I can’t recall if this was my first 5 Starr of the year but this book was a big queer monster hug I didn’t know I needed but I needed it so bad. Not me bawling over a monster. Not me bawling over found family and like a cave. Not me thinking this would be a horror book and getting Kingfisher’d by it and discovering it’s one of those Cottage Corror books where year some limbs go missing but like, who cares because it’s somehow cozy anyways. Anyways I think everyone should read it because it was awesome and if I had to tell my partner I was crying about a monster then you should have to as well.

Gory sapphic fairytale/horror?? Super fun, fast read. Asexual rep. Monster and monster hunter romance. Navigating grief, family trauma in a surprisingly emotionally intelligent way - which I did not expect for what I thought was going to be a mostly silly read. I enjoyed it.

I thought I knew where this was going several times throughout the book and I never did lol, this was kooky happy pride

This book was weird in all the best ways. I wasn’t expecting a book about a monster to be the best disability representation I’ve ever read. I don’t know if the author meant for Shesheshen to read as autistic specifically, but I certainly read her that way and it was more relatable than other books I’ve read with human autistic characters. But I think she could be interpreted many ways, and anyone who has felt othered because of something they can’t control would be able to relate to her.
The only reason I don’t give this a full 5 stars is because the antagonists in this book were a little over the top, and it felt like the author was working too hard to get me to hate them. Without getting too spoilery, I’m assuming it was written that way so the reader wouldn’t feel bad when Shesheshen violently kills people, because they were being so obviously evil. I just don’t enjoy it when a story uses that strategy to make their main character more sympathetic.
Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book. It’s exactly the kind of book I’ve been longing for, and I will definitely add it to my rotation of books I read to get out of a reading slump.