3 hours 53 minutes| Tor | Adult Fantasy | 9/24/2019
Recently, YA fantasy author Justina Ireland posted this on Twitter:
Adult SFF: Buckle up friend because you are going to be confused for the next hundred pages but it’ll work itself out. Maybe, LOL.
YA SFF: Okay look, here are the important details. Got it? Cool. Get in loser, we’re going on an adventure
— Justina Ireland Updates (@justinaireland) October 11, 2019
And it explains a lot about my experience reading The Monster of Eldenhaven…and pretty much every other adult SFF. It always takes me a while to understand the world I’m being thrown into and lock into the story.
The Monster of Eldenhaven is a debut fantasy novella that only came out only a few months ago but has already inspired quite the fandom. I only came across it becausecosplayand fanart for it kept showing up on my Twitter timeline. When I saw it was a pretty slim book I decided to give it a shot.
The book begins with Johann, an unnamed creature that steps out of Eldenhaven’s toxic black water and befriends Herr Florian Lichenbloom, a wealthy accountant and secret sorcerer. Johann is just what the delicate seemingly Florian needs to set in motion his plans for revenge. Giesbrecht weaves a grisly story that kind of tap dances on the line between fantasy and horror. Seriously ya’ll; it’s not for the faint of heart or squeamish.
I did part of this audio and narrator Daniel Henning did a good job, though his voice for Johann felt a little too monstrous and broad.
The Monster of Eldenhaven was an intriguing excursion into a genre I don’t normally read and a perfect Halloween-y read but now I need some fluffy holiday romance in my eyeballs now.
I’m a lifelong reader who started blogging about YA books in 2011 but now I read in just about every genre! I love YA coming of age stories, compelling memoirs and genre bending SFF. You can find me talking all things romance at Romance and Sensibility.