**2.5 STARS**

Content Warning: body horror, death, murder, insect horror

+ I almost DNF’d this at 30% – it is so slow of a mystery and yet I was intrigued by Riccardo who is a struggling and poor writer who is on a tight deadline with no manuscript to show for it. His grandmother passes, and leaves him her home in Milan, Italy. With no money and too much stress, he goes thinking he can write while he is there but instead he finds a manuscript written by his grandmother, Perihan.

+ I did find Perihan’s manuscript interesting because of the time it’s written in the past and also she is from Turkey. Her life is hard from the start but it takes her to Milan where life really flourishes for her. I couldn’t tell at first if she was a good person or not. Riccardo is doing no writing but he is reading this manuscript and learning a lot about his grandmother’s life.

+ The horror and the twist comes at the end. It’s a crazy ending! But if you don’t like monstrous butterflies, stay away from this one.

~ Like I said above, this was almost a DNF. I didn’t though and skimmed until 70% into the book where everything starts picking up. I’m already not one who enjoys mystery books, and I struggled because this one is a slow one, but I just wanted something to happen in the first half with Riccardo either staring to right his book or some horror at the start. But this is a slow building horror story that ends with a bang.

Final Thoughts:

I don’t think I was the target audience for this book. For me, it was too slow for the first two-thirds of this book. I did find the characters and Perihan’s life very fascinating and the ending is wild. If you like slow building mystery and horror then you might enjoy this one.

Their Monsterous Hearts by Yigit Turhan is an unexpected story that will keep your on edge. Gothic stories usually are not my thing , but this story made me change my mind !

2.5 stars. The first about 50% of this book dragged on forever. I love a gothic book; so normally it's no big deal for a slow start, but there weren't enough little intriguing tidbits or creepy things to help with the pacing. It doesn't help that our main character (? debatable he feels more like a side character in his own story), Riccardo, is unlikeable and not in the fun way. He is just kind of boring. A down on his luck author with writer's block who is told that he inherited a house but is acting like it's the worst thing in the world when his life in Paris is basically imploding. I had very little patience for him. After about the 50% mark we get more interesting slices of Perihan's manuscript which tell an interesting story of butterfly monsters and immortality. It wasn't enough to make up for the other 50% and I found the ending a bit meh. I actually think this book would be successful as a short film or even a graphic novel. Not the best gothic horror I've read and not the worst, Their Monstrous Hearts suffers from taking too long to get to a point and not being interesting enough before we can get to the main event.

Sadly this was not a book for me. I didn't particularly find any of the characters engaging or compelling, and there wasn't enough plot development to help move things along. The premise totally drew me in, and I wish I had enjoyed it better than I did.

To say I loved this would be an exaggeration, but I did enjoy it. I thought the PoV was unique and the story was eerie throughout.

Riccardo had the worst luck in family and I feel no shame in saying I was pulling for him. The story telling was good, but the ending was very unsatisfying. I really wanted Riccardo to come out on top where he could use this experience to turn his life around - even if he was a bit defeatist and melancholy.

This is again one of those stories where the title has you thinking of monsters, but throughout the journey you realize that humans and their insatiable greed and selfishness are the real monsters.

I felt so bad for the “monster” of the story. She lived a horrible existence with Parihan because of her abilities and ended up being belittled and used up by the end.

Note: I dual read this one: physical and audio. The audio was good and I liked how it switched back and forth from the mail and female narratives.

Who knew a butterfly could be so dangerous? This is an extremely unique book, the likes of which I've never really come across before, though that might be because my journey into horror is a new one. it starts off almost cozy, gentle. the life of a starving artist, quite literally! the more you read, the more things start to go... odd. the world starts to press in. the events start to get weirder and weirder. the uncanny valley feeling through the entire book makes you feel unsettled and unsure, and then the body horror starts and you realize the whole book is set up like a nightmare. everything feels a little wrong, and you know it's not real but your worried and uncertain anyway. we follow a young man, uncovering an impossible tale of his late grandmothers life, all while the household staff flutters about with their own dark secret. and of course, the mystery of how all of these people are connected, is definitely part of the charm.

be warned, don't read before bed. nightmares of butterflies are probably the most unsettling thing I've experienced.

