This audiobook was great! The narrator did a great job bringing the story to life, there were times it felt like I was right there with the characters.

I really enjoyed following Koral through her adventure. I also loved all the creatures that were described throughout the book.

I felt the story did not have a clear ending and had me feeling like there should be more, maybe there will be more books.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for this advance audiobook. This is in my honest voluntary review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an audiobook arc!

Have you ever read a book with such intensive, unique world-building that you spend the rest of it questioning what is happening? I’m not saying that that’s my experience, but my progress comments on Goodreads don’t lie.

I told myself that I would check in and write my thoughts down every ten percentages through the book to keep track of all of my thoughts. In every last one of them, it was clear that I had a difficulty understanding what was happening in the novel. There was just too much action for me to completely get a grasp of what is going on. A lot of the action also seemed to be very repetitive, with events transpiring over and over again. These actions did not seem to have any lasting consequences either. Nothing every truly impacted the characters in ways that changed them. Essentially, I was reading/listening to a high stakes fantasy book that was actually low stakes.

One of my most toxic bookish habits is that I refuse to DNF a book. If a book is the most insufferable thing in existence, I will force myself to continue reading it. The only book I have ever DNFed are The Young Elites, which I found myself unable to really get into. I was not about to create a list by adding Monsters Born and Made, so I persevered.

The concepts of the novel are good, do not get me wrong. How they are presented, however, makes it extremely difficult to understand them. For the large majority of the action scenes, I had issues picturing what was happening. I still have no idea what any of the creatures are supposed to look like. By default, they all turned into dragons in my mind. Kind of like the ones in Raya and the Last Dragon.

Going into character relationships, I can see what Berwah attempted to depict in her stories. Koral, our protagonist, is willing to do absolutely anything to save her little sister, Lyria, who is sick from a disease that requires expensive medication. She risks her life with her brother, Emrik, hunting down magical water creatures called maristags. After the last maristag of the season escapes in an incident that was most certainly not Koral’s fault but she still gets blamed for, Koral decides to enter in a large maristag chariot race where people compete for money. Downside: it puts a large target on her back that gets her beat up thousands of times in thousands of ways. Upside: she has the potential to win money to provide medicine for her sister.

What are her parents doing? You may ask. Absolutely nothing. As described by Koral, her father is a lazy man who does nothing to provide for the family and her mother really only cries. Koral’s relationship with her father deteriorates because of her decision to try and save the family throughout the course of this book.

Another strange thing that happens in this book is the fact that nearly every bad event that happened was blamed on Koral. A meteor could have crashed into the planet and somehow every other character would have blamed Koral for it. I understand that it's part of the plot for her to accept the blame for events that are somewhat out of her control, but it just continued to get more and more out of hand throughout the novel.

In my rating scale, I often compare books with others. I would not consider Monster Born and Made to be the worst book I have read, but I would certainly not consider it one of the best either. With all that said , I would have to give this book two and a half stars.

Thank you Netgalley for providing an audiobook ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really was excited for the premise of this book. However, i felt letdown in the execution of the story.

The Book starts with action, within an Southeastern Asian inspired world. . The book seemed to suffer from telling not showing for the world building. The main character Koral felt as if she was written younger than what she was. I really don't get invested in the story or the characters. The 'love' interest was very flat and didn't build to something more.

Overall, the book was average and would be fun for a younger YA audience.

Thanks to Netgalley, Sourcebooks and RB Media for the ARC and audio ARC of this!

The cover of this is so intriguing, and when I heard for fans of Hunger Games and Fable I was instantly requesting it. This has the lower class treatment with a near sea location of Fable and the fast pace dangerous game of the Hunger Games, so while it wasn’t quite the mashup I was expecting, I do see why those titles were chosen. The main character is treated poorly and just wants to help her family, especially her sickly younger sister, to survive, and so she enters a tournament that none of the ruling class wants to see her in. Think that instead of watching the games those in the Capitol of Panem played a bloody but not necessarily lethal game for glory and money that they don’t need - and that Katniss threw in her own name to try to save Prim from starving instead of from being entered herself. There was plenty of action and fantasy, but I completely missed how it is South Asian inspired. Nothing stuck out to me, but maybe I’m not familiar enough with the culture - I was expecting Poppy War vibes, maybe? Overall, a fast-paced and quick read, with an exciting plot, but maybe don’t expect it to be too much like the comped titles.

