This book was the most delightful, surprising, unhinged, funny and lovely adventure! A space opera, horror, found family, comedy and so many other labels that together escape all boundaries and conventions. Most of the time I had no idea where the story would go but I immediately bonded with Demeter, the very unlucky ghost ship. Each new character that is introduced brings more surprises and even more delight. We have a whole cast of monsters, systems and AIs and get all of their perspectives at perfect moments with their distinctive and fun voices. I laughed so many times reading this book but sometimes had my heartstrings pulled as well. If you’re looking for a unique, fun space adventure with mythical monsters, narrations from AI systems, a touch of body horror and a lot of surprises, this is THE book.

Thank you to Bindery Books, Ezeekat Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

This book was so damn fun to read. I absolutely devoured every word. I wasn’t depressed I just needed to read a book in AIs perspective who fights Dracula and werewolf’s

Truelove maintained the "classic monsters but in space" premise for far longer (and more deftly) than I would have expected, which was a lovely surprise. The AI's character arcs were a fun and unique throughline to contrast the vignette-style chaos of the monster shenanigans. Some of the humor didn't land for me, but it did add some levity to some very heavy explorations of identity, fate, and sentience. I would read ten more books about this crew!

4.5 stars rounded up!

This was truly one of the funnest books I have read so far this year. I loved the two AI characters and getting their POV. This book had everything I love- fantasy elements, sci-fi and adventure, witty banter, found family, LGBTQ rep, and multiple POV chapters.

I highly recommend this one! Thanks so much for the ARC!

Of Monsters and Mainframe by Barbara Truelove tells the story of a space ship, Demeter, as her ship’s passengers repeatedly are killed by paranormal creatures. Demeter, her medical AI named Steward, and a group of monsters seek to put an end to these events.

I went into this book thinking it was “Dracula in space” and it was but it was also so much more and better than just that.

The first half felt a bit slow in terms of moving the overall plot forward as it was setting up the full cast of characters and building insight into existing ones. But in terms of being interesting and fun to read while setting up the latter part of the book it was great. Almost every chapter I was wondering what the next surprise was going to be. I was never sure which monster was coming next and I loved that. The second half tied everything together and it left me very satisfied.

The relationship between Demeter and Steward was so much fun to read. I didn’t think I would be so invested in an AI relationship but I was wrong.

Overall, as someone who’d doesn’t usually read this style of book I was pleasantly surprised and glad that I picked this one up. If you enjoy suprises, humor, and monsters this books is for you.

Thank you Barbara Truelove, Bindery Books, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Sigh. I was lured by the exciting premise: AI and monsters in space!? These are a few of my favorite things, say less! But unfortunately, I found the execution of the story lacking. I found the plot and characters to be severely underdeveloped. The biggest unanswered question being why are all of these seemingly random monsters seeking out this spaceship? The pacing and writing is choppy. The abrupt POV switches are often difficult to follow, particularly because several of the characters do not have distinct enough voices. For a large chunk of the novel it is the same plot points on repeat and it gets redundant quickly. And when the plot leaps forward, it does so with swift resolution without sufficient storytelling to build it. For example, there are two romantic relationships that feel as if they are airdropped into the book toward the end. We didn't see them develop at all. I wanted to like, nay love, this book. But it was a bit of a mess and needed stronger editing.

interesting! not something i would usually pick up- but was interested because of the techy aspects and the possibility of sapphic ai. unfortunately, the writing style was somewhat juvenile (for me) and the book was not very gay. the first half of the book is vignettes catching you up to speed for the main action. this section was more annoying to me, but i got slightly more into the book later. overall a creative concept with okay execution.

thanks bindery books and netgalley for the eARC.

Demeter believes she’s good at her job as a transport ship, but unfortunately she’s not coded to contend with monsters. Yet. We follow Demeter through a series of journeys where her passengers and crew are befell with different monsters and tragedies and we watch a ragtag family form intent on destroying Dracula.

