This book was just ok for me. I could not get into it at all. Read it and judge for yourself, but I did not enjoy it.

I was drawn to this book by its cover—something about the simplicity of a butterfly and the title made it irresistible. Now that I’ve finished, I’m left with a lingering curiosity about blue butterflies and the intricacies of Milanese families.

The audiobook narration was a standout, with Luca John Filiz and Tina Nakhleh Fallenburh, delivering accents that added richness to the experience. Their performance made the shifts between timelines even more engaging. Speaking of which, I loved the interplay between the protagonist’s real life and the manuscript’s unfolding story. It took me a moment to grasp what was happening, but once I did, I was hooked.

This is a book that invites reflection, and I’m still sitting with its questions. If you enjoy Gothic Horror, Inherited Legacies, Exploration of Obsessions and Unsettling Settings, this one is worth a read (or a listen).

Thank you to Harlequin Audio for the eALC and the opportunity to review this!

Well this was an amazing dark thriller about family crossing the lines. How far would you go for internal life. Like I always say family will either lift you up or bring you down. Now I understand why when he read the book it was dedicated to him. This was a very interesting story twist and turns. Definitely worth the journey.

This was not my favorite. It was too slow and had too many stories connecting. I had to play it at a higher speed to keep my interest which caused the accents to sound strange. I would have preferred it if there was more horror and a quicker pace.

Alright, imagine if Daphne du Maurier shagged a Turkish bloke, and their weird little spawn grew up snorting Guillermo del Toro flicks and sobbing over melodramatic metaphors—that’s Yiğit Turhan, the mad bastard behind Their Monstrous Hearts. Turhan cannonballed into the deep end of gothic horror, splashed around in a Milanese butterfly shit-show, and crawled back with a novel so drenched in rot, longing, and the odd maggot of family fuckery that it’s practically dripping off the pages.

Let’s crack this creepy fucker open.

Turhan’s a Turkish lad scribbling in English—no picnic, especially when you’re juggling a genre as wordy and wobbly as gothic horror. Their Monstrous Hearts is a bloody maximalist fever dream, a moodboard of decay, legacy, and body horror that’d make your nan clutch her pearls. Doing this in a second language? That’s like juggling Fabergé eggs blindfolded while a tornado tries to nick your knickers. This is his first English novel, but the cocky swagger of it screams “I’ve been festering this nightmare in my guts for years.” And now he’s hacked it out and plonked it on the table like a rancid roast for us to gawp at—or leg it from.

Meet Riccardo, our mopey little shit of a protagonist—a 20-year-old writer with no cash, no future, and a creative block thicker than a Milanese fogbank. Things perk up when some cryptic geezer rocks up to say his estranged granny, Perihan, has kicked the bucket, leaving him her crumbling villa and—because this ain’t a fucking Zillow listing—her legendary butterfly stash. But when Riccardo rolls into Milan, the joint’s a cesspit of secrets and bad juju. Those butterflies? Not just fancy wallpaper—they’re flapping around like glittery harbingers of doom. Up in the attic, granny’s manuscript (or diary, depending on who’s yapping) spills the beans, slowly peeling back family secrets.

The story flip-flops between Riccardo’s now and Perihan’s then, through her scribbled ramblings. It builds tension slower than a sloth on Valium—until the last act goes full walrus, erupting in a grotesque shitstorm of body horror, moral implosion, and bug-winged symbolism. Picture Crimson Peak, but it climaxes in a cocoon woven from human ego and a metric ton of “oh fuck, I regret everything.”

Now, let’s address the elephant-sized butterflies in the room.

These winged wankers are everywhere in Their Monstrous Hearts—life cycles, transformation, beauty hiding a steaming pile of grotesque. Turhan squeezes these fluttery fuckers dry, milking every metaphor ’til they’re wheezing. In a tale this soaked in decay and change, it fits well, but the metaphor is certainly beaten to death by the end. At its rotten core, this book’s about legacy—the gnarly baggage of familial screw-ups we inherit. It’s about chasing immortality—through kids, art, or some mythic bullshit—and how beauty and monstrosity are closer than a butterfly’s arse to its wings.

