Strict social hierarchy mixes with sea monsters, intrigue, action, brutality, and determination to great tons of plot and a large variety of characters.

Koral has been born into a family of Hunters, whose job it is to capture and breed the fearful monsters of their seas, the maristags. It's a job, which always draws blood and luck is the only thing separating the Hunters from death, but the creatures are only there for a short time period, and if a male and female aren't available, the family must live off one month of salary and starve the rest of the year. This year, that can't happen since Koral's younger sister is sick and needs medicine to survive. When the hunt fails, Koral refuses to bow to fate and is determined to save her family by entering a deadly race. The prize money would mean financial relief, but her entrance means stepping up against members of the class above her family's...and they are more dangerous than the monsters.

This one is sold as a type of Hunger Games meets These Violent Delights. and while I wouldn't completely agree with the second of these, the first is hard not to see. The class differences are clear-cut and brutal, which made it intriguing as Koral's family isn't allowed to be anything but what they are. The attitude between the classes rings clear, and the prejudice slams hard. As the higher level gets involved, the nods at Hunger Games is strong. Even the romance and competition settles in clearly along these lines. It did make it a bit cliche, but that's not a bad thing, since it leaves the reader sure of where this novel sits. Plus, the other aspects are original enough to make it feel too close, too. Although I didn't get as much of the South-Asian feel that I was hoping for.

To say that there are a few plot strings, is an understatement. The author creates a rich weave of sub-plots, which cross and spread to make sure there isn't a boring moment and little is easy to predict. Along with this wide spread comes a large cast of characters, who each hold their own agendas, personalities, and goals. There's tons to follow and even more surprises as everything twists and turns. It makes for a rich and exciting read, especially when the well-done action scenes are thrown in. Deceit and danger go hand-in-hand, giving Koral much more to deal with than just getting the money for her sister's medicine.

All of this takes place in a complex and original world, where monsters, the sea, and much more are at play. The atmosphere portrays a dark and dirty reality, where survival is harsh and hatred runs high. Even Koral's own family has more than a slightly shadowed side. The monsters are well-described and hold the beautiful deadliness they need. The world, however, isn't given the same attention and is a bit scattered...as are the characters. There's just too much, and it suffers, never gaining the complete attention it needs to really grab hold. The many plot strings also lose their thread because of this. While promising, many things are skid over too quickly and lose their impact.

These pages hold the promise and beginnings of an amazing tale, so much so that it is fun to read...but it simply could have been more. And the ending...well, that slaps hard and leaves me hoping that there's another book to come. I'm giving this one 3.5 stars while rounding up.

I want to thank Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read and review Monsters born and made in advance in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows Koral Hunter as she tries to make her way through the oppressive and dangerous system in Sollonia (the island where she lives) as one of the charioteers in the hundred and fiftieth Glory race.

What I liked about this book was how the events unfolded both on and off the track, and you were able to see how grossly different the Landers and Renters (castes that divide the people) are. Judging by the choices those in charge of the Glory race make as a reflection of the events that take place on the island; they find the suffering and destruction of human life to be trivial and even funny because it isn’t happening to them. This is a theme that we see in other popular dystopian novels but it is becoming pathetically realistic in our world. No longer do these books seem fantastical and unrealistic, which alone is frightening.

The creatures in the story, from the aqua bats, to the capricorns, to the maristags create compelling imagery. I really liked that even though the Landers consider themselves advanced, they had very little understanding about the creatures that reside on and around their island. It isn’t until she experiences the trusting relationship between Stormgold and herself that even she, as a hunter, begins to wonder how much is left unknown about these beings.

Jumping back to the Glory Race for a moment, this three race competition had elements that reminded me both of the Triwizard tournament and the Hunger games (see the point about the rich finding the “lesser” classes suffering). It becomes frighteningly obvious that death is not off the table in any of these races and the odds are not in Korals favour.

There are moments in the book that felt a bit chaotic and a little surface level, such as the incident with the aqua bats. While the situation itself was interesting and she did a good job of showing the impact of this tragedy on other people, people that were not expected to survive the book.

