"Delicious Monsters" delivers a chilling narrative that captivates readers with suspenseful twists and turns. As a fan of the author, I stepped outside my comfort zone with this thriller, and the result was an unnerving yet compelling reading experience.

The story unfolds grippingly, weaving together intricate plotlines that keep the reader on the edge of their seat. The author's mastery of suspense is evident, creating an atmosphere of unease that permeates every page. The pacing is well-crafted, maintaining a sense of urgency that propels the narrative forward.

The characters in "Delicious Monsters" are expertly developed, each contributing to the overall sense of mystery and suspense. Their complexities and hidden motives add layers to the story, leaving the reader questioning the characters' true nature and connections.

The author's prose is both evocative and haunting, enhancing the atmospheric quality of the narrative. Descriptive passages vividly paint the scenes, immersing the reader in the unsettling world of the story. The attention to detail and careful crafting of suspenseful moments showcase the author's skill in the thriller genre.

While not typically a reader of thrillers, I appreciated the psychological depth embedded in "Delicious Monsters." Exploring human nature, morality, and the consequences of one's actions adds an intellectual layer to the narrative, elevating it beyond mere suspense.

As much as the book scared me, it succeeded in holding my attention throughout, and I applaud the author for crafting a gripping thriller that challenges readers to confront their fears. "Delicious Monsters" may not be for the faint of heart, but for those seeking an adrenaline-pumping, psychologically rich thriller, this book delivers on its promise to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Creepy, with a slow build up and some interesting mother-daughter dynamics but just too long. It gets repetitive with similar scenes and a theme that's hammered home over and over. Loved the setting and character development, great representation for teen readers.

Before picking up this novel, I had no idea what it was about. I expected something similar to the Blood Like Magic duology, which I LOVED. Delicious Monsters was quite different from the Blood Like Magic duology, but it still had everything I love about Liselle Sambury’s writing.

This story is told from two perspectives, Daisy and Brittney, told parallelly about 10 years apart. Daisy (who can see the dead) and her mother move to northern Ontario (Timmins) from Toronto after her mother inherits a secluded mansion. The mansion is where her mother spent summers growing up and holds many dark secrets. In the other POV, Britteny and her best friend, Jayden are creating a new season of their web series Haunted hoping to uncover the events that happened ten years prior in the mansion.

I loved the haunted house aspects of this novel with the setting of a remote Northern town. It was so unique and engrossing. I loved the character development that Daisy and Brittney went throughout the novel. I would have liked to see more of Brittney, and it felt that we only got glimpses of the novel. I’m glad that the two parallel timelines came together at the end.

I was talking to a co-worker and described this book as "a book about a house that is attracting ghosts, psychic neighbours, and a teenage girl that only wants to find out why her mother won't let her go in the house but brought them to the property to live in the guest house. So, you know, it is a paranormal mystery with some weird stuff going down in a freaky house, written by a Canadian author, and the story takes place in Toronto and Timmins." My co-worker was very excited and will be looking to borrow this book in the future. This is the third book of Liselle's that I have read and they have all been great reads. I am looking forward to reading more of her books in the future.

This was the creepiest, darkest, twistiest horror/thriller I have read in a long time and I loved every minute of it. I love when books have dual POVs and even more so when they are different timelines.

This book gave me the heebies, made me gasp, shudder, and stole my breath. I think this book should be used as a lesson on how to write an amazingly creepy and enthralling book!

Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury is a ghost story and psychological thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Simon & Schuster Canada and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


My Synopsis:    (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
Daisy is a black, 17-year old girl when her mom inherits a secluded mansion in northern Ontario.  Grace lets Daisy decide whether or not they should move to Timmins.  It is the perfect time for Daisy to move out of Toronto, as Noah just dumped her, and she's feeling blue.  Not a good state for someone who sees ghosts who gravitate toward the sad and lonely.  A move is just what she needs....and perhaps it will finally help Daisy escape her mother's hold.

But the house is more than it seems on the outside...and the fact that her mother doesn't want Daisy to enter the house at all seems strange.  Grace is terrified of it, and as Daisy soon discovers, it is filled with more than just ghosts.

