I was instantly pulled in— the first 120 pages had such emotional depth that they actually made me cry. The characters felt real and layered, which made the slow unraveling of the story even more impactful.

Set in a funeral home, the setting was always going to be a bit unusual, and it delivered on that eerie promise. That said, I did predict one of the major twists fairly early, which dulled the suspense a little. While the pacing dipped a bit in the middle, the story pulled through to a satisfying and creepy ending.

If you're after a short, atmospheric read with strong characters and a touch of horror, Make Me a Monster is worth your time.

This was such an in-depth book touching on the significance of losing a loved one and the grief that takes over.

I was super intrigued by the mentioning of frankenstein and the idea of this story sounded so good. Meka belongs to a family of morticians, she’s grown up surrounded by death and has always felt different from others. Despite this, her boyfriend and her friends care about her deeply and she lives a relatively normal life, until she starts to notice strange things like bodies moving when they absolutely shouldn’t be…

This snowballs into Meka being thrown headfirst into a whole new world, having to deal with confusion and loss alongside it all. I think the conversation with grief in this book is done so well. Trying to understand and come to terms with the loss of life and how it actually affects you day to day, the hollowness and the feeling that you’d do anything to get that person back, to have one more moment with them.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a slightly different YA horror, whilst I did think the first half of the book was slightly slow for me, the second half picked up so well and I was absolutely speeding through the pages.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Meka is used to death. After all, it's the family business. As a newly certified mortician's assistant at her parents' funeral home, her days are not for the faint of heart. Luckily her boyfriend Noah isn't squeamish, and Meka is finally feeling ready to say the three little words that will change everything. But then tragedy strikes, and Meka's world is torn apart. Nothing makes sense, especially the strange things start happening. Ravens are circling her home. Strangers are following her. Someone is leaving mysterious items at her door. And worst of all . . . The dead don't seem to be staying dead. Meka thought she understood death better than anyone. Turns out, the family business is a bit more complicated than it seems. And Meka isn't the only one desperate to unearth their secrets . . . because the truth may be worth dying for.

Meka is a lovely character. Following in her family’s footsteps, she wants to do their funeral parlour justice and I really liked that about her. I just wish we got to see more of that. We hear how she’s passed her exams to do her job, but we don’t get to see her actually do it which is such a shame. I was excited to dive in and see her expertise shine before everything went down and I think an opportunity was missed with us not seeing that. I did really like the relationship she had with her parents - it’s always great to see such positivity in a story like this.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this one! I’ve been a bigger fan of Bayron’s contemporary stories than her fantasy ones but since this is a bit of a blend of the two, I was ready to jump in. The plot is pretty good. I like the idea of a funeral parlour being a cover up for something bigger, more macabre. But I do feel like it could perhaps have gone a little further? I appreciate this being YA but we could have delved more into the reanimation, into the history and reasonings for it. For me, it just felt a bit like those points had been glossed over which is a shame. It could have added a lot more to the plot. We have a very small cast of characters here but I felt like it worked. I do wish we could have gotten to know them more than just the simple things. We got to know the first layer of each character but not much more than that. The ending seemed right for the book but I’m not sure that I entirely like it being as open-ended as it is. I would have preferred something very much closed door and final.

Overall, Make Me A Monster is a book that is pretty good but just didn’t land with me very much.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you again to Bloomsbury Publishing for an advanced copy of this book. Review will be live on my blog on release day and is available now on Goodreads.

4.5 stars. This book made me cry.
I went in expecting a dark, atmospheric Frankenstein-inspired YA horror tale, and it turned out to be even more emotionally heavy than I imagined. The themes of death and grief hit deep, and I don’t know what sorcery made me feel so attached to the characters, especially since the story isn’t particularly character-driven. I think, mostly, these characters capture themes we can all relate to, the feelings of loss and grief that make us human. The story explores that deep human longing to never face grief or let go of those we love, along with the raw selfishness of wanting to keep what isn’t ours to keep.

The writing style is simple and straightforward, and although I first found the character introductions a bit too flat and matter-of-fact, they ultimately fit the tone of the main character. The first person POV in present tense works perfectly with this plot, adding urgency and a tense pace. Even though the book takes its time slowly revealing the premise and the key plot point, that didn’t make me love it any less. If anything, it built on those haunting vibes and strengthened the horror elements. Little unsettling things happen here and there. The MC’s voice works especially well here, because she’s always asking the right questions and keeps the foreshadowing very strong.

The payoff is worth the wait. We get answers to all these questions, and all the small details scattered throughout the story finally come together. This is done so well that even at the end, everything feels purposeful, with the right balance between predictability and surprise. I wasn’t quite as gripped during the final conflict, and some side characters could have had a more consistent presence, but everything wrapped up so beautifully that I honestly can’t complain.