I also found the end to be a bit lacklustre, and though it does make me look forward to the next book I found it a bit dry in the feeling department. With what happens, I’m sure it should have made me more upset than it did but I found those characters to be a bit stiff and hard to relate to.

As a whole, I really liked this book and I think there is a lot of promise for the next one. I’m really glad I was given the opportunity to review this one!

A thrilling fast-paced, monster filled race that will have you gripping the edge of your seat. Truly an amazing captivating story, set in a unique world that was a wonder to experience.

Although, there is a lot happening at once without receiving an actual explanation, which can be confusing at times.

I loved reading Monsters Born and Made. It was a gripping story, well-written with amazing characters that are flawed yet loveable. The story started slow but after about 70% it really picked up and last bit was so engrossing that I couldn’t stop reading. I enjoyed the atmospheric world that has been created and the competition element was very fascinating. Definitely recommend this.

4.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing this E-arc in exchange for my review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an e-ARC of the book in exchange for a review.

This book was fast-paced and action-packed, which I loved. It also features maristags, sea creatures, that the MC, Koral, and her family hunt and breed to sell. These creatures are also used in the Glory Race, which occurs every four years. The island she lives on is divided into two classes, Renters and Landers, Renters being the lower class and the Landers being the upper class. Landers have been the only ones to participate in the Glory Race.

Koral decides to participate in the race after some familial problems arise and can't be handled in any other way and chaos ensues.

The themes of family dynamics and complexities and classism were well executed.

The premise and the world were both exciting and new. The world-building could've been more elaborate in some aspects but it felt sufficient as per the story. The characters did lack a certain depth except for Koral and Dorian and to a certain extent, Crane. I especially liked Koral's relationship with Stormgold but I wish it were explored more.

The story revolves around Koral and the Glory Race but the subplots regarding her family (her father and her sister specifically) that were her true motivations for participating in the Glory Race in the first place, were left unresolved. As was anything regarding Dorian. Yes, the author tries her best to drive Koral and Dorian's story to a conclusion but I was left unsatisfied and didn't feel it was well executed. At certain points, their trope got exhausting because I could clearly see what Dorian was doing.

I don't know if there is a second book coming but I hope these questions are answered if it is. It also seems as if Koral would end up in Atlantis but let's see where this goes.

I'll still highly recommend this book because of the way it tackles the themes of classism and discrimination because of that and I feel there's a certain audience for the book who will love it.

Actual rating: 3.5

For all fans of YA dystopia, this is a must. In a deadly race, riding creatures that can kill you in a heartbeat, the main character, Koral, aims for victory for the survival of her family, but also to show that the lowest cast is as good at the ruling one.
This has all the classic elements people who loved the Hunger Games will recognize and enjoy, the unjust world, the fight for more for the love of a younger sister, cruel games...
The world was very well drawn out, visceral and real.
I didn't really get swept by it, but I think that's just a question of personal taste.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the ARC! This was super action packed and definitely reminiscent of The Hunger Games. It follows Koral, a Hunter who captures monsters called Maristags from the ocean and sells them to the wealthy to use in the Glory Race. When Koral’s family runs out of money and medicine for her younger sister, she decides to enter the race herself, which no other Hunter has ever done before.

This was an easy read and it kept my attention, but it took me until about halfway through until I was really interested. While it was very action packed, I felt like it was too much to follow at times and certain things could have been expanded on, such as Koral’s relationship with her maristag. I enjoyed her interactions with Dorian but I would have liked more of their history as well and more of a conclusion for them, and to the book in general. I would recommend this if you like fast paced reads and life or death type competitions.

This book was a fascinating read... Was it my favorite? No. Was it horrible? No. Will I be recommending it? Actually, yea.

If you are a fan of the Hunger Games theme, then you will probably like this one a pretty good bit.

