Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I want to start by saying I loved the two leads in this book. Their struggles with identity, societal pressures, and feelings for each other were written so well. They were likeable characters without being perfect, which is wonderful.

The human villains of this story and the two leads fighting against their misogyny and transphobia felt like a very timely message as trans youth is villainized more and more in the media and politics. This made them all the more terrifying, and it made the story quite harrowing.

My biggest complaint is that this novel feels a bit falsely advertised. The cover and description lead me to believe there would be a lot more monster action. While I appreciate the choice to make the more terrifying evil the human one, I still couldn't help but wish for more monster page time. The monster hardly shows up for having such a prominent picture on the cover and in the description.

All in all, a good book, and one that is needed for our time, just a little disappointed with the monster/fantasy aspect.

Publication date: 10 September 2024