Filled to the brim with a unique magic system and wonderfully filled out characters- very different from other YA fantasy books I have read and I loved every minute of it.

This urban fantasy YA book follows the story of Joan, a half-human half-monster girl who discovers that she belongs to one of the 12 monster families in London who steal time from humans to travel.

This book has an interesting twist on the star-crossed lovers trope across different timelines - the romance does nothing overshadow the world and the plot and only leaves you yearning for more when you reach the end of this short story.

It’s really interesting to read the story from an antagonists point of view because at the fundamental level, Joan was a monster but she was not evil and throughout the book, the writer makes you question whether the hero is the good person in this story.

I also found that the magic system is really unique and cool and not something I’ve comes across before.

I highly recommend reading this light read as it’s very easy and leaves just enough questions at the end to continue reading but in a total agony.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the arc.

Thank you to Hodderscape for an E-Arc of this book via Netgally.
I wasn't entirely sure what I was expecting with this book, I went in a little blind!
The story follows Joan, a girl who suddenly discovers the world is full of real life monsters, including herself and her family. Her grandma has always told her stories and one of her favourites was about the hero, a boy born to slay the monsters of the world, monsters like her.
Joan is drawn to a boy who works alongside her at the museum, he seems to be as interested in her and she is to him, but fate has a cruel sense of humour. Joan is thrown into a world of danger, where she must make some tough decisions for the sake of all monsters.
I really enjoyed the theme of this book, it was something very different for me and I loved the fact that so much of London was included. The stakes are high in this urban fantasy, the world building is great and the characters really grew on me throughout, some more than others! Unfortunately I didn't love it though. For me personally there wasn't enough romance, but it wasn't actually needed in the story so this is just something that I seem to be needing in my books lately. In no way is that the authors fault and if you aren't all for the romance then you definitely need to check this out!
I wasn't aware that this was going to be a trilogy but I'm so glad it is as I have so many questions! Maybe there will be more romance in the next 2, there was a hint of a love triangle so we shall see where that goes.

Biggest regards to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with this digital advanced copy. All opinion posted in this review is mine.

Well, that was a ride. My second most-anticipated book of 2022 turned out to be the exact opposite of what I wanted, and I have yet to decide whether it's in a good way or a bad one.

What is this book about?

Sixteen-year-old Joan passes her summer vacation at her late mother's family's place. She has developed a crush on Nick, her co-worker at Holland House. She soon discovers a grimmer and much more terrifying truth. The Hunt family is more than just a prideful one: they're monsters and Nick is not a simple civilian but a legendary monster slayer. As Joan's life is turned over, she soon has to confront Nick and her own identity, alongside a member of an enemy monster family, Aaron Olivers.

My general thoughts

The blurb compares this book with This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab and I was so mad to discover that the similarity between these two books is non-existent. I enjoyed each minute of TSS and I find a reason to love every single character while I have very conflicted opinions about OAM and I have a huge dent against Joan, the protagonist.
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.

Things I like:

The magic system with monsters
Even though OAM is pitched as a dark fantasy like This Savage Song, the presence of monsters is the only similarity between the two books. While TSS was savage and dark, OAM weaves an entire society of monsters that exists alongside humans' one, not very dark as described in the blurb, but mesmerizing, nevertheless. I adore the concept where monsters can steal time from humans by touch alone and where each family has its own unique power. I would have immersed myself completely in this world, if not because of that one cardinal sin I will mention later.

The hero archetype - Nick
I adore books with violent heroes. Nick is the best boy in the book because when he wants to destroy something, he just f*cking took it and I was here for it. His backstory made me want to cry because it was so raw and devastating, yet here he stands.

The gay romance between T.H. and J.L.
That's it, that's my point.

The ending
I have a fun time with the first several chapters of the book, hate most of its middle bit, like the action at 70%, and absolutely love the three chapters. In my opinion, that last 10% saves the entire book for me. I frecking love it because it destroyed my heart and soul. That scene between those two characters made me want to slam my head against the bus window because Vanessa Len has no right to hurt me like that. I also discover a whole new favorite trope from that 10%: star-crossed enemies *evil giggles*

Things I don't like:

Most of the characters:
This is the definition of absent character development. They went through so much, and hardly of them even change.
- Aaron: Oh the grumpy-enemy/rival cliché love interest. He is so boring because whenever he opened his mouth, he only says the same snarky things (I will ignore that conversation with Joan in the end because it is ridiculous)
- Ruth: I like Ruth, but she was nothing but a chaperon to Aaron and Joan. She shouldn't be reduced to only that but sadly I am not the author.
- T.H.: He only deserves rights when he is with J.L. Otherwise, he is one of the more acceptable characters.
- Dorothy Hunt: Don't know if I should hate her or not but I was annoyed a lot by her dumb secrecy.
- Joan: She will have her own section

The romance:
If Joan ends up with Nick I will riot because he deserves better. If Joan ends up with Aaron I pity them because the only way that relationship would end in a messy breakup very soon. And that's because the characters are all annoying that I can't personally handle one of them.