A decade later, Brittney, who does a podcast about hauntings, is forced to visit that same mansion.  Brittney's mother is a best-selling author who writes self-help books, the first one documenting her awful relationship with her daughter, until "she turned her life around".  The only way Brittney can truly get out from under her mother's influence, is to earn enough money to be self-reliant.  She has to take this job, even though the "Miracle Mansion" is where her mother supposedly got better.  But Brittney knows better, and she knows it's all a sham.

Brittney decides to uncover what really happened in that mansion, and finally expose her mother's lies.  But she has another reason to visit that house....she wants to tell the story of a dead girl.


My Opinions:
First, I didn't realize this was YA until I started reading it, which isn't usually a problem, but I wrestled with the writing, the constant "black" this and that, the immature characters, and the crazy mothers.  I really struggled to get into this one...and it's long!

I didn't like the characters, even though the reason for their behaviour was because they were abused themselves.  They all had a rough up-bringing, and this lead to their actions.  I understand that, but I still didn't like them.  The theme that "they did the best they could" didn't cut it for me.  Some turned themselves around (eventually), but in most cases it was too late for me to care.  That being said, I really liked King.

The story is told in two time-lines.  Brittany's is current, and Daisy's is 10 years ago.  This was good, although I must say I enjoyed Daisy's much more than Brittany's.  I think Brittany's could have been wiped out altogether  (that would have shortened the book, anyway).

Yes, it is a ghost story -- and I absolutely loved that part.  It is also about friendship, and that was rather sweetly done.  It is about trying to do what is right, and really screwing up - that felt right.  However, it is also about mothers and daughters, and their rather intense and manipulative relationships.   It is about abuse.  It is about lies, deceit, manipulation and abandonment. Those were hard topics to read (maybe because I was just expecting a ghost story).

All that being said, and even though I struggled for the first 60% of this book (much, much too long), the last quarter was really good.  It just moved way too slowly.  It was still good, but, perhaps not for me -- I prefer horror to family dynamics....and the combination here didn't work for me.  I have this feeling I may be in the minority on this one, but it just wasn't what I was expecting.

Oh, and I loved the cover.

Wow.

THIS BOOK.

The emotional impact of Delicious Monsters is astonishing. Only one other book has effected me to this level and I described it in my review as my "perfect" book (A Wilderness of Stars by Shea Ernshaw, if you're wondering).

Delicious Monsters tells the story of three Black women in two times. In the present, we follow Brittany and her partner while they work on a new episode of their web series Haunted. This episode is called "Forgotten Black Girls" and focuses on Daisy and her story. Ten years in the past, we meet our other POV character, Daisy. She and her mother Grace move from Toronto into the house they've been waiting to be given. This house is the main focus of both POVs: in one, it's known as a spooky old house that is called dangerous by the people around it, and in the present, it's known as the "Miracle Mansion". The third important character is a bit of a surprise, so you'll have to read in order to find out about her.

Unlikable characters are an acquired taste, but I certainly have the palate for them. It was hard to read about the mother-daughter relationships in this novel, but they were a necessary part of the character development of both Daisy and Brittany. And it was most definitely worth waiting until the end to see what the conclusion was and who was truly lying and about what.

The horror element was subtle for a while but ramped up in the middle of the novel. It didn't shy away from actual ghosts, which was awesome. Daisy was a much more reliable narrator because we knew that she was telling the truth about seeing ghosts. And once the horror started, it didn't stop. The tension climbed up and up until the climax, which delivered a satisfying conclusion.

I'm honoured that I was chosen to get an ARC of Delicious Monsters. Getting to read this book and rant to you about it today is amazing. I love my Canadian authors and Liselle Sambury has proven to be one of my absolute favourites. I will be reading everything from her in the future. Please go give her some love - check out Delicious Monsters or her previous duology Blood Like Magic and Blood Like Fate.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for gifting me an ARC to read.

