This was a truly magnificent book, beautiful and creative characters, wonderful descriptions and a complex but well written story. Highly recommend

For me this book was a slow starter but I persevered and i did enjoy this book one it got better.  I was transported to Malaysia which no found very interesting.

A good read showing how a family's history gets rewritten and rewritten until no-one knows the truth. Fascinating insight into Malay life through the years and how it can still tangle through into the present.

A beautiful story, so well crafted and full of very beautiful prose. The story takes us through the life of Mary, and also the life of her granddaughter Durga, a story that spans the generations. I found this tale to be a wonderful story of love, life and self restraint ; but most of all I found the story full of hope.I loved this book, it’s full of strong female characters full of independence, it’s very atmospheric and quite dark at times. It’s slow to start but I encourage you to persevere as it reaps its own rewards. This is a beautiful tale , teaching me so much I didn’t know and some beautiful imagery of Malaysia. Highly recommended 


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This book was a magnificent exploration of family dynamics, guilt, and growth. It took me a bit to get into, but after I hit the 25% mark, all I wanted was to finish it and get answers. Did I necessarily get answers? No. But what I did get was a beautiful story from two incredibly strong women. That, paired with the Malay history that I previously knew nothing of, sealed the deal for me; Catherine Menon is a skilled author and I'm excited to see more from her.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which traces one family's story from 1920 to the present.  The publisher describes this as "a thrilling tale of love, betrayal and redemption against the backdrop of natural disasters and fallen empires" - and this is exactly what you get. The generations and their stories are interwoven to create a compelling world where everything is connected. 

The characters, especially the flawed but entirely believable Durga and her elderly grandmother Mary, all have their faults, their secrets and their preoccupations. Their behaviour and the stories they reveal bring the Malaysian setting to life vividly, and so convincingly I could feel the heat even while reading it in a cold English winter. 

I don't like spoilers, but I would like to mention the ending, which is both unerringly emotional, and open enough for the reader to draw their own conclusions. I was left leaving more, but at the same time feeling that it was entirely appropriate that not ever thread was neatly tied up, as human lives are never that tidy.

Complex characters.
Main protagonists are Granddaughter Durga and Grandmother Mary. The novel has lots of tangents and the truth is sometimes elusive.
Well described characters, situations and emotions.
Durga returns to Malaysia to see her Grandmother who reared her as her Mother Francesca died giving birth to her. Lots of memories emerge  as Durga and Mary talk, the continuous criticism and barbed comments of Mary towards Durga can be amusing and spiteful. Both women harbour guilt and secrets from their past. Mary feels guilt over the treatment of her best friend Cecilia Durga feels responsible or the death of her friend Peony. The treatment of the Malays by the Japanese is horrific and haunting.
Does Durga find out the truth about her Mother?

Durga returns to Malaysia from a self-imposed exile in Canada, and spends Diwali with her Ammuma (Grandmother). An accident with fireworks lands Ammuma in hospital, and suddenly Durga is surrounded by long forgotten memories. Will she discover the story behind her birth before Ammuma dies and the secrets are lost forever?

Fragile Monsters is a fascinating story of three generations of Malaysian life, from Ammuma’s early childhood, through the trauma of the Japanese occupation during World War II, on to the present day. It’s a history I knew little about, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. It did get a little confusing at times, trying to keep up with which events occurred when, with so many characters appearing. 

Overall, a really good story, with an amazing insight into life in Malaysia over the past century.

Thank you, Netgalley, Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, and Penguin Business for providing me with an ARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Fragile Monsters from Catherine Menon is a family saga spanning from the 1920s to the present, with rural Malaysia serving as a backdrop to the mysteries and secrets that are unraveled. We get the story from two perspectives, one from Durga, a maths Professor at Kuala Lumpur University, and one from Mary, Durga's fierce and sharp-tongued grandmother. Durga is visiting her grandmother and wants nothing more than to spend the days peacefully and leave the house that's filled with painful memories. Her plans go awry when during Diwali celebrations, Mary is met with a firecracker burn incident. This leads to Durga spending more time with her grandmother and the two trying to unlock secrets from the past that haunts them to this day.

The story is a mix of mystery and suspense surrounding the two women who are equally headstrong and fierce. The two have gone through lots of terrible losses that affect their lives moving forward. The trauma is still fresh, making appearances in their present lives and creating waves. The more Durga searches for the truth of the incidents and the history of her family, the more she gets sucked into stories and myths that make no sense. There is no clarity and closure for any of them. We make the journeys through the past with our characters, feeling like we are drowning in all the questions. The story keeps us on our toes and takes us on a wild ride through Kerala to Malaysia. Can Durga separate the fictions of her childhood from the truth?? Is there any truth to be found in her grandmother's grand tales?