The cardinal sin: Joan Chang-Hunt

Look, I have never read about a protagonist so dumb and so annoying that it physically HURT reading about her. I have lost count of how many times I had rolled my eyes or turned off the phone to avoid the cringe. For a sixteen-year-old, Joan does certainly behave like a spoiled toddler. I get it, she is devastated by the tragedy of that evening, but it doesn't mean that she can disregard everything else, putting her only allies left in grave danger (by bullying them to come with her) because of a ridiculous hypothesis she randomly invented by snapping her fingers. "But this is a YA book, the protagonist can behave like a teenager." Yeah, I agree, but I am thoroughly convinced that a seven-year-old toddler can make more mature decisions than Joan. I can excuse a book full of plot holes, but I draw the line at cringey protagonists that makes me want to bawl my eyes out.

Joan is a Chinese-English mixed child, so obviously, the Chinese side from her father is mentioned a lot in the book, and how this human blood flow affects others' POV in regard to Joan. Joan herself would mention a lot about how she loves her father and how she longs to return home to him, but it seems like not once in the middle bit of the books she thought about her father. Sounds kinda dicey to me.

Conclusion:

Only a Monster could have been rated much higher, maybe a 4 or even a 4.5 if not because of Joan. I honestly hope that Len would care more about characters' development, and maybe she can make Joan (much) less childish, because while I love the world and I am excited to have the sequels (I heard I will be a trilogy which I find suitable,) I can't go through another 400 pages of Joan's whiny behaviors.

I really wanted to like this book, but there was just something about it that was off for me. None of the characters felt well fleshed out, especially the side characters - they felt vague. I wasn't a huge fan of Joan either. At one point she questions why everyone was blindly following her orders, and I had to agree. Also, I wasn't very impressed by how disempowered I felt Joan to be of her powers throughout. She comes to recognize it fully at the very end. I would have liked her to feel that inner strength a bit more.

However, this book did really well with casual representation. It was really diverse without making a big deal of it or couching the diversity in long winded explanatory monologues like some other authors do.

Finally, though there was plenty of foreshadowing, I was so disappointing by the ending. My little heart couldn't take it! There were a lot of unanswered questions, which would set the book up well for a sequel, but I like that this one didn't rely on it.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you!)
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

Okay, the balance of the universe has been restored. After my last YA, where the hero dug up bodies, I am once again back into “love interest is a mass murderer” territory. Although to give Only A Monster credit, it is pretty clear that this is kind of a romantic impediment. Not least because “the heroine’s entire family” is included within the mass murder thing.

And in case my point hasn’t just made itself: holy fuck me, this book is dark. Brilliant but, oh my God, is it dark. Like, read until 5am in a state of heart-gripped anxiety and flailing emosh dark. I don’t know if it’s my lack of familiarity with YA in general that keeps leaving me stranded in what feel like incredibly intense books but … YA seems to be doing SOME THINGS at the moment. I mean, can someone tell me, are the kids all right? I don’t think the kids are all right.

In any case, Only A Monster is one hell of a ride. Its bones feel familiar enough—heroine comes from a family with mysterious powers, there’s a cute boy, there’s an aloof boy, there’s a myth about the past or the future, the heroine might have a special power that is beyond all the other special powers—but when it comes to stories like this, it’s not about the tropes, it’s about how you use them. And this book deploys them masterfully, twists them masterfully, shows you new sides of them, and then totally wrecks you with them. The bastard.

I don’t actually want to talk too much what’s going on here because Only A Monster is super well-structured, doling out knowledge to the reader alongside its heroine at exactly the right pace, and discovering the details of the world, uncovering its mysteries, and being taken aback by everything you didn’t quite put together, is part of the pleasure of the journey. Narratives like this—where the world we recognise sitting alongside a vast and magical one with its own rules and history—are not exactly uncommon (there’s an irritatingly famous example though it’s far from the first or only) but they’re endlessly compelling when they’re done right. For my money, Only A Monster does it very, very right. I would even go so far as to say it knocks said irritatingly famous example out of the park. It’s not fucking twee, for a start, and self-aware, willing to interrogate its own complexities and inequities. Plus it’s effortlessly diverse in a very real and natural way. Queer characters are queer on page, the cast includes multiple people of colour, and the heroine is herself mixed race. Oh, and as a sidenote, it’s set in a London that feels recognisably and specifically like London. I love UK books that make the UK feel like the UK, y’know?

