A solid, but flawed, start to a promising trilogy.

Joan was six years old when she told her grandmother she wanted to be Superman.

“You’re not a hero, Joan.” She bent her gray head confidingly. “You’re a monster.”

Ten years later, Joan’s life changes forever when she manifests her monster ability while on her way to a first date with her work crush, Nick.

Things spin out of control when she discovers that not only is Nick a legend among monsters, a monster slaying hero from monster fairy tales, but that her family has been killed and she is now on the run with a boy named Aaron Oliver, a member of a rival monster family that hates her own.

If you pick up this book expecting werewolves, vampires, and goblins, you’ll be disappointed. Monsters in this world look human, but all have a shared ability that harms humans to use. It’s not their appearance that makes a monster a monster; it’s what they can do.

This inaugural book to a new trilogy is a solid, if flawed, beginning to a new trilogy by Vanessa Len. I’m finding it difficult to describe the book without giving away too many spoilers, so let me try to simplify it to some basics:

Pros: Action, mystery, and an interesting concept.

Cons: Character development is lacking, romance elements are also underdeveloped, some mechanics of monster powers unexplained.

The cons aren’t deal-breakers: since this is the first book of a trilogy, there is opportunity to correct all of these in the future installments. But, for example, Aaron Oliver has many hints at greater depth, but those hints are left as mysteries as yet to be fully revealed, leaving him all to often being the stereotypical “hot but broody spoiled rich kid.” I wish a little more had been revealed in THIS book, but at least there is promise for more development to his character in the future.

The monster subculture is intriguing, with rival monster families and a Monster Court that the reader begins to learn about with Joan through the course of the book. There are elements to explore on the moral aspects of monster powers and what it means to be a hero or monster.

All in all, while I liked the book and enjoyed it, I can’t say I LOVED the book. On the other hand, there is room for the remaining books to improve on the first book’s flaws and I could find myself loving the trilogy as a whole when it’s done. I’d certainly be willing to recommend it to someone I thought would enjoy the concept.