There are quite a few content warnings for this one. The author provides a full list at the very beginning of the book. CWs: child sexual assault (historical, minor details, discussed vaguely), abusive parent (historical, discussed in minor details), death, blood and injury

This was such an interesting read. In the beginning, I found that I was more intrigued by Brittney’s character, and her story of investigating Daisy and Grace, but also the house that her mom claims changed her. Brittney’s relationship with her mom is very strained, and her mother is manipulative and controlling. I thought that the author handled this really well, and there were a lot of subtle hints in the writing and character interactions to paint a picture without necessarily having to spell out everything between Brittney and her mom.
Once the story got moving more, I was fascinated by Daisy’s timeline. Daisy’s is the dominant timeline, and Brittney’s POV pops up every so often to update us with some information about Daisy and Grace, and also to shed light on some new secrets and mysteries. I really liked the interviews in Brittney’s POV, and the idea of the show was interesting.
Daisy was a tough character to root for in the beginning because she did whatever her mom said or needed. She didn’t have any ambition or desire to anything for herself, and reading the end of the book really made her character growth visible. I grew to like Daisy as I learned more about her, her mom, and the house.
This book mixes the supernatural with reality through psychics and ghosts. I thought this was done really well, and it added a really neat layer to the story.
I did struggle with the writing at times. I found sometimes that som phrases sounded off, or some words seemed to be mixed up. I’m going to assume it was because I was reading an ARC copy, and that it underwent some more edits. I did. get fully sucked into the creepy atmosphere given off by this strange house, and I had to know what was going on. I really liked that in the later POV we weren’t given any spoilers as to what had happened because it made for some fun twists as the story unfolded. I did. correctly predict some of the things that happened, but others surprised me.
I’d recommend this one to readers looking for a fascinating dive into the life of a girl who sees dead people and the strange house she and her mom inherit. If you’re looking for a book with secrets, mysteries, atmosphere, and strong Black girls learning to stand up for themselves, give this one a try.

A chilling horror that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I had some issues following the story when the perspective changed occasionally but otherwise, I enjoyed the story thoroughly. I would recommend that anyone with a bug phobia not to read this book as some scenes involve disturbing maggot imagery but for lovers of horror and reading books with diverse leads, this is absolutely for them.

Delicious Monsters is a dual POV/timeline story centering around Daisy and Brittney. Daisy has the ability to see dead people. Managing this ability in the big city of Toronto is difficult, so when her mother inherits a mansion in northern Ontario, Daisy is eager to escape. However, the house is not what Daisy expected and there are supernatural secrets lurking. Brittney, a decade later, is researching what happened at the mansion years prior. There are a lot of content warnings for this one, I would suggest reviewing storygraph before diving in.

The story certainly had interesting characters - I found myself interested in both Daisy and Brittney’s stories. I'm not sure if it was the writing style or the pacing but it took me a while to get into this one. I really loved the Northern Ontario vibes - reading books set in Canada, especially in places I've been to feels so special.

The book wasn't as creepy atmospherically as I thought it could be, it felt a bit anticlimactic in that regard. It really kept me from being fully hooked into the story. While there were definitely supernatural elements, the book was also full of terrible people. Toxic parents and trauma are both on-going themes throughout the story. One could definitely say ‘monsters’ is certainly subjective. The author does a great job at tackling these difficult topics, amongst others.

Overall, the ending was satisfying. There were some twists and turns that I didn't see coming. It was an enjoyable read. It didn’t necessarily blow me away as far as YA thrillers go, but it had its moments.

Thank you @netgalley and @simonschusterca for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Delicious Monsters is available now!

DNF @40%

It’s so beyond amazing so far however it is scarier then I am able to read due to it being set close to where I live making it far too real and I have a pretty strong need for tw’s for bugs especially bugs coming out of people and it became too triggering. I’d love to come back to this some day but I’m not there yet

I was drawn to Sambury's tale because of the promise of the exploration of not only mother-daughter relationships but also the presence that seems to make this house for lack of a better term, sentient, or at least needful in a certain way. I have always been drawn to books that portray inanimate pieces as somewhat alive and integral to the progression of the plot. And while I like what Sambury does here, I still feel that she left much to be desired when it came to the development of the house as a character. It all came back to the human characters, and while their interactions were fraught and had me frustrated, I still wanted more house.

She did well in carrying us through Daisy's broken relationships with herself and her mother, how the way in which her mother showed her affection led to the seeking of it in a person who ended up harming her. I wanted more of an established backstory of the mother and her own relationship with her mother and how that also affected the deterioration of her and her sister's relationship. Sambury tackled a lot in this one story, making it complex and heartfelt, but also managing to frustrate me with the lack of development of common sense in Daisy.

