Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!
This was such a great November read! It was a dark fairytale with beautiful writing that was spooky, fantastical, and overall a story about the relationships we have. I really enjoyed this and will be looking forward to more books from this author! I enjoyed the multiple POVs and different timelines. Add this to your TBR!

It’s an old story, isn’t it? Given new life each time it is told.

I think this line, about 80% of the way through the book, really gets to the core of what it’s about. We Shall Be Monsters feels very like you’re reading a fairytale you know by heart. That is not to say that it isn’t original, but that’s something about it feels incredibly familiar.

If I were to compare it to other media, I would say it made me feel like I was watching Jim Henson‘s Labyrinth or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina or maybe both at the same time.

The writing is beautiful and sad. This story of generational trauma, the diminishment of female desire and agency, and the nature of monstrousness is both highly timely but also woven throughout history.

A very contained story truly only including a few characters total that have speaking roles. It takes place on the edges of our real world, and makes for a combination of hope that there is magic in our world at the same time warning us that it may not be what we expect. Remove all expectations and enjoy the ride.

Another book to add to my list of "books that surprised me." Giving this one a 4 out of 5. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

We Shall Be Monsters follows three generations of women who each have a deep connection to the magic woods that is behind their house. The world building and mythos in this world absolutely drew me in, but as a whole the characters left me falling flat. Gemma reads as exceedingly young emotionally, but then somehow makes all these mature, world-influencing decisions that felt a bit jarring. The Grandmother also plays a deceptively important role in the story, and tbh I will be keeping my eye out for a spin off telling her story.

While categorized as an adult fantasy, the pacing felt more along the lines of a YA, which is fine, but there were times when I wish certain scenes would be expanded on more. There is a lot of potential here, and I feel like the story dug into those first few layers.

I truly enjoyed reading this book and it was such a unique fairytale. I loved this mother and daughter duo, and this story truly shows you how far a mother would go to protect their children. The world building and writing style was beautiful and I would love to read more books from this author. Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read an early copy of this book!

Thank you NetGalley, Random House (Del Rey), and Alyssa Wees for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is stunning! The writing is absolutely enchanting, like one long ballad straight from Alyssa Wees’ soul. There are so many quotable sentences in this book, I found myself highlighting on almost every page. It can get sort of tacky at times, but you really have to appreciate and understand the fairytale writing style that Wees manages to pull off with flying colors. It is a dark fairytale with a modern twist- a narrative of the magical and the mundane, of wickedness and beauty, of heroes and monsters. Wees weaves together an intricate web of
complex characters into an amazing story.

The book follows Gemma and her mother Virginia through alternating perspectives, telling the readers a tale that spans generations. At some points it was a little confusing because their stories were so similar, but the parallels between Gemma and her mother made for a great lesson of just how little you can control the fate of your loved ones.

“And it’s terrible, isn’t it? We try so hard to save each other when really we’re doomed from the start.”

A mother can warn her daughter of the dangers of the forest, but someone never really believes something until they see it for themselves. Clarice used fear to control her daughter, but Virginia still went anyway; Virginia, not wanting the same fate for her child, used magic to erase her daughter’s memories, but Gemma still kept going back. The forest was a part of them, no matter how hard they tried to stay away.

I honestly enjoyed Virginia’s story a lot more than Gemma’s. I adored Virginia and Ash’s love story. The truth is revealed to us bit by bit, and I kept trying to guess what was going to happen and the story kept surprising me. The climax had me at the edge of my seat- such a satisfying and thrilling way to play out! A happy fairytale ending, leaving us with just a little bit of terror to sit with after closing the book. By the end we question if there really are such things as heroes and monsters- that maybe they are really just one in the same. Where does a hero end and a monster begin?

Definitely a book I will have to read a second time (and this is something I rarely do, so this is saying a lot)! I will be purchasing a physical copy when they are released. Congrats to the author on their third book! Your imagination is phenomenal.

This was thoroughly enjoyable. It was nice watching the stories slowly fill in between both Virginia and Gemma. In the end it really become a question of what makes a monster and that maybe we all are a little monstrous. I wasn’t prepared for the wreckage the Hunting Beasts story would have on me especially in these turbulent times but it so much more impactful because of it. Everything was concluded without feeling like it was rushed or hastily thrown together. My only real critique was that Gemma more often than not read as a character much younger than 15 even after the time skip. There was not a growth between pre mother and post mother. Otherwise I throughly enjoyed it and will recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Ray Publishing for this ARC! This story was about a mother (Virginia) and daughter (Gemma) who live on the edge of these woods, which contain numerous magical creatures, both friendly and "monster". An evil witch steals Virginia away due to a curse placed on her and her love many years ago, and Gemma must go on a quest in the woods in order to find her mother and break the curse. The book was giving Coraline and Starling House vibes, with a family dynamic relationship a bit like Gilmore Girls between the daughter, mother and grandmother.