Overall, the complexities of relationships, betrayal, and love play a huge role in the narrative. The need for secrets to be buried is at the forefront of both perspectives. The ghosts of the past that haunt the characters pave the path for the progression of the story. It was interesting to see how their mental health was affected by the secrets they held dear. Guilt and love in equal measure pour from them and makes the readers intrigued to peel back the layers of these complex relationships and cultural constraints. The story talks about leaving the past behind where it belongs and moving forward to pull oneself out of festering secrets. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in historical fiction or literary fiction that focuses on familial relationships and it's complexities. I gave the book 3 stars and I believe it's a wonderful story from a debut writer. I will be interested in reading anything this author will be writing.

I was so sorry to finish this book. It provided pleasurable reading each time I returned to it. A beautiful story, so well crafted that takes us through the life of Mary, the child of a British eccentric expat and his Indian wife. Mary was born and bred in Malaysia. It taps into the early life of her granddaughter, a successful academic who has lived overseas for the past 10 years, but was raised by her grandmother. It focuses on the characters who stay with you long after you have finished their interwoven stories. I shall be buying this exquisite book for friends.

Having recently returned from Canada, Mathematician Durga visits her grandmother at their run down family home for Diwali, but an accident with the fireworks lands Mary in hospital and Durga’s return to her new post lecturing in Kuala Lumpur is delayed.  Cleaning up after the fire, Durga comes across some objects in the house that do not correspond with what she has been told about the family history, providing the catalyst for her to delve into family secrets.
Unfolding the story of a mixed heritage family in colonial Malaya through the early years of the 20th century, through Japanese occupation and the fight for independence, the novel interweaves events from the past, mainly from Mary’s viewpoint, and that of the present narrated by Durga.  The many secrets hinted at from the outset are resolved against the vividly depicted background of changing and turbulent times in a multi-cultural, multi-layered society, with the character of Mary, a true survivor, at its heart.  This is an intriguing novel that works as a mystery, a contemplation of grief and loss, and as a study of how the decisions of individuals can affect the fortunes and future of whole families.  I have to confess that I was not immediately grabbed by it, but became increasingly engrossed as I read deeper into the book and was rewarded by an intriguing and absorbing tale.  I will be recommending this through book clubs, although as my library is in a primary school I will not be able to buy it.

I'm afraid I find the author's prose to be a bit clunky and the story isn't particularly captivating. The characters too could have been better fleshed out.

I was really excited for this book; the premise sounded interesting and I do enjoy inter-familial generational dramas. Unfortunately, it ended up falling a bit flat for me. It read very slowly, and I don't always necessarily mind that, but I found it hard to motivate myself to continue reading at times. I liked the dual timeline and perspectives switching from Durga and Mary, her grandmother. I also liked that it was set in Malaysia, as it's a country I don't know much about. Both women deal with an important loss, and it was interesting to see just how intertwined their lives were, despite being completely different people in their personalities. I personally connected more to the character of Mary, a grumpy old woman, so I don't know what that says about me! There were aspects of the book I didn't care for, like Durga and Tom's relationship, and I also think that the big reveal at the end didn't really work for me. Overall, a bit disappointing.

Durga Pannikar is a maths lecturer in Kuala Lumpur, where she has returned after living in Canada. Mary is her grandmother, a woman who has secrets and stories to tell, but so much is bound up in these stories that it is hard to separate the truth from her different versions of events.

There is a story about Mary in her younger days, a wilful girl who ended up marrying a boy in love with her best friend. Mary has a daughter, Francesca, but she is dead too - or so Mary claims - dead after giving birth to Durga who Mary then brings up. There is also Mary's brother, Anil, who struggles to communicate and may have been killed by a Japanese sentry or died of TB.

Durga visits Mary for Diwali, but a stray firework lands Mary in hospital. Ghosts from the past intrude on Durga's present - a friend who drowned, a married man she slept with in Canada and still loves - and get in the way of her relationship with her feisty gran.

Durga's precision and thirst for detail mean she doesn't always see what is obvious. She sleeps with Tom, a doctor at the hospital, and only later learns that he is married and has a child with another woman. Tom is part of Mary's secret too, as events begin to connect past to present.

I found this story confusing at times and couldn't invest sufficiently in the characters, and parts of the narrative didn't make sense in the context of the whole. I was left feeling unsatisfied at the end because the story didn't tie up all the loose ends, although this may have been deliberate.

Overall, a good story but not one that grabbed my attention enough to want to return to it or read any more books by this author. 

I was sent an advance review copy of this book by Penguin General UK, in return for an honest appraisal.

Secrets, ever-changing stories and a grand-daughter's quest to find out the truth about her mother and to solve the strange relationship she has with her maternal grandmother. The  descriptive prose is often beautiful, and so evocative of the ever-present river and swamp - with their unforgiving savagery, threat, constant damp, humidity and mould. At times the writiing style reminded me of Arundhati Roy - for me the poetic tone drew wonderfully graphic illustrations of another culture. An imaginative, dreamy place where stories and legends abound. You're' left wanting more answers. But true to life, we don't always get them. Whimsical , yet sobering. I found this a wonderful mx of love, suffering and denial; but most of all, love.