There was at times too much telling and leading of the reader, as if we needed everything spelt out and then in parts where we needed that development we never got it. Brittney is also supposed to be a major player in this story as well, but I felt as if she was just a sounding board for propelling Daisy and her mom's story. There was too little done in the way of developing her character arc and her mother's side of the story. Why did she do that? Did something happen to make her this way? Can she be helped?

I walked away form this one with too many questions which certainly could have been answered within the book to be truly satisfied.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Netgalley for sending me an eARC copy of this book!

3/5 Stars

This book had me intrigued as it was Haunting of Hill House meets Sadie, now I haven't read Sadie but Haunting of Hill house is my all time favorite show. That being said I think I held this book with too many expectations because of it. I did enjoy this book but it just was not what I was imagining.

At first I found the two POV's interesting but near the end I thought Brittney's POV contradicted Daisy's POV. Leading myself to think this book was a different type of book then what it was made to be. I think without Brittney's POV it would have held my interest longer, as the ghost house storyline would have kept me more enraptured with the story.

That being said this is quite a good YA paranormal book, very different from many of those within the same genre. If you are looking for an out of the box paranormal book or wanting something other then fantasy, I recommend checking this out.

Sambury is such an amazing writer. This psychological thriller just makes me more excited to go and finish Blood Like Magic. The ten-year apart timeline was also amazing. Both characters were compelling to read from and it was so good. This book was something else, and I loved it.

oh my god. this was amazing.

this was sooo different from the authors last novels but it was so good!!

this started off pretty slow but i loved the atmosphere and the characters so i didn’t mind. i thought that both daisy and brittney had a lot of depth to them and you could definitely see the similarities between the two.

this story deals with a lot of heavy topics. it’s a story about trauma. it made me feel disgusted and upset at times but it also made me happy to see some things work out in the end. daisy goes through so much and it was amazing to see the kind of person she becomes.

i also liked the switch in pov’s and the discussions about the web series!

also i love kings!!

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this read. Delicious Monsters. When going into any novel, I try to read as little of the synopsis that I can so that I can see the outcome of thing happening further on in the book while reading and not before I start reading the book. This book put me in the mind sense of White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson but it is not like that book. This is more of a present/ past story and it was really well done. I do not want to give anything away but it was easy to read the the book encourages you to keep reading as you go along. Well done!

Sambury is the successful Trinidadian-Canadian author of the YA series "Blood Like Magic". This new release is a supernatural psychological thriller. Set mostly in a rural area outside of Timmins, Ontario it features teenage Daisy and her mom and a haunted mansion. Daisy has always been able to see ghosts and the mansion is full of them. We also meet Brittany in a timeline set ten years later. She is part of a film crew that is doing a "Haunted" web series and is interested in finding out what happened to a young Black girl in the mansion ten years ago. This is a dark read that deals with abuse (both physical and sexual) and the relationship between mothers and daughters. It is a wonderful recommendation for the older teen and adult who enjoys supernatural stories with depth.I enjoyed it!

Delicious Monsters is a psychological thriller dripping in mystery that follows two teen girls immersed into the dark past of a mysterious mansion ten years apart.

“𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘦?”
𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘥.
“𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺.” 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘢𝘳. “𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮.”

Daisys mom Grace inherits a secluded mansion in Northern Ontario, but not without certain conditions. Daisy has the ability to see ghosts, and being in busy Toronto there are a lot of them. She decides that moving out to the mansion with provide a fresh start from her recent breakup, and she hopes that there will also be less ghosts around.
Daisy soon realizes she did not actually escape the supernatural at all, and that she may be no match for all of her mothers secrets found hiding in the deep dark corners of the house.

”𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘦, 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘦. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.”

A decade later, Brittany is finding her own way by hosting a web series called Haunted, and wants to expose her abusive mothers lies while uncovering what happened to a young black girl in the mansion 10 years prior. As she begins to discover more of the truth, she has to decide who’s story is more important; hers or Daisey’s.

As Brittney investigates the mansion in the present, Daisy’s story runs parallel in the past, both timelines propelling the girls to face the most dangerous monsters of all: those that hide in plain sight.



