Thank you to Hachette Book Group, The Hive, and Harper Collins for the gifted copy!

This was finished in nearly just one sitting. Absolutely riveting, engaging, and exciting. I'll never look at butterflies the same way again.

🖤🖤🖤🖤
4/5

This was a captivating story that had me sucked in from the beginning. The setting is what really drew me in once Ricardo was in Milan. Yiğit Turhan’s writing in this flowed so well & I found myself turning page after page. (Definitely stayed up way past my bedtime once or twice while reading this one)

Ricardo, an aspiring writer, finds himself back at the Milan villa that he grew up in with his grandparents before he was sent to boarding school. With his grandmother recently passing, he is the sole family member left to inherit her house, money, & all belongings. But her friends that she’s left behind are acting a bit odd…and while searching her room, he finds a manuscript that seems to be a fantasy embellishment of her life’s story. Or is it actually the reality of her life?

Thoughts I have after reading this…

🦋 I will never look at a butterfly the same after reading this

📖 THE ENDING. WHAT. 🤯 not what I was expecting at all!

💔 I was rooting for Lorenzo & Ricardo the whole time. The romance lover in me always wants a love story in every book now.

🐛 was Monarch the real monster in this? Or was it the humans? I’m leaning towards the humans.

🖊️ the story of the manuscript was so enchanting and captivating! I wanted more every time it ended. I really love books that include manuscripts, journals, letters, etc. So, this was a big plus for me.

🖤 overall, I really delighted in reading this mystifying book! I would recommend this to anyone that is starting to get into horror or to those that enjoy horror with a touch of magic & fantasy!

I was hooked from the beginning!!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

"A haunting novel about the boundaries people will cross to keep their dreams alive."
Their Monstrous Hearts is a page turner from beginning to end that had me captivated. Riccardo is a writer that is struggling but he ends up inheriting his grandmother's villa in Millian but things aren't what they seem. The book was written well and all of the characters in this were interesting. I highly enjoyed this one and would recommend to any reader who loves horror. Thank you to The Hive for the paperback book and to NetGalley and The Hive for the ebook in exchange of my honest review of Their Monstrous Hearts by Yiğit Turhan.

Thank you to Hachette Book Group, The Hive, and Harper Collins for the gifted copy!

Thriller • Gothic • Horror

“Nobody runs away from fate, my dear,”

How far will you go for your dreams? What’s the line you can’t cross? And what might push you to cross it?

The cover caught my attention. My curiosity made me want to know more. The premise is interesting but had a hard time keeping my attention for most of the story. It’s a very slow burn and doesn’t pick up until the last 25-30%. Also I think I expected a different take. More traditional horror, which it’s not. But this is creepy. A bit eerie. Somewhat dark. I liked the vibes and secrets. Also the poignant message at the end. How we utilize our very short time on this planet matters. I was very touched by the author’s note.

“For in the face of fear, the true test of our character lies not in succumbing to it but in finding the strength to overcome and emerge transformed on the other side.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Their Monstrous Hearts by Yiğit Turhan is a captivating gothic tale that left me spellbound. This darkly alluring book blurs the lines between fantasy and horror, creating a dazzling and haunting spectacle. Turhan skillfully weaves a beautiful story that explores the delicate balance between blessings and curses. Nostalgic and harrowing, this novel will forever change the way you view butterflies.

DNF @ 40%

The story is so very disjointed and confusing and I’m bored reading this right now.

Thank you to the publisher for an eARC and ALC. all thoughts are my own.

A gothic story about just how far one will go to to keep their dreams alive. A poor writer named Riccardo, who is behind on his bills, suffering from writer's block with a loom date due, finds inspiration when a stranger appears telling him that his grandmother Perihan has died and he has inherited her villa in Milan along with her famous butterfly collection. Riccardo has no other choice and when he gets there he finds her manuscript.... a manuscript detailing her past yet with fantasy elements... and soon he begins to question how exactly she died and what he will do with her manuscript since he needs one for himself.... and the answers will kill him. This was a slow burn gothic read and I definitely think this is a cozy summer horror read and would make a fun gothic movie. It's a slow build and the final twist was so much fun. I really enjoyed the ending and I loved the "monstrous butterflies" of it all. As a fan of gothic horror, this was a nice easy read!