Riccardo, a struggling writer, has just had the electricity turned off in his Paris apartment when a mysterious stranger shows up at his door with news. Perihan,. Riccardo's grandmother, has passed away and left him her villa in Milan and her butterfly collection. Without options, Riccardo returns to Milan to claim his inheritance.
But the people Perihan surrounded herself with are very odd and lurking and always keeping tabs on Riccardo. And something is DEFINITELY wrong with the greenhouse. Nothing is quite what Riccardo remembers from childhood. Before the funeral, Riccardo stumbles upon Perihan's journal and is delighted to find out that she was also a writer. Because the story she weaves couldn't be real. Or could it?
I'm going to need more from Yigit Turhan! The writing was exquisite and this author definitely knows how to weave a story. Definitely a favorite so far for 2025.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and MIRA for this digital e-arc.*

DNF @ 51%

I really tried to get into this one but just couldn't. It's the slowest of slow burns and it felt like nothing was happening. There was a lot of telling rather telling; even when the build up was done well it would be capped by a sentence telling you exactly what the author wants you to think about that particular thing. I'm not sure if this is lost in translation thing since this is apparently the authors first book in English but there as just nothing that grabbed my attention.


Thanks MIRA and Harlequin audio for providing this ARC to me!

Initially, I was intrigued by the cover and was ready to fully jump into a world of creepy butterflies, eerie villas, and mysterious characters. However, this “horror” was filled with confusing time jumps, odd writing, and bland characters that had absolutely NO DEPTH.

I’m kind of bummed because I’ve been itching to read a horror, and was excited to get alllllll the spookiness! It just fell completely flat for me. I found myself skimming more pages than not and pushed through only to find out…it really didn’t get better.

Oh well.

I really struggled through this book. I'm just left feeling very...confused? This was surrealist and lyrical, but the story got swallowed up by that. I almost wonder if it's the fact that this seems to be translated (from Turkish, I'm assuming) because it just doesn't feel like it makes any sense in English. I wonder if this is a case where the book in the language it was created in would be a lot more cohesive. Either way, the characters were not compelling and because the prose was so confusing and hard to parse through, there wasn't really a sense of horror or atmosphere. I can see bits and pieces of the intention behind the story, but as it stands it just wasn't very good. I love the cover, though, and I do think it's wildly important that we continue to translate and share literature and media that isn't English-first. I'm only sorry that I didn't enjoy this for what it was.

It's me, I'm the April Fool's joke for thinking this would be a creepy butterfly book :) :)

I'm not sure if it was a language barrier but I truly have no idea what happened in this book. I went in expecting a hidden manuscript and butterfly horror. And got...Plato and Sylvia Plath, Something Bad Happened at a circus, an angel (??), name-dropping high-end fashion labels, curing cancer with..butterflies (??), using butterflies as some really heavy-handed and convoluted metaphor for change and growing (and possibly taking over bodies?? idk)

This was a mess.

DNF at 6%, after a single chapter.

The writing here is just not good. I spent more time rewriting lines in my head than appreciating what was on the page. The main problem being that the author just slapped a series of sentences down on the page with no care for connecting them together or building any kind of tone.

The few character actions that happened felt bizarre too. An old lady yelling at the sky at the top of her lungs because butterflies are on her house? There was a line about too much beauty becoming creepy, but there was nothing done to create that creepy atmosphere? Not a mention or whisper of the fact that butterflies are carnivores and can strip a rotting body of flesh within hours. Just that there were quite a lot of butterflies! How spooky! Not.

I also found it laughable that a literary agent would tell their client to go out and live life when the manuscript is months late. Huh?!

Expected publication date: April 8, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 out of 5 stars

A slow-build, gothic muted horror.

