I absolutely love this book. I did not want to put it down at all. This was such a cute read and definitely gave the Witcher and Howl’s Moving Castle vibes that it promised. I definitely see myself reading this over-and-over as a new favorite comfort read.

Our female main character, Lyssa, is full of so much rage; on a revenge mission against the Beast that killed her older brother years prior. This is a Character Driven story which are my bread and butter. If you’re looking for romance, this is not the book. However, it was so refreshing reading a story about the importance of friends and family. About grief and what it takes to accept yourself and others as a whole. Not just the parts that are easy to love.

And this was the author’s first book! I am absolutely blown away and will definitely be watching for anything new that she releases. Serra Swift is now on my auto-buy author list.

Thank you so much to Tor Books and NetGalley! I will absolutely be doing another reread before release.

Thank you so much to Tor for gifting me an eARC of Kill the Beast! What a lovely surprise! :D

3.5/5 stars!

Kill the Beast is a fairy tale-esque story about a hardened, vengeful faerie hunter named Lyssa who swore an oath to kill the beast that killed her brother. With the help (and money) of a rich lord name Alderic who also wishes the beast dead, the two set off to find the right ingredients to forge a sword strong enough to destroy the beast!

This was a quick, fun read! Lyssa is brash, and cocky and rough around the edges. She’s ANGRY and vengeful and is determined to fulfill the bloodbath she made to her brother when he died. We get glimpses of other sides of her: her love for her dog, her desire to help others for free, etc. I only wish we had gotten more, as before her big character arc, she felt very one dimensional. It felt like all there was to her was “strong, angry hunter with revenge on her mind.” That’s fine if that’s a big part of her character, but I wish those other sides to her had come through a tiny bit more, as I got a little tired of her almost caricature-esque personality. (Also really did not vibe with her calling women in this book whores and bitches so much omg?? I get that she’s a little rough around the edges but my god!!)

Alderic, oh wow he was my favorite part of the whole book. A depressing character for sure, but honest and self-aware and caring. He’s willing to call Lyssa out on her bs!! She’s a very stubborn character and has her moments where she’s not thinking logically and he’ll tell it to her!! He’s open and although that’s how he presents himself, he doesn’t expect Lyssa to be the same way. He’s very understanding but eventually will stand his ground! Loved that! He’s got pathetic wet cat vibes and I’m here for it!!

Some of the world building elements were cool! I loved the door traveling and the way “Hounds” were killed in this book! Each Hound is created by a faerie in revenge of some transgression! They all have glyphs unique to them and in order to kill them, the person needs to use the glyph in a spell to decipher why the beast was made and what ingredients are needed to kill it! The weapon is unique because of this and I loved that aspect of the magic system!

Lyssa’s emotionally journey will hooked me. Up until the 50% mark I didn’t really feel anything for this book, but combined with Alderic’s journey as well (and the secrets of his that are revealed) I really started to get invested in their wellbeing and arcs! It hit very close to him and it was sweet to read! It’s a simple one, but also held a very deep meaning to me personally and I enjoyed that a lot!. Lyssa has to come to terms with the world not being as black and white as she originally thinks it is and I think that Sera Swift does a fabulous job of showing that!

Can’t say much without spoiling, but the reveals of this book were fun but also sad. They’re easy to see coming but still fulfilling, if that makes sense. Both character battles with some crazy stuff (emotionally and physically) in this book and I thought that although it wasn’t anything mind-blowing, it was still well-written.

Finally, I really loved that there wasn’t a romance between Alderic and Lyssa! Platonic and familial love were big themes in this book and I thought it made the message much stronger than there isn’t any romance between the two of them (that I could see at least!). Their chemistry is very strongly (in my opinion) angling towards best friends. It’s a very supportive dynamic eventually and both of them bring out a new side to each other that makes them better people! They see each other!

Although some aspects of the book caused it to get an average rating (simplistic world building, one dimensional characters at the beginning, dialogue on the more cringe side at moments), I had a fun time reading this book and will definitely tune in to the next book if one is ever released!

Thank you again to Tor Publishing Group for the gifted eARC!

Absolutely blown away by this one. I adored Lyssa and Alderic (and Brandy too of course!). It was a roller coaster quick read for me, I flew threw it because I just had to know how it ended!