The manuscript-in-a-novel trick is a nice touch—Perihan’s tale seeps into Riccardo’s world, hinting that obsession’s just trauma with better PR. There’s Turkish myth, eco-nightmares, and queer vibes sprinkled in, each a fresh pair of specs to ogle the monstrous through.

It’s clever. Maybe too clever for its own rickety bones.

Turhan’s prose is lush and poetic. It’s like scarfing rosewater cake while a creep murmurs death chants in your ear. His sentences are metaphor-drunk and alliteration-obsessed—sometimes they soar, sometimes they faceplant. Love it or hate it, it’s got a dreamy, witchy vibe. This ain’t a beach read. It demands you sit your ass down, sweat a bit, and pay attention. Skim it, and you’re screwed.

Strengths:
- Atmosphere, you glorious bastard. Turhan stacks dread like a deranged bricklayer. That villa’s practically alive, groaning under secrets and fungal funk.
- A finale that’ll haunt your nightmares. The last 15% is a horrific butterfly orgy—narrative shedding its skin and swinging haymakers.
- Big, ballsy themes. This ain’t just spooky vibes—Turhan’s got shit to say about legacy, grief, and how beauty rots if you lock it up too long.

Critiques:
- Pacing slower than a tectonic plate on a pub crawl. The horror teases, dawdles, then smacks you with a dead bug. Want fast scares? Piss off. While the payoff is glorious, we could have been given some more meat in the first 85% of the novel.
- Metaphor overload. Ya know, sometimes a butterfly’s just a butterfly—not a stand-in for loss, change, and your uncle’s colonial guilt trip.

Their Monstrous Hearts is a haunted greenhouse of a book—fancy, gorgeous, and crawling with nasty little shits that bite. It’s a debut that’s dense, gutsy, and doesn’t apologise for taking its sweet time. Turhan’s chewing on hefty ideas and letting them wriggle—and he mostly nails it.

It’s not flawless. Sometimes it’s barely hanging together. But it’s bold as brass—gothic horror with teeth, guts, and a brain. We need more of that. Just… maybe next time, chuck in some narrative Red Bull to keep the bastards moving.

Loved this book it was an old school type of horror on the macabre side. It is about a young man named Riccardo who is a destitute writer. He is in his last coin when a man comes to him and tells him his grandmother has passed.

The man gives Riccardo a ticket to Milan to collect his inheritance. Riccardo has nothing to lose so he heads to his grandmother’s. He finds her manuscript and finds out grandma was doing things grandma shouldn’t be doing. The ending was unexpected yet also I kinda expected it

I had trouble following this one along at first, and I’m not sure if it was because I was just listening on audio (the narration moved back and forth between present and the past via a journal), or if we’re supposed to be confused by what’s going on the same way the main character is.
Because as we got towards the end, it suddenly made sense and WOW that ending is vicious. In short, the main character moves to his recently deceased grandma’s house in Italy, because she left him her butterflies.
This goes from a tale of a sweet grandma who maybe cared for her grandson more than he realized, to a surprise revelation of just what kind of character the grandmother was. There’s also all the suspicious staff of the house, and as he’s reading the journal his grandma wrote, it’s in such detail he mistakens in for a fantasy novel mixed with real life. Because there’s no way… right?

My confusion was going to lead me to give a lower rating, but that ending redeemed it in my opinion and I was like wait that’s kind of brilliant.

Thank you Harlequin Audio for the listen!

The audio for this book was phenomenal! I loved the narrator's voices and how well they were able to portray the emotions of the characters.
While I loved the narrators, I thought the story was OKAY. The plot was incredibly interesting and something so very different from anything else I'd ever read, I was hoping for a bit more in the gruesome department. Overall though, I highly recommend this audiobook/book!

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for the audio version of Their Monstrous Hearts. This was super dark and gothic, but such a good audio. I would prefer listening to this again verses reading the actual book. The narration was done very well.

