Book Review | Monsters Born and Made

Koral is desperate for money to pay for her sick sister’s medicine and pay off her family’s debts, so she enters the Glory Race—a tournament where charioteers race using deadly sea monsters called Maristags.

However, not only does she have to watch out for the competitors but things get even more dangerous as rebellion spreads throughout the island.

Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah offers readers with a high stakes race along the lines of the Scorpio Races. Although instead of kelpies, here we have venomous ocean deer that walk on their hind legs.

At first, I was pulled into reading this book based on its cool premise.

However, I think what bugged me most about the book was its lack of worldbuilding. The blurb markets this book as being south-Asian inspired, but I feel that the world pulls a lot more from Greek mythology instead with charioteers, gorgons, and explicit references to Helios and Icarus, which also raises a lot of questions.

Is this an alternate future set on Earth? Are these islands where Greece used to be and if not, why did the islanders adopt ancient Grecian beliefs and customs out of all the world’s cultures? We’re told that there’s a super ocean now, but not how the world flooded. There’s not much of an explanation for the world’s history and how things got to the way they are now, which, for me, kind of defeats the purpose of writing a dystopian novel to begin with.

All in all, parts of the racing sequences are entertaining, but I feel like this book needed to have spent more time in developmental editing because it’s worldbuilding needs a lot more fleshing out.

Thank you, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details:

Publication Date : September 6, 2022

Publisher : Sourcebooks Fire

IBSN : ‎1728247624

Pages : 352

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