What did I love about this book?
-it was atmospheric
-ghosts/haunted house
-the character development
-the authors writing style!
-the emotions it gave me
-the Canadian setting
-3 different nods to Stephen King 🙌

What didn’t I like?
Not a whole lot to be honest. I did have some trouble figuring out a few things that were happening in the house and/or who was responsible but otherwise it was a very enjoyable read! 🙌

This one releases February 27th 🤩 and I highly recommend it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 stars from me 🫶.

The Blood Like Magic duology was one of my favourite reads of last year, so perhaps my expectations for this were a bit too high, but I definitely feel disappointed in Delicious Monsters despite it being a book that I did overall like and would recommend to horror fans.

Starting with what I liked most - similarly to Sambury's previous works, the themes explored in this novel are fantastic, and I think overall executed very well. Sambury has a way of writing complicated family dynamics and platonic relationships in particular that I really enjoy, and this was very much present here. One of my favourite dynamics in the book was Grace and Daisy's complicated mother-daughter relationship, followed very closely by King and Daisy's friendship.

Another thing I really love about Sambury's writing is that she really knows how to write an ending. Despite me having some issues throughout the book, the last couple of chapters came together in such a satisfying and cathartic way. I can definitely see this being a very emotional read for some, and I think if I'd been in the right mood, some tears could have been shed for me as well.

My main criticism of this book boils down to one thing - the execution. This book is told from dual timelines/POVs, and while I love this in theory, and felt like there was a lot of potential at the beginning, it ultimately just wasn't executed very well in my opinion. Firstly, we're told that the two timelines are approximately 10 years apart, but as I read the book, I honestly found it very difficult to place either POVs in the correct decade. It wasn't even that the author didn't include any cultural references that might place it in a time period, but more that the references did not actually place either timeline in the past or present. If we are to assume the "present" timeline is our present (the 2020s), then what's happening in the book feels a bit dated. But if we are to assume the "present" timeline is more like the 2010s, which is what it feels like, the "past" timeline has elements (ie. technologies/social media) that is not in line with what would've existed in the 2000s. At first I thought maybe this was intentional, and that the two timelines were actually the same timeline, but that wasn't the case.

Secondly, and more importantly, I feel as though the full potential of the dual POVs was not reached, and actually ended up negatively impacting the pacing of the story. I really loved the first few chapters when we flipped back and forth between Daisy and Brittney's POVs - I felt like the way the information was slowly revealed through both Daisy's life and the interviews that Brittney was conducting created a really nice suspenseful vibe, and I was also really intrigued by Brittney's character and wondering how her story might fit in with Daisy's. However, very quickly, I realized that the chapters were not going to be split evenly. They were skewed very heavily towards Daisy's POV (around 4 Daisy chapters per Brittney chapter), and I found myself constantly feeling like I needed another Brittney chapter to break things up a bit, and would be disappointed to turn the page to yet another Daisy chapter. The pacing of the book dragged on for me for the second half of the book because of this. I also felt like Brittney's relationships were severely underdeveloped compared to Daisy's, and as a result, some of the more emotional moments at the end did not feel earned - maybe this was intentional, but to me, it felt like something was missing.

Another thing that is a personal pet peeve of mine regarding the execution of the dual POVs - both POVs were written in first person, but the narrative voices were not distinct enough for my liking. I often found myself confused at whose chapter I was reading when I picked the book back up and was in the middle of a chapter. This is an issue I have with most first person multi-POV books, and unfortunately Delicious Monsters suffered from the same issue.

Overall though, I do still really recommend this book, especially for horror fans. I think that the horror elements were done extremely well - it's creepy, gory, and sometimes makes you feel sick, and all in the best way. Although I read an e-ARC of this, I really think this will be a great audiobook, and if I were ever to reread this, it would definitely be on audio. All in all, a decent book and I'll still be continuing to check out Sambury's future works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this eARC for review.

I loved this story. I would recommend than any reader peruse the content warnings provided by the author. It is dark and gritty at times, hopeful at others. The supernatural elements were understated and wonderfully subtle. I found the story very character driven and I wish we would have seen more of certain characters in the current timeline. I loved how the author subtly included information in the past that was referenced in the future. Some mentions were blatant. Others were less noticeable.

As a Canadian, I was also delighted to read a story with so many references to Canadian cities. While I’m from a smaller city in central Canada, it’s still nice to have that little taste of home.