Also: time-travel. There’s motherfucking time-travel in this. If there’s one trope, apart from “this unit has a soul” that kills me absolutely dead in the heart department it’s the whole “we must save the world, but it will make us forget what we are to each other” thing. God. Help. My emotions.

There’s so much to admire in Only A Monster: the world-building, the setting, the plot that doesn’t let up for a moment. But the writing (which is witty and engaging enough to keep the whole thing from spiralling down a plughole of desolation) needs a notable shout out, as does the character work. Joan is a great heroine, out of her depth, but resourceful and determined, the supporting cast are all intriguing and repay emotional investment, and I found myself surprisingly sympathetic to Joan’s two potential love interests. Even though one is a complicatedly damaged poshboy and the other is a complicatedly damaged MASS MURDERER.

All of which said, I have the mixed-est feelings about this being the first book in a trilogy. Part of what’s so successful about Only A Monster is that it feels like a complete (albeit wildly tragic) arc, rather than the first part of a really long three-part story that has just been lopped off from the whole. And, as a reader, I super appreciated that: I’m a bit tired of planned trilogies that leave you with the narrative equivalent of blue balls after book one. This, by contrast, just left me curious and emotionally fulfilled. Which, yes. Thank you for respecting my time and investment, Only A Monster. I can’t deny, however, that there’s part of me, the deranged masochist part, that kind of … likes is a hard word for a conclusion so brutal and compromised, but there’s a powerful coherence to the book’s arc as it currently stands. On the other hand, there is clearly so much more of this world to explore—antagonists as yet unmasked, much still unknown, carefully established themes to be developed—that I will be running not walking the moment book two is available.

I also suggest you run not walk for this one. It's an incredible read.

(Do be wary of the content guidance, though, and protect yourself: I am not kidding when I said this book goes to some places and takes on some stuff).

Wow! What an amazing book! I was so immersed in the story that I could not put this book down and read it in one sitting. Without giving too much away, I'll just tell you that I loved the MC from the start, her character was well thought out and developed. The unique magic system and anti hero pov was a nice surprise. I can’t wait for the next book to find out what happens next.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for a free ARC in exchange for a review.

4.5/5
This book was such a good surprise!!

So many things pleased me, so here we go.
First of all, Joan as the main character was great, her determination and bravery really stood out. She won’t let anyone or anything prevent her from doing what she needs to do. If you love morally gray characters, this book delivers.
The novel takes place in London - aka my favorite city - and it was so good to revisit some places at different period of times.
The magic system was so intriguing and rich. I’m sure there is still so much to learn.
We’re introduced to powerful families that don’t like each other and have very different and original abilities - which means rivalry, condescension, feud and we love it.
Last but not least, everything can happen - not only because the stakes are high but also thanks to the time travel concept that offers so many possibilities for the rest of the series. I’m living for those books that play with my emotions and nerves.

The only downside is that it comes out in February and I already need the sequel right now - I have so many questions!

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I cannot fathom how much I loved this book and how much I want the next book in the series now. The day I finished the book I was just me pure screaming and crying and ranting to people to go add this amazing book in their tbr
I was so amazed by the plot of the story since it's unlike anything I have ever read before. The writing was perfect and descriptive and the pace of the book was perfect and fast as well.

The pitch for this book had been so pulling like - villain pov, Captain America like hero, enemies to lover and monster heists- , And the book has it all and that too done exceptionally well. 
The plot of this book is so rich and descriptive and so many layers and the more you read the more you get to know about the monster world and secret they have. The story revolves around in England during different times and the main character is revealed the truth about her own identity, also the parallels between Joan's biracial identity as a Half-British and Half-Chinese and also Half- Human and Half- Monster The cliffhangers and ending had me gawking and my anticipation for the sequels are so much more now.The romance in the book was interesting to read and I liked it and the slow burn enemies to lover has my heart. I can't wait for the upcoming books and to see more of these characters and the relationships.

Joan was just mesmerizing to read about, her growth as a person during the book was amazing, even though she was naïve during the start she was kind, hopeful and would have done anything for her family.

I AM A SIMP FOR AARON OLIVER I DON'T MAKE THE RULES. That really sums up my feelings for this character. Hot ruthless monster boy and likes to banter and actually has a soft heart and his last scene made me almost tear up.

