This quirky book is unlike anything I've read before and despite not being my usual genre, I truly enjoyed it.

4.25 stars

If you look for a multitude of things, you might be arriving at the right ship!
You’ll get monsters and space and a lot of things to think and also a bit of bops to just find funny. It is an incredibly well balanced book which portrays the story, its characters and the weird marvellous adventure in a very graspable way. And graspable in a sense - It feels like you’re right there!

Of Monsters and Mainframes is a great book which mixes the supernatural with scifi in a way that even I, someone who usually stays out of scifi, enjoys it to the T!

I loved the narrative voice, and it was a lot of fun. However, I would have liked a bit more narrative logic woven through all this referencial game. Especially concerning one particular ancient... You have to be very very very patient to finally hear from those again.

Overall I have pretty mixed feelings about this book. The premise sounded amazing and I really enjoyed parts of the book but there were a couple of things I didn’t enjoy.

What I liked: there was a fun and quirky group of main characters. I enjoyed that the ship (Demeter) and a medical AI were both main characters that are POV characters most of the time. The plot was also relatively interesting though this is where I started to have some issues with the book.

What I didn’t like: the plot. This is definitely more about the vibes than the plot which I usually like but I just wasn’t a fan of the execution here. Basically there are massive time jumps and the narrative is incredibly broken up which made it hard to care much about the main objectives of the characters. The main goal of the book is to kill Dracula and I felt like this was sort of an afterthought.

Read this book if: you like found family, non-traditional timelines, books that are very “meta” and pull from other stories.

This wasn’t my favorite but I think some people will really enjoy it!

A delightful blend of space adventures and well known Victorian monsters, Of Monsters and Mainframes was a never-ending rollercoaster! Poor sentient ship Demeter just wants to complete her voyage, but wait, are all the humans aboard dead? What?

Demeter soon figures out what the reader has known as soon as the listing of "soil" is listed as cargo: that Dracula is aboard and that, clearly, Demeter needs help to defeat this ancient evil.

I love how from the beginning, Demeter's personality is so well defined. She's determined to figure this out, to ignore the continued "everything is fine" coming from the other computer systems, and clever enough to know that to fight a monster, you need a bunch of monsters.

My first book by Barbara Truelove, but not my last.

Demeter is a spaceship AI and she really can't catch a break. She has to deal with the feisty medical AI, bullying from other ships, and, weirdly, her voyages keep killing off her human passengers. It all started with the vampire Dracula, and though Demeter isn't programmed for revenge, for this monster, she'll make an exception. As the supernatural predators leave bodies stacking up, Demeter gets a reputation as a ghost ship. To fight a monster, she may need to assemble her own team of supernatural beings.

This was such a delight of a novel! Sci-fi with a bit of horror and a strong dose of dry comedy, this was a fun ride. As the reader, you have a lot of Demeter's POV, but you get short interjections from other POVs too. Give this a read if you enjoy:
- allusions to classic horror monsters (reimagined in the future and space)
- snarky AI humor
- found family
- pirates
- fish out of water situations/not programmed for this

Thank you to Bindery Books and Ezeekat Press for an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. This book will be published on 6/3/25. I'll be posting to Instagram shortly.

Being an AI of a spaceship is a straightforward job that Demeter does well. Until the said ship is en route to the destination, but no humans are alive. What happened? When did this happen? Why was she asleep?
It is years later. The same ship, the same route, everything is as it is supposed to be. Or is it? There are only 2 humans alive and a mystery shadow trying to kill them. Is the ship cursed? Or possessed?

I went into this book for the sci-fi, space travel adventure with a slaughter mystery. I came out with a found family and a weird attachment to 2 AIs. And on top of that - I’m not sure if I would ever sign up for a multi-year space travel from one habitation to another. Especially when as a passenger you cannot escape the weirdos.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery for this ARC in exchange of an honest review.

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.