I saw it compared to The Witcher meets Howl's Moving Castle, and I'd have to agree!!

This would be a great recommendation for someone who wants a character/relationship driven story, that doesn't have romance. I was so happy to see a book focused on the depth of love within a friendship for once! In my opinion, this helps it stand out from the crowd greatly.

I honestly really hope the author does more in this world!

This book for me had a slow start but really picked up in the second half. There is a lot of set up and I thought that one of the pieces of the story was supposed to be a twist, but was really obvious. As the writing went on, it became apparent that it was not supposed to be a twist to anyone but the main character, Lyssa. I really enjoyed seeing how she developed as a character and how she learned to connect with the people around her in one way or another. This was a really cool take on the Beauty and the Beast story which added a lot to the retelling, which can be a struggle for some. Definitely recommend for anyone who likes fairy tale retellings that are a bit more weird, like Cinder or For the Wolf.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-fantasy
-found family
-cozy
-hard and soft one
-opposites attract

I had a lot of fun with this one. Magical twists, a huntress bent on revenge, Found family, and an absolutely golden retriever of a love interest. I don't wnat to say much and give things away but this was so cozy and fun, filled with adventure and light even with the heavier topics. A great read.

Well, this is going to my whole personality now.

This is a beautiful story about forgiveness and loving yourself and others for who they are. Lyssa is The Butcher, a contract killer who hunts fairies because one of them, The Beast, killed her brother. She is all sass and jagged edges, only seeing the world in black and white. Alderic, an eccentric wealthy man hires her to kill The Beast. Alderic is such a complicated character - quick to help others, wildly dressed, and curious about everything.

If you know me, you know I love a book with characters who are (or become) emotionally intelligent - and this book definitely has those characters. Grief is a prevalent theme, with each character navigating their own grief in wildly different ways. This story tackles what it means to love someone- not necessarily always in a romantic way. Swift explores these tricky emotions in such an eloquent, raw way. Oh, and the banter is hilarious. I may have predicted a few twists, but it is still a great story.

And don’t get me started on the world building! From the get-go we see a gritty, fantastical world similar to Howl’s Moving Castle. The woods, the fortress/castle… it’s all so wonderfully portrayed.

This is an absolute delight. Thank you Tor and NetGalley for the gifted advanced egalley!!

Kill the Beast by Serra Swift was great! I love anything described as a "dark cozy fantasy" so was really excited when I heard about this one.

I really enjoyed Lyssa and loved that she was an older FMC and i really appreciated her growth through the book.. It was also refreshing to read a story about friendship and a platonic relationship. I would reccomend this if you're looking for a modern take on a fairytale and a strong FMC!

Love the cosy fantasy and fairytale elements of this adventure style book. The plot was executed well and the characters added depth to the worldbuilding. It created a fun journey to go on with the characters as well as the mesh of different aspects such as the magic and faerie elements in the plot.

When I saw this book announced as a story about a monster-slayer warrior woman and a decorative noble sidekick, I knew I have to read this. I love tough fighter women, and I love men who defy narrow gender roles.

So how did this one measure up? Pretty good.

Pluses:

* Easily readable, fairly "windowpane" prose, 3rd person single pov following Lyssa, the fmc.

* Lovable dog companion.

* Worldbuilding presenting a mix of familiar with fresh: it's a secondary world fantasy taking place in an equivalent of the 19th century with pistols, gas lamps and early electricity. There are also fae and other common mythological creatures from this folklore, like trolls, redcaps, ogres, mermaids; there's also a division similar to high fae and dark fae where ones are more noble but haughty while the second are wicked and spiteful.

* Found family vibe.

* Quest fantasy that didn't feel boring thanks to the amazing character interactions and witty banter. I must say I'm pretty picky and easily bored with quest fantasy if it's too straight-forward.

* Slow reveal of clues that feels both suspenseful and natural.

* Elements of a fairy tale retelling I didn't immediately guess but in hindsight it all made sense.

* Interesting exploration of grief.

Minuses:

* The biggest minus imo was that Lyssa felt like a very flat 2-dimensional character, and because of that the trajectory of her character arc became extremely obvious and a preachy moral lesson. She was so addicted to her revenge and hatred for the fae & their creations as a "cope" for her grief everyone can already guess what will the imparted lessons be...

