A thrilling tale that blurs the lines of hero and monster but solidifies the value of embracing who you are
—Amanda Khong, Bookish Brews
Bookish Brews Snapshot
Only a Monster by Vanessa Len
Everything feels like it is falling into place for Joan’s perfect summer. That is until she finds out her family secret: that her family are monsters. And she finds out that the cute boy who asked her out, Nick, is actually a legendary monster hunter. The only way to save herself and her family is to embrace her own monstrousness…
✒️ Debut Author 💥 Dramatic Ending 😭 Emotional 🕯️ Slow Burn
- Genre: Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult
Book Review
Action-packed, brilliant, exciting, enthralling, heart-wrenching, beautiful, perfect
Only a Monster made my soul sing. I’ve been hoping and begging the world for biracial Asian representation my entire life and Vanessa Len really gave it to me. My childhood self couldn’t be happier with how incredible this book is. I was so excited to see time travel done right, a monster girl and a cute monster hunter boy, a love triangle, a time travel battle, and so much more all with a biracial Asian protagonist. There’s no way to properly explain what it feels like to finally feel seen in a book, but this book is incredibly dear to my heart. I am so grateful to Vanessa for writing this, to Harperteen for publishing it, for every single person who contributes to getting a book to publication. I can’t wait for kids who look like me to have books to turn to with characters that look like them too.
Joan just wants to have a normal summer working at the historic Holland House with her super cute coworker and crush, Nick. When Nick asks her on a date, it feels like summer is going according to plan and everything is going to work out. Until she learns the truth about her family, that they’re real monsters and Nick isn’t just a cute boy, but a legendary monster hunter who will do anything to bring down every monster who has ever used their powers. Now if she wants to save herself she’s forced to work with Aaron, who is beautiful, ruthless, and heir to a rival monster family.
Seeing biracial Asian representation is so important to me and I’m so honored to have had the chance to read this. Joan is not only Asian and white but she is also both monster and human, and because Vanessa is also biracial, she was able to handle the complexities and nuances wonderfully. Being mixed race is an experience that is so hard to explain to someone who doesn’t get it. It’s so often not feeling like you are enough of any part of you and it’s exaggerated by comments from others. It’s that diaspora yearning and desire to visit the place where your ancestors came from but knowing you won’t have that feeling of finally being somewhere that everyone looks like you. It’s seeing that moment in books and movies and knowing that wouldn’t be your experience. It’s having to constantly tell yourself that you are not less of who you are but more of all of the pieces of you.
Throughout the book, she gets treated as mixed from both aspects and it really deepened the feeling of estrangement from both sides, which is a constant feeling for so many mixed-race people like myself. I loved how Vanessa Len was able to really show Joan’s complex family dynamic and how it was heavily influenced by Joan being half monster and half-human. The way that Joan’s family worked so hard to shelter her from her other half and the way that Joan grows to discover and embrace her monster half tore my heart to shreds. I’m so proud of Joan for beginning her journey of embracing both parts of herself and I’m so proud of every biracial kid who can read Joan’s story and start to embrace who they are as well.
Only a Monster is one of my new favorite books of all time. It’s deeply important to me and I’m so happy that it exists so that kids like me can finally see themselves in books. Vanessa Len managed to perfectly capture so many aspects of biracial identity while keeping you on the edge of your seat.
