I received an eARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger warnings: family violence, gaslighting, and physical abuse
Representation
- half-Mexican/half-white MC (non-Spanish speaking)
- gay secondary character
Rating: 4.5 stars
Update: 12/12/20. I started the book as an audiobook until around 56%. I got distracted by the new Taylor Swift album and forgot my library hold expired yesterday... but I'm also really hooked and couldn't wait till I could borrow the book again, so I'm continuing to read it as an e-arc. Once I can borrow the audiobook again, I'll be relistening to the last 44% to make sure that anything significant I comment on hasn't changed.
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I started this audiobook simply hoping for a quick and easy read to help me out of my funk, but found myself quickly connecting and feeling for Clara. In some ways, it fits the beats of a supernatural monster-hunting book but it's also much more.
All These Monsters follows seventeen-year-old Clara. She is a half-white, half-Mexican who comes from a working class background and a dysfunctional home. Clara lives in an alternative timeline of Texas, where monsters called Scrabs began popping up around the world in the 2010. In a state that's never seen a Scrab attack, Clara has a more immediate danger: her father. When a chance to escape her abusive home by joining an international fight team against Scrabs, Clara takes it-- even though it may cost her life.
My favorite part of this story is undoubtedly the characters. Clara. Edan. Grayson. Madison. Julian. Lawrence. They're complex and compelling. Some are compassionate. Some are messy. Some are burdened by their past. Others by expectations-- their own and others. They surprised me. They made me cry.
There's a lot of satisfying and heartbreaking heart-to-heart moments. For example, I almost cried listening to the scene around 20% between Clara and Julian. It was simple but his decision made a big difference. I did cry at several other scenes towards the end of the book. One of the scenes with Madison and Clara around 80%. God, that scene broke me.
However, I also enjoyed that these were balanced out with monster-hunting action, sweet and wholesome moments, and humor to lighten the mood. The tone was mostly somber due to the serious topics it tackles, though, so I did have to pace my reading. It is not a book I recommend read in one sitting.
I have too many spoiler-y thoughts on the romance so I will only say this: Tintera is deliberate in what she includes and how she includes it.
The world-building is interesting but underdeveloped. It considers variations on how a monster infestation would affect people's lives, regional differences in monsters, and some geopolitical effects. There's still a lot of questions I have about scrabs, but at this point, I'm reading less for the monster killing and more for Clara and Team Seven.
My main criticism is the ableist language (e.g. stup*d, m*ron). These words were primarily used by Clara's parents or herself against her. I think it could have been possible to indicate the message of disdain and dislike for her without using these words. YA has made a lot of strides in being more inclusive, but more work still needs to be done regarding ableism.
Overall, I felt for this book more than I thought I would. I expected Monster Buster Club vibes and instead I got a story that made me tear up multiple times, get angry (for the characters), and cry twice. I kept stopping every few pages to highlight quotes, bookmark scenes, digest, and laugh. So yeah, I really liked this book.
I highly recommend this book, so long as you're aware of the trigger warnings and think you can handle it. It is heavy. It is raw. But it is worth the read.