Only a Monster: The captivating YA contemporary fantasy debut

Product Information

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. I found the monster aspect of her family fascinating. They are never given a specific name, they are simply called monsters throughout, and I liked that obscurity. And you know what? Maybe I would've enjoyed it more if the book was classified as Middle Grade. I would've been given a slight warning beforehand, and I could've related more with younger characters whose decisions matched their age. And their thought process made sense for thirteen-year-olds.

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. I really do have to say nice things about it first because I feel horrible right now and being a human is difficult and having emotions is a nuisance and if someone ever said these things to me, I would run away crying. I'm really disappointed with this novel. Only a Monster was my most anticipated YA book of 2022. I was promised a cool time travel story and a subversion of the Buffy and the Vampire Slayer formula, with the reader being on the side of the monsters rather than the monster slayer. The marketing team also hyped the book to be the next This Savage Song with some heart-stopping romance thrown in the mix. I think it almost failed to deliver on all of these things that were promised. Possibly myself too because I hyped this up for too long, KNOWING that the outcome would be less than perfect. I was so affected by this story and it ended on a very destroying, heart-throbbing, and fulfilling note but also, I need the second book, like, yesterday. I have not hyped a YA Fantasy like this in so long but Vanessa Lee honestly deserves all the praise and excitement I can muster.I liked that it was fast paced, and that it had a proper ending rather than a cliffhanger which was what I was expecting given that I knew it would be part of a trilogy. That ending could have been SO GOOD if only the author built up relationships. But it felt like Joan didn't really care for anyone tbh Mind-bending, heart wrenching, and unputdownable!’ Stephanie Garber, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Caraval series and Once Upon a Broken Heart Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

There's nothing worse than an anticipated read disappointing you and this not only disappointed me, it made me mad. I really enjoyed the magic system, although time travel isn’t really my thing. I usually end up thinking too much about the logistics and the changes the characters are making to the timeline. Here, there was a clear set of rules and an almost sentient timeline that ensured that there were no major changes caused by the monsters’ jaunts through time which I appreciated. I also enjoyed the moral struggle Joan goes through once she realises how monsters can travel — by stealing time from humans. This led into conversations about morality, what it means to be a monster and how heroes are forged which I found really interesting. I truly adore Tom. He’s a favorite character. He’s romantic but so intelligent and strong and extremely sentimental….all his mementos that he has of his love for Jamie. I can’t even. My heart… 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. Also, in regards to this new timeline, how much has actually changed? Does the idea of the hero still exist in monster fairy tales? does Joan’s family know that she knows about the monster world? do any of them know what happened to her?

I rarely critique a book's writing because I'm not an author (at least not yet) so who am I to judge how a person writes when they've poured their soul into it? But in this case, I do see how the author of this book can grow as an Enchanter of Words (not me running out of ways to say the word author, pfffft) and I think that the way to grow is to hear others opinions about it. Of course, when they aren't rude. Only A Monster by Vanessa Len has taken YA Fantasy and run wild with it. This is one of the most unique books I've read, and I am so ridiculously excited to see what comes from the next two books.