point of the book. Like if you all you got from reading it was big “what next.” With Never A Hero there is plenty to keep you going in terms of character development and new revelations. I finished the book in a welter of excitement for the next final instalment, but also completely satisfied. Yes, this book is, to some unavoidable degree, set it up for the next one but it also feels fully integrated into the broader arc of the series.