Truelove’s Of Monsters and Mainframes is like fireworks - bright, beautiful, and explosive. The story and characters are unabashedly queer, bringing new life to old stories like Dracula, Frankenstein, and Little Red Riding Hood. Every perspective was so fun to be within and the adventure itself was wild and entertaining as a whole. I feel like the colorful, bold cover is a perfect representation for what vibe to expect within these pages.

As the book went on, though, jumping from one perspective to another grew increasingly confusing. Each part is dominated by a first person perspective from one character with brief interludes from other characters and towards the end those jumps between perspectives grow more common. Those perspectives were great and the best way to convey the story but the formatting meant if I put down the book during an interlude, when I came back it took me a second to remember whose perspective was whose again since they are all in first person.

This also has just a general pacing problem. Because we start with Demeter at the very beginning of her journey and the rest of the characters are picked up gradually, this feels like several stories shoved into one book. It might have worked better as a series of novellas. The ending also felt like there were a handful of false ends before it was really over. Little interludes from characters whose endings were already hinted at well enough that it felt redundant to spend the extra few pages with them by that point.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was so fun and exactly as goofy and heartfelt as I expected. It’s not hard sci-fi or broodingly serious and that serves the story perfectly. I cannot wait to force my friends to read this.

Thank you to Bindery and NetGalley for this eARC given in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions here are my own.

What an absolutely fun story!

"Of Monsters and Mainframes" by Barbara Truelove is definitely not similar to what I typically read, so when I requested an advanced copy, I was taking a leap of faith. I mean, look at that cover - it's just asking to be read! And yes, I do judge books by their cover, but only in the way that very cool covers make me WANT to read the book more.

It was honestly a pretty quick read, and the humor in it was really refreshing; Zany or quirky comes to mind as a one-word descriptor. I will say that for the first bit of the story, it kind of felt like a bunch of short accounts of Demeter's voyages and I didn't really see how any of them would influence the next or the story overall. But honestly, just buckle in for the ride because it all makes sense in the end!

And the characters? Superb! I was just absolutely taken by Demeter and Steward, as well as the whole rest of the cast - there's not a character that I felt was unnecessary.

This book comes out on June 3, 2025 and I highly recommend you check it out!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a charming book!
Full of banter, unexpected characters, a few binary tears/bad words and one (well a few) wild ride(s).

If you loved hitchhikers guide to the galaxy and lovecraftian monsters, you’ll devour this.

“Of Monsters and Mainframes” by Barbara Truelove is a super fun and totally unique mix of sci-fi and horror with a queer twist. The story follows Demeter, a spaceship just trying to do her job, moving humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. But when her passengers start mysteriously dying, she discovers that Dracula is behind it. To stop him, Demeter and her AI medical system, Steward, team up with a group of paranormal misfits: a werewolf, an engineer made from dead bodies, a powerful mummy, a vampire with a grudge, and a bunch of helpful spider drones. The book is full of action, humor, and heart.

I had such a blast reading this book. The writing was super engaging and full of personality. Every character felt unique and had a strong voice, which made switching between their points of view really fun. I loved the mix of classic monsters in a futuristic space setting. It was creative, exciting, and had just the right amount of chaos. The friendships felt real and the sapphic romance was adorable. My only small issue was with the pacing. The time jumps sometimes made the story feel rushed or choppy. But even with that, I still had a great time and would recommend this to anyone who enjoys monster mayhem, space adventures, and queer stories full of heart.

Thank you to NetGalley & Bindery press for the E-ARC!!

I reallllly enjoyed this book. It had cult classic horror references, quippy AIs, enjoyable MCs, and a little bit of sapphic romance. This book was different than anything I’d read before and is one of my new favorite sci-fi books I’ve read!!

