Romantic and magical, this book was everything I was looking for in a romantasy. I highly recommend this for those looking for magic and romance and suspense.

If Jane Austen wrote Game of Thrones, it would be The Monstrous Kind by Lydia Gregovic. The beginning drive into Sussex for Merrick felt set to the original music for American Horror Story: Coven. The middle is filled with complex political intrigue, sibling rivalry, parental pressure, classism, corruption of power, inbreeding disguised as "good breeding...." It had everything, and I want more.
This book is marketed as a YA, but it does not feel YA from the complicated, political structure to the elevated language. This book truly felt like an adult Romantasy missing the spice. The ages of the characters are a little ambiguous, but since Merrick's choices are marriage or marriage, it is a little confusing why this would be seen as YA when that's not a modern, relatable teen dilemma. The ending was also trying to do a bit too much at once, but I'll forgive the last 4% when the first 96% was a wild ride I was thrilled to be on. I would happily read everything else in this universe.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Children's Delacorte Press for this impressive ARC!

"The Monstrous Kind" by Lydia Gregovic is a spellbinding blend of gothic horror and regency romance that reimagines Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" in a world teeming with peril. The atmospheric tension of the toxic fog and lurking Phantoms beautifully contrasts with the societal constraints and pressures faced by Merrick and Essie Darling. This book is a dark, twisty delight that captures the struggle for survival in a crumbling world, all while navigating complex family dynamics and societal intrigue. Gregovic's vivid writing brings the eerie setting and nuanced characters to life, making this a must-read for fans of romantasy and gothic tales. If you love your regency dramas with a side of monsters and a dash of suspense, "The Monstrous Kind" is the perfect addition to your bookshelf.

I think this book will have an audience that will LOVE it; unfortunately, I am not part of that audience. I think that marketing this as a retelling/taking inspiration from other books might not have been the best idea. While the themes may be somewhat similar, it was not strong enough for me to see any sort of association without knowing what it was marketed like. This doesn't really work out for the author because then readers go in with an anticipation of something and getting something completely different.

I found it really hard to get into the story because I just couldn't bring myself to feel connect to our MC. The pacing also felt a bit off at times where it was definitely dragging but didn't need to. Ultimately, I think this book has a good amount of potential but it's not for me (and that's okay!).

I wanted to love this, I really did. But I did not love it.

I adore Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, but this book is only very very loosely "inspired" by it. Very loosely. The plot is somewhat like a more original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but without the original brilliance of the parts of P&P that survived the alteration.

The Monstrous Kind is very slow moving. The narrator, Merrick, is a complete idiot who does too much eavesdropping. (She is nothing like the intelligent but impetuous Marianne.) Her house, family, servants, people are all always in grave danger, but she keeps leaving her weapon behind. She several times makes rash decisions that she is lucky to survive. Her sister is even more unlikable and doesn't even have a fun romance to make her more interesting.

The attraction between Merrick and Killian is very predictable, and too argumentative to mirror Marianne and Colonel Brandon. The carrying on with polite society and manners while danger literally creeps up to you just didn't work for me. (I wanted it to!)

So overall, a disappointment. I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley.

I absolutely loved this gothic fantasy! I was on the edge of my seat and still every twist and turn and betrayal had me reeling! What a great debut, I can’t wait to read more from this author!

Thank you to Random House Children’s publisher and NetGalley for this Arc in exchange for an honest review

I wish this would’ve been for me. However, as much as it pains me, this is something I had to DNF. I think it’s something that one day I could pick back up, but not right now.

4.5 stars, rounded up | This was such a great read! I adored the complex characters and the constant twists and turns that the plot took. I was worried it was going to feel rushed, but I thought the pacing was really well done. Overall, I really enjoyed it, and am already looking forward to any sequels!

If you took Bridgerton and mixed it with a Chloe Gong book, and added a slip of the Lady Janies, then that's what you get here. It's a clever adaptation, though at times it's hard to see where exactly Austen comes into play. A fun romp!

