Eleven-year-old Glory Brown is desperate for adventure far from her family’s quaint, quiet life at The Light Inn. Generations of Browns have been stewards of this humble hotel, which acts as a sanctuary in the stretch of monster-filled land called the Seam. But Glory wants nothing more than to learn how to use her Moxie, a special magic only kids have, and to train to become a Spherinaut like her mother, exploring and documenting the perilous depths of the Outersphere.

When a mysterious boy named Marcus appears one day on a top-secret mission for the Parliamentarium – the school for aspiring Spherinauts – Glory packs up her beloved books and sets off on a once-in-a-lifetime journey that will shuttle her across time and space…and reveal new dangers lurking in the worlds beyond the Seam.

For there’s mischief afoot that’s threatening the balance between the worlds, its magic, and its monsters. And it’s up to Glory to find a solution before it’s too late.

My Take:
I liked how immediately imaginative the book was with imagery and vocabulary- in some ways, it was like traveling to Oz. That said, at times, I did get a bit discombobulated and would have benefitted from a reading guide and glossary to help remind me of terms and keep track of the whoseits and whatsits that the book provided. That said, I could see a middle school reading group reading this as a class and creating projects around the it. I would recommend it for that purpose.

This book had so much potential and I was hoping for so much more than I got from it.

There was way to much in the book to follow everything just kinda turned into a mess of information to the point I felt like to even follow the plot I needed to pull out a notepad and keep notes.

Personally I want to relax and enjoy a book while I read it not have to stop and write down information to keep track of what is what and what is going on.

I find it hard to believe that the demographic that this book was written for would be able to follow this book without getting heavily confused.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Roaring Brook Press for the arc.

Where There Be Monsters is a great fantasy debut for young readers. I love the diversity and representation in this book with Glory, the strong female main character who is a young black girl who can do magic. Seeing through her eyes I think she is a character young readers can look up to. I would have loved to be able to read Where There Be Monsters growing up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for this ARC. This is an honest review.

Rating: Really Enjoyed It, 4 Stars

Where There be Monsters by Alby C Williams was an absolute delight. In this we follow Glory Brown, a mazy-headed (neurodivergent) young girl, living at her parent's inn for travelers of the Outersphere. One day she is in her back garden, in the midst of a monster surge, when a young, lost boy comes through the hedge, seeking a safe place to hide from the Level 4 monster that is chasing him. Glory takes him in, and learns that he is a Parlimentarian (world walker) who has been cursed. She travels with him to help him find a way to get back to his school and break the curse.

This was a grand old time. I greatly enjoyed following Glory as a main character. She is neurodivergent and has a different way of seeing the world, which I thought was handled really well. I thought it was really interesting viewing her friendship with Marcus through her eyes. She overreacts and interprets things very differently, which led to a lot of conflict. But I loved that they worked through it and that multiple different adults helped bridge that gap in understanding.

Honestly, that was probably one of my favorite things about this book was that the adults actually did things. The children are a big focal point because they have Moxie, which repells monsters, but the adults are still right there along with them, trying to figure out how to stop this monster surge, break the curse, and sort out the government corruption. Her mom at one point encourages her to run her plans past an adult to make sure they make sense. I loved how much her family loved and supported her through everything that goes down.

I found this to be a super interesting world with monsters, Monsterfolk, world traversing, curses, magic berries, glowing birds, and a magic school. I thought it was creative and fun to explore with Glory.

I think that my main complaint with this one was that it started out super strong, but there were so many different threads that it sort of got bogged down with the different storylines. There was a lot going on for the story that was being told, and I feel like that led to some of the pieces feeling rushed or not as fleshed out as it could have been.

Thank you to Netgalley and Roaring Book Press for an eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Where There be Monsters releases on May 6, 2025.

This is a fantastic introduction to fantasy for young readers and an amazing start to a new series. The world building was phenomenal! This was such a fun read! I throughly enjoyed this book from start to finish!

Read this to my 9yo and we both really loved it. The magic/political system was a tiny bit complicated but we stuck with it. I think a slightly longer introduction to what the Green Book was would be helpful for uninformed readers. I had to do some extra explaining for my son, but it’s a powerful analogy. Glory is a fantastic main character and we were rooting so hard for her to save the day. I think my son really liked the magical animals/monsters and the SECRET PASSAGE! We laughed and cheered and as a mom I cried really hard at the end lol.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

First off, I am not the intended audience for this book, but I do enjoy fantasy whether it be middle grade, YA, or adult so I wanted to read this one based on the description. I was really disappointed.

There is very little about The Light Inn and what the Browns do there. Same goes for the Brown Book. The play off of the Green Book was such a creative idea that I think this is a missed opportunity to build up the story.

I'm not sure what Glory wants to learn about using her Moxie because based on the description of it, Moxie is just that kids repel monsters and adults don't. There didn't seem to be any "using" of it.

The "mazy headed" thing was confusing and calling it that was off-putting. It took me awhile to understand that she meant that her mind was like a maze, so her thinking was often all over the place. I don't know if the intended audience will understand that.

There were also way too many different things to keep track of that the story was muddled (Moxie and monsters and Monsterfolk and Spherinauts and Parlimentarium and Dominarium and orreries and curses and nightshine berries and on and on). It was too much to focus on.

