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.

I listened to the audiobook and every time the narrator switched to Perihan's manifest, the pacing came to a screeching halt. I finally gave up when I could feel my eyes glazing over every time it happened.

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

Unfortunately, this story did not hold my interest and I believe that was a "me" problem rather than a book or audiobook problem.
I do believe the narration was beautifully done and enjoyed that aspect.

A dual timeline horror that slowly builds to a climactic and slightly rushed ending.

Disclaimer: I read this as a tandem read. I got a physical copy from the publisher Mira and an audiobook copy through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This book threw me in almost immediately with its premise. I have never read anything like this before, and I thought it was going to be a fantastic read. The premise was indeed interesting and provocative. But the execution lacked a little bit for me.

The dual timeline narration was a little one-sided for me. I don't feel like I got to know the main character Ricardo very well because I spent most of my time reading in his grandmother's manuscripts. I would've liked to have spent more time with the main character because towards the end of the book, I found myself not really attached and didn't really care what happened to him.

The manuscripts tended to ramble on a little bit as well. I feel like they got very repetitive in their narration and overtime. I really felt like I wasn't learning anything new. Once we got to the ending, I felt like it was all over very quickly after such a slow and steady buildup.

I would still like to read more by this author. This is a debut and I really feel like it can only get better. But overall, this novel was a solid and promising premise with just some execution issues.

a dark, murderous story of what happens when people cross set boundaries
Riccardo is a struggling author, losing his inspiration
when a stranger arrives at his apartment with the news of his grandmothers death and her villa in Milan that was left to Riccardo
hoping for a change of scenery and possibly a small monetary inheritance, Riccardo is shocked to find not the nostalgic home of his childhood but a run down version with a haunted greenhouse and butterfly collection that seems more and more monstrous
exploring the estate, Riccardo finds his grandmothers diary with hints to her mysterious death, this could be the story that changes Riccardo's career, if he can survive long enough to write it
THE AUDIOBOOK: the multi voice cast was wonderful for the dual pov and added to the accents in the book

I really struggled to connect with this book and story. Initially I was very interested but as the multiple perspectives and flashbacks were introduced, I felt it lost its relatability. The surrealist elements came out of the blue for me and increased my disinterest in the story.

Review: (no spoilers)
Huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to receive an ALC of this book.

Slowly but surely I’m coming around to gothic horror and I think this book definitely helped with that. Normally, I’m an all-in, over the top, extreme horror reader and typically I find gothic horror to be a bit too slow- for too long, for my taste (I know that’s how gothic horror is supposed to be, just bear with me)
I love the emphasis on atmospheric elements in gothic horror. I love that we’re kept in the dark juuuuust enough to be left wanting more with each chapter. Every time that I thought I should pause the audiobook and do something else, the chapter would end with my jaw dropped. I flew through this audiobook.
There was also a slight fantastical element that I thought was VERY well done- I won’t ever look at butterflies the same way again.
My thoughts really encapsulate how I processed this story;
It’s always going to be a good idea to read the journals of passed loved ones
Taking butterflies and making them creepy is a talent
I really just loved this narrator 🤣

I’m finding more often now, that I enjoy being somewhat lost during a book because it makes the ending- the wrap up, the whole big reveal- SO much better. I caught myself asking “okay but how does this tie into the grand scheme of things?” AND WHEN WE FOUND OUT HOW IT TIED IN?!
*chefs kiss*

Overall, if you already enjoy gothic horror, I think you’ll like this book. If you want to dip your toes into gothic horror, this is a good start. If you want to see why I now love butterflies in horror, you should check this out 😉

This show burn gothic horror had potential, but I just couldn't get into it. It took too to get to the meat of the story, and I unfortunately found myself losing focus multiple times. I can see this resignating with some readers, unfortunately I am not one of them. Thank you for this ALC in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio for providing me an audio ARC for this through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review!
A struggling writer finds himself in Milan inheriting his late grandmother’s estate. What he didn’t expect was to also inherit the horrors that awaits him. As he finds inspiration for his new book, he comes across a manuscript his grandmother left him. As he reads along, he discovers the origins of the horrors he’s come across.

The story was a little slow to get started, but by the end it will have its claws into you. The ending wasn’t at all what I expected and the suspense kept me at the edge of my seat.

I knew that this book would be amazinggg in the audio version and I was completely right! I absolutely LOVED listening to all the twists and turns throughout the story.
I really enjoyed learning a little bit about Ricardo and his grandmothers house. Especially the butterflies 00 I really enjoyed all the different genres inside of this horror book! I found a little bit magical & historical! 1 really enjoyed it and can't wait to get a pretty copy with the sprayed edges!

This book was just ok for me. I could not get into it at all. Read it and judge for yourself, but I did not enjoy it.

I was drawn to this book by its cover—something about the simplicity of a butterfly and the title made it irresistible. Now that I’ve finished, I’m left with a lingering curiosity about blue butterflies and the intricacies of Milanese families.