I wanted to love this book more than I did. I love Jane Austen, and I am no stranger to writing that is more complex and dense (I was an English major), but I found myself bored at times. I was interested in the Manorborn and the Phantoms, but I felt like I didn't get enough world building to make me care about the world. I didn't connect with many of the characters except for Killian. He was the most dynamic with his back story and how he helped Merrick. While there were some sweet moments between Merrick and Killian, I definitely wanted and needed more to make this feel like romance.

This was an interesting read. I really loved that it combined romantasy, gothic and regency elements and thought the plot was very intriguing. The characters were dynamic but frustrating at times. Overall this was a fun and intriguing read.

The Monstrous Kind is a richly atmospheric, dark novel loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. In this alternate version, a terrifying nothingness called the Grayscape is encroaching on people’s land, populated by terrifying Phantoms, which can turn their victims into more Phantoms. Only the Manorlords are immune to the Grayscape and claim to protect commoners from the creeping mist and being turned into Phantoms. Upon the death of their father Silas, sisters Estella and Merrick Darling are reunited. Estella has been working to hold the manor estate together, while Merrick has been in the capital trying to secure an advantageous marriage. As in the source novel, tensions between the two sisters make up a significant portion of the plot. However, this has less to do with differences in personality and perspective and more to do with the results of Merrick’s departure and Estella’s status as the heir to the estate. I found the drama and suspense, as well as the plot twists in the latter half of the novel, fairly compelling and enjoyable.
However, I was somewhat put off by the lack of character depth. For example, we never get a real explanation as to why Merrick actually wants to be Manor Lord, but much of the conflict between her and Estella, as well as much of the politics around eligible matches, hinges on this. Additionally, Merrick is ostensibly based on Marianne Dashwood, and in her own narration claims to be a deeply emotional and expressive person, but we don’t actually see much evidence of this. For the most part Merrick simply floats through the story as a vessel for the plot. Similarly, our main love interest, Killian Brandon, seems just too perfect to me. He’s already gone through all his character development off the page and arrives on the scene fully formed as an ideal man. I would have preferred to see him working through more of his past explicitly. I also struggled as someone who deeply relates to Eleanor Dashwood to see her character be utterly slandered in the way this book does.
Overall, I certainly don’t regret reading this book. Parts of it were very entertaining and kept my interest well. If the thought of a gothic fantasy Jane Austen retelling appeals to you, this is certainly worth a try, but it goes down more like candy than a substantive meal.

I was intrigued by the premise of a gothic regency story, but unfortunately I didn’t really connect with the characters, especially Merrick. She was stupidly naive at times and made many decisions that were questionable to say the least. For the Phantoms being super powerful enemies, they were barely in the story. This felt very similar in some ways to the <i>Defy the Night</i> series I finished earlier this year. I would have liked more gothic elements, but the stakes never seemed very high and the story got somewhat bogged down by the romance.

The Monstrous Kind by Lydia Gregovic is a beautifully crafted gothic fantasy that transports readers to mist-cloaked manors, introduces them to unearthly monsters, reveals disturbing family secrets, and weaves a dark thread of forbidden romance. This novel encapsulates everything I seek in a book.

The Monstrous Kind is a perfect fit for readers who adore gothic, atmospheric monster stories with family dynamics, sibling love in a lush world of dark magic and mystery. Fans of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility would appreciate what Lydia Gregovic has done in this book. Looking forward to more books from this author.

Romantasy is my favorite so the moment I read this description I ran to sign up to read this!
I don't usually go for the regency type of stories but I really enjoyed this book!

I’m so, so sad that I didn’t love this book. By reading the summary it sounded like a book that would be right up my alley. I mean, gothic with monsters? Yes, please! Unfortunately it was just so slow and I found it hard to get invested in the story.

Thank you to Random House Children’s publisher and NetGalley for this Arc in exchange for an honest review

I liked the concept and parts of the plot, but it did feel predictable, especially the twist.... it also feels like the author and I read two different S&S because these characters could not possibly be inspired by the Austen I know.

Unfortunately me and this book are not getting along and so at 55% in I’m going to have to do something I absolutely hate doing or else I may find myself in a slump.

Yeah that’s right…it’s time to DNF.

I absolutely hate dnfing books, even more so when they are arcs I was lucky enough to receive because it always feels so unfair to review them without finishing, especially in cases like this when I feel they have so much potential to get better. But when you’ve reached the point of feeling dread every time you pick the book up, sometimes you just have to admit it’s a lost cause.