Lastly, the Parlimentarium and it's Houses were very much Hogwarts, the Dominarium was very much the Ministry of Magic, and the plant monster/mandrake was very much the Demogorgon from Stranger Things.

This is such a beautiful book, it made me cry, it wasn't sad but it made me cry. I think young readers will see themselves in Glory and Alby C. Williams had such a way of making The Seam come to life. This is not only a lovely story, it is an important one and I am so just excited for it.

Where There Be Monsters is a sweet, lovely adventure for young readers in the magic + boarding school + evil government administrators mold that centers Black and Brown characters, has a neurodivergent main character, and includes a nonbinary character. Glory lives on the Seam, a world where magic is abundant and where people settled after fleeing Earth. There, her mother publishes the Brown Book, an analogue to Earth's Green Book, which helps travelers across the local planetary system navigate its places safely. When a boy pops up near Glory's home, an inn, and is being chased by monsters, Glory's desire to help sends them on a trip through multiple worlds, where they uncover corruption and avarice before making important magical discoveries and setting things right. At times, it maps a bit too closely on other books in this genre, like Harry Potter, and makes me wonder if it began as fan fic, but even so, it's a fun read.

This was an absolute delight to read. I loved every minute of it. The characters were charming and engaging, the story fun and thoughtful. I saw a lot of myself in Glory as a young bookworm who also yearned for adventure and travel. The magic elements were so much fun to read. I can't recommend this enough.

So glad this is a series. Cannot wait for the next one, this would make a great streaming series too.

Glory dreams of becoming a Spherinaut and searching for and studying magical creatures. Her mom is the greatest Spherinaut today and people across all the lands reference the Brown Books her ancestors have written to navigate an uncertain world. Glory knows something strange is going on with magic as she’s frightened by a small, tree-like creature in the Light Inn’s garden. Most of the monsters she knows are friends to humans but there are level four beasts that are wild and dangerous. There’s clearly a surge of feral monsters happening but this outbreak doesn’t seem to be from natural causes.
All children are born with Moxie which Glory’s parents believe is connected to curiosity. Older people lose their Moxie so readers might infer this means adults are less inquisitive. For some reason, monsters are repelled by Moxie so Glory feels protected from potential dangers she might face in the world. Glory’s mind tends to jump around from thought to thought, her father calls it mazy head, and he often reminds her to slow down. Young readers will admire Glory’s desire to find answers and her determination to explore the Outersphere. Her family’s motto is “Let kindness be your guiding light and knowledge be your shelter”. Glory’s an obedient daughter and is proud that she doesn’t know how to lie but is she willing to disobey her parents and help a person in need? Glory is another young character in a middle-grade book who doesn’t fully appreciate the lethal threats lurking beyond her safe haven.
The story has an underlying plot of mystery and intrigue. The unnatural surge of monsters has everyone worried and trying to understand its cause. Glory’s mother believes it’s related to the mining of magical siphonite leaving pockets under the ground. Readers will slowly suspect something suspicious is going on with the siphoning of magic. Gertrude Paxton, former head of the Dominicule of Siphonry, is vying for more power and Glory hears the woman’s name or reads about her everywhere. Then there’s Marcus, the Parliament student Glory is helping. He’s wearing a cursed charm and was told to deliver a secret message but he won’t say who gave it to him. Glory touched the charm once so she’s now cursed too. These events describe a secret conspiracy and Glory finds herself thrown into the middle of it.
What didn’t work as well:
The relationship between Glory and Marcus is puzzling at times. They’re working together to break Marcus’s curse but manage to bicker over comments each other makes. Also, Glory gives him a hard time about the effects of his curse but there’s little talk about the fact that she’s cursed too. Some of their comments are confusing.
The final verdict:
This adventure/mystery will entertain young readers as the characters attempt to discover the cause of the monster surge. Magic is used as an energy source but the characters can’t use it as their own special powers. It’s an interesting twist on magic and a select school for young characters and I recommend you give it a shot.

Middle grade fantasy is not my usual genre, so I find myself reading with a new set of eyes. I thought Williams did a nice job with this story. It has all the usual elements of fantasy: worldbuilding, uniqueness of characters and place, magic, distinct setting. Nothing novel, but this is a satisfying read for lovers of fantasy and great for middle schoolers.

A very unique and engaging MG fantasy series with a diverse case and genuinely original world build. Glory Brown lives in the Seam, one of many worlds within the outersphere that have been populated as humans have left Earth (seemingly in an attempt to flee unrelenting racism). The Seam is a relatively safe world with few dangerous monsters and where monsterfolk (essentially oversized talking animals) are seen as peers and community members. However not all worlds are safe and not all monsters are friendly, which makes travel between the worlds dangerous and even deadly. Children, however, naturally produce Moxie, a magical component that deters monsters but which disappears as children age. As such, some children, called junior spherinauts, are used to ferry information and packages throughout the outersphere. Glory badly wants to be one of these children, as her mother was, but she is continually kept at home where her parents run an inn that is famous for producing the Brown Book, a magical inheritor of Earth's Green Book, which guides readers to safely traverse monster infested spaces. When a visiting cursed junior spherinaut accidentally spreads his curse to Glory, the two race to the Parliamentarium (the HQ for junior spherinauts) and stumble into a dangerous and galaxy changing plot.

The story pulls from a lot of common tropes, but does so in a unique and refreshing way. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.