I had mixed feelings about this book; ultimately, I do think there were aspects that were done very well, but I just don't think it was entirely for me. The fantastical elements were very interesting and nothing like I have ever read before, and the whole story line with the Slit Witch was super well done, and she was a character that was very easy to hate, which is what I look for in a villain. The plot did keep me engaged, and I did like the dual POV of Gemma and Virginia. Where I think this book fell a little flat for me was that the way that the narrative was written, in sort of a storybook fashion, I did not feel fully engaged with the characters. It felt like there was a bit of a wall between being able to fully feel the emotions of the characters, because of the sort of distanced view of their stories by the author, especially in moments where there was tragedy, such as the ending scenes with the wolf and with her mother. Interestingly enough, the character I felt the most emotion for was Ashe, as I felt with him his guilt for what could have been if their circumstances had been different, and that he missed out on his daughter growing up. The chronology was also a bit hard to follow in some places, especially in Virginia's chapters, so I found myself either having to re-read certain sections, or just roll with the punches and hope that I would understand it later. And like I said, this may just be a me problem, and perhaps we were not the best fit, but there were points that I struggled a bit. I am curious if there will be any sequels, as the book was left sort of open ended with loose ends not entirely tied up the the fairy prince and Gemma's relationship, but I could just as easily see this being a standalone. Overall, I did enjoy the book, and I do think it has a great storyline, and I can see why others who read it rated it so high.

We Shall Be Monsters Book Review

This book was given to me as an ARC read. As always, all opinions are 100% mine and I was not paid for this review. Imagine having a weird Grimm’s Faerie Tales- themed dream, complete with an evil witch and a beast. That’s exactly what reading this book is like. On the positive side, it is unlike any book I’ve ever read. It is imaginative and creative. The POV shifts back and forth between a teen/tween girl and her thirty-something mother. (Thank goodness, because I just couldn’t take another nineteen year old heroine.) The young girl is actually the savior of the story and proves that everything is figure-outable. As the mother of a teenage daughter, I love the multi-generational story about the bonds between girls and their moms. However, I felt that the characters were underdeveloped and I just wasn’t excited to come back to the story each day. I would give this 3.5 stars for creativity of story.

This was an interesting fun little gothic fairytale. I really liked the dual narrative and timelines. I liked the similarities in Virigina’s and Gemma’s Lines and likes how thoughtful Gemma was especially given how young she is. I would have loved to have gotten Ash’s POV as well. His and Gigi’s story was fun and heartfelt I would have loved to see even more of it. I love the take on fairies and the forest. I also loved the Hunting Beast and Slith Witch mythology they were both fun characters and i would have loved to seen even more of their backstory as well.

My final rating of this novel is 3.5/5 stars, to no fault of the novel itself. I simply do not think I was the right audience for this voice. The story was engaging, but I had trouble with the way the story was told. That being said, it was a very engaging novel, and I appreciated the twists and turns Gemma faced as she traveled through the forest to save her mother. The ending is happy, even if it isn't the perfect cottage life Virginia wanted. By the end, Gemma was someone I wanted to read more of. She became a character I could see countless scenes of. She was vivid and bright. I would only caution interested readers that this story does discuss childbirth and pregnancy in some detail.

Ah, this book! This is the dark forest, fairy-tale book I’ve been waiting for. One of my least favorite tropes is parents (or adults) keeping something from children to “protect” them, but this was done so, so well, comparing the two mother-daughter relationships.

The two storylines were equally interesting and the forest was delightfully creepy in both: I loved how the author painted our concept of monsters. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an e ARC.

4/5✨

We Shall Be Monsters

📖 via E Arc

I’d like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy before release.

There’s fairies, witches, and handsome princes. It’s like all the lost things merged with the seelie and unseelie kingdoms in nutcracker.

We’ve got a magical quest and monsters to be slain, but the real magic in this book is are the themes of motherhood, family, and what it truly means to be a monster. What’s more captivating than that?

Thank you to NetGalley, Del Ray, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This story initially put me off a bit because it is told from alternating views of a mother and her young teenage daughter, which is not at all my preference for character ages. However, I was very impressed with how engaging the book was and how interesting and relatable each of the characters were despite my bias against them.

The story follows a young girl who approaches the woods outside her home, which she finds to be magical and filled with the unknown. As she returns home, her mother steals her memories of the woods before bed with an enchanted hairbrush, hoping to keep her safe from the monsters and evil that lie within the woods.

You quickly start to get some backstory from the mom’s point of view, learning about her childhood in the woods and how her mother suddenly forbid them from ever entering again, instilling a deep fear of the monsters that reside there. As you learn about the mom’s past, the daughter ends up witnessing her mother being kidnapped by a witch from the forest and a shadow type beast takes on her mother’s form to continue raising her.

The story really starts at this point, as the daughter learns of a curse her mother was trying to break on a monster in the woods, and therefore the daughter ventures into the woods to save her mom.

There is a lot to this story and really intriguing mysteries about who the characters in the woods are, how magic works, who the monster her mother loves is, and who the witch that stole her is. It kept me guessing until the end, and the experiences the daughter goes through to find her mom are both whimsical and dangerous in equal parts. The magic and characters and just enough disturbing, intriguing, and fascinating that it captured my attention well throughout. The only thing I would have liked is more character development for everyone in the book, but given the length that would have been challenging.

