Reviews with content warning for Murder - Jenom nestvůra

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Jenom nestvůra by Vanessa Len

49 reviews

sohare1981's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

thereadingnurse2021's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Pretty typical YA fantasy that chronicles our heroine’s journey of abruptly being thrust into a world she never knew existed, and coming into a power she never dreamed she had. The main twist, though, is there is no clear good and evil in this book – everything is very morally gray. Monsters are living among humans and steal time from their lifespans in order to fuel their ability to time travel, but they mostly live and look like humans do. The hero is set to stop monsters, but rather than vanquishing grotesque creatures, he seemingly slaughters innocents and families. It brings up an interesting perspective that there may not be any heroes in conflict - only monsters.

Content Warnings

maleficlibrary's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Only A Monster is an interesting encapsulation within the urban fantasy genre that calls into question what it means to be a monster. Vanessa Len’s world, surely, takes on a unique and abstract approach toward defining monster that separates itself from the things that go bump in the night that we’re all accustomed to when thinking about a monster story. Moreover, the monsters within this world live alongside humans, maintain a unique balance between blending in and maintain their own secrets, though, of course, there are those all too aware of monsters that would like nothing more than to eradicate entire familial bloodlines, if given the chance.

Joan, our main character, discovers her own status as a monster when she accidentally touches an elderly man, blacks out and subsequently loses several hours of her life after blacking out and coming to later. Only then does she discover that the world as she understands it isn’t quite what it seems, and also that she cannot be the hero that she’s always wanted to be, because instead she’s biologically pre-destined to be the eponymous monster.

Without spoiling too much of the meat of the book, I will simply say this: the book, the beginning of a trilogy, is alleged to be establishing the groundwork for a play into the “enemy soulmates” trope. Though who the enemy is, I’ll let you discover for yourself. The book features time shenanigans, a Monster Court, and a prideful and vain king that exists outside of the known timeline and tampers with it at his own whims to facilitate circumstances in his favor, or as he pleases them to be.

Only A Monster was fast-paced, engaging and riveting from cover to cover. Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, as the beginning felt quite slow and predictable. There are also several additional plot points that occur throughout the novel that are eye-rollingly predictable, too, but the book doesn’t necessarily suffer for it.

The novel is undeniably young adult, but the pacing of the book was commendable and didn’t feel like we were being inundated with information too quickly or at an awkward time or place. In fact, because Joan’s own world was flipped upside down and she was forced to question everything and learn the world as it pertained to her new circumstances, we learned things at the same exact time she did, making the entire reading experience authentic from the jump. Further, the world building, plot development and setting exposition don’t let up a single time from the moment that Joan is set on the path to righting a tragedy she experiences.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I feel the only reason it’s not a five star read is that it’s place as part of a pre-planned trilogy is evident once you reach the climax and resolution of the book, and it leaves a dissatisfying and emotional hole that desires to know what’s next. As far as laying the groundwork for a provoking series, however, Only A Monster is certainly a subtle, moody and yet bombasitic foray into an alternate London where monsters walk among us.

Rating: ★★★★½ | 4.5/5

☠️

Content Warnings

sirensaria's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

mrsmcc's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

ruebranch's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

tiredgarlicbread's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

kylosten's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It seemed like there would be enemies to lovers and a fated love to cause tension but both of those stories didn't have any payoff for all the building up of them.

Content Warnings

ctara2123's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was fucking /great/!

Content Warnings

brooketreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The beginning came out of the gate hot. After that first main event and the dust settled, it was giving slight

Romeo and Juliet with that Uno reverse card.

I felt parts were getting too slow during the middle portion of the book. Although, I loved the last like 10% I was on a roller coaster of emotions, and was just left like 🫠 our MC Joan was definitely the most fleshed out of all the characters as a MC should be, but I didn’t feel anyone else was developed enough to feel connected. Joan’s relationships with the other characters weren’t very developed either, including with her family. There wasn’t enough development to actually feel sad or invested on changing the timeline. I wish the cultural elements had been more pronounced, and more. With Joan’s call to her dad, the cultural aspect just felt thrown in to say oh yeah Joan is Asian and they are Asian. Just as with the others, we didn’t get enough build up to the love interests. This story is very romance light. Also, I was pro Nick this entire book, not that I didn’t like Aaron, just for me Nick was superior. The term monster didn’t feel like it fit, unless you think of it in the context of someone who has done something evil is often referred to as “you’re a monster.” But, I think typically when I hear monster, I’m thinking something that looks scary. The magic system was pretty unique, but we didn’t really get why it works that way. I will say I didn’t always understand it. At the monster court, I had no idea what was even going on. Anyways, I did enjoy this in-spite of the criticisms I have. I finished wishing I could immediately jump into book two. And even after this review I feel like rereading.

Content Warnings

More...