First of all, I can’t really speak to how well this book achieves the retelling aspect it was going for because I’m embarrassingly behind when it comes to reading classics. I can however say that this does do a good job of creating that regency feel, and when that was combined with the gothic gloomy feel of the setting it created a great atmosphere.

But a great atmosphere cant always save you, and in this case, that and the cool take on zombies (phantoms as they’re called here) wasn’t enough to outweigh the negatives.

The first thing I noticed was the abundance of similes and metaphors. Like this and as that - usually figurative language is not the kind of thing I take notice of but the fact that I was constantly picking up on like five instances per page should clue you in as to how overbearing it is.

The other thing that appeared right away were grammatical errors. I’m sure this will be fixed by the time this is published, and they didn’t hinder my rating any but they were still a headache to read sometimes. The smaller stuff like their7s on the first page instead of theirs wasn’t that big of a deal despite the weird random seven insert but this-

"A bargain you were plenty happy to make when you felt it was in your favor, if you'd care to remember," Killian continues, inside the barracks." And the Red Duke and Duchess have requested that we not speak about the Archdaughter until the public has been alerted-you know that.”

-that took me several minutes to decode.

My biggest issue with this was, by far, the pacing. The first half DRAGS and the main character essentially reads like a side character in her own story. At first it was working to create the mysteries in the manor and they were what kept me a bit engaged, but having the main character be like huh that’s mysterious and that being almost the extent of the plot for the first half got old fast; and because of that no amount of mystery could prevent my boredom.

Another thing that I was finding annoying was how some scenes that could have been impactful constantly felt like they failed to reach their potential. It always felt like they could have been expanded; they would end right after the action happened and instead of seeing the moments where the action was dying down it would just flash to the next scene which was the day after when everything had calmed down. To me the transition just felt too abrupt and the scene felt cut too short. It would have been nice to see how characters acted after disappearances, attacks, etc. because I feel like it could have helped build the anxious tension. In the end we just get told what happened directly after instead of shown which was disappointing.

Overall, I 100% want to give this a try again in the future because it has the potential to really go somewhere interesting but I can feel the dread sink in every time I think about picking this up and the slump threatening to creep up on me so it’s sadly gonna be a DNF for now.


~🄾🅅🄴🅁🄰🄻🄻 🅁🄰🅃🄸🄽🄶: ★ ★ ✰ ✰ ✰.5~

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

🤬 only a few curse words (infrequent)

😘 no spice

“An atmospheric, haunting, romantasy inspired by Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, set in Regency era England about two sisters fighting to hold on to their manor while deadly monsters prowl along its perimeters—perfect for fans of House of Salt and Sorrows and Anatomy: A Love Story.” Book description via Penguin Random house (This description alone hooked me!)

Atmospheric is definitely the best way to describe this book! It was so easy to visualize the world it was set it. I think fans of Pride Prejudice and Zombies will like this A LOT!

This is one of my favorite fantasy novels I’ve read in awhile for many reasons:. One being the main character felt REAL she made mistakes, she didn’t have it all figured out, she had to learn from past experiences. This to me was a stark contrast to some of the heroines I’m used to reading about who get thrown into the fray and figure it all out. I felt like I resonated with Merrick and her personality! And the other being that it wasn’t a very deep and complicated world to understand. I was able to stay focused on the story without feeling like I got lost in the world building.

As for the similarities between this and Austen work well, it’s been a while since I’ve read Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. So, I can’t vouch for how inspired it was by that. However, I will say it’s not a retelling it’s got a modern essence to it, but in a good way (think Bridgerton).

The only thing that I will say is, it’s not really a romanasty in the traditional sense. The romance was a subplot that intertwined in a few spots throughout the book, but it’s not the at the forefront. At the beginning I was disappointed by this discovery, but the mystery in this book kept me inthralled!!

Once I got half way through the book it was hard to put down!! I will say it takes you on a twisty journey!! I wasn’t able to catch a few of the plot twist and the ones I did I felt like the author wanted me to hence the ya genre.

Overall, this is a light and engaging ya mystery/fantasy with a dash of love and a whole of lot of suspense!!