anna_ealasaid reviewed Monstrous Heart by Claire McKenna
Review of 'Monstrous Heart' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This felt a bit like Philip Pullman or Leigh Bardugo for grown-ups by the sea, with some steampunky magical technology, 19th-century-like social mores, rigid hierarchies and a sinister organisation pulling the strings - though maybe not as successfully as they'd like you to think. Subtle worldbuilding that unfolds throughout the book - just how I like it. At times the info-dumping McKenna has scrimped on re the worldbuilding is overused for moving on the plot, in a kind of video-game-like manner that really bothers me in books hinging on mystery, and althought the latter part of the book is so much more fastpaced, I kind of missed the slowburn build up of dread there is at the beginning. The romance is overblown but in a good way (the promo blurb mentions Outlander, and although I'm not a fan of that particular kind of writing something in this touched the Buffy/Angel …
This felt a bit like Philip Pullman or Leigh Bardugo for grown-ups by the sea, with some steampunky magical technology, 19th-century-like social mores, rigid hierarchies and a sinister organisation pulling the strings - though maybe not as successfully as they'd like you to think. Subtle worldbuilding that unfolds throughout the book - just how I like it. At times the info-dumping McKenna has scrimped on re the worldbuilding is overused for moving on the plot, in a kind of video-game-like manner that really bothers me in books hinging on mystery, and althought the latter part of the book is so much more fastpaced, I kind of missed the slowburn build up of dread there is at the beginning. The romance is overblown but in a good way (the promo blurb mentions Outlander, and although I'm not a fan of that particular kind of writing something in this touched the Buffy/Angel teenage depths of my soul). Some of the more over-the-top torturing your heroes parts reminded me of Robin Hobb - i.e. I could do without it, but I'm invested enough to keep reading anyway. The characters are suitably likeable, unfuriating and loathable, but my favourite part was the maritime backwater setting and how it is evoked. Although it's not perfect, I think this is worthy of re-reading, getting a physical copy for the gorgeous cover-art, and long for the next installments.