Overall, this was such an unexpectedly emotional and haunting read, with the perfect mix of horror, atmosphere, and emotion. I wasn’t expecting the tears to come at the end, yet here we are, left with so much to process.

Meka lives & works in her family’s funeral home so she feels very comfortable with the dead. She also is haunted by a recurring nightmare about her family being in a car accident and her mother not surviving. With her anxiety increasing, she notices people following her. Then her world is torn apart.

Meka’s family, friends & boyfriend are all supportive & generally adorable. I loved the dynamics. This story makes you think about grief & the choices we might all make if we only had the power.

This was such a fun read! The combination of horror romance was right up my street. The setting of the funeral home and the description of Meka helping out with the bodies was very macabre and gave me chills.

I loved the revelation of the family secret and how Meka had to deal with it, from that point on I couldn't stop reading and the ending didn't disappoint.

The romance between Meka and Noah was sweet and felt realistic, their banter was cute and their friends were fun side characters.

This book gave such creepy gothic vibes, glad it was a YA as was worried I wasn’t going to be able to sleep!
Interesting and enjoyable take on the Frankenstein story. Loved the characters and the deathly vibes they gave. Celeb was actually one of my favourites 😆
Would definitely recommend if you’re a fan of Kalyan Bayron. Great ending too!

this was such a delight to read! that may sound strange with the context of the book but hear me out.
i’m not usually one to read YA but the synopsis of this really had me interested and i was pleasantly surprised with how much this hooked me. one reason i usually don't go for YA is the dialogue being a bit hard to read sometimes but this never had the issue, a lot of the real world references actually made me laugh and the banter between characters felt so real it was hard not to. alongside the characters were really loveable, meka and noah’s relationship was just the sweetest and again felt truly genuine.
the plot was also really strong and griping, but also had depth and some thought provoking points about death and grief.
this was my first time reading a book by this author but i will definitely be reading more.
thank you netgalley for providing me this arc.

I really liked the premise of this story, and had high expectations for this Frankenstein inspired YA novel.

The setting is unique. A funeral home and a mortician’s assistant, dragged into her family business in more ways than one. It was tragic, emotional and in some parts quite profound. I did reflect a lot on what choices I would make, had I been in the same situations.

Unfortunately, the writing didn’t land with me. As much as I wanted to like this story, I couldn’t overlook the plot holes, the predictable characters, and the pacing of the story. I really admire the direction it was intending to go in, it just seems the execution fell a little flat for me.

If you enjoy reading books that are easy to follow, with a tinge of gothic horror, you would absolutely enjoy this!

A fresh spin on Frankenstein that left me on the edge of my seat till the very last page.

Meka comes from a long line of morticians, and at seventeen, she’s just got her mortuary assistant licence. She has a gift for make up and hair that makes the dead look presentable as their family and friends say goodbye. But Meka also had nightmares about her mum dying in a car crash. When strange things start happening in town, and her nightmares start to change, Meka realises everything is connected, and it all leads to a family secret Meka could never have imagined.

While this book is macabre and reads like a classic horror, this book is really about grief and loss. It’s about learning to let go. I came for the macabre, I stayed for the emotions. I absolutely fell in love with Meka and Noah, and my heart broke with hers as she dealt with everything that happened.

If you like your horror with a giant dollop of emotions, this book is definitely for you.

I adore Kalynn Bayron as an author so I was so happy to be given a chance to read this ARC! I found the whole funeral home thing so interesting and that got me hooked right off the back, it’s so nice to read something so different and macabre.

I don’t know too much about the original Frankenstine but honestly that doesn’t matter.
I’m loved the character of Meka, extremely well written and I was routing for her the whole way through. I was super sad when this book ended. One of my favourite reads of the year!

I really enjoyed the gothic vibes of the book also. A 5 star read for me.

I thought this was a good retelling of the frankenstein story - this was a YA take on the monstrous novel.

"Meka is used to death. After all, it's the family business."
This YA retelling showcases death in a comfortable non-scary way whilst still being gruesome and heavily inspired by the macabre. The descriptions, the funeral home and the underlying plot are all great elements to this book. Unfortunately for me, I don't enjoy how young the dialogue read, it was too juvenile for my taste however, some people will enjoy that.

thank you to net galley for giving me the opportunity to read this arc.

Kalynn Bayron writes such amazing characters with interesting "powers"/magical abilities and with this book being inspired by Frankenstein, it had me even more intrigued. She did not disappoint. She had me hooked from the beginning and Meka was a great character to read about, with such a cool setting, in a funeral home and her being a mortician's assistant. Reading about her job was interesting as well as disturbing.