I'm sparing spoilers because I feel like that would make you like the book less as you are reading it. It's honestly kind of chaotic, and not in the best of ways. However, I would try to go in with an open mind and understand that the chaos lends to the style of story that we are going for here. If you recall the jumping around that one might expect in action packed movies, this is very similar. It's not one cohesive stream, which for many might be a huge negative. But if you try to lean into that style of writing/reading, it can actually be a fairly enjoyable book.

adventurous tense medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5

The first few chapters flew by to me, as it seemed to hit my favorite settings in a book: high stakes, a complicated family, and a past one tries to bury. However, as the book went on, it fell into a tangle of big events upon big events that ultimately lost the intrigue. I had a problem with the pacing, as it felt like a lot of things were happening all at once with little to no pause, and neither Koral nor the readers know what exactly was going on. While the use of first person in present tense is not my favorite, I do think that most of the confusion stemmed from that and it would have been more clear in a different voice, or with multiple POVs. Overall, it was a book that might be someone's next favorite, as the elements were right there but the execution was not it for me personally.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing me this ARC via NetGalley. This does not in any shape or form influence my review on this book.

I was excited to get an ARC of this book! The cover is gorgeous and the synopsis was very intriguing - right up my alley!

It is a very complex, very thought-out world. The problem that I had was that it threw me directly into that world and I didn't feel like I was navigating it very well for quite a while into the book. Basically, everything (even familiar our-world things) is renamed/slightly different and I just had a little trouble navigating that with the first-person narrative style and the writing style.

This wasn't a deal-breaker, and I really liked the book overall. But it took me much longer to get into it and I thought it was just "good" instead of "amazing." I will keep an eye out for the second book, but not with a must-preorder-immediately! kind of fervor.

DNF--this book was not for me.

Between the stunning cover and compelling synopsis, I couldn't wait to read this story and was thrilled to get my hands on an arc. Unfortunately, the book itself seems like it needed another draft or two before being ready to be read or reviewed.

First, this book performs a major pet peeve of mine, which is telling instead of showing. Instead of using descriptions to help connect the reader with the characters and build the world, you're left confused as to who these characters are and what's going on in the story. You can't even connect with the main character or even learn anything about her because she isn't well-developed enough to be leading this story.

In addition, this book is painfully slow-paced. Even though there were single-sentence paragraphs throughout the story (which is another huge flaw--paragraphs in a story should be varying lengths to help aid with pacing and creating intensity) and telling instead of showing, which should've actually helped create a fast story pace, and somehow it was still too slow for me to keep reading.

The synopsis sounded wonderful and I was so excited to read this book, but ultimately, there were just too many flaws for me to finish it.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF: 22%

I am disappointed that I need to walk away from this ARC without finishing it; but I’ll be honest: I had no idea what was going on in this story. The story execution was lacking, which led to a great lack of clarity to assist a reader in navigating the plot and world. For a such a beautiful cover, enticing title and synopsis, and important comparison to "The Hunger Games" and "Fable," I’m frustrated and disappointed about what this book presented.

Normally when I DNF a book, there are still one or two positives that I can comment about. Unfortunately, that is not the case here. I’ll be honest: this novel carried a significant amount of my personal writing pet peeves within its pages.

One of the first notes I made was regarding the overabundance of single-sentence paragraphs. This is a stylistic choice on the author’s part; however, when the single-sentence paragraphs break up literal descriptions of a character, I can’t help but get annoyed. Paragraphing is a fantastic way to speed up or slow down the pacing for a reader, but this book needed more chunks of text. It would have been a great psychological way to slow down the pacing and improve the clarity of the writing.

The writing mode was telling, not showing. The issue with telling, not showing is two-fold: it removes the emotional connection to the characters, and it leads to info-dumping and a lack of much needed imagery. This novel had both symptoms.

For a story written in first person, I found myself struggling to connect with Koral as a main character. The story felt very two-dimensional because Koral lacked emotionality and inner monologue. While Koral was able to provide moments of info-dumping about the world, we didn’t receive a clear window into her backstory.

