Hi everyone! Today I'm going to be sharing with you all my review of a recent favorite, through the great opportunity given to me by Hear Our Voices Tours.
I was provided an e-ARC by the publisher via NetGalley. This has in no way influenced the review.
Table of Contents:
Synopsis
The Haunting of Hill House meets Sadie in this evocative and mind-bending psychological thriller following two teen girls navigating the treacherous past of a mysterious mansion ten years apart.
Daisy sees dead people—something impossible to forget in bustling, ghost-
packed Toronto. She usually manages to deal with her unwanted ability, but she’s completely unprepared to be dumped by her boyfriend. So when her mother inherits a secluded mansion in northern Ontario where she spent her childhood summers, Daisy jumps at the chance to escape. But the house is nothing like Daisy expects, and she begins to realize that her experience with the supernatural might be no match for her mother’s secrets, nor what lurks within these walls...
A decade later, Brittney is desperate to get out from under the thumb of her abusive mother, a bestselling author who claims her stay at “Miracle Mansion” allowed her to see the error of her ways. But Brittney knows that’s nothing but a sham. She decides on the new season of her popular
Haunted web series will uncover what happened to a young Black girl in the mansion ten years prior and finally exposes her mother’s lies. But as she gets more wrapped up in the investigation, she’ll have to decide: if she can only bring one story to light, which one matters most—Daisy’s or her own?
As Brittney investigates the mansion in the present, Daisy’s story runs parallel in the past, both timelines propelling the girls to face the most dangerous monsters of all: those that hide in plain sight.
Book Info
Publishing date- 28 February 2023
Publisher- Margaret McElderry Books, Simon & Schuster
Genre- horror/suspense, Psychological thriller
Age range- YA, 14+
Content Warnings: childhood sexual assault (off page, some details
discussed), childhood physical abuse (corporal punishment, off-page,
described), childhood physical abuse (confinement punishment), childhood
neglect, gaslighting, grooming, suicide (off the page, mention), killing of a goat
(off page, described), discussions of fatphobia, body horror/gore, violence,
death.
My Review
Delicious Monsters was a simmering page-turner, a gut punch in the most unexpected ways, and skin-crawlingly creepy.
The pace feels slow in the beginning, but it's more of a soft, gradual build-up to just unstoppable reveals and twists and confusion in the coming chapters. The first few chapters just give a solid foundation of the characters, so that when you read further and find out these crazy things that went down in their pasts and what happens in the present time, you still have some kind of grasp on the characters and feel tethered to the story.
One of the things that caught me off-guard was the emphasis on mother-daughter relationships and flawed mother figures. It is very nuanced and done with a sensitive touch. It depicts how toxic these relationships can be, despite them being supposed to be full of unconditional love and protection. Both our MCs, Daisy and Brittany, have very complicated relationships with their mothers, more so because they were raised by them without a father. And yet it also highlights those fleeting, seemingly inconsequential moments that pass between when they feel loved and close to each other.
the set-up and the dual POVs AND timeline >>>
It is an expertly crafted story in the terms of POV, as we follow two different characters in two timelines with a ten-year gap, and they were placed so that what one character went through in a chapter, it lined up with what the other experienced in the next; so you could the parallels and the deviation of their lives. Both our MCs are Black women, though Daisy is a teenager about to turn 18 and the other, Brittany, is a working adult. Brittany’s job is also quite interesting- she creates docu-series about paranormal events with her friend, and is working on a new web series investigating what went down in “Miracle Mansion”.
This “Miracle Mansion” feels like a sentient being in itself, with how vividly it is described. The setting comes alive through this. It is on a tiny island attached to a small town. You can only reach it by boat, and it is surrounded by thick woods. That at first is enough to provide this image of a creepy, abandoned mansion covered in overgrowth of vines and shrubs.
The way the whole mystery unfolds, through little flashbacks and hints here and there was really amazing and fun. It is graphic and gruesome and grotesque and hair-raising.
characters are the crux
The character of Daisy’s mother, Grace, is pivotal to the story. She is an unlikable character, meant to be seen as flawed and hard to root for. She constantly walks the fine line between redeemable and unredeemable actions, gaslighting her daughter and being quite self-centered at times.
Daisy is also plagued by this intense self-loathing and needs to get away from her mother because she (rightly) believes that that will allow her some space for herself. Her ability to see ghosts goes unexplained and is just accepted for a while, but how deeply it affects her and the toll the combination of neglect and terror takes on her is so realistic and just awfully sad to read. She’s someone you quickly get attached to. Despite how she might appear lost and strange to other people, to the reader she is someone who loves deeply and cares so much about her mother’s approval and affection
It’s impossible for me to pick if I liked reading Daisy or Brittany’s perspective more, and even though you as the reader can guess how Daisy’s story might end, never underestimate Sambury’s ability to throw curveballs when you least expect it. I loved how everything came together in the end, and how the character’s (and the villain’s arc) was resolved.
In the end, Delicious Monsters is as gripping as a paranormal story as it is an incredible exploration of lost stories of black girls, flawed motherhood, and redemption.
About the Author
Liselle Sambury is the Trinidadian-Canadian author of the Governor General’s Literary Awards Finalist, Blood Like Magic. Her work spans multiple genres, from fantasy to sci-fi, horror, and more. In her free time, she shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to demystifying the sometimes complicated business of being an author.