Reviews
Monstrous Heart by Claire McKenna (The Monstrous Heart Trilogy 1) is a fantasy, set in a world where some people's blood holds special powers. Arden Beacon's blood can be set fire to, and so she is a Lightmistress, a lighthouse keeper. Arden has just moved to a new lighthouse, in an area that is altogether more of a backwater than the city she is used to, but the people still try to manipulate each other. She's told horrible stories about her closest neighbour, Jonah Riven, that he can summon kraken, that he murdered his family when young, that he murdered his wife recently. This is a fantastic story, with a setting and background that I've not encountered before. It's a gripping story, that I just wanted to keep reading. The second book came out this year, and so I will be reading that at some point! Monstrous Heart was published on 31st March 2020, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org. You can follow Claire McKenna on Twitter, Instagram and her website. I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins UK.
This book is available to buy, and I am a little mad at myself for not finishing it sooner, but a good portion of that is because I spent the first 20% of the book feeling very much like I had been thrown in at the deep end of something I was meant to understand but did not, and it left me feeling like I just did not care about the characters, the story or anything else. But I picked it up again and I dived back into the waters around the coastal town of Vigil, figured out the blood magic, the society of it and as the story progressed got to know the characters. Arden annoyed me as much as I felt for her and her constant fighting against the restraints placed on her by the magic in her blood. I cannot tell you in words suitable to a review how much I despise Mr Justinian and Mr Harrow, and how much I came to love the fragility of the supposed monster of this story, Jonah Riven. There are numerous other characters, many that you will grow to like, especially Chalice, Arden's Stormbride at the lighthouse she has been sent to man with the fire magic she holds within, and as the story builds (which it starts to do nicely around 50% of the way through) you find that as much as you still feel like you are missing important information, you don't mind because the momentum has picked up and you need to know what happens next. It is hard to say much without feeling like you are giving too much away, especially as we learn what is going on so much later in the book, and having gotten here, I actually really want to know what happens next, I'm just not sure its enough to want to go out and buy the next book (which I can only assume we are getting from the ending) but it would absolutely be on my top 5 list of library requests! In the end, I would say it deserves a solid 3.5 out of 5 and for NetGalley and Goodreads purposes I would be willing to round it up to 4 stars. Full Blog review posting Friday 29th May.
That gorgeous cover made me check out the premise and Monstrous Heart is marketed as gothic, dark romance for fans of Outlander and the Binding. From the cover you'd think this is a YA book, but personally I would rather place it as New Adult or even Adult due to the heavy emphasis on sexual assault and violence (magic users cut themselves to use their blood). I loved the concept of the sea monsters, their parts and how to use them and I'd have loved to read more about them. There were also hints about different cultures and religions, but sadly those weren't fleshed out more. I wasn't a fan of the main character being in constant danger of sexual assault and the whole story and world had a big issue with misogyny and consent in general (men kidnapping and raping women on Deepwater Night). This might be where the Outlander reference comes in. There were some plot holes surrounding Bellis and the Islands and the ending did not satisfy me at all. Altogether this had some promising elements in it and I still want to check out other works from this author, simply because I could hardly put the book down after my initial confusion in the first few chapters. Monstrous Heart would immensely benefit from including some illustrations, maps and an appendix to make it easier for the reader to follow the magic system. Thank you Harper Voyager and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