Overall this is a solid 4/5 stars for me, and I highly recommend it!

This book is such an interesting concept and the execution is flawless. I love Gemma and Virginia as characters and the writing style is beyond immersive. Having grown up in Michigan on the edge of a wooded area, it's so easy for me to imagine the settings that Wees describes. The woods can be a very scary place for a child, but it's the things that hide in the woods that you should be especially afraid of. I'm excited to check out this author's other works and can't wait to see what else she comes up with, because this book is genius.

Some of my favorite fantasy tropes include fairies (or fey equivalent) and woods that may or may not be friendly. Novik’s Uprooted and Spinning Silver come to mind, as well as Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning, which is why I was drawn to the new Alyssa Wees novel, We Shall Be Monsters.

We Shall Be Monsters had fairies, monsters, and an antique shop wrapped up in a story about mothers and daughters and the three generations that have lived next to and seen the good as well as the worst the nearby woods have to offer. Oh, and the breaking of curses and the unraveling of long held secrets. So when the synopsis called this book a “dark, lyrical fantasy,” that description is accurate. We Shall Be Monsters has its whimsical and magical moments, but it was, at its heart, a darker story that, at times, felt much closer to horror. The woods were eerie, dangerous, and inhabited by fairies and other creatures, some friendly, some who offered dubious ties, or even those that were entirely driven by appetite or greed. There was also imagery of body related horror. However, those aspects worked well, since part of what the book tackled overall was the question of what truly makes a monster; and explored the divide between a hero and a killer. The characters made mistakes and payed for them, but they also learned from them. In that regard, We Shall Be Monsters is a nuanced story, and the characters that inhabited the pages were just as complicated.

Generally, I liked how Wees handled the viewpoints. It was first person, but Gemma and her mother, Virginia, each had quirks in the way they were written, which made it easy to tell them apart.

Gemma, like her mother and grandmother before her, was fascinated by the woods and didn’t recognize the danger posed by it, before she was confronted with the truth and tasked with a dangerous quest. Virginia was stuck in the past, figuratively and literally. Her history had everything to do with the issues that arose in the current timeline of the book, affecting not only her, but her daughter as well.

We Shall Be Monsters was, at the end of the day, right up my alley, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a dark fantasy story.

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Del Rey) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

A very atmospheric and dark fantasy tale. Loved the mother and daughter dynamic. I didn’t love the modern setting, but that is a personal preference.

3.5 stars, closing in on 4.

Undoubtably beautifully written, this books veers toward the maudlin and overly sentimental at times. Wees blends folklore and fairytale with bigger concepts of motherhood and the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters. Structurally, the pacing of the book is uneven and a bit irritating at times, but she really does her best when she allows herself to really reflect on the complicated themes of motherhood.

Gothic and fantastical, We Shall Be Monsters is a dark fairy tale reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm set in the modern world. The writing is lyrical and atmospheric, weaving together two interlocking narratives of a mother and daughter in a story that is fun and heartfelt.

The story starts with Gemma, a young girl living alone with her mother in an antique shop. Next to the store is the woods. There is one rule that Gemma must not break: do not travel alone into the forest. However, as most children do when curious, she adventures through the trees regardless of the warnings.

Virginia, Gemma’s mother, has reason to fear the wood. Once, when she was young, she too was warned to stay away from the forest. Like her daughter, she did not listen. An evil witch placed a spell upon her love, forcing them apart. To save him, Virginia is tasked with finding a magic mirror before Gemma’s 15th birthday. As the years pass, Virginia becomes more desperate to protect her daughter from the threat of the Slit Witch, going so far as steal Gemma’s memories.

Only, one day Gemma goes too far. The witch returns, taking Virginia with her. Now it’s up to Gemma to discover the mystery, free her mother, and lift the curse upon her family before her time runs out and she turns 15.

This is a story about family and the bond between mother and daughter. It leaves you asking the question, “What would you do to protect those you love?” But in order to do that, you must also ask yourself, “What is it that makes a monster?” Good and bad is not always black and white. Sometimes the worst actions are done with the best intentions.

Overall l, I enjoyed the book. It was beautifully written, and the story tackles some very complicated themes. I don’t always love dual POVs that alternate past and present, but I understand why the author chose that style.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you like dark fairy tale stories with a touch of horror, then you need to pick this one up. The writing was so atmospheric and made you feel like you were actually in the mysterious woods. This story blended a mother-daughter (-grandmother) relationship with a dark, secretive, alluring woods full of witches, fae, and monsters. There are curses to be broken and searches for magical items.

You get two POVs - Gemma, a 12-15 yo girl (as the story progresses) and her mother Virginia. They both have quests of their own to accomplish revolving around the dark woods near their home. Gemma has such growth and maturity through this book, even for a young girl. I honestly love how unsettling the ending was.

Absolutely recommend this book if you like fantasy with a sprinkle of horror!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was such a haunting, reflective book set in a mystical world. I loved every page, and was glad to see we got both Gemma and Virginias POVs.