The info-dumping was bountiful. It made for a clunky flow to the writing and for disjointed pacing as well. At the same time, the info-dumping failed to provide clarity to the story. The reader was thrown into the story without clarity at to what various terms meant; there was a lack of imagery to build up the world and the mythical creatures; and there weren’t clear explanations about the world history, despite the info-dumping. Overall, the pieces of potentially good world-building were there, they just were not executed well.

The other issue from telling, not showing is that the story tension was missing. I found myself unable to suspend my disbelief throughout the 20% that I read. This was confounded by the fact that every conflict and problem was overcome easily. Koral stole a maristag from her own family without getting caught. She entered her name into a competition by switching out someone else’s entry (in front of a crowd of people (Unclear). When there is no conflict or tension causing the character to change, the character then has no agency. And that is the case for our main character, Koral.

With all that being said, this novel was a huge miss for me. I found myself confused most of the time, and I was craving concrete descriptions to flesh out the world and plot. The plot also plodded along too slowly for the young adult genre. Overall, this novel needs another developmental draft or two before being ready for an audience.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I am in the letdown camp on this one.

I was so ready to read about a fantastical, monster-filled world paralleling the caste system in India, but that didn't feel like what I got.

I love competition plots, but it quickly became clear this was very, very similar to the Hunger Games, down to an invalid sister, money tight to the point of starvation at home etc. But I could understand what was happening in the Hunger Games.

In this story, the protagonist didn't endear herself to me at all, the romance was unconvincing, and I cared little for any character mentioned at all, unfortunately. Most of this is owed to the fact a huge weakness in the book is a lack of descriptive elements. I don't need every single outfit or locale described to a tee, but I enjoy a lot of scene setting. Like other reviews noted, the prose is very Tell and not Show, and I found myself frustrated at an inability to picture the maristags, the protagonist, or really anything happening. It was a very flat, two-dimensional story despite its aspirations. Sorry to this debut but I don't think I'll be tuning in for volume two if there is one.

<i>I received this ARC thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.</i>

<b>"Choices can mark a turn in fate that we might never get back."</b>
Dark themed cover, comparison to Hunger Games and disquieting synopsis lead me to believe, it can be a quite surprising story to get to know, hopefully with some good nostalgic ya-dystopian vibes. And I'm happy to admit, thou it's a debut I can assure you that it delivers everything you can expect from this kind of story!
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<b>"Despite my father's best efforts, I never <i>did</i> learn to give up."</b>
Koral, since coming of age, has been helping in maintaining her family's business of breeding maristags for entitled champions. Being part of lower cast of society they don't have a choice on how they make their living, expected to be grateful as long as they survive. Living on archipelago of several islands, her family is the only one to be entitled as hunters, that are supposed to catch wild maristags, have them produce fawns that can be trained to participate at annual race of glory. Together with her older brother she tries to live with this burden, overlooking the fact how poor they are despite the 'honorary' job they have. Sadly, illness of their younger sister ain't helpful. In fact, it leads for their savings to be drowned by all the medicine she needs. Having no other choice, Koral decides to do something noone could even think of trying. Cheat her way to the glorified race, destined for Landers, the VIPs. As the rules doesn't disallow renters to participate, just... noone ever had the audacity to make an attempt.
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<b>"Remember Icarus, Koral."</b>
Maristags are deadly animals coming from the sea, and rich kids are training their whole lifes to participate and have a chance at winning. But what other Renter can try and have any chance at suceeding at living through the attempt, than the hunter that brings them up before they're sold away. Having no other choice to get money for their living and sister's medicine, after loosing last opportunity to catch a male maristag for their only mare left, she takes the very same animal, calls her <i>Stormgold</i> and using some of her connections she cheats her way into the race. Not only she gets hate just for taking part in it, as VIPs don't find her fit to race, she also has to withstand piercing looks given by her, well, ex friend, or do we say, more-than-friend? That's also part of very entitled family. Yeah, she's falling faster than you can even watch.
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<b>There's something else I can do to show him that he can't destroy me to save himself.
Wear the crown of Champion.</b>
First things first, his name is <b>Dorian</b> ^u^ Any <i>Throne of Glass</i>'s Dorian fans here? It already gave a great headstart for the current Dorian, as I'm a simp. And oh boi, I wasn't expecting this much tension! It is comparable to vibes you can get from JudexCardan from <i>The Cruel Prince</i> so if you know, you know, it gets really intense, which I loved! It wasn't insistent in any way, just the right amount working as some kind of sidekick relief between passing races.
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<b>"The violence in this world doesn't belong to the sea creatures. It belongs to us. To what we brought with ourselves."</b>
Yes, it is a debut, so of course it has some flaws, like some scenes literally cut in what felt like in the middle of action and never get finished, or other solutions coming at way too convenient timing, but what can I say -- it didn't have much impact on the plot and overal flow on the book, so I won't complain much! As I said in the beginning, if you read synopsis, you know very well what you're getting into, and for that the book defend itself very well. From what I can see in info coming from author's newsletter (and of course the actual ending we get) this book is just the beginning of stories coming from the twisted world of <i>Monsters born and made</i>, and as the worldbuilding was really outstanding and intriguing I can't wait to follow Koral's adventures, as she shatters the society she was born to rattle. 4.5 stars from me!

