Delicious Monsters

There was a lot of good in this book and a lot that I liked. Mostly, the story. It was consuming and I wanted to know what was happening. From the beginning, I immediately connected with Daisy. I wanted to know her story and her gift. Her curiosity of the mansion made me curious as well. Daisy was always helping her mom and she thought this was her way out. But as soon as Daisy stepped in the house, weird things happen. She sees so many ghosts and the house is supposed to be feeding on them but they aren't. Then after the Bed and Breakfast opens someone dies and weird things keep happening. As the story continues, secrets are exposed and I really liked how everything unfolded.

Daisy and Grace definitely were not the best pair. Daisy was so hard on herself and her depression was obvious. She was tired and just wanted to move on but she kept herself back. Her relationship with her mom, Grace, didn't help. I really liked how their relationship builds though but especially how Daisy comes into her own.

And this book would have been easily a good book for me if it wasn't for Brittney's chapters. I don't know what it is but every time her selected chapters happened, I was annoyed. I hated everything about her chapters. They were sparse to begin with and honestly this story would have been so much better if it was told from Daisy's point of view only. And it could have been easily done. I felt like Brittney's chapters just ruined so much of the book.

Overall, Delicious Monster by Liselle Sambury was a pretty good book. I really enjoyed the story and how it unfolded. I thought it was really well done and unfolded in such a great way. It was unique and had so much packed into it. The trauma and paranormal aspects were presented in a fantastic way. My biggest issue with this book was all of Brittney's chapters. I wish I skipped through them all, or that they just didn't exist. I think this book would have been so much stronger if it was just Daisy's story. However, if you can get over a couple of random chapters - I would recommend this book.

DELICIOUS MONSTERS is an enthralling YA horror/mystery. The story takes place in two timelines, 10 years apart. In the first, Daisy, a 17-year-old who can see the dead, lives in Toronto with her mother, Grace. She has just been dumped by her older boyfriend, Noah, and she is having a tough time coming to terms with their relationship. Her mother had always talked about what would happen when she inherits a large house from her former brother-in-law, who had been a kind of father figure for her.

When the notice comes, she and Daisy leave to go to the small town of Timmins, but though her mother inherited a mansion, they live in the bunkie out back and rent out the rooms of the fancier house through airbnb. When she forbids Daisy to enter the house, her curiosity is peaked. As the psychic neighbors and her absentee father also warn her away from the house, Daisy cannot help but wonder about its story and its dangerous and deadly past.

Ten years in the future, Brittney and her partner Jayden are working on their show about hauntings. They are young and were naïve when they received an offer to buy the rights to their show, working for a company that creates content - and won't allow them to do their proposed season theme of forgotten Black girls. Instead, they have a new idea that will allow them to focus on the same key story through a different topic, getting to the heart of what happened in Timmins with Grace and Daisy.

To add to the interest, Brittney's mother came back supposedly changed from her visit to the "Miracle Mansion," making money and a career off the book that she wrote about this transformation. The abuse Brittney suffered was tempered following, but she hates that everyone knows about her childhood and the way her mother holds everything over her head. By doing this story, she might be able to debunk the miracle place her mother treasures so much.

Told in alternating perspectives, this story builds from two directions to something dark, compelling, and pensively potent.

What I loved: This is quite the consuming story. The book slowly pulls the reader into both timelines and builds them over time in their own compelling ways. Both Daisy and Brittney have important stories to tell, and they complement each other while also presenting different characters fully. The themes of the story certainly merit discussion, and this would be a great pick for a book club or discussion group as a result. Themes include family issues particularly mother-daughter relationship complexities, child abuse/neglect/sexual assault and ripples of these in a life, the importance of creating and defining boundaries, control and power, prejudice and disparate treatment by race, gaslighting and emotional abuse, friendship, sacrifice, revenge, and healing.

Brittney and Daisy (as well as Grace) have been shaped by the challenges of their childhoods, and their relationships with their mothers are difficult and strained. They are coming to terms with the abuse they have faced and beginning to realize and create their own boundaries, albeit under different circumstances. While their mothers and situations are different, there are parallels that speak deeply to the important themes of the story.

Daisy and Brittney are both really compelling and complex characters that readers get to know deeply through their sections. While Daisy's sections compose the majority of the story, both characters really complete the story and make it something special. While Brittney's sections do focus on her work investigating Daisy's story, the reader also peeks inside her life, understanding her challenges and the ways she has developed into who she is. Other characters were also really intriguing, particularly King, Daisy's neighbor in Timmins, and Ivy, another neighbor that she meets.

This book has some really big twists that felt shocking, but they also made sense upon reflection. I was absolutely gripped by the stories, the mysteries, and the ways things change along the way. This was a really devastating, surprising, and ultimately satisfying story. The horror elements were just as strong as the mystery elements, and this was quite the fantastic read with supernatural elements and a gripping mystery that made it all the stronger for it.

Final verdict: Consuming, devastating, and dangerous, DELICIOUS MONSTERS is a masterful and gripping YA horror/mystery that will keep readers on their toes from start to finish. Highly recommend picking this up for fans of SADIE, THE BLACK QUEEN, and/or SMALL FAVORS - readers will not regret getting into this thought-provoking and compelling story!

What worked: This book had me hooked right at the beginning. I love a good ghostly story but this one is much more! Add a strong Black protagonist with an unwanted ability to see the dead. There's not one, but two stories that run parallel to each other with the hidden horrors both girls need to face.

Readers are first introduced to Brittney who is out to do a new season of her successful Haunted web series. Her plan is to pitch missing Black girls, especially on rumors of what happened in a mansion. Only Kevin, the leader of her company, nixes the idea as being a niche idea. Still, that doesn't stop her from going to investigate what happened ten years previously. Brittney is persistent, even when her controlling mother, who plays a part in the mystery, tries to threaten to cut her off financially.

Daisy's story is in the past which leads up to her going to a mansion that her mother inherited. In this case, Daisy sees dead people and there are lots of them in the mansion. But the story doesn't stop there. Something sinister and evil happened many years ago and not only the dead, but the very house doesn't want anyone to know about it.

Daisy's mother isn't truthful and no matter how much Daisy prods her, she only gets half-truths. I loved how the author digs deep into what happened to Daisy's mother and the horrible secret that not only affects her but Daisy too.

While with her mother, Daisy runs into a local girl named Ivy who isn't all she seems. Ivy has her own place in the mansion. Seems that some of the dead can not only possess someone but harm them as well. These scenes bring a whole different meaning to creepy.

Disturbing images of the secrets of the mansion had a POLTERGEIST and HAUNTING vibe. There's also mention of sexual abuse and the multigenerational trauma that occurs. How secrets and lies damage generations that follow.

More than once I was gasping with the twists and turns in this captivating and outright scary story!

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR meets POLTERGEIST with chilly, haunting consequences of others' actions and the courage of those who demand the truth even if it could cost their life. Highly recommend.