Nick as a person I may not be the biggest fan of, but I loved his story and how his character came to be. (if you wanna know what i am talking about go pre order now)
In conclusion this book is awesome and would definitely recommend this to everyone!! the plot, the characters and everything is so well balanced and I just can't wait to see more!!

If you ever get a chance to get your hands on this book, just do it. It is really good, thrilling and original. The magic system is unique and it's exciting to be on the monsters side.
I had a great time reading it, I still have so many questions and therefore I will read the second book with pleasure.

This book was an absolute gem . From the unique magic system, time travel battle to anti hero pov everything was brilliant. Vanessa Len was successful in created something where I was rooting for the monster side and not the usual hero . Joan is now one of my favorite main characters with her bold and rebellious personality, she was a treat to read .
I honestly believe this is one of the best debut I have read and everyone should give it a try as well .

Thank you netgalley and hodder and stoughton for providing me an arc of this amazing book . I'll post in detail review of this book on different platforms closer to the release date.

Well this book was amazing, it was a breath of fresh air. I loved how this book was so different, how the 'monster' is so up for interpretation. The magic system, while at the beginning did confuse me, was fab. Honestly, I can't think of a bad thing to say from this bok. I cannot wait for this to come out so I can discuss it with others! I've preordered it, and early await the next installment.

The first in a planned trilogy, and one I'll definitely be continuing - Only A Monster takes the time travel trope and turns it on its head. I loved the mechanics of the travelling, simple to understand but still engaging. Definitely appeals to the more YA side of things, but this isn't a bad thing. The book ends in a tantalising note that leaves me keen to see where (and when) the author is going to take us next.

Only a Monster is a YA contemporary fantasy with elements of urban fantasy, dystopia, and historical fantasy. It’s the first in a trilogy, but as it stands, it can be read as a stand-alone.
The book starts out strong, with a short prologue and then mysterious circumstances soon after, immediately creating an atmosphere of intrigue. It carries on at a good pace from there on, with good story progression and very intriguing (albeit slightly spotty) world building.
The author’s writing is slightly plainer than I expected based on the general tones of her story, but she does a good job playing to her strengths, creating vivid imagery and effectively conveying the characters’s emotional state at any given moment and throughout the story, without any flowery prose. Most of the characters could have been better fleshed-out, but it’s YA and the first in a trilogy, so I overall I think the author did a good job giving us enough to give dimension to their roles in the story and enough for us to connect with, which is no small task.

Where I felt the book failed to deliver a bit was world-building and atmosphere.
The mythology and magic system in this world is original and intriguing, with a “secret society” aspect and entire families carrying on this whole “monster” society for hundreds of years, and yet with all the details and all the variations in powers, they’ve somehow never come up with a better name for themselves than “monsters”?! That seems a little unbelievable. This society of supernatural beings with special powers and a sophisticated societal structure referring to themselves as “monsters” over and over felt childish and poorly fitting, and pulled me out of the narrative a number of times. The dichotomy between hero and monster could have easily been kept and carried on regardless, and the world building would have seemed more polished had the author given them a name. It’s a natural instinct to name one’s group so not doing so here feels contrived.
I also found the atmosphere a bit lacking, which was a little disappointing considering the themes and locations; and there were a few instances where I didn’t feel the sense of urgency and suspense the circumstances should have conveyed.
But I liked the way the reveals and resolution were handled, and I really liked the characters — Aaron and Ruth are definitely my favorites, and if I decide to grab the sequel it’ll be largely due to wanting to know how their stories go on!

Overall this was a smooth read and a pretty good debut; not quite as well-developed as it could have been, but there is a lot of really cool stuff in it that will hopefully be explored better in the sequels.

3 1/2 stars.

Darkly delicious fun. If you've been looking for your newest YA urban fantasy obsession - you've found it.

I FINISHED IT AND OH MY GOD- NO hear me out seriously, I thought I knew what was coming, I thought I was prepared but HELL NO. I was not, like every damn book.

Joan was having her perfect summer, living with her mother's family in London, who was kind of eccentric but still loved her a lot. She was volunteering at Holland House and was going on a date with her crush and co-worker Nick. Perfect isn't it? But perfect is just oblivion, suddenly Joan is thrust into the battle between Monsters and Monster Hunters, good vs. evil. And this time she was not the hearo, instead she was the monsters whom Nick was destined to kill. Her perfect might turn into the worst nightmare for her family as well as the entire monster community.

