That ending could have been SO GOOD if only the author built up relationships. But it felt like Joan didn't really care for anyone tbh Overall, I think this book had a good concept but it just wasn't for me. It's definitely on the younger side of YA so if that's your jam then I would recommend it. But if you normally look for the more mature YA, NA or even adult books, then this probably won't be for you.

The blurb compares this book with This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab and I was so mad to discover that the similarity between these two books is non-existent. I enjoyed each minute of TSS and I find a reason to love every single character while I have very conflicted opinions about OAM and I have a huge dent against Joan, the protagonist.

POPSUGAR Reading Challenge Prompts

There is very little I disliked about this book. In fact, despite how this was one of my last reads of 2021, it immediately found a way into my top 10. The one thing I would say about this book, though not really a con, is that I have no idea how there are going to be two other books after this. The ending just felt so . . . complete (even though there are some loose ends that I NEED to see wrapped up). I really hope Only a Monster #2 doesn't experience middle book syndrome. The magic system was brilliant. The ability to trave through time and the method of doing so was a favourite part of the book for me, and the families and their different abilities got me excited for the next couple of books.

Jamie tells Joan he remembers the hero was real, he remembers his captivity, the woman who captured him.Betrayed by her supposedly ordinary boyfriend, Joan is forced to attempt desperate measures to save her family. There's also many plot holes if one wishes to dig deep and analyze aspects of the story, which is pretty much expected of most time travel stories. Compare this book to Inception, Looper and other beloved time travel stories though and it just falls extremely flat.

The dynamics between the different monster families were fun and I loved how this played into our main characters’ personalities and perceptions of the others. This book set up some really intriguing politics of this world that I hope will be further explored in the sequel. I enjoyed our main group of characters: Joan; her cousin, Ruth and Aaron, a monster from another family. I also really liked the queer romance that was introduced towards the end of the book, and found myself rooting for those characters and their relationship. This sequel to the contemporary fantasy Only a Monster will take Joan deeper into the monster world, where treacherous secrets and even more danger await.content warnings// On and offscreen deaths of parents and guardians, On and offscreen deaths of family members, Threats of violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Weapon use, Brainwashing, Interrogation, Involuntary drug use, Real-world racist microaggressions, Fantasy xenophobia