I thought the narrator did a good job, the audiobook is worth listening to if you prefer that format.

Came for the Hunger Games comp, left in confusion.

I so desperately wanted to love this. From the very start it has an intriguing Scorpio Races vibe that had me so interested. I love fantasy novels with monsters, and adding in the comp of the Hunger Games made this an auto-buy for me. But as the story progressed, I found myself less and less enthralled. Towards the end, I grew kind of annoyed by how everything unfolded and could not follow along with much of the events. Worse, it appears to be quite unmemorable because I finished this book two days and I now don't remember much that happened.

I think the book's main problem is that it doesn't feel fleshed out. There was so much of the world building that just didn't sit right in the fabric of the story or simply wasn't explained well. Looking back, it seems to be set in a dystopian world, but the history and lore was lacking. It felt very much like (for lack of a better word) an ancient-type fantasy, where everything is lit by candle light and everyone carries swords. But then suddenly there are radios and television screens, or the power went out. Also, in reading the summary now, I'm surprised this is pitched as a South Asian-inspired fantasy as I got the impression it was rather grecian. I struggled with the Glory Race itself because there are so many rules and stages and people involved. It took quite some time for me to understand what the point was and how it was organized.

There were so many elements that could have made this book great for me, but again, I found each piece very surface-level. The monsters that plague this island didn't feel very well utilized and I often forgot they were an issue. Even with the maristags, the central beasts to the story, I needed more. I wanted a connection between the main character and her maristag, yet there was so little reflection or relationship building between them. The rebel plot line made little sense. They were just sort of plopped in ... and maybe it'll be more prevalent if there's a sequel, but I didn't get it here. The love interest seems to only be there to say every time they meet that Koral needs to leave the race because she doesn't understand how dangerous it is. Even the caste system was confusing. The maristag races are only for the elite groups, but the elites only get the stags if the hunters get them and sell them, yet the hunters are treated like dirt and unworthy of attention?

Koral wasn't a favourite main character for me. She captures and supposedly raises and trains these maristags, yet seems to have no clue what she's doing. The family doesn't have a chariot to race with, even though I'm sure that would be part of the training piece, since the maristags are only for the races. And naturally, in the first challenge, she does everything perfect without ever having tried with the maristag before. On the other hand, her family made me root for her because they kind of suck. They need this, Koral does something to get that—no, not like that, you idiot. Her brother is angry he didn't think of entering the races first to help their family yet belittles her choices the entire time. Same with her friend. I wasn't a fan of the attitudes or lack of support from any of the characters surrounding Koral.

The ending was really confusing and it ends on quite the cliffhanger. I'm not sure if a sequel is forthcoming—and I certainly hope there is for the fans of this book—but I'll be stepping aside on that one.

Full review to come as the audiobook archived prior to finishing but my preorder is on the way!

What I have read I did greatly enjoy and I look forward to finishing with my full review.

Koral fights for her family’s survival in a centuries old charioteering competition. The Glory Race has always been reserved for the upper class Landers but no where in the rules does it say that a lower class Renter can’t compete.

Plot: 3/5
I think the trope of lower class girl/underdog in the big competition to win whatever is just too over done for me. It all feels rather predictable. Berwah hit all the right notes for people who like this trope and she definitely did a great job of setting up the stakes so I felt the stress every time something got messed up for Koral.

Characters: 3.5/5
Koral had big Spensa (Skyward) energy and I love that for her. She’s persistent, if a little bull headed, and working desperately to save her family. She’s 16, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it shows and that made her a little tiring to read at points.

Dorian is kind of just a spoiled brat. Even as his character developed I had a hard time seeing past his entitled status as a Lander. He’s got more decency than the rest of them and of course he and Koral have a history but couldn’t get over how he acted in the first half.

Writing: 4/5
Berwah’s writing is rich and descriptive. Because of the unfamiliar creatures of the world, I heavily relied on these descriptions. She has strong skills in creating intrigue.