* This is like the 3rd book this year I'm reading with the trope "fmc has an ex-girlfriend with strained or outright hostile relationships with her". As much as I love the rise in bisexual representation among protagonists, I'm starting to really get tired of the ex-gf trope. Sometimes I wonder whether the only way to prove mc is queer is by giving them a same-gender ex? The trajectory of these characters' subplots are also extremely similar, somehow. And nope, when fmc is straight there isn't a mandatory ex-bf plotline, from what I've observed.

In the end, it's a well written book full of suspense and vivid character interactions. If you like prickly / unlikeable female protagonists or a quest road trip style fantasy with fae lore, you'll very likely enjoy this book.

It's a short, concise standalone you can possibly read in one sitting or two.

I'm not sure whether the "cozy" label from the blurb matches, because content warnings for: grief, murder, violence, attempted suicide in backstory and injury to an animal. I would say it's a gaslamp adventure fantasy.

However, these days marketers put everything into either romantasy, epic or cozy and I swear half the time the shoe doesn't fit.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I would definitely be interested in seeing what else the author writes next.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Books for the ARC!

THE BEST book I have read all year. 100% recommend to anyone that enjoys unique dark fairytales. This will be the book of the year.

I really enjoyed the premise behind this story. It was very unique and I thought the author did a good job creating interesting characters. However, I personally wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. For the time period this world was set in the characters especially the MC's way a speaking felt a bit out of place and modern. In all, it is a fun story that I think many lovers of fantasy will enjoy.

Thank you, Tor Publishing, for the ARC of Kill the Beast! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My thoughts: First of all, I wanna say that the story was magnificent! It has been long since I’ve been thrown into a magical world like this. I read about such an amazing MFC with so many layers and depth in a story that pulled me along every page. This story resonates because I love brutal, powerful, and stubborn FMCs. I love relatable people who have real feelings and depth and don’t sugarcoat anything. Life is life. I genuinely feel that Lyssa is the bada$$ FMC we all need to read about.

Serra Swift does an incredible job of weaving magic, emotion, brutality, fantastic world-building, and character development into a magnificent story. There were some pretty unbelievable twists and turns that I think the readers will love. There was one particular twist that really shocked me and is not what you’re expecting. But the writing is incredible. The way that the characters are just so authentic in the writing. Each character has a unique voice, the world around it is vivid, and the characters have their firm place in the story, which pulls you in.

Another character I adored was Alderic; he was the stark contrast to Lyssa. He was her moral compass. He was the one who could see her for who she was; he called her out for all the things that she did wrong and praised her for all the things that she did right. Not that she needed any of that, but because he cared for her and doing that mattered to her growth and their friendship. I can honestly say that their friendship was just so well done, the way that they started and the way that they ended in such a short story is just incredible writing to me.

If you like fantasy or a bad ass MFC, found family, brutality, and magic, and fantastic lore, this story is for you!

I love a good fairytale retelling, so this book had my interest from the start. This is an adventure tale featuring a strong platonic relationship. I was so happy to see this as we don’t get enough strong, non-romantic relationships nowadays in fantasy. There’s prominent character growth and a strong focus on revenge. This is a fun debut perfect for fantasy lovers.

Kill the Beast is a fast-paced and ultimately heartwarming tale that centers on identity, vengeance, and friendship. While the book is a bit clumsy in the beginning and the plot is predictable, it does an amazing job building complex and contrasting characters. In the end, even if the sequence of events was predictable, I was completely drawn into seeing the growth of the characters and the strength of the friendship they had built. I strongly recommend this book to any reader seeking a fast-paced and heartfelt story with a compelling discussion of whether we are our worst actions and impulses.

Lyssa has sworn her life to felling the fae beast who killed her brother, the Beast. She has shaped herself into a weapon and rid the world of many lesser fae in the process, but the Beast still eludes her—until the eccentric and rich Alderic Casimir de Laurent offers her the key to defeating the Beast and hires her to finally slay it. As the two work to forge the weapon necessary to complete the task, they must confront both the budding friendship between them and the secrets they would rather keep buried.