Riccardo is between a rock and a hard place: his literary agent is breathing down his neck asking for the novel he's been paid for, and his landlord is on the verge of throwing him out.

When a persistent knock prompts him to open his door in frustration, he finds Maurizio, his grandmother Perihan's friend, who states Perihan has died and has left everything to Riccardo.

This surprises him because he was not close with his grandmother, who sent him away at a young age for a "better education," after his mother had abandoned him with Perihan as a baby. He isn't close with anyone, least of all his family. Riccardo declines Maurizio's request to go back to Milan with him and claim his inheritance, but Maurizio gives him a ticket to Milan anyway. Not long after the man leaves, Riccardo finds himself in the dark - literally: his electricity has been shut off due to non-payment.

In hopes of getting some respite from his desolate life, he uses the ticket to Milan, hoping for enough money to keep him afloat until he can finish his novel.

Immediately, he notices how strange the staff is. His grandfather, Marco, has passed away, and Licia, one of the house staff, doesn't seem to have aged at all. They have strange friends over, and Riccardo catches them whispering quite often.

Curious about his grandmother's life prior to her death, he goes into her room and finds empty but beautiful crystal bottles, and butterflies behind glass. He also finds a manuscript of sorts with his name on it. Taking it back to his room, he begins reading what at first seems to be a memoir of Perihan's life.

He soon learns that all of the house is searching for the manuscript, but he can't figure out why they are so concerned about something left for him.

The more he reads, the more he thinks that what may have started as a memoir has become a fantasy novel. Perihan describes a homeless girl with glowing skin who is followed by butterflies, turns into a monster when not loved, and whose tears can be ingested, releasing a butterfly that carries the heartbeat of the person who ingested the teardrop.

At a local establishment, he meets Lorenzo, a handsome but kind soul whose friendship is quickly precious to Riccardo, even as he finds himself attracted to him as the world inside the walls of his grandmother's house devolves into madness.

The story was intriguing and had that slow-burn horror reminiscent of Shelley's Frankenstein with its near-epistolary format and atmospheric setting. However, I couldn't grasp a connection to either the pathetic Riccardo (no, really, he was written to be especially pathetic for a reason) or the cold, calculating megalomaniac Perihan.

Marco, Perihan's husband, reminds me of George from the 1993 movie Double, Double, Toil and Trouble with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen while he was under Agatha's spell - the lights are on but no one's home. Also, what happened to Marco?

I feel like Lorenzo and Licia could have been removed from the story, and it wouldn't have made much of a difference.

Am I asking too much here to want to know what Monarch was? Were there others like her?

Despite these issues, I still thoroughly enjoyed the read, and would definitely pick up any further books by the author.

I really struggled to connect with this book and story. Initially I was very interested but as the multiple perspectives and flashbacks were introduced, I felt it lost its relatability. The surrealist elements came out of the blue for me and increased my disinterest in the story.

Thank you NetGalley & Yigit Turhan for the ARC. This review is my honest opinion.

I did not finish this book. I thought the language was beautiful, the writing however did not capture me. I was bored and not invested in the main character. I think this book would appeal to a lot of people who may not be mood readers like myself. I can only rate what I did read.

Riccardo is facing a long bout of writers block as his agent hounds him for work and the bills continue to pile up on his table. Frustrated at his lack of writing he isn't sure what he will do when a knock comes at his door from a man named Maurizio. He tells Riccardo that his Grandmother has passed and left her forutne to Riccardo he need only come back to Milan to settle affairs and then can begin his new life is the beautiful home she has left him. Under no small amount of scrutiny Riccardo decides to go for no other reason than he need the money but if only he knew what he is getting ready to walk into.

Upon arriving the home is nothing like what he thought that it would be. From vibrant and full of life it is now dark and decaying. The people surrounding him seem to be keeping something a secret from him. His Grandmothers home is as foreboding as it has always been and upon finding a manuscript in her room he begins reading what he thinks is an autobiography until it begins to delve into the fatastical. Butterflies, Monsters and unending life.