Demeter is a passenger spaceship. Her job is to take humans from Earth to Alpha Centaur. Unfortunately for her the humans keep dying, but not in the normal way humans might die as a part of space travel like equipment failure. No, they are being murdered by Dracula. To avoid being decommissioned Demeter puts together a crew of her own supernatural creatures and a medical AI that is beyond done with this whole situation. Together they join up for a revenge plot against the evil creature that has been attacking the ship.

I will be so honest. I don't quite know where to start with one but I loved it! There are multiple ancient supernatural creatures and a couple computer systems going up against each other. But at its heart this a deeply emotional book about love and found family. It is so sweet and laugh out loud funny. I have already pre-ordered the audiobook. I can't wait to do a pride month reread! Jaysen has been killing it with his Bindery picks. I will be looking forward to reading more from Barbara in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bindery Books and Ezeekat Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to NewSouth Books for sending me a physical copy of this one and Bindery Books for the e-ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This was such a fun, thrilling, wild ride of a book. I was absolutely hooked from the start.

This is a mashup of pulp horror and sci-fi and it’s absolutely brilliant. There’s plenty of versions of familiar characters from horror classics mixed in with some new characters that truly bring this story to life.

Demeter and Steward had my whole heart. Their weird rivalry/enemies to lovers thing was absolutely wonderful, especially because nothing about this journey is linear and straightforward for them. But gosh I loved them. So, so much. Two AI’s changing their own programming to fall in love???? C’mon.

Agnus and Frank were also absolutely brilliant and really stood out for me in this story. Frank in particular just made me wanna hug them so much.

This book has such a found family vibe by the end and I would genuinely love to read stories of these mad beings adventuring through space.

I was so completely charmed by Barbara Truelove's Of Monsters and Mainframes (publication day June 3, 2025) that I just about read it in a single sitting! Space travel meets vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein, a mummy, and cthulhu-people!

Primarily told from the perspective of two spaceship AIs, with interludes told from the perspectives of others who interact with them--the first is Demeter, the AI who controls a passenger ship, and the second is the medical AI, known as Steward. Demeter travels back and forth between Earth and Alpha Centauri, a several-years long voyage. She is designed to control the ship, but not to talk to humans so much, that's Steward's specialty, but she has primary command and has the bad habit of shutting Steward down when she is done communicating with him.

Demeter's first indication of trouble as she approaches Alpha Centauri is that there are far more resources than there should be--she then investigates and determines that all of her passengers are dead. But she has no idea what has happened and it takes her a bit to find the video feed that could help her. But she docks anyway, and something weird--maybe a big black dog, definitely not human--runs through the airlock and disappears onto Alpha Centauri. But the video feed recorded nothing.

Demeter is then is nicknamed the "Ghost Ship" and stored for several years. When she wakes, she has a new serial number and is being readied for a trip back to Earth. This time, she is determined to complete her mission safely for all of the humans on board. But then her sensors tell her something is wrong, and when she is able to try to figure out what happened, there are only two remaining humans alive, a brother and sister ages 8 and 13, Isaac and Agnus, and they are in grave danger from what seems to be--a werewolf?

Demeter gets them back to Earth safely, with the help of Steward and some spider drones that she brings inside, and she watches Isaac and Agnus like she's never watched humans before.

On Demeter and Steward's next trip, after Demeter has been "optimized", Steward is left to deal with humans acting very strangely--they seem to be turning into fish, and have taken over navigation, steering them somewhere other than Alpha Centauri. They've damaged the radiation shields, and after optimization, Demeter isn't willing to consider thinking outside the box.

When Steward next wakes, he is communicating with a cyborg named Frankenstein and his pet spider drone. And when they leave Earth, an ancient Egyptian evil with a thirst for human flesh named Steve is in a compartment with Agnus, who is finally leaving Earth and making the trip back to Alpha Centauri.

There is much more, including the need to hunt down the vampire that killed everyone on Demeter's first encounter with Earth monsters. I loved it!