I absolutely loved this book and think it'll be a big seller in 2021. It tells the story of the two main characters - grandmother Mary and her granddaughter Durga, through Malaysia in the 1920's to 1980's.. Neither character is particularly likeable yet as the reader you are compelled to wanting to get to know them. It is a tale filled with stories, secrets and lies, told so many times that the lines between fact and fiction are blurred for the characters themselves. It's a compelling story and so beautifully told you can almost smell the swamp and feel the heat. I heartily recommend and look forward to more books by this debut author. Thanks to #netgalley, #catherinemenon and the publisher for the arc.

Fragile Monsters is a complex book to read, it switches between the past, present, fact, fairy tales and folklore. At first I struggled to get in to it, unsure what is fact and what has been made up or mis-remembered by Mary. The relationship between Durga and her Amumma (grandmother), Mary is distant despite the fact that Mary raised Durga. It isn't easy as a reader to warm to any of the characters, but this doesn't detract from the story.

The last few chapters of the book is where the story finally comes together and makes sense, although you are still left wondering. It is worth persevering with the story if you feel the same as me at the start.

I was given a copy of Fragile Monsters by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

Fragile Monsters is an ambitious family saga set in Malaysia.  The story focuses on Mary (as a child growing up in Malaysia during turbulent wars) and her granddaughter Durga. While we meet Mary and Durga in present day celebrating Diwali, the story frequently steps back in time to show us Mary growing up in the 1920s and 30s and surviving through turbulent events in Malaysia’s history. Mary is not, however, a reliable narrator so the reader is constantly trying to establish whether to believe Mary’s version of events. When Mary needs hospital care, Durga finds herself in a similar position trying to figure out what has happened in Mary’s past whilst also coming to terms with events in her own past.

I did not know anything about Malaysian history or how it was impacted by the World Wars. Whilst political events and wars are frequently alluded to in Mary’s past, it was never really clearly explained what was actually happening so I found this quite confusing at times. It has left me wanting to know more about Malaysia’s history. 

There is a lot to like about Fragile Monsters. It contains memorable female characters throughout; Mary and Durga are both incredibly strong independent women. It is very atmospheric and the descriptions of the weather, swamps and dwellings are superb and really add to the story. It  does, however, contain a lot of very dark situations and there is not much humour or light to counteract this and as a reader you need to be prepared for that. I found it started quite slow but the final third had a lot more momentum and I couldn’t put it down when I got to that point.

Fragile Monsters by Catherine Menon tells the tale of Durga coming home to spend Diwali with her grandmother.  Over the course of the weekend fireworks and floods bring to light long buried family secrets.  Love and a small bit of lust underpin the story that takes in the brutality of war and of independence struggle.  Most of all it made me want to go to Malaysia.

Included in my weekly Wednesday Wishes, in early summer the review will move to Best Summer Books round up.  Having just posted all this, I notice that publication date has been moved.

I love a novel that fully transports me to a world that is so far removed from my own reality and if it teaches me something too, that’s even better. I also love stories that revolve around the relationships between characters from different generations, so Fragile Monsters seemed to tick all of these boxes.

Durga has returned home to rural Malaysia to visit her grandmother Mary, who she has a slightly strained relationship with. Over the next few months, Durga finds herself confronting some dark memories and uncovering some long-buried family secrets.

Mary is a typical spiky older lady and this kind of quirky character always makes me smile. I knew she must have some hurt in her past and I was excited to get to the heart of it. However by the end of the book, I wasn’t entirely sure exactly what had happened. I just wanted some clearer explanation of why Mary was the way she was, so that left me a little dissatisfied.

Durga is a maths professor who has been living in Canada for a while, so there was a lot of cross-cultural conflict and comparison. Durga is revisiting her heritage with a fresh perspective on things and perhaps this is what enables her to see the truth behind the horrors of the past. Maybe this trip back to Malaysia is exactly what she needed to find some closure on what happened to her friend Peony and her feelings for handsome, British-born Tom. 

The story is told via both Durga in the present day and Mary’s childhood perspective during World War Two. I learned a little about what Malaysia was like during this time, which I’ve definitely never read about before and I really appreciated this insight. However, there wasn’t really enough of this. I craved a more in-depth look into what was really going on in the country, its outlook and the aftermath. 

Ultimately, Fragile Monsters is about a grandmother and granddaughter finally dealing with their pain and understanding that they’re not as different as they may seem. I think one of my main issues with the book was that I couldn’t really figure out whether there was that inherent love between Mary and Durga that you’d expect. Neither woman was particularly easy to like and that made it really hard to work out their true feelings. There was also very little actual plot until well over halfway into the book, so if you like a fast-moving story, this definitely isn’t for you! It is an educational read though and if you don’t mind a slightly ambiguous ending, it’s worth giving Fragile Monsters a shot.