He may have arrived as Riccardo but nothing here is as it seems and he may not remain the Riccardo that he is now. Family has a way of transforming you.

The book was decent enough but it starts slow and continues as a slow burn that for me just never really picked up speed. For me there was nothing memorable about this novel but alot of times that boils down to being the type of book on enjoys and for me this just wasn't it. I as always reccommend everyone making up their own minds and always giving a book a chance. You never know it might be just what your looking for.

I want to thank #Netgalley for the chance to read an eArc of #TheirMonstrousHearts by #YigitTurhan in return for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me an ebook ARC for this through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review!
A struggling writer finds himself in Milan inheriting his late grandmother's estate. What he didn't expect was to also inherit the horrors that awaits him. As he finds inspiration for his new book, he comes across a manuscript his grandmother left him. As he reads along, he discovers the origins of the horrors he's come across.
The story was a little slow to get started, but by the end it will have its claws into you. The ending wasn't at all what I expected and the suspense kept me at the edge of my seat.

Riccardo has inherited his grandmother Perihan's villa in Italy - and her creepy butterfly collection. This is a Gothic that moves around in time between Riccardo in the present and Perihan's writing. I liked the latter more than the former (but can understand why some readers might find Perihan's parts frustrating). Yes there's a monster and no, no spoilers from me. It starts off strong and then sags a bit in the middle. Less scary than creepy. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. For those looking for something different.

This one just wasn’t for me. Too repetitive and that’s the one major pet peeve I have. Hopefully I’ll enjoy the next one bc I’ll def read this author again.

WARNING: it's another unexpected unpopular opinion review!!

There was just something about that creepy cover and the premise itself that made it impossible to resist adding Their Monstrous Hearts to my shelves. I love a gothic vibe in my books, and the premise of this story by Turkish author Yigit Turhan sounded absolutely fantastic with its Italian setting, the butterfly element and the promise of danger lurking around every corner. Unfortunately, I ended up loving the concept behind the story considerably more than the book itself... And I'm sad to say that even making it to the final page was quite a chore.

Like I said before, there is nothing wrong with the premise of this story. In fact, the concept behind Their Monstrous Hearts is absolutely fantastic and there is no doubt that this book had SO much potential. Sadly, the actual execution of this plot was rather lackluster for me, resulting in a story that was surprisingly dull despite the many gothic horror elements incorporated into the plot. There were so many missed opportunities to add more suspense in my opinion! I think part of the problem was that there was too much telling and too little showing what was happening, and this detached feel made it hard to fully appreciate the gothic vibe. The descriptions just weren't atmospheric or thorough enough, and this ment that it was harder to actually picture everything.

One of my main issues was with the writing itself. There was just something about the way this story was written that just didn't hit the mark for me, and it was unable to create the right atmosphere for this story. I was particularly frustrated by the fact that the plot kept jumping between Riccardo's POV and Perihan's diary (or manuscript as it says in the book), often without any warning at all. Using separate chapters for the diary entries would have worked so much better, because as it was the whole structure simply felt sloppy. To make things worse, the diary entries were told in a way that slowed down the already glacial pace even further, and they were also surprisingly dull considering what was happening. It's definitely not the subject itself, but more how it was told without descriptions to paint a proper and vivid picture of both Perihan's past and the present.

I can't deny that the beginning of the story was somewhat stronger and the ending wasn't all that bad either, although there are too many questions left unanswered. Still, with the majority of the story basically being a slog to get through with its incredibly slow pace and dull storytelling, I had a rough time convincing myself to keep reading. The diary entries could have been such an asset, but sadly not in its current state... The characters lacked development as well, and the sudden romance just didn't feel credible and only distracted from the rest of the plot.

I guess it comes as no surprise when I say that Their Monstrous Hearts didn't exactly end up being the delightful and atmospheric gothic horror reading experience I thought it was going to be. The concept has SO much potential, and I definitely feel sad I wasn't able to enjoy it better... But it is what it is I guess. I seem to be in the minority so far though, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt if you think this book is a good fit for you.