This book had my interest at "monsters," but didn't quite manage to keep it.

It was an enjoyable read, but I struggled with it too.. While the premise is hella cool and the action scenes intense, I felt like the world-building was shallow and a the plot, a little derivative. (Very "Hunger Games but while riding chariots pulled by sea monsters.")

The world building bummed me out, because it felt like such an interesting premise. I wanted to know more about this world and the politics at play. I wanted WAY more descriptions of the monsters (there's a few sentences and then...ACTION SCENE). I wanted it to lean a bit more into South Asian mythology and culture (honestly, other than short description of how the characters looked, this story could have taken place anywhere in the world that has islands.)

The characters were solid but the romance felt a little forced. I would have liked even more scenes with Koral and her monster, (we got glimmers of the later's personality, but not much). The brother and sick sister are barely whispers of a character.

So overall, this was a weird one for me. I didn't hate it. It just felt a little underbaked. (Perhaps an issue with editing?) Whenever I felt like I wanted the book to lean in, it skimmed.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced digital copy of Monsters Born and Made in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3/5 stars.

TW/CW: chronic illness, domestic/emotional abuse, violence/gore, panic attacks.

If a book is pitched as similar to The Hunger Games, count me in. Monsters Born and Made is a cross between The Hunger Games and The Scorpio Races with a touch of The Triwizard Tournament thrown in.

The futuristic distopian world of the novel is reminiscent of Panem with its stark social division of the population and the dangerous maristag races which happen every four years.

Our main character Koral is a Hunter whose family captures and trains water horses for the race and is rejected by both higher and lower classes of her island. To save her chronically ill younger sister, the girl enters the race hoping to become Champion and win money to cover her family's medical expences.

I had some issues with the pacing of the book - the beginning was too slow for my liking - and the love story of exes to rivals to lovers as the initial love story before they became exes was insufficient to believe they could develop feeling for each other again.

I also felt that there was too much and too little happenning at the same time - too little focus on the races and too much on other things. I can see why additional story points were included - to create the basis for the following books in the series, but it seemed a bit forced to me.

I am not sure if I will be continuing with the series. Probably I will have to wait and see what the synopsis for the next installment is and read reviews to see if it's worth investing my time in.

Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah is a great novel. Very well written and great plot! Enjoyed every moment of it

Monsters Born and Made is a fantasy debut that follows Koral, a member of a long line of hunters, whose livelihood is capturing and training maristags. as the only ones with the intuitive touch to handle these dangerous monsters that seasonally live in the ocean surrounding their island, Koral’s family are begrudgingly allowed by the “landers” (the upper class) to train the maristags that they use to compete in the Glory Race - a prestigious race that only the landers are allowed to partake in. that is, until the year when Koral sneaks her way into the race in order to save her younger sister.