And it was completely weight-neutral, not a mention of fatness in a negative way at all.

You might read the title and/or blurb and think that a book about a space ship AI interacting with mythological beings like vampires and mummies might be fairly ridiculous and downright absurd. And to be fair, you’d be right, in a downright delightful way! And along with the quirky silliness comes some excellent storytelling, delightful found family, and sci-fi hijinx.

I was hooked from the first page, which I needed to use a binary translator to read. We start off with a mystery: a space ship AI realizing all of the humans on board are no longer alive. This is the start of conversation between the ship AI and the medical bay AI, as well as what some might consider a curse and others might just view as interstellar bad luck.

Through several voyages between Earth and Alpha Centauri B Habitation 004, we get more of the AI personalities, meet new and wonderful side characters, and experience more space related shenanigans. We also dive into deeper topics like self-worth, identity, and the meaning of our existence. One reason I love sci-fi is that we often get to grapple with aspects of humanity by means of nonhuman characters, and this book did so while also keeping the tone light and absurd in the best sort of way. I mean, where else can you ponder the meaning of life while solving yet another space murder at the hands of a creature that should only exist in stories?

I loved this unique melding of myth and science fiction, and I’m so interested to see what else Barbara Truelove has brewing in that creative brain!

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Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery for the chance to read and review this one.

What do and unhinged AI, a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy, and a Frankenstein-esque character have in common?
If you guessed “be gay do crime” you’d be mostly correct.

Featuring an interesting medley of monsters in a spaceship with two separate sentient AI who commit a medley of interstellar crimes Of Monsters and Mainframes was one of the most unique stories I’ve ever read. This book also had some of the most unhinged and dry wit and sarcasm I’ve ever read and I loved every second of it.

Unfortunately this book didn’t hit quite as much as I wanted it to. The pacing was a bit of a struggle for me as it had a number of time skips that were a little confusing at times. I also found it difficult to connect to any of the characters, but I think that’s a me issue. ( I kept expecting that there would be a central human or human adjacent character. There definitely is, but I struggled with them not being the main POV)

Overall I really enjoyed this one, and I’m giving it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This definitely felt like a very unique read to me as it was a sci-fi adventure with classic horror twists! I loved how this book explored the different genres in a new way.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery for early copy for review*

This is a wonderful cross of genres such as sci-fi, paranormal and cozy-horror. The adding of classic monsters was also interesting and made me wonder who we would run into next. Being stuck in only Demeter's point of view was very limiting at first. With their limited view of the world and being stuck behind protocols felt very jarring. Also learning later what AI see when the view some monsters made that part make more sense. For the most part I enjoyed the way the story was told. Each part felt like a short story with an ultimate climax in the last part. However, it can feel repetitive so be warned about that. For the most part this was enjoyable and includes a found family element that I really love.

5 ⭐

For fans of Gideon the Ninth and the Murderbot Diaries.

🧠🧛‍♂️✨🐺💀🚀🩸

Following an interesting plotline where a sentient ship finds out all of her passengers are killed by none other than...Dracula, and what can they do when no one believes them?
This has an interesting cast following a few misunderstood ‘villains’ from some beloved literary classics. It is multi-pov with space-opera-esque vibes and a not-so-cozy cozy book with unexpected and unpredictable twists and turns. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to cry over misunderstood spaceships and spider bots with anxiety or a questionably ethical sentient art piece.

This book is a mish-mash of some of the weirdest and craziest elements and plots, but it somehow works.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bindery Books for an early proof in exchange for an honest review.

A few of my favourite quotes worth mentioning;

I see dozens more people, all of them in various states of fish. And then I see a bunch of humans that look refreshingly like humans. Unfortunately, they're all dead.

Frank is hugging their spider drone, humming comfortingly in Morse code.

I decide, then and there, to love them. I've never loved before. Love is not a standard component of my programming......For them, I think I can patch in a love designation.