The audiobook narration was a standout, with Luca John Filiz and Tina Nakhleh Fallenburh, delivering accents that added richness to the experience. Their performance made the shifts between timelines even more engaging. Speaking of which, I loved the interplay between the protagonist’s real life and the manuscript’s unfolding story. It took me a moment to grasp what was happening, but once I did, I was hooked.

This is a book that invites reflection, and I’m still sitting with its questions. If you enjoy Gothic Horror, Inherited Legacies, Exploration of Obsessions and Unsettling Settings, this one is worth a read (or a listen).

Thank you to Harlequin Audio for the eALC and the opportunity to review this!

Well this was an amazing dark thriller about family crossing the lines. How far would you go for internal life. Like I always say family will either lift you up or bring you down. Now I understand why when he read the book it was dedicated to him. This was a very interesting story twist and turns. Definitely worth the journey.

This was not my favorite. It was too slow and had too many stories connecting. I had to play it at a higher speed to keep my interest which caused the accents to sound strange. I would have preferred it if there was more horror and a quicker pace.

Alright, imagine if Daphne du Maurier shagged a Turkish bloke, and their weird little spawn grew up snorting Guillermo del Toro flicks and sobbing over melodramatic metaphors—that’s Yiğit Turhan, the mad bastard behind Their Monstrous Hearts. Turhan cannonballed into the deep end of gothic horror, splashed around in a Milanese butterfly shit-show, and crawled back with a novel so drenched in rot, longing, and the odd maggot of family fuckery that it’s practically dripping off the pages.

Let’s crack this creepy fucker open.

Turhan’s a Turkish lad scribbling in English—no picnic, especially when you’re juggling a genre as wordy and wobbly as gothic horror. Their Monstrous Hearts is a bloody maximalist fever dream, a moodboard of decay, legacy, and body horror that’d make your nan clutch her pearls. Doing this in a second language? That’s like juggling Fabergé eggs blindfolded while a tornado tries to nick your knickers. This is his first English novel, but the cocky swagger of it screams “I’ve been festering this nightmare in my guts for years.” And now he’s hacked it out and plonked it on the table like a rancid roast for us to gawp at—or leg it from.

Meet Riccardo, our mopey little shit of a protagonist—a 20-year-old writer with no cash, no future, and a creative block thicker than a Milanese fogbank. Things perk up when some cryptic geezer rocks up to say his estranged granny, Perihan, has kicked the bucket, leaving him her crumbling villa and—because this ain’t a fucking Zillow listing—her legendary butterfly stash. But when Riccardo rolls into Milan, the joint’s a cesspit of secrets and bad juju. Those butterflies? Not just fancy wallpaper—they’re flapping around like glittery harbingers of doom. Up in the attic, granny’s manuscript (or diary, depending on who’s yapping) spills the beans, slowly peeling back family secrets.

The story flip-flops between Riccardo’s now and Perihan’s then, through her scribbled ramblings. It builds tension slower than a sloth on Valium—until the last act goes full walrus, erupting in a grotesque shitstorm of body horror, moral implosion, and bug-winged symbolism. Picture Crimson Peak, but it climaxes in a cocoon woven from human ego and a metric ton of “oh fuck, I regret everything.”

Now, let’s address the elephant-sized butterflies in the room.

These winged wankers are everywhere in Their Monstrous Hearts—life cycles, transformation, beauty hiding a steaming pile of grotesque. Turhan squeezes these fluttery fuckers dry, milking every metaphor ’til they’re wheezing. In a tale this soaked in decay and change, it fits well, but the metaphor is certainly beaten to death by the end. At its rotten core, this book’s about legacy—the gnarly baggage of familial screw-ups we inherit. It’s about chasing immortality—through kids, art, or some mythic bullshit—and how beauty and monstrosity are closer than a butterfly’s arse to its wings.

The manuscript-in-a-novel trick is a nice touch—Perihan’s tale seeps into Riccardo’s world, hinting that obsession’s just trauma with better PR. There’s Turkish myth, eco-nightmares, and queer vibes sprinkled in, each a fresh pair of specs to ogle the monstrous through.

It’s clever. Maybe too clever for its own rickety bones.

Turhan’s prose is lush and poetic. It’s like scarfing rosewater cake while a creep murmurs death chants in your ear. His sentences are metaphor-drunk and alliteration-obsessed—sometimes they soar, sometimes they faceplant. Love it or hate it, it’s got a dreamy, witchy vibe. This ain’t a beach read. It demands you sit your ass down, sweat a bit, and pay attention. Skim it, and you’re screwed.

Strengths:
- Atmosphere, you glorious bastard. Turhan stacks dread like a deranged bricklayer. That villa’s practically alive, groaning under secrets and fungal funk.
- A finale that’ll haunt your nightmares. The last 15% is a horrific butterfly orgy—narrative shedding its skin and swinging haymakers.
- Big, ballsy themes. This ain’t just spooky vibes—Turhan’s got shit to say about legacy, grief, and how beauty rots if you lock it up too long.

Critiques:
- Pacing slower than a tectonic plate on a pub crawl. The horror teases, dawdles, then smacks you with a dead bug. Want fast scares? Piss off. While the payoff is glorious, we could have been given some more meat in the first 85% of the novel.
- Metaphor overload. Ya know, sometimes a butterfly’s just a butterfly—not a stand-in for loss, change, and your uncle’s colonial guilt trip.

