Monsters Born & Made by Tanvi Berwah [Book Review]

How many books are on your Netgalley shelf, my friends? Netgalley has, unfortunately for my TBR, become somewhat of an obsession. I receive emails from them constantly, and only rarely am I able to ignore a book they recommend. Monsters Born and Made is one of those books for me. I received an email, absolutely ADORED the cover, and thought the premise looked interesting.

I’m so glad I was right!

Small note: I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but I tend to refer to the authors by their first name. I do this for 2 reasons: one, so that it helps my reviews feel a little less formal, which is something I prefer. And two, so that you know who I’m talking about, and I don’t have to constantly say “the author.” I feel like this makes for an easier and more fun reading experience.

Ok, note over. Back to my review…

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Synopsis

Monsters Born and Made is a fantasy book set in a series of islands. Each island has its own government, with a central standard for each group of people. Our main character lives on one of the islands, and is a Hunter.

Hunters are inherited titles, because they require training and skill beyond normal everyday life. Hunters are required to go into the ocean and hunt the Maristag; these are VERY dangerous creatures, that are not only poisonous, but absolutely deadly. One bite, and your chances of surviving drop dramatically.

Koral and her brother are the two main hunters for their family. They are required to catch these deadly creatures, and then train them, similar to horse training, for a race that happens every 4-5 years or so. The winner of this race is given enough gold to allow a comfortable lifestyle for the rest of their lives, yet only the higher caste people are allowed to participate in the race.

When Koral’s brother ends up almost dying during their last hunt of the season, losing the animal in the process, Koral is left with the knowledge that their year, for the entire family, is going to be a lean one. Even the black market has basically blacklisted them, so everyone in Koral’s family is probably going to starve.

Add onto this, that Koral has a little sister who is very sick and requires expensive medicine every day. It sounds similar to asthma. When the local pharmacist refuses Liria’s medicine, and Koral doesn’t have any maristags to train or sell, she’s left with very few options: Get married, or compete in the Glory Race.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy of (book) in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Thoughts

I absolutely loved Monsters Born and Made! I will admit, the story started out a little slow, but not in the “there isn’t anything going on” type way. I jumped immediately into the ocean with Koral and her brother, and get attacked by a maristag. I haven’t been introduced to what a maristag is, or anything about the world, so in the beginning I was a little confused and overwhelmed. This doesn’t mean the story was bad, just that it took a bit for me to get going.

Once the story got going, however, it became almost impossible to put down. I think I read it in just a couple of days.

World Building

HOLY COW, you guys. This world sounds incredibly dangerous, and absolutely gorgeous at the same time. The details that Tanvi has created to make the world feel real are incredible. For example, The lower caste people have to live on the surface, but despite acclimating to the sun, they still require special sunscreen in order to be out in daylight.

Koral and her brother, Emrick, are also described as having tattoos on their faces, which seem to be maybe sun-related? Monsters Born and Made doesn’t describe them as having to go somewhere to get the tattoos, just that they sort of show up. The small details like this give the world a wonderful depth that I love to see in fantasy books.

Genre Choices

What’s funny, is Monsters Born and Made isn’t listed as a fantasy book on Amazon, but that’s precisely the genre I would put it in. I don’t really agree with Adventure, simply because Koral doesn’t leave the island. She doesn’t go on a trip to find her purpose or anything.

I made the mistake of going on Goodreads and reading some reviews from other readers, and I have to say, the comparison to Hunger Games didn’t seem quite fair. Mostly because the reviews made it sound like Monsters Born and Made  is a ripoff of The Hunger Games, and I don’t agree that it is. I saw a few similarities, but really only in the tropes the author chose, so I don’t feel like the complaints should be specific to this book.

The Caste System in Monsters Born and Made

Sollonia has a weird system. Before I explain further, let me explain how Americans are used to describing people of different income levels. We have upper-class, middle-class, and lower-class, and each of those has its own system. It’s based on income, which in my opinion is dumb. Other countries probably have their own ways of looking at income and a person’s ability to support themselves. In Sollonia, the caste system is between the Governing Elite, the Landers, and the Renters.

The Landers

The Landers, to continue the Hunger Games comparison, would be similar to people from the Capitol. They have no idea how it really is to have to scrape by every day on whatever scraps one can find, and they don’t have to utilize the black market to get the things they need. The Landers live in tunnels underground, which protect them from the blazing sun, so their pale skin makes it easy to tell them apart from the Renters.

The Renters

Koral and her family are Renters. They are the working class, and while many of them own their own businesses in the market, they still have to scrape by on whatever income they can get. As Hunters, Koral and Emrick have a special place in the caste, meaning they don’t really fit in with either the Landers or the Renters. The Landers consider the Hunters below them, despite the fact that they buy maristags from them all the time.

Despite Koral telling people she’s a Renter just like everyone else, none of the Renters, save maybe her friend Crane, really allow her to fit in. She’s separate from everyone.

Characters

Personally, I had a hard time putting the book down after about the first third. Before that, it was tough, because I couldn’t really connect with Koral. She just didn’t seem to really evolve much through the story. I did enjoy reading about her history with one of the other competitors in the Glory Race. I wished that part could have been included in the book itself, instead of in bits and pieces. Hey, maybe Tanvi will write a prequel, just for me? Ya never know.