Riccardo is a struggling writer having a hard time making ends meet. He gets a knock on his door and is informed that his Grandmother Perihan has passed away and he, being her sole living kin besides his estranged mother, has inherited her estate in Italy. He goes there with every intention to just attend the funeral, but when he discovers a book of writing by Perihan, he gets sucked in. This must be some kind of fictitious manuscript, as there is no way what Perihan writes about can possibly be true. We jump back and forth between present day Riccardo and Perihan's past via her writing. It's a very slow burn for the first roughly 75%, but when it picks it, it gets really good! I didn't know exactly where it was going to take us, and the overarching concept and twists were utterly disturbing and delightful! So ultimately it leads to a great last 25%, but you have to get there. I don't want to make any comments on the last 25% because spoiling it would be a real disservice to future readers. But you'll never look at butterflies the same and the selfishness and horror at the hands of family members can be beyond belief! I think that idea is something that some people can relate to. I have never written a book, and I cannot imagine that it's easy. This is Turhan's first book and I think it's clear that he's more than capable of delivering dark and disturbing stories (which I am totally here for.) I do wish I was made to be more invested in the buildup. I would advise readers to allow themselves to get to the end because it is worth it! I wish there was a 3.5 star option, but because there isn't, I'm landing on 3. Gorgeous cover! And I'd say a good debut!

Thank you to NetGalley, MIRA books and Harlequin Audio for the audio ARC!
Book releases April 8th, 2025.

I had to unfortunately DNF this at 56% as this book was unfortunately not working for me. A few parts of the writing was a bit clunky in its prose, but the story wasn’t drawing me in enough for it to not be noticeable. I never connected with the main character or cared what he thought, and found his grandmother’s parts a bit tedious to get through. I also realize that there might be an explanation by the end of this novel, but as it is I simply couldn’t get into the grandmother’s characterization or the insistence that a monarch butterfly acting strange was something of divine origins. Perhaps at some point I will come back to this story and see if I can at least finish to find out the reasoning for everything that’s happened in the book.

I read the majority of this book through audiobook, and didn’t find either narrator to be a terribly bad fit. I did find the way the man voicing the main character occasionally emphasized an accent while speaking to, at times, make it a bit difficult to pay attention (and, while no fault of either, both speakers spoke at slightly different paces so I had to adjust the speed I was listening every time they switched) but overall I don’t believe either contributed to the fact that I felt uninvested in this story.

Perhaps if I eventually try reading this physically, I might be able to avoid the clunky “tell in absurd detail everything that is going on” prose. This book absolutely has potential, however, and I think that once the writing is no longer a barrier I would enjoy it a great deal more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for providing this e-ALC.

I am voluntarily leaving my honest opinion of this book.

What a twist!

This book starts out so slow that I almost DNF'd it. I am glad that I held out. It follows 20-year-old failing author Riccardo as he heads to Milan to bury his estranged grandmother, Perihan. Once he arrives at the home he has now inherited, he finds things to be a bit off. Acquiring a journal his grandmother wrote, he discovers some disturbing family secrets and becomes a piece in a game he wants no part of.

The first few chapters of this book are painfully slow, but once it gets going, it moves at a decent enough pace for the story, with the last two to three chapters moving at breakneck speeds. I am glad I had the privilege of receiving both the e-book and audio versions. If I only had the ebook, the DNF bug would have won, and I would have missed out on a good time. This ended up being quite creepy and left me with my mouth agape.

Luca John Filiz and Tina Nakhleh Falkenbury did a good job narrating this story and bringing the characters to life. Their voices were so relaxing that I had to really focus to avoid drifting off.

Thank you to Netgalley, Harlequin Audio, and Yigit Turhan for the ability to listen to the ALC of this book

Unfortunately I found this to be so slow and boring. I had to DNF pretty early on because I just could not stay engaged. I appreciate the advance copy!

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of Their Monstrous Hearts by Yigit Turhan in exchange for an honest review. I am very impressed by this book. My first book by Turhan and I was thrown for a loop. It begins with a young, broke writer who is offered a trip to his grandmother's funeral. He finds a book addressed to him, written by his grandmother and delves into a strange, new world. From there, the story continues to twist along. This story kept my attention through the whole book.