The portrayal of grief was something I found very well written and the action later on in the book had me nervous for her.

If you wish to be scared of someone standing in the dark corners of your room, I recommend reading it at night like I did, if not maybe turn the lights on (it wasn't easy to fall asleep afterwards)

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I learned the hard way not to read this at night. I’m not usually a horror reader but I love Kalynn Bayron’s writing and stepped out of my comfort zone for this story.

This story is eerie and mysterious from the beginning, and you feel like you’re with the main character as she discovers this dark secret her family has held for centuries.

The pacing was slow at times but really picked up to the end as the plot really got going, immersing you in the horror of the plot to the end.

I’m a big fan of this author, I’m a big fan of Frankenstein so this book was a match made in heaven for me. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This was a particularly good Frankenstein-inspired novel. I don’t want to call it a retelling or reimagining as it really is its own unique story. It does draw on the Frankenstein legend, but it exists as its own tale. It integrates the themes of Frankenstein well into a modern setting, drawing on specific elements of the horror and showing how they might be managed or expressed in present day.

Part of why this works so well is its set in a morticians. Given how so much of the story relates to dead bodies, this created the perfect ambiance as well as providing believable explanations and mitigations for some of the more fantastical elements.

The story unravels well, it does take a while to get to the key action and reveals, but this works. It lets the atmosphere build up gradually, but intensely and gives us plenty of background to help with believability.

This would have been five stars for the quality of writing, great characters, atmosphere, themes but it just lost a bit of momentum towards the end. Otherwise this was a fantastic read and I had a good time with it. One I would read again, and recommend.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Make Me a Monster is a macabre and character-driven YA horror novel inspired by Frankenstein, with themes of grief, consent, and moral ambiguity woven throughout.

I really liked the concept. A girl growing up in a funeral home, learning to live with loss, and slowly uncovering something strange about her and her family. There’s a tender but tragic love story at the core, which the author pointed out has parallels with Dani and Jamie from The Haunting of Bly Manor, and some of those quieter emotional moments really landed.

But overall, I found the pacing uneven, and the writing didn’t fully hold me. Some characters faded away too quickly, and the story never quite built the tension or impact I was hoping for. It had all the right pieces, but they never fully came together for me.

I’m torn on how to rate it, but probably somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars

3,25 ✨

I want to start this review off by saying that I really like Bayron's writing and that even though the story didn't quite evolve how I had thought it would, I still loved reading it!
The Frankenstein aspect of it all drew me in but I didn't quite expect the way Bayron would take with the story. As said before; the writing and atmosphere were great and I truly enjoyed the setting the story was in. The ending did surprise me and that convinced me to add that 0,25% to my rating!

“There’s a dead body waiting for me at home and I’m excited to see her.”

3.75 ⭐️

One thing this book made me realise is how much I enjoy reading gothic books. The darker suspense, harder storylines and descriptive language are things that appeal to me enormously and that I would very much like to discover more of. And in my search for more character-driven books, this book was right up my alley.

Make Me a Monster is a book inspired by the story of Frankenstein, and where better to set it than in a funeral home? Dark rooms and lots of corpses, this story started off promising!

Unfortunately, I had read the short summary, which already revealed the “tragedy” that awaited me in the story. As a result, the story started off terribly slow for me and everything was extremely predictable. I was never really surprised, so I really recommend starting this story blind. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style.

A writing style that I lost a bit further into the book, just as some characters disappeared from the story altogether and we got a lot of new name drops that felt a bit underdeveloped to me.

This is an arc read thanks to Netgalley

I really enjoyed reading this, it was incredibly atmospheric and eerie, with some really tender moments regarding grief, but the tone was very light with funny, likeable main characters. I would have liked to see more of the side characters in this as they disappear after a few chapters, and I felt the discovery of the main characters powers / family secrets felt a little underwhelming, but would definitely recommend this to people looking for a fun, and original retelling.

A young woman who works at her family's funeral home comes to realise that her father has been secretly offering customers the chance for immortality after their deaths. She realises that this is all tied up with the shadowy mysterious figures following her every move, and her mother's apparent eternal youth and beauty. When her best friend tragically dies young, and then suddenly reappears she starts to piece everything together.

This is a slow burner to start but this all sets the scene nicely - this is a really effective, smart & thoughtful reworking of some of the themes of Frankenstein with a powerful sense of dread and suspense. Our lead is really one to root for as well as the plot does clever things with the disturbing themes that arise as well as well realised emotions around grief, young love, family and coming into your own power and self identity. Some squeamish aspects with a fair few reanimated corpses popping up but overall really worth a try.