zara's Reviews > Strange Beasts

this is somewhat of a hard book to rate, because while i love some aspects of it, other parts left me mildly disappointed.

first of all, what i love about the book is the plot and mystery itself. i love following our main characters, sam and hel, as they go around Paris to find out who's the culprit behind a string of murders. i also like the incorporation of monsters and sam having visions and creating this conflict on whether she can trust these visions or if they'll drive her insane instead.

now, to the things that i found quite lacking. first of all, for a book that deeply points out how monsters and monstrous acts aren't always synonymous and that humans are often more monstrous, this felt quite surface-level. i couldn't help but somewhat compare it to monsters of verity, which is wildly unfair to me, but it made me realize that this aspect of the book left me unsatisfied.

secondly, the ending was also unsatisfactory to me. the book was very violent when it comes to the killing and how easily people died, but the resolution was so lukewarm and too easy compared to the rest of the book that i was frowning hoping there was something more to this. not to mention the insane misogyny that, while it's true very apparent in the time that the book was set on, was bothering me so much by how prevalent it is but there's nothing to it except for it to be there. simply put it, the men should've gotten their well-deserved violent karma at the end and not whatever the fuck that ending was.

lastly, while the characters are okay enough for me, the romance was barely there, and i would've been fine with it if they kept it as that and not had sam and hel develop into something more when there's barely any build-up towards there. they had angst here and there, but the romantic development was so barely there that i almost forgot they're supposed to be romantically entangled and when we do get to them kissing, it caught me by surprise. i was soooo disappointed because i love them even as just partners in crime, and i wanted them to have actual romantic chemistry if they were to be more than just friends.

all and all, i quite like the story, but i can't brush off the major aspects of the book that bother me throughout reading it. i would still recommend it for anyone who wants a gothic murder mystery sapphic story, because maybe more people would love it more than me.