It was really fun to read a horror by Liselle Sambury! This is a really thought provoking book in how it explores trauma through horror, but it just needed to be refined a little more. This book is very long, and it really just didn't need to be. I also really wanted more wrap up with Brittney's mother and what happened to her in the mansion.

The dual timelines kept me interested and the horror is so unsettling. Super exited to see what Sambury writes next as everything she's put out has been great!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for letting me read this early!

i adore this book. told in two different timelines we follow two girls as they explore a house with dark intentions. this feels alot like the Haunting of Hill house with the rich atmosphere and the beautiful writing. this story will chill you to the bone until the very last page.

Liselle Sambury has become one of my favorite authors. I love how she pulls you into the story and makes you feel so connected to the characters.

Her newest work, Delicious Monsters, follows two POVs on separate timelines. Daisy is a teenager who can see the dead and is involved in mysterious happenings at a haunted mansion. Brittany is Buzzfeed Unsolved-style YouTuber who years later is trying to find out what happened in the house and what happened to Daisy.

I really enjoyed how the two timelines worked together to give a greater picture of what was actually happening in the mansion. Sometimes, this type of setup can be confusing, but it just works so well here.

The book does deal with some very serious topics and may be triggering for some readers. SA is dealt with throughout the book, as well as violence and some gore.

This is the book that I needed when I was younger and dealing with some similar trauma. It would have made me feel so much less alone.

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster, Margaret K. McElderry Books, and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Oh my word! Shove this book at everyone you know. I don't even like horror and this was amazing! A girl who sees ghosts, a haunted house in the woods, a family mystery. It has all the things. There are multiple instances of abuse, but the story is much more concerned with the survivors and how they heal. The mystery of the house and what happened there is told through Daisy actively living it and Brittany researching the same story for her podcast. You will be flipping through pages, wanted to figure out what happened and who survives. Definitely pick this one up.

I’m giving this book 5 Stars! If you like dual POVs this is the book for you! This has been one of my top reads this year. The books itself is so much deeper then you think. This book is so good. It’s the psychological thriller I’ve been needing. It’s also very descriptive and makes it easier to picture everything that is going on. I can see this book being turned into a movie. Possibly a Jordan Peele movie. The title itself is more than you think. The authors writing is amazing. It has heavy topics but is written in a way that keeps you intrigued.


Triggers:
Childhood sexual abuse
Childhood neglect
Emotional abuse
Predatory
Graphic horror scenes
Occult
Death

Thank you NetGalley and hearmyvoicetours for this ARC!

An absolutely phenomenal horror! This masterfully tackles tough subjects, and spins a web of mysteries and secrets so thrilling I stayed up late three nights in a row just to keep reading!

This is phenomenal hands off to the author. I liked paranormal creepy unique and it was written well and i need more from this author. This was right up the alley and what i need in a novel. This a must to read of you enjoy ya horror with a great plot and amazing characters

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I'mogén's Reviews > Delicious Monsters
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
Delicious Monsters
by Liselle Sambury (Goodreads Author)
23443295
I'mogén's reviewDec 03, 2022 · edit
it was amazing

Thank you to Hear Our Voices for providing me with an e-arc, via Netgalley, to be able to participate in the Book Tour. All opinions remain my own.

Oh my gosh. What a fantastic, haunting, utterly terrifying and beautiful novel this was.
From the start it had such an eery feel to it, that only progressed as things got weirder and as we got to learn about Daisy's toxic relationship with her very closed-to-emotion mother, and Daisy's peculiar...abilities...

The horror in this was fantastic! I think it's the most extreme I've read so far, personally. The body gore was so good and I was itching to know about this house. It always felt hinted to before we were introduced and it had such a dark, oppressive entity that it felt entirely like another character.

I loved all the plant metaphors, extending to being the "garderner of the house", and with some of the character the names, such as Daisy and Ivy. I thought it was cool to see Daisy find solace in this one thing that made her feel happy. At times it was alittlw overbearing, but I definitely sympathised that if this is all you have to hold onto as something good and genuine in your life then a lot of your life will revolve around it.

I liked the mirroring of both proganoists getting to the house at a similar time, 10 years a part. It was fascinating seeing some of Brittany's beliefs in what she wanted to achieve with her own difficult relationship with her mother, in the creation of this documentary of the weird things that happened in this house.

I did struggle with the time though. I wanted to know when exactly was Daisy's time period and when was Brittany's, as well as time between events within their perspective. I guess it helped to play in the sequence where a character looses track of time, but reading wise, I would have enjoyed that to be a little clearer for my benefit of understanding.

I love how details were slowly teased out and then dropped just when your mind was on something else. It was beautifully infuriating and had me page turning like crazy.

There were so many moments when I got this awful tightness in my throat. Everytime it was from raw emotion, whether that was utter terror at what I was reading, revulsion, dread or sorrow and sympathy for what a lot of characters where subject to from the house.

Overall, I loved every minute of this book. It was the perfect haunted house, ghost story, but it was also a harrowing tale of forgotten Black girls and the cruelty we allow to blossom in this world, by good people turning a blind eye to the bad doings.

The comps for this were spot on. I was spooked through this one, but also enraged. This is not a book to miss.

Wowza.

I had such a good time reading this, I love the Gothic horror genre and this does a great job in telling the story and working in the genre. I was invested in the psychological aspects and enjoyed the way the characters were written. It did a great job in doing what I was hoping for and I loved the cover. I enjoyed what Liselle Sambury wrote this and look forward to more from them.

“I didn’t, actually,” he said with a frown. “You’re one of the few people I couldn’t get a read on. Not until that instant when we found you in the bush. And now I can’t again.” I couldn’t believe this guy was really trying to act like he was psychic. “Well, what’s my warning based on what you learned in that instant?”

A superb fast paced thriller. I absolutely loved the story and couldn’t stop reading it. It’s perfect for all readers, especially thriller lovers.

Do you love haunted houses and secrets and ghosts and revenge? I do and I liked this!!

Delicious Monsters is thrilling and just the right amount of creepy. It's nothing short of difficult to read but it's so important and I'm so glad Liselle shared it with us. At its heart, this is a haunted house story, or rather, inheriting a haunted house.

But I love that the characters kind of just sucked. They weren't doing anything productive to get over their traumas they were just allowed to be angry. I feel like it's so rare that we allow BIPOC characters to just be angry and allowed to cope with their traumas in poor ways, but that's realistic for a lot of people.

Delicious Monsters was a complex yet compelling story about trauma, secrets that needed to be unleashed and of course, ghosts. I really loved that the author set this up as Brittney and Jayden being a part of Haunted so they could investigate Daisy, Grace and Ivy's past stories and their history with the haunted house in the bush. There was a lot of backstory and detail so I never felt lost and it helped the story come together really well. I loved that the author had a goal and a statement to make here and I think she certainly accomplished it! With that being said yes there were ghosts and the mansion was beautifully described and creepy but I never felt like that was the main focus of the story. So it was a bit disappointing I didn't get the haunted house vibes I was looking for. This definitely reminded me of The Haunting of Hill House in some ways! Between the complicated stories, secrets, trauma, grief, ghosts and the twist at the end. This book was honestly like nothing I've ever read and I think readers are really going to enjoy it!