Fof the most part, Koral is a likeable main character. She is self-assured and very loyal to her family, if not a little reckless in the trademark ya protagonist way. I think her dynamic with her family, especially with her brother and best friend, was the most well done part of the book. Contrastingly, the backstory for Koral and her love interest was so minimal that even by the end of the book we do not know the extent of their friendship past the fact that we were told that they spent time together years ago and both had poor relationships with their fathers in common, or even why they parted ways.

While the plot and characters can be enjoyable, the biggest down fall this book has was its worldbuilding. The layout of the surrounding, the hierarchy between the upper and lower class, and where they lived, just to name a few things, needed to be expanded on more. These islands that they live on are not very well described and I greatly struggled to visualise this book. The world and the history that divided the “landers” and “renters”, and even the different factions between the rebels, was quickly brushed over and not developed enough. I’m the type of reader who wants authors to go into detail about why the world is in the state that it is, because it gives the novel much more depth and complexity to it. Otherwise, it just comes off as very basic worldbuilding.

Arguably the most important aspect of the book - the maristags used for the Glory Race, were also hard to picture in my mind. We weren’t given a clear enough description of them, so the entire time I was reading the book, I was not sure what creature I was supposed to imagine. That may be partially my fault, but if the main part of the book is not easily grasped by the reader, that is a weak point of the writing.

Overall was this a terrible book? No, of course not. For someone who just wants to enjoy a story for what it is, they will be entertained by this, but unfortunately for me, I was expecting a bit more.

I was given a free e-arc of this book on NetGalley by the publisher in return for my honest review.

I'm not going to summarize the book since you can find that elsewhere. Below are my reactions while reading, thoughts, likes, and dislikes.

THREE STARS.

This book is very Hunger Games, in the sense that there's a deathly competition that our main character joins to protect her sweet younger sister. Unfortunately, unlike the hunger games, the main character Koral's reasons for joining the contests are not very good. She acts like it's the only way to help when it's objectively not only NOT the only way to help her sister, but seems to be a way to actively INJURE her sister and her family. like what??

Not buying into the premise of the story made enjoying it really really really difficult because the whole time you're just thinking. but.. what if you didn't do this?

There are a couple of other un-believable things, like the WAY she manages to get herself into the races and the way other people roll with it once she is. But i could have dealt with that-- it is a fantasy after all! Except. because Koral's reasons for the whole thing seem so bad, it made my hyper aware of all the OTHER things that also were bad logic.

Futhermore the whole premise, needing to join a competition to the death to save your sister felt very familiar and over done. I'm not convinced Tanvi Berwah added enough newness to it. Unfortunately very Predicatble.

Around the middle things DO start to pick up. At that point. i'd decided to finish the book, and put my issues with Koral's motivations aside. That improved my reading experience.

I did enjoy the relationship between Koral and her maristag-the magical horse-creature thing. I wish the book had focused on that relationship, their interactions, the lore and her family's relationships with Maristags, her teaching other people to ride them etc etc. All of those parts of the book were the interesting/fresh parts, and I wish she could have given up the hunger games exterior, and focused on that.

- 3 ⭐️ because the ending DOES pick up, and I didn't DNF, and enjoyed some parts.

DNF'd at around 50%. The opening of this book was phenomenal. Koral and her brother are fighting the waves in order to capture a mythical creature. I thought the imagery was beautiful and seeing the brother and sister relationship was great! However, with each turn of the page, I found myself growing less and less interested in the plot. One of the main issues that I had with this story was the lack of information given to us about the Scorpio races. The information was stated, and it was up to the reader to piece together information. I found the same issue with the Scorpio races themselves, we would be thrown right into them with no background around how many races there were or what they would be doing.

I did find parts of the story very reminiscent to the Hunger Games, such as when they draw the names and the opening ceremony. However, I think that comparison actually does a disservice to this book as the Hunger Games was able to explain the situation much more understandably than this novel.

One of my friends told me that I needed to read this book, but ultimately I was very disappointed and too confused to want to continue.