Release Date: April 8, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I’m going to be completely honest with you, I DNF around 10%.

I didn’t enjoy the writing enough to make myself power through. It seemed to be written in a juvenile manner where the adjectives were repetitive and the characters’ emotions were exaggerated.
The cover is beautiful, but I wasn’t interested enough in the substance of the story to keep reading.
Because I didn’t make it far, I will likely not be featuring this book on my bookstagram page, thank you for understanding and for letting me try this one out. I really appreciate the opportunity!

**2.5 STARS**

Content Warning: body horror, death, murder, insect horror

+ I almost DNF’d this at 30% – it is so slow of a mystery and yet I was intrigued by Riccardo who is a struggling and poor writer who is on a tight deadline with no manuscript to show for it. His grandmother passes, and leaves him her home in Milan, Italy. With no money and too much stress, he goes thinking he can write while he is there but instead he finds a manuscript written by his grandmother, Perihan.

+ I did find Perihan’s manuscript interesting because of the time it’s written in the past and also she is from Turkey. Her life is hard from the start but it takes her to Milan where life really flourishes for her. I couldn’t tell at first if she was a good person or not. Riccardo is doing no writing but he is reading this manuscript and learning a lot about his grandmother’s life.

+ The horror and the twist comes at the end. It’s a crazy ending! But if you don’t like monstrous butterflies, stay away from this one.

~ Like I said above, this was almost a DNF. I didn’t though and skimmed until 70% into the book where everything starts picking up. I’m already not one who enjoys mystery books, and I struggled because this one is a slow one, but I just wanted something to happen in the first half with Riccardo either staring to right his book or some horror at the start. But this is a slow building horror story that ends with a bang.

Final Thoughts:

I don’t think I was the target audience for this book. For me, it was too slow for the first two-thirds of this book. I did find the characters and Perihan’s life very fascinating and the ending is wild. If you like slow building mystery and horror then you might enjoy this one.

Their Monsterous Hearts by Yigit Turhan is an unexpected story that will keep your on edge. Gothic stories usually are not my thing , but this story made me change my mind !

2.5 stars. The first about 50% of this book dragged on forever. I love a gothic book; so normally it's no big deal for a slow start, but there weren't enough little intriguing tidbits or creepy things to help with the pacing. It doesn't help that our main character (? debatable he feels more like a side character in his own story), Riccardo, is unlikeable and not in the fun way. He is just kind of boring. A down on his luck author with writer's block who is told that he inherited a house but is acting like it's the worst thing in the world when his life in Paris is basically imploding. I had very little patience for him. After about the 50% mark we get more interesting slices of Perihan's manuscript which tell an interesting story of butterfly monsters and immortality. It wasn't enough to make up for the other 50% and I found the ending a bit meh. I actually think this book would be successful as a short film or even a graphic novel. Not the best gothic horror I've read and not the worst, Their Monstrous Hearts suffers from taking too long to get to a point and not being interesting enough before we can get to the main event.

Sadly this was not a book for me. I didn't particularly find any of the characters engaging or compelling, and there wasn't enough plot development to help move things along. The premise totally drew me in, and I wish I had enjoyed it better than I did.

To say I loved this would be an exaggeration, but I did enjoy it. I thought the PoV was unique and the story was eerie throughout.

Riccardo had the worst luck in family and I feel no shame in saying I was pulling for him. The story telling was good, but the ending was very unsatisfying. I really wanted Riccardo to come out on top where he could use this experience to turn his life around - even if he was a bit defeatist and melancholy.

This is again one of those stories where the title has you thinking of monsters, but throughout the journey you realize that humans and their insatiable greed and selfishness are the real monsters.