If I were to describe the book in a few lines, it'd be like
"A story filled with agony, yearning, hope, and pain. A squad that has everything on-line, if they don't succeed, they might lose everything. Time is running out and their enemies are every step ahead, the world might collapse. The world needs saving, but this time..hero is not leading the story"

Now y'all, let's start with the checklist, shall we?
Enemies-to-Lovers ✔
Angst, loads of it ✔
A squad on a mission ✔
Story breaking your heart into fragments in first half ✔
YEARNING AND AGONY ✔
Time-Travel ✔
Queer rep (not the main character, but the side couple) ✔
Begging on your knees for the second book, even though the first hasn't been released yet? ✔

Only A Monster follows Joan, a teenage girl sent to stay with her mother’s side of the family, who finds out that there’s more to them – and herself – than she ever realised. Namely, that they’re monsters, and that means she’s half-monster too.

If that wasn’t enough, Joan then discovers that the cute boy that she’s been volunteering with, crushing on and generally obsessing over, isn’t just a human either: Nick’s a monster hunter, fabled as the only one who can unravel the hidden world that they’ve created.

When Joan suffers an unimaginable tragedy at the hands of the boy she’s in love with, she’s forced to team up with her worst enemy in an attempt to repair the damage that Nick’s done, before it’s too late.

I’ve read so many YA books that have flipped tropes and age-old stories on their heads, but I’ve never read anything that does it quite like Only A Monster. It’s a typical hero story except, for the first time ever, I had to root against the hero, and the moral-greyness of it all was completely flawless.

It definitely took time for me to connect with the three main characters – Joan, Nick, or Joan’s now-ally, Aaron – and I was worried initially that I wasn’t entirely rooting for any of them but, somewhere in the middle, I became completely obsessed with all three. Joan developed into a strong-willed fierce heroine (villain??), Aaron became the newest addition to a long line of arrogant, fictional posh boys that are super easy to fall in love with, and Nick got more and more complex until I genuinely couldn’t figure out how I felt about his mission.

The story was fairly fast-paced, but there was so much world-building included too that the hidden monster world within our own was completely believable and fully developed. It was so easy towards the end to get completely sucked into Joan’s world that I found myself anxiously turning the pages, genuinely concerned about what would happen next, until the very last chapter. Even during the times when the story was slightly slower, I was already so invested that I couldn’t stop reading for even a second.

I had high hopes for this book, and yet it took me completely by surprise how wholly I got sucked into it. I have so many questions that I want answering in the next book and, honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get this book out of my head until then.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this arc.

This was on my list for one of the books that I am most looking forward to in 2022. The story follows Joan, who learns that her family are monsters and the boy that she has fallen for is the hero who is meant to slay monsters. This is a unique storyline and just from the blurb I had a lot of questions about how the story would go!
This was a super fast action filled book that I read in one sitting as I couldn't put it down. I really loved the world, the characters, the different families and cannot wait to read more to see how the rest of the story will play out.

☆☆☆½

I was really excited for this book and whilst it was still a good book it just wasn’t what I thought it would be.

This book grabbed my attention because of its interesting and unique angle. I can't remember reading a YA fantasy novel from the point of view of the bad guys, or in this case, monsters. Definitely an intruiging concept!
The story was also interesting and I finished the book in a day, lying to myself that I'll stop after the next chapter all the way until the last one.

Why then am I giving Only a Monster 3 stars? Well, there's a few reasons:

1. I was missing the actual scariness of the monsters. They could've been a lot more terrifying with maybe their appereance or powers. And as bad as stealing time from people is, it's not scary enough to label someone a "monster". I imagen them having a secret terrifying look that they hide behind the mask of looking like a human. Or having some evil powers that make them mortifying. Or at least harder to kill.
Maybe I'm just in the mood to be properly scared since it's Halloween when I'm writing this review but I was left dissapointed by all the mosters and their abilities.

2. I wish we got to understand more about the families and their relationships. All we got is a rhyme about what each family's power is. Yes, we delved into a few of them but it would've been interesting to know what makes the Olivers so hated and why do the Hunts are always hiding.

3. The ending... I understand that this is only the first of three books but it could've easily be a stand-alone since the ending gave no cliffhander whatsoever. There's a lot of unaswered questions and lots of interesting directions this story can take but I was hoping for a cliffhanger that'll make me want the next book as soon as possible. Instead I got a pretty okay ending with no hint at what might be coming next.

Overall, I enjoyed Only a Monster - it is a breath of fresh air, it is well written and entertaining. But the three points I made kept on bugging me when I was thinking about my score. That said, I'm looking forward to see how Vanessa Len will continue this story but can we please agree on more Aaron in the next book?