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!!

The Monstrous Kind is the mysterious tale of Merrick Darling and her family - a so-called "Manorborn" family who are immune to the phantoms living across their borders. Merrick travels back home after the death of her father left her sister in charge of the family estate. What follows is a tale of family, rivals and ghosts.

To start - the story was fascinating. It was unique and captivating. I finished the book purely to find out what happened, and I'm glad I did. The twists and turns throughout left me wondering what would happen next. I enjoyed the tone of the book, particularly that we were learning about the mysteries as Merrick did.

That being said, I felt that the characters and story were underdeveloped. As much as I enjoyed Merrick's journey, I hated her as a character. She was seemingly intelligent, but was clueless the majority of the book as to what was happening around her. I also struggled to enjoy the language used after some time. While I liked the Victorian style language, the overuse of metaphors became burdensome and rarely left me feeling like I could paint a picture in my head. They were also incredibly repetitive, particularly with the metaphors surrounding milk and cream colored things. By the 30% mark, I felt that skimming the book was more effective because I wasn't trying to comprehend everything being said.

Overall, I think this was a decent debut novel with room to grow; however, one will need patience to finish it. I look forward to seeing this author continue through her career, as she has incredible potential and a mind to create an engaging story.

This is one of my first horror books that I’ve read. I received this as an ARC and enjoyed it. It was fast-paced and kept me intrigued by the twists and turns. I wish that we had learned about more depths to the characters as the story developed. The romance seemed an afterthought, which is fine, but never felt like it was thought out.

What an interesting and unique take on Jane Austen's <i>Sense and Sensibility</i> with a Regency England cut off with a mist (or Smoke as they call it) filled with creatures lurking within, waiting, lingering to take anyone who dares step within either eat them or make them part of the Phantoms - zombie-like creatures. Merrick has been called home to attend her father's funeral. There she finds her sister, who has now taken the position as Manorlord, and who seems to hold a deep resentment for her leaving. Merrick must navigate the treacherous landscape of secrets and lies within the manor.

I am not going to lie - I have never been a fan of Jane Austen books. I have read them in the past but I have not touched them since. This book is not a retelling of <i>Sense and Sensibility</i> but more of a unique take on the book itself with twelve families immune to the Smoke that lingers along the borders of their homes. Merrick has returned home from a Season in the city. Her father has passed away and her sister has been named Manorlord, something that Merrick had already known and the reason why she had left in the first place, but on her return, she found that the Smoke has breached areas around the manor and this is obvious when her carriage is surrounded and the creatures converge upon it.

Jane Austen's books have never been a favorite of mine. So, I never read any of the other books written by her and this was one that I had passed by. So character-wise I am not sure how well Merrick and her sister are to the characters they are meant to resemble. The story is solid with an interesting twist to the plot at the end. I found this book a rather quick read for me from the moment I picked it up until I put it down. I think, once you do read this one, it will leave you kinda reeling at the end especially when you learn who has been behind it all. I am still thinking about it even now as I make this review.

This book will be a nice addition to anyone's Harvest TBRs and I recommend that you add it.


*Disclaimer: Thank you to the author, her publishers, and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. The opinions of this review are mine and mine alone.

I'll start off by saying that I am partially biased, because I follow Lydia Gregovic on social media, and one time we had a lovely conversation about Professor Layton games. I am also biased because I have a soft spot in my heart for regency, and Austen-inspired, stories. (Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, anyone?) That said, what a truly phenomenal book.

I initially saw this book on Ava Reid's Instagram story, and I knew immediately that I wanted to read this book. I know. I know. Don't judge a book by its cover and all of that, but sometimes, the cover is exactly right, and it does its job conveying to you that this is your kind of book.

Also, on the note of the art, I cannot wait to own this book physcially because I cannot imagine that the art on the title page was done justice on the Netgalley shelf app on my phone. I know sometimes these come through as more true "kindle" books, but I really appreciated that the formatting of this allowed me to see the detailing on the first pages of the parts as well as the more subtle detailing on the chapters.

I have heard Gregovic refer to this book as her first-born child, and I think that the love and care and time which were spent on the book are evident in its atmosphere and its dialogue, both of which I thought were top-notch, a masterclass.

I think sometimes when people are doing regency, they lean a little too heavy into the exposition or descriptions of the way that the society works at the upfront, leaving the reader wanting a bit more of a hook, or a jump into the action. I think Gregovic did a really lovely job at combining the two, setting readers down right at the edge of the mist, with a narrator who was more than equipped to explain why they should be feeling the unease that comes with that placement, which I think can be a hurdle with horror on occasion. getting the reader in the correct headspace to feel as though the looming threat might actually come to fruition.

Also, not that it is exactly the same, but I felt like weaving in the snippets of the Toast from the very beginning was a good way to hook readers who are only familiar with regency-era historical fiction from their recent Bridgerton binge session, and a good way to start to indirectly introduce the conventions and opinions of the society while Merrick was still isolated.

I love a book where the plot twists are able to take me by surprise, and that was largely true for this book, though some of the twists later in the novel were more apparent than others.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with the book, and I loved getting to be with Merrick as a character. If you like fantasy, regency-era historical fiction, horror, or mysteries, I would recommend this book to you without a doubt. I can't wait to see what Gregovic writes next.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

For me this book started out very slow and continued the slow pace past the midpoint. However, once I got past the gradual build up, I was definitely sucked in and eager to discover where the story was leading me. It without a doubt kept me intrigued right up to the very last sentence, and I'm now ready and waiting for book 2.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's | Delacorte Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.