World building: 3.5/5
Oh how I wish audiobooks came with the map still. There was an immense amount of world building put into this story but it was hard to place it all.
I was pretty confused about the division on landers and renters and the history of how they split up. And how the rebels factored into all this.

Narration: 3.5/5
The narration was not my favorite but it didn’t kill the book for me. The accent that she did for the other renters was really abrasive and distracting.

Overall: 3.5/5
This is a classic YA competition book with a richer world that I’ve read before but the whole trope isn’t for me and I definitely got lost in a lot of the world building.

The book was interesting enough. The premise was very promising, and the character's introduction were exciting. But nothing made sense. Not the world building, society details, the inter-relations of characters. I DNF'd as 50% because I was so confused and nothing was ever clarified. Only ever more muddled.
The characters fell flat and the most interesting aspects, the race and the class politics were never explained or described in any way that made them more clear. I didn't care about any of it, and it wasn't because the author didn't try. It was because it wasn't done well.

First off, I just want to say that the cover of this book is absolutely stunning.
The story itself is decent, but I can't say I was necessarily wowed by it. The plot is very reminiscent of early 2010's YA fiction, and the writing is clear that the author takes inspiration from books like The Hunger Games, which I actually like. However, I can understand why people wouldn't.
The characters didn't really stand out at all to me, and I think they could stand to be developed more.
That being said, I want to go back to the cover because I believe this book would stand out beautifully on a bookshelf, and I could totally see myself purchasing this book for the aesthetic alone.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a fun ride and an interesting concept. I loved the Hunger Games vibes. There was a lot happening in this book, but it seemed to work well.

I was provided an print and audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

While I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, I do feel the narrator was a bit monotone. I prefer narrators that almost act out the book and give different voices to the characters, whereas this narrator tended to use one tone throughout. She did do a great job with the more emotional parts, and Koral's emotions did come through.

This book started off slow for me, but once I settled in I really enjoyed it. If you liked The Scorpio Races and The Hunger Games, I think this is a good book for you. It mashes up the race aspect and the mythical creature aspect of The Scorpio Races with the brutality and politics of The Hunger Games. There is a large focus on the caste system that is in place, and our main character Koral and her family are victims of that system. They are permitted to hunt and breed maristags and sell them to the upper class. This allows them to have barely enough to survive, but because they interact with the upper echelon of society, they are outcast by the lower class as sellouts. What is a maristag you ask? It is a fantastical and violent creature of the water, that can also walk on land. They are enormous, scaled, and have antlers. I have a hard time envisioning exactly what they look like but hope as this book gains popularity we see some fanart of the maristags and the creatures mentioned in the book. The author did a good job describing them on the page, but I know there are some extremely talented artists out there to life. The world building was great, the author does a great job describing the creatures and the setting. Koral's family are "hunters" and they capture maristags and raise them for the rich to compete in teh Glory Race every 10 years. The race is extremely violent and competitive. The winner gains riches and fame, while the rest of the population celebrates and gambles on who will win.

While I thought the world building and the concept of the plot was really interesting and I loved the action, I do think that the character development suffered a bit. Koral panics in every situation and that carries on throughout the book, despite the fact that she does many brave things to save herself, her family, and the people around her. It is very clear that she has been put down at home but by by the caste system, and that oppression has shaped her as a person. She doesn't believe in herself, and often doesn't think through her decisions. This unfortunately leads to Koral getting herself tangled up in some pretty rough political situations that she is not equipped to deal with. I hope there is more to this tale as I would really like to see Koral develop, as she only just started to come into herself at the very end of the book and I would love to see her continue to shine.

This book has an open ending so I expect that there is a book 2. I've got lots of unanswered questions, but if this truly is the end it did leave me fairly satisfied. I have enough information that I can imagine my own ending for Koral and Stormgold, but I would much prefer a concrete conclusion and hope that the author gets to keep telling this story.

Overall, I really loved this! It was unique and action packed. This leans on the darker and more violent side of things, so be sure to check out trigger warnings.