Koral

One thing I absolutely ADORE about Koral is her loyalty to her family. Her father is abusive, verbally and sometimes physically, so even though she strives to please him in some ways, the fact that she can stand up to him in others really shows her strength. She puts herself in precarious situations through her love for her brother, and it’s for him and Liria that she enters the Glory Race.

Emrick

Emrick is Koral’s brother, and I have to admit he’s kind of a jerk. He and Koral work together to hunt the maristags, but he acts like he’s in charge most of the time. Even when Koral saves his life on their first hunt of the book, his response was basically, “you should have caught the maristag, not save my life.” Considering Koral’s loyalty to her family, I could see her side of things, and I have to say I probably would have done the same thing she did.

Liria

Liria is the youngest member of Koral’s family, and she has health issues. Apparently, there’s a trope about “sickly younger sister” that I didn’t know about, so this book contains that one. Koral basically has a choice to help her sister get better: get married, and get the marriage bounty (?) or enter the Glory Race and win.

Since no Renter has ever entered the Glory Race, much less won, Koral’s father is firmly in the “get married” camp. Not much is said about Liria, but she seems like a very sweet little girl, and she looks up to her big sister very much.

Crane

Crane is Koral’s best friend, and what a friend she is. She is generous with money, because her father is a Lander. Crane has never found out who he is, and he sends her money every month as payment for never searching for him. Since Landers and Renters aren’t ever supposed to intermingle, this is a pretty typical situation. Although Koral doesn’t like having to take money from her friend, she swallows her pride when it comes to the safety or health of her family.

Dorian

I didn’t like Dorian. He and Koral have an interesting relationship, but when she decides to enter the Glory Race, Dorian does everything he can think of to get her to back out. He claims it’s because the governing elite will never let her win, but we’re left wondering about his motives through the whole book. It’s a little confusing.

Stormgold

I love Stormgold. She’s probably my favorite of all the characters. Yes, I call her a character, because she’s such an important part of the story. When Koral decides to enter the Glory Race, she needs a maristag to pull her chariot. She only has one left, who she names Stormgold, because of the interesting color of her scales.

Mythical Creatures in Monsters Born and Made

One of the best parts of Monsters Born and Made were the creatures Tanvi created. She described them in such beautiful detail, and I could almost see them as she’s writing about them.

Maristags

Have you ever seen Jurassic Park? The original, good one? @ me if you want, because I will die on this hill. It was the best of the entire franchise. Thank you, Jurassic World, for proving that filmmakers aren’t interested in making new stories, just regurgitating old ones for the sake of money.

Remember when the dude steals the embryos, then takes off into the park in a rain storm? He crashes, and is attacked by the little dinosaur with the fin thing around its face?

I imagine the maristags to be a sort of cross between that dinosaur and a seahorse. They are amphibious creatures, meaning they can live on land or in water, but water turns them into crazy psychopathic killers. As a result, once Hunters have caught maristags, they keep them from water at almost any cost. Koral has an experience with Stormgold when it rains, and it’s a pretty intense situation.

Scythe Crabs

Not much is said about the Scythe Crabs, but they are part of the Glory Race, so I do need to make a small mention of them. What little description I remember is they seem to be a King Kong sized crab, used in the Drome as part of the Glory Race. I believe the reason they’re called scythe crabs is because they typically swipe their claws like scythes to kill their prey. What’s interesting about Monsters Born and Made is that all the animals are hostile, and have no problem with attacking or killing the people. This makes Koral’s relationship with Stormgold unique and unexpected.

Aquabats

Oh, aquabats, how I hate you so much! These horrible creatures aren’t in the book for very long, but BOY do they cause some damage! First off, they fly, so it’s hard to dodge them, and second, they have some huge fangs that aren’t nice to people flesh. The one scene that contains these horrible beasts is one of the most intense in the book, so I won’t spoil it by giving too much away.

Overall Opinion

I did find parts of Monsters Born and Made predictable, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment at all. I find that the more I read, the less I’m surprised by some things. I’ve had to learn over the years how to recognize when I find a book predictable, but I don’t let it affect whether I enjoy the book or not. Monsters Born and Made was an enjoyable read, and even given some of the intense situations it was a light read, and I finished it pretty quickly.

Recommendation

Overall, while Monsters Born and Made was a little predictable, I enjoyed it very much, and I hope the author can ignore the haters and write more stories in this world. I would like that. If you love fantasy stories based around mythical creatures that are literally out of this world, then I encourage you to give Monsters Born and Made a try. I do hope it’s part of a series, because I would love to read more by Tanvi Berwah.

Interested in purchasing? Monsters Born and Made is on Amazon!

Conclusion

I surprised myself with this book review, I gotta be honest. I’ve been working on making my reviews more comprehensive, so they’ve definitely gotten longer recently, but I put on Twitter how much trouble I was having with this one, because all I wanted to say was, “Book Good. Go Buy.” 

While most authors replied with “I would LOVE to get a review like this!” I knew I needed to be a little more complete in a blog post. But who knows? Maybe I’ll actually do that to you one of these days. Pretty sure you’d find it funny, right? Hope so.

Anyway, if you enjoyed this review, I’d love for you to share with your friends and leave a comment below! I love talking books, so reply to all comments. And if you’d like to be notified of other news in the Picky Bookworm family, you can subscribe using the form in the sidebar. I hope to talk to you soon!

Until Next Time, Friends!