Thank you HTP and MIRA for this ARC and ALC.

When I was a child, my teacher read our class an old indigenous tale about the friendship and turmoil between the Pine trees and the Maple trees. The Pine tree boasted about not losing its needle through the winter, and the Maple was saddened by this. But during the winter, a small sparrow took shelter and solace in the density of the Pine, and in the spring, it built a nest in the Maple. There is a time and a purpose for every thing and for every need.

Needless to say, over 30 years later, this story has stuck with me. And so, too, will Their Monstrous Hearts. The symbolism is the same, there is a cycle. There is no life without death. Death without life. The comfort I felt reading the words in this book was akin to listening to my teacher relay that story. It made me feel rooted and connected. And it made me feel joy and a prick of fear. Because we humans really do take matters into their own hands against Mother Nature, don’t we?

This book was so richly written that my teeth ached, in the best way. Like when you get the perfect fork full of the Matilda chocolate cake. It was delectable. I loved the narrator, loved the way the language rolled off her tongue. The way she told the story - and the storytelling itself - was so wonderfully old school. I felt like I was sitting around receiving the gift of history and heritage in the form of a story told around a fire.