This story took me on the adventure of a struggling author named Ricardo who is summoned back home due to his grandmother's death. Once he arrives, strange things start unfolding and twisting to the truth behind his grandmother.
This story swaps povs between Ricardo in the present and his grandmother in the past. I really enjoyed the dual point of view but I leaned heavily towards the grandmother's side of the story because it was much more intriguing to see what was going to happen on her side.
While the story took a bit to take off for me, the entire book had me wondering what could happen next or what the possible ending could even be. The concepts surrounding this story and ideas just blew me away. And the ending definitely hit me off guard which is my favorite! For a debut novel, this was amazing!

The premise for this was great and I had such high hopes for this novel. It is a gothic horror about how far someone will go to protect their life and proves once again that humans are the real monsters. Unfortunately, for me, this just fell flat. I found it painfully slow and rather boring. It didn't pick up until the last 20% or so, and even then it was still boring. From the beginning you could tell that the people in Ricardo's grandmothers house were not good people and hiding something but even the reveal wasn't that exciting.

I really wanted to like Their Monstrous Hearts, but unfortunately, I had to DNF it at the 50% mark. I was listening to the audiobook, and honestly, it was hard to stay engaged. The story is just super slow, and I found myself zoning out a lot. It didn’t help that the pacing felt really dragged out, and nothing really grabbed me.

The premise seemed intriguing at first, but it just didn’t hold my attention. The plot felt like it was going nowhere, and the characters weren’t interesting enough to keep me invested. I need something that pulls me in, and this one just didn’t do it for me.

I can see how this book might work for some people who enjoy slower-paced, more atmospheric stories, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for. Maybe it gets better, but after 50%, I wasn’t feeling it and just couldn’t keep going.

Overall, Their Monstrous Hearts wasn’t for me.

"Their Monstrous Hearts" is a hypnotic gothic horror novel that unravels like a fever dream—haunting, atmospheric, and deeply unsettling. A story of ambition, legacy, and the terrifying price of keeping dreams alive, it lures readers into a world where the past refuses to stay buried.

When struggling writer Riccardo inherits his grandmother Perihan’s crumbling Milanese villa and her famed butterfly collection, he hopes for a fresh start. Instead, he finds a decaying estate filled with eerie relics, a circle of enigmatic old friends who seem to know more than they let on, and a greenhouse that harbors something deeply wrong. As he delves into Perihan’s diary, searching for inspiration—or perhaps just survival—the line between art and obsession, past and present, life and death begins to blur in the most disturbing ways.

Turhan’s prose is lush and immersive, painting a world that feels both intoxicating and oppressive. The creeping horror builds slowly, with unsettling imagery and psychological dread that lingers long after the last page. At times, the novel leans heavily into its dreamlike, disorienting atmosphere, which may leave some readers craving more clarity. However, for those who love gothic horror drenched in mystery and macabre beauty, "Their Monstrous Hearts" is an unforgettable descent into darkness. 4 star read.

This book wasn’t for me BUT that said it was well written and flowed nicely. I simply just didn’t connect with the content and found the mixed timeline harder to follow because of this.

Yiğit Turhan's horror novel, THEIR MONSTROUS HEARTS, has been on my TBR for months, so I was very excited to be given the opportunity to read this one early! This book dives into family, grief, and trauma while infusing horror throughout.

When Riccardo, a struggling writer on the brink of eviction, learns that his grandmother Perihan has died and left him her villa in Milan—along with her famed butterfly collection—he leaves without hesitation, hoping for a fresh start. However, the once-lavish estate has decayed, the butterflies seem eerie rather than beautiful, and Perihan’s old friends linger with unsettling presence. As Riccardo uncovers her diary and the secrets hidden within the house, he finds himself entangled in a haunting mystery that may either inspire his next novel—or cost him his life.

THEIR MONSTROUS HEARTS is one of the most unique books I’ve read, blending genre, narration, and plot into a gothic story that builds toward an excellent twist. While the slow burn is INTENSSEEEEEE, the rich Turkish cultural elements, haunting butterfly imagery, and exploration of true monstrosity (ba dum tss!) make the journey worthwhile. The audiobook kept me engaged (not sure if I would've been able to power through the physical copy), and if you enjoy horror with a powerful, unexpected twist, this is a must-read!