This book was a huge letdown.
The cover is gorgeous and it could be a wonderful book but unfortunately it wasn't. I felt like the author is wanted to write a lot of things in this but it just ended be a huge chaos. The world was unclear I didn't feel like it was explained well. There was a lot of creature in this without really any explanation.
I didn't mind the narrator that much but it was terrible.
Maybe with a different author this could be a good book.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Monsters Born and Made fell a little flat for me. The writing was wonderful, but the overall story wasn’t for me.

The pacing of this story was entirely slow. Things seemed to drag on, and I’m not really a fan of slow pacing. The story was interesting and many young adult readers will love this. The plot just didn’t bring anything new, it felt too similar to books that have already done this kind of story.

The characters were great, probably the only reason I continued the audiobook. While there was little to no development for these characters, they were still enjoyable.

The narrator for this book is amazing! They do a great job of giving life to these characters. Their voice seemed perfect for the main character Koral.

Overall, the story wasn’t for me. I enjoyed the characters and the narrator.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for the early listening copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.25*
Thank you to Netgally and RB Media for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A short disclaimer: YA fantasy isn't a genre I typically gravitate much towards. I have read many YA books in the past, but for the last few years, I've read less and less of them - preferring adult SFF.

This year though, I've started trying to find my way back to this genre - wanting to give it a new chance and make it at least part of the range of genres I read from.
In some cases I was successful, actually discovering some of my favourite books of the year in this genre. But those were mostly the ones that defied the genre, tried new things and proved to be in general bolder than the generic mass of YA fantasy. And that is the kind of YA fantasy that I seek out and enjoy.

Monsters Born And Made isn't a bad book by any means. I think many readers will enjoy it and love it more than I did.
For me, it was simply a bit too much of what I've seen before.
While the setting and cultural background of the book seemed the most interesting to me, the author could have explored those aspects more and given them more depth.
Because the rest of this book was too much like any other epic fantasy book written for young adults that I've read:

An oppressive society with our protagonist on the lower end of the spectrum, brewing rebellion, a competition to prove herself and claim fame (but in which she'sthe absoluteunderdog), an ex-boyfriend for whom the protagonist still has feelings, who's also a sad rich boy who "could have been a better person if it weren't for his circumstances", a sick little sister who needs saving and an abusive father. It was all there.
For me, it was a bit much and made most of the book a little predicable. And I found that the book took place sometimes too much outside of the ring. I would have liked even more horse racing.

On the other hand, I had quite a busy week and I don't know if I would've been able to keep up with a more complex read. At times, it was nice to just listen to an easy story that wasn't confusing or dense but simply fun. The characters are compelling, the story easy to follow, the pay-oof good.

And as I'm not the target audience, I don't think this book has that much too fear in terms of reception. Sure, it's a "safe" book, but the industry needs those as well as the experimental, weird ones.

3.5 stars rounded up

Listen, we need to have a talk about the reviews for this book. I'll get to my own thoughts, but I'm seeing a lot of fellow white reviewers essentially saying that this is a bad rip-off of The Hunger Games. This isn't the first time I've seen something like this happen with a fantasy novel by a woman of color and it's some bullsh*t.

Monsters Born and Made has been compared to Hunger Games because it has some similarities in tropes. And comparing books to other popular books is a common MARKETING TOOL used by publishers. But the similarities are things that MANY YA books contain. Suzanne Collins did not pioneer and trademark the use of stories with: violent competitions, underdog main characters from poor families, themes of class warfare and revolution, a love interest from a forbidden family or status (*cough* Romeo and Juliet anyone? *cough*) or the existence of a sibling the main character wants to protect.

I'm sorry but I can't even tell you the number of YA books that contain these elements. So tell me why people call it plagiarism when a person of color is writing it??? Hmm. Maybe if you are a white reviewer, spend some time considering how you are critiquing a book from someone with a more marginalized background. Also I'm sorry, but it's just absurd to say it's a ripoff because Koral and Katniss both have K names. Clearly Koral is a take on Coral because they live in an ocean bound society.

That said, I don't think this book is perfect. But that's okay, it doesn't have to be. I would have loved this as a teenager and I think it has a lot going for it.

