‘Only a Monster’ review: Vanessa Len’s debut novel is monstrously entertaining

Vanessa Len debuted this year with her first novel, Only a Monster. And boy, what a fun thrill ride it was!

It should have been a great summer for Joan Chang-Hunt. She got to stay with her late mother’s family in London, landed a great job at the historic Holland House, and even got asked out on a date by her crush and coworker, Nick.

When she travels forward in time a few hours, she not only misses her date, but also uncovers a dark family secret: the Hunts are a family of monsters. If that wasn’t bad enough, Nick is not a normal boy, but a monster slayer who has one goal in mind: obliterate all monsters in his wake… including Joan.

As Joan grapples with her new identity and the secrets that her family has kept from her, she must work together with Aaron Oliver, a gorgeous but cold heir to another monster family that hates the Hunts.

Rooting for the “bad guy”

Many stories that have a hero-monster dynamic are pretty clear-cut as to who we should be rooting for. The monsters may have complexities to their character and the hero may have flaws, but in all, we know that the hero is… well, the hero of the story. They are who we should be rooting for to win.

That is not really the case with Len’s novel.

It is unveiled that the monster families in this book are able to steal time from humans, thereby shortening their lifespan. All they need to do is graze the back of a human’s neck, and they are able to steal hours, days, years from them, and monsters can use that time to travel through time. That sounds pretty horrid and inexcusable, right?

Len does a fantastic job at using Joan as her mouthpiece to consistently make it clear that the act of taking time is wrong, and that Joan finds this monster power terrifying.

However, despite the fact that she is the ‘monster’ of the story, Joan – and the other monsters – are trying to save their families from being killed indiscriminately, while the ‘hero’ of the story is trying to slaughter any and all monsters, despite whether or not they have done anything to earn his wrath. It makes the monsters appear more sympathetic and lovable, while Nick is ferocious and almost evil in his quest.

It’s a great job of twisting the readers’ expectations to root for the other side, in contrast with how many of these stories end.

Hints of a slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance

While the primary objectives of Only a Monster are to uncover the secrets of the monster world and to stop Nick from eradicating monsterkind, there are hints of a slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance happening. And, even better, there are two examples of this happening throughout the book!

The first is, of course, between Nick and Joan. What started off as two coworkers getting ready for their first date turned into a literal battle for survival as the two of them are inevitably shoved to opposite sides of a war. This war lasts for the entirety of the book.

It’s surprisingly easy to slip into discomfort when Nick appears on the page; he makes it very clear that he views Joan as his enemy, and he has no qualms at the prospect of killing her or her family. But at the same time, you empathize with Joan’s sorrow at having the part of her life where Nick could have been something more than a friend ripped away so brutally.

The second pairing that has strong potential for a slow-burn romance is Joan and Aaron Oliver. The Olivers and Hunts were always at odds, the feuds between their families inspiring actual violence between the members. Aaron himself does not hold back with his preconceived beliefs of the Hunts, and Joan was also raised with the knowledge that the Olivers were a dangerous family.

Yet, the more they work together, the closer they become, and soon, Aaron and Joan are protecting one another and helping each other through terrible moments. It’s incredibly endearing to watch them overcome their differences and lean on one another for support, and the conclusion of the book brings such a bittersweet – but hopeful – ending.

In all, Only a Monster is a thrilling read, and I am beyond stoked to discover that this is just the first book in a planned trilogy. I look forward to what Vanessa Len has in store for us!

Only a Monster by Vanessa Len was released on February 22nd, 2022.

Gisselle Lopez

Gisselle is a twenty-something year old from the south suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. When she isn’t running herself ragged with everyday adult responsibilities, she can be found catching up and obsessing over her favorite television series, perusing a genre-rich stack of novels, or writing fictional works – both original and fan fiction. The rest of her time is dominated by her two dogs, Laika and Luna, and her ragdoll kitten named Cincinatti. An aspiring writer, she hopes to one day create well-received YA novels of her own.