I felt so bad for the “monster” of the story. She lived a horrible existence with Parihan because of her abilities and ended up being belittled and used up by the end.

Note: I dual read this one: physical and audio. The audio was good and I liked how it switched back and forth from the mail and female narratives.

Who knew a butterfly could be so dangerous? This is an extremely unique book, the likes of which I've never really come across before, though that might be because my journey into horror is a new one. it starts off almost cozy, gentle. the life of a starving artist, quite literally! the more you read, the more things start to go... odd. the world starts to press in. the events start to get weirder and weirder. the uncanny valley feeling through the entire book makes you feel unsettled and unsure, and then the body horror starts and you realize the whole book is set up like a nightmare. everything feels a little wrong, and you know it's not real but your worried and uncertain anyway. we follow a young man, uncovering an impossible tale of his late grandmothers life, all while the household staff flutters about with their own dark secret. and of course, the mystery of how all of these people are connected, is definitely part of the charm.

be warned, don't read before bed. nightmares of butterflies are probably the most unsettling thing I've experienced.

Riccardo, a struggling writer, has just had the electricity turned off in his Paris apartment when a mysterious stranger shows up at his door with news. Perihan,. Riccardo's grandmother, has passed away and left him her villa in Milan and her butterfly collection. Without options, Riccardo returns to Milan to claim his inheritance.
But the people Perihan surrounded herself with are very odd and lurking and always keeping tabs on Riccardo. And something is DEFINITELY wrong with the greenhouse. Nothing is quite what Riccardo remembers from childhood. Before the funeral, Riccardo stumbles upon Perihan's journal and is delighted to find out that she was also a writer. Because the story she weaves couldn't be real. Or could it?
I'm going to need more from Yigit Turhan! The writing was exquisite and this author definitely knows how to weave a story. Definitely a favorite so far for 2025.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and MIRA for this digital e-arc.*

DNF @ 51%

I really tried to get into this one but just couldn't. It's the slowest of slow burns and it felt like nothing was happening. There was a lot of telling rather telling; even when the build up was done well it would be capped by a sentence telling you exactly what the author wants you to think about that particular thing. I'm not sure if this is lost in translation thing since this is apparently the authors first book in English but there as just nothing that grabbed my attention.


Thanks MIRA and Harlequin audio for providing this ARC to me!

Initially, I was intrigued by the cover and was ready to fully jump into a world of creepy butterflies, eerie villas, and mysterious characters. However, this “horror” was filled with confusing time jumps, odd writing, and bland characters that had absolutely NO DEPTH.

I’m kind of bummed because I’ve been itching to read a horror, and was excited to get alllllll the spookiness! It just fell completely flat for me. I found myself skimming more pages than not and pushed through only to find out…it really didn’t get better.

Oh well.

I really struggled through this book. I'm just left feeling very...confused? This was surrealist and lyrical, but the story got swallowed up by that. I almost wonder if it's the fact that this seems to be translated (from Turkish, I'm assuming) because it just doesn't feel like it makes any sense in English. I wonder if this is a case where the book in the language it was created in would be a lot more cohesive. Either way, the characters were not compelling and because the prose was so confusing and hard to parse through, there wasn't really a sense of horror or atmosphere. I can see bits and pieces of the intention behind the story, but as it stands it just wasn't very good. I love the cover, though, and I do think it's wildly important that we continue to translate and share literature and media that isn't English-first. I'm only sorry that I didn't enjoy this for what it was.

It's me, I'm the April Fool's joke for thinking this would be a creepy butterfly book :) :)

I'm not sure if it was a language barrier but I truly have no idea what happened in this book. I went in expecting a hidden manuscript and butterfly horror. And got...Plato and Sylvia Plath, Something Bad Happened at a circus, an angel (??), name-dropping high-end fashion labels, curing cancer with..butterflies (??), using butterflies as some really heavy-handed and convoluted metaphor for change and growing (and possibly taking over bodies?? idk)

This was a mess.