This book was hard for me to rate.

Things I liked:
- The nods to classical mythology
- The references to Indian locations and culture (ex. saris)
- Audiobook narrator was actually able to pronounce words like sari properly

Things I didn't like:
- The world building needed work, it didn't get properly fleshed out at the beginning and this made some of the plot points confusing. It was hard to understand who the different groups were, what their history was, and what their motivations were.
- It's very clearly a Hunger Games rip off
- Character development wasn't complete

This had a lot of potential. I liked it enough that I would pick up a sequel that I hope is coming based on the cliffhanger ending.

After having listened to the entire audiobook (the narrator did an excellent job), it's time to update my review!

The characters stayed well written throughout the entire work. There wasn't any character growth throughout the story, but I still enjoyed the characters overall. This book did rely heavily on the inner dialogue of the main character which would have been a fantastic way to show character growth, but alas.

After the excellent worldbuilding at the beginning of the work, I was expecting the same from the remainder. However, there was little-to-none included in the rest of the book. I was hoping for more explanations and expansions on the cultures, the caste and political divides, and the religion, but these things weren't explored in any meaningful way. The world was similar to that of the Hunger Games, a blend of traditional fantasy and sci-fi, making for a dystopian setting. More details should have been included to ground this world and explain the author's choices - but as it is, it felt kind of like a knock-off. The work also touts itself as a South-Asian-inspired fantasy, but that barely came through and should have been incorporated much more heavily.

The story was predictable but still enjoyable. This work was quite similar to the Hunger Games without being as good, but I still enjoyed it for an easy YA read. My thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for providing a review copy of this work, which will be published on September 6th, 2022. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

*This review is for a six-chapter preview of the book* May 29 2022,

Koral is a Hunter just like her brother. They wrangle maristags from the sea and train them for the wealthy to use in the Glory Race. But they’ve had bad luck and the season for hunting is almost over. With a sick sister and debts to pay, Koral knows they’re running out of options. When a terrible accident occurs on the last day of hunting, Koral finds herself cornered, deciding there’s only one thing for her to do: attempt to win the Glory Race.

First, the cover of the book is absolutely stunning. The artist did an amazing job! I also really enjoyed the maps at the beginning of the book. They were drawn in a unique perspective and the style was quite interesting.

The characters seemed solid overall. With only six chapters, it’s difficult to say just how much character development and depth there will be in the work. However, the main character is already relatable and well written, and the secondary characters are decent.

One of the major strengths of this work was the worldbuilding. The author created a unique and rich setting, with fascinating flora and fauna that brought the entire thing to life. I loved the different aspects that were introduced, from the island’s harsh environment to the ocean metal that was used in many different ways. The author’s creativity shone through in this aspect, making me eager to read more of this work.

However, there was a plethora of typos and formatting errors in the kindle version I received. Some examples include new paragraphs starting in the middle of a sentence, extra spaces after hyphens, unnecessary hyphens (e.g., “drip-ping” rather than “dripping”), page numbers scattered throughout the text in the middle of pages, and two words written as one (e.g., gingerroot). The number of errors per page drastically decreased my enjoyment of the work.

The concept of this work and the worldbuilding make me excited to read more, but the number of errors and typos is a major detraction from this book. I would be willing to increase my rating after rereading an edited version of this work.

I received a complimentary copy of this work through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I got the audio book for this (my first ever) and it was incredible to listen to. The story follows along with 2 siblings, Koral and Emrik, who risk their lives daily to capture a sea beast but when the last sea beast slips away from them, they are left empty handed. They are left with the dooming question of how they will feed their family now. Knowing they will starve it is up to Koral to risk everything and find a way to make things right for her family even if it means entering the Glory Race.
The way the author wrote this story truly transport to you to the world they live in, her world building is phenomenal. It did become a little slow paced and repetitive towards the middle of the story but all in all it was a great story. From Maristags, competitions and the fate of the family resting on Koral's shoulders this book is captivating.

Poised between a stern father, a sick sister and a coastal village that looks doing upon her, the FMC is forced to make a decision that will either save her sister, or ruin herself...

I thought the writing style was beautiful and - despite the narrator going at a little bit of a slower pace than I like (nothing 2x speed couldn't fix) - I really enjoyed the plot. It felt slow in the beginning and a little rushed at the end but other than that it was a good read that had me hooked in on the world Berwah had carved out. The only downside plot wise was a little bit of secondary character syndrome (but that's what more content is for!). If there is a prequel or sequel for this in the future I will be picking it up. The world, its customs and the writing style is too good not to!

3 stars

Outside of the incredibly interesting premise, the biggest thing that stood out to me in the blurb for Monsters Born and Made was its comparison to The Hunger Games and These Violent Delights. The former is a much beloved book series for me and the latter is a book that I recently DNF'd. In the end, Monsters Born and Made fell squarely in the middle of these extremes.

I have to give it up to Berwah for resurrecting the classic mid-2010s YA plot line of a competition taking place while the relationship between the wealthy and the poor of the nation deteriorates. In addition, the actual prose (especially the descriptions of the actual chariot races) was incredibly gripping. What ultimately prevented this from being a total win for me was the lack of worldbuilding and the fairly predictable nature of the conflict.

Considering that this was advertised as being inspired by South Asian mythology, there was a distinct lack of South Asian mythology. Most of the worldbuilding went into establishing what the creatures in this world were and I never really felt like I got a firm idea of the caste system, the time period we were supposed to be in, or even where we were supposed to be. There was so much opportunity to really delve into what seemed like an awesome world that was just left on the table in favor of rehashing every classic dystopian trope we have seen before. The ending definitely brought things up a notch, but it made me wish that the entire novel had been that exciting.

That being said, I do think that this is a promising debut and I would definitely keep this author on my radar for future releases.

Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!