Monsters Born and Made is a slightly South Asian inspired sci-fantasy novel set in a watery world with an intense caste system and lots of vicious monsters. The main character is Koral, a teen girl from an impoverished family that make their living hunting and breeding maristags (a dangerous sort of deer/fish hybrid that can live in and out of water and are used in races). Her younger sister is chronically ill and her care is very expensive, her father is verbally abusive, and they are living on next to nothing. So when her brother is badly injured trying to capture a maristag, Koral decides to enter a race usually reserved for the upper class members of society. The prize money could change their lives, but there are rebel factions trying to undermine the races, society leaders who will do anything to push her out, and a boy that she used to be friends with but must now compete against.

This book is fun, fast-paced, and driven by the action. The world is interesting, but I would have liked to see a bit more time spent on the world-building later in the book. The emphasis is really more on the various parts of this competition. I like the themes being explored in terms of class, poverty, and the ways that class differences are institutionalized and perpetuated. There are interesting twists and a cliff-hanger ending that made me want book 2. As a character, Koral is fine for a debut YA novelist. I would have liked to see more depth to her characterization and she feels pretty cookie-cutter to what I expect from most YA heroines. But again, it's a YA novel and a debut, so the bar for what I'm expecting isn't as high. If the themes and tropes sound appealing to you and you like an action-driven story centered on competitions, this is definitely worth a read. The audio narration is done well and I think listening to it was a good way to go since it is so action-driven. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Monsters Born and Made ripped my heart out in the best of ways. The lush character descriptions and world building immersed me and everything that happened to the characters felt as though it were happening to my friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for providing me with an early audiobook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

1.5/5 stars.

A book that feels much like a take on The Hunger Games, Monsters Born and Made's plot revolves around a competition known as the Glory Race that occurs yearly, where teenagers from surrounding isles compete in a savage and deadly chariot race lead by sea monsters known as maristags. While the beginning of the book held a lot of promise, the further the book delved into the plot and the Glory Race began, I started to feel as if the book lagged behind.

The relationship of our main character Koral and her maristag was truly the only aspect from about 30% onwards that garnered any of my attention, feeling like the book tried a little too hard to take aspects from The Hunger Games.— which I can respect, until it feels nearly like the entire book just has some changed characters and names from its inspiration. The action scenes came off as.. boring, and the build-up to the ending plot twist just had me blown away that it took so long to get to. When, in actuality, it wasn't long at all.

For me, Monsters Born and Made was a bit of a struggle to get through, and while I hoped the ended would be worth the effort, I was left extremely disappointed. I can imagine how the book may appeal to some who don't mind being patient and experiencing some wildly similar takes of The Hunger Games, it wasn't necessarily for me.

Thanks to NetGallery for this ARC. Unfortunately, I had to stop the audiobook after a couple of chapters. I don’t believe it’s a bad book, but something was missing to keep me entertained. I will take a break from YA books for some times and give this book another chance.

The premise of this book was very exciting. Unfortunately, I felt like the plot floundered for awhile only to reach the ending I had expected. The author did a great job in world building. I thought the main character was fairly likable but too redundant.

Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah
4.5/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

•••Spoiler free review below•••

Think: Part Hunger Games, part Tri-Wizard Tournament, and part The Kinder Poison. Mix all of those together and you have an exciting fantasy debut that will have you hooked from the start!

We follow Koral who, after losing the last maristag she needs to turn in for the ruling class's deadly chariot tournament, ends up registering to the qualify as a competitor. Koral knows she must win this race if she wants to save her family and she will do anything for the winning prize. She quickly realizes that this competition will be much more difficult than she originally believed and that, if she isn't the winner, she just might lose her life.

Koral is a really enjoyable and selfless character. Whenever she is knocked down, she gets right back up and tries her best to do the right thing. I was really rooting for her during all of her trials and loved the ending! The world is very interesting and gives off serious District 4 vibes. I would love either a sequel or even more stories in this world.

Monsters Born and Made will be released September 6th and if it's not already on your tbr, it should be!
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Special thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for sharing an arc with me in exchange for my honest opinions.