Their Monstrous Hearts is a haunted greenhouse of a book—fancy, gorgeous, and crawling with nasty little shits that bite. It’s a debut that’s dense, gutsy, and doesn’t apologise for taking its sweet time. Turhan’s chewing on hefty ideas and letting them wriggle—and he mostly nails it.

It’s not flawless. Sometimes it’s barely hanging together. But it’s bold as brass—gothic horror with teeth, guts, and a brain. We need more of that. Just… maybe next time, chuck in some narrative Red Bull to keep the bastards moving.

Loved this book it was an old school type of horror on the macabre side. It is about a young man named Riccardo who is a destitute writer. He is in his last coin when a man comes to him and tells him his grandmother has passed.

The man gives Riccardo a ticket to Milan to collect his inheritance. Riccardo has nothing to lose so he heads to his grandmother’s. He finds her manuscript and finds out grandma was doing things grandma shouldn’t be doing. The ending was unexpected yet also I kinda expected it

I had trouble following this one along at first, and I’m not sure if it was because I was just listening on audio (the narration moved back and forth between present and the past via a journal), or if we’re supposed to be confused by what’s going on the same way the main character is.
Because as we got towards the end, it suddenly made sense and WOW that ending is vicious. In short, the main character moves to his recently deceased grandma’s house in Italy, because she left him her butterflies.
This goes from a tale of a sweet grandma who maybe cared for her grandson more than he realized, to a surprise revelation of just what kind of character the grandmother was. There’s also all the suspicious staff of the house, and as he’s reading the journal his grandma wrote, it’s in such detail he mistakens in for a fantasy novel mixed with real life. Because there’s no way… right?

My confusion was going to lead me to give a lower rating, but that ending redeemed it in my opinion and I was like wait that’s kind of brilliant.

Thank you Harlequin Audio for the listen!

The audio for this book was phenomenal! I loved the narrator's voices and how well they were able to portray the emotions of the characters.
While I loved the narrators, I thought the story was OKAY. The plot was incredibly interesting and something so very different from anything else I'd ever read, I was hoping for a bit more in the gruesome department. Overall though, I highly recommend this audiobook/book!

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for the audio version of Their Monstrous Hearts. This was super dark and gothic, but such a good audio. I would prefer listening to this again verses reading the actual book. The narration was done very well.

Riccardo is a struggling writer having a hard time making ends meet. He gets a knock on his door and is informed that his Grandmother Perihan has passed away and he, being her sole living kin besides his estranged mother, has inherited her estate in Italy. He goes there with every intention to just attend the funeral, but when he discovers a book of writing by Perihan, he gets sucked in. This must be some kind of fictitious manuscript, as there is no way what Perihan writes about can possibly be true. We jump back and forth between present day Riccardo and Perihan's past via her writing. It's a very slow burn for the first roughly 75%, but when it picks it, it gets really good! I didn't know exactly where it was going to take us, and the overarching concept and twists were utterly disturbing and delightful! So ultimately it leads to a great last 25%, but you have to get there. I don't want to make any comments on the last 25% because spoiling it would be a real disservice to future readers. But you'll never look at butterflies the same and the selfishness and horror at the hands of family members can be beyond belief! I think that idea is something that some people can relate to. I have never written a book, and I cannot imagine that it's easy. This is Turhan's first book and I think it's clear that he's more than capable of delivering dark and disturbing stories (which I am totally here for.) I do wish I was made to be more invested in the buildup. I would advise readers to allow themselves to get to the end because it is worth it! I wish there was a 3.5 star option, but because there isn't, I'm landing on 3. Gorgeous cover! And I'd say a good debut!

Thank you to NetGalley, MIRA books and Harlequin Audio for the audio ARC!
Book releases April 8th, 2025.

I had to unfortunately DNF this at 56% as this book was unfortunately not working for me. A few parts of the writing was a bit clunky in its prose, but the story wasn’t drawing me in enough for it to not be noticeable. I never connected with the main character or cared what he thought, and found his grandmother’s parts a bit tedious to get through. I also realize that there might be an explanation by the end of this novel, but as it is I simply couldn’t get into the grandmother’s characterization or the insistence that a monarch butterfly acting strange was something of divine origins. Perhaps at some point I will come back to this story and see if I can at least finish to find out the reasoning for everything that’s happened in the book.

I read the majority of this book through audiobook, and didn’t find either narrator to be a terribly bad fit. I did find the way the man voicing the main character occasionally emphasized an accent while speaking to, at times, make it a bit difficult to pay attention (and, while no fault of either, both speakers spoke at slightly different paces so I had to adjust the speed I was listening every time they switched) but overall I don’t believe either contributed to the fact that I felt uninvested in this story.

Perhaps if I eventually try reading this physically, I might be able to avoid the clunky “tell in absurd detail everything that is going on” prose. This book absolutely has potential, however, and I think that once the writing is no longer a barrier I would enjoy it a great deal more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for providing this e-ALC.