Overall, I found Lyssa’s development across the book to be really compelling. I enjoyed seeing her confront her own self-destructive and violent tendencies, especially when forced to grapple with her own worldview. This, alongside her friendship with the equally self-destructive Alderic, are really compelling drivers to the story. I do think that the broad strokes of the plot are rather predictable; due, in part, to heavy-handed foreshadowing. I did find that this worked for the story. It focused the novel on character growth rather than plot twists and surprises, much to the benefit of the strength of this book. The overall reading experience felt like a fairy tale in the best way: focusing on the experiences and emotions of the characters as they deal with the twists and turns of the story.

That being said, I do think that the writing of this book sometimes stumbles. The opening scene features Lyssa intimidating the last man who hired her in a fancy restaurant, and it was so on-the-nose for an ultra-competent, snarky, excessively violent heroine that I had to force myself to keep reading through the awkwardness. There are a few other scenes or transitions that evoked a similar feeling, where the actions come off as out-of-place or the justification for something happening the way it does feels clumsy. This did affect my reading experience somewhat, but I found the overall story arc and the characterization more than made up for a few awkward moments.

I am happy to be able to recommend this book. I am rating it 4.5 stars rounded up; I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience. If you’re looking for a modern fairy tale with a strong female heroine and a focus on platonic love, look no further than Kill the Beast! I am also excited to see what Serra Swift writes in the future as this is an impressive debut novel!

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Huge thanks to Tor Books and NetGalley for this arc!

This book is the epitome of cozy dark fantasy. From the moment I saw the announcement (and the Howl’s Moving Castle comparison) I knew it was for me. And let me tell you: it delivers on every promise! In fact, it exceeded all my expectations.

To put it simply, Kill the Beast takes some of my favorite tropes—fierce female lead, a spoiled Howl-like male character, a cozy fantasy setting, and fae lore—and presents them in a way that feels fresh, layered, and deeply emotional. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much these characters would embed themselves in my heart.

Lyssa isn’t your typical “warrior woman” archetype; she’s driven by a consuming rage that’s left her unmoored. She’s fiercely loyal, willing to risk everything for the people she loves, but nothing (not even her own life) takes precedence over the vow she made to kill the beast that took her brother.

Alderic is one of the most flamboyant, frivolous characters I’ve ever read—and I say that with full affection. He dances over tired depictions of masculinity and absolutely earns the Howl comparison. Yet beneath the eccentricity lies a deep wound that makes him just as broken and just as compelling as Lyssa.

The way their bond evolves is one of the most honest and moving portrayals of friendship I’ve seen in a long time. If you're expecting romance, you might be surprised. I admit I was at first, but my want for romance was completely overshadowed by the magnitude of their platonic connection. That said, both characters read as Bi or Pan, and while the door to romance isn’t fully closed, it’s certainly not the focus.

Yes, there’s plenty of action, memorable side characters, a beautifully drawn found family, and top-tier banter. There’s also a definite darkness (trigger warning: suicidal ideation/attempt, mutilation, gore). But what makes Kill the Beast truly special is the way heart, humor, and grief are woven into every page.

Well this book is absolutely a new favorite. There are so many Beauty & the Beast retellings and reimaginings out there that a new one may sound unnecessary, but Kill the Beast is absolutely worth the read.

This book is not a romance. It is a breath of fresh air to me, to have one of the central themes be friendship and all the forms platonic love can take. Our main character is Lyssa, and she is not your expected Belle. In this tale, she is in fact Gaston: a mighty hunter of the wicked and cruel faeries, and the ferocious monsters they create. She has little time or interest in human connections, wanting only her loyal dog for company. While she has killed many creatures her real goal is to find the Beast of Buxholm, who killed her brother and many others years before and hasn’t been seen since.

Then she is hired by a frivolous seeming noble to kill a monster who is none other than the Beast itself. But faerie-made monsters are hard to kill, and Lyssa is forced to work with Alderic the noble to gather supplies and evade the machinations of the pro-faerie group headed by Lyssa’s ex.

Lyssa grows so much through the book, as she is forced to confront her past, and comes to realize the world may not be as black and white as she thought. I also love Alderic, who is an equally complex character, and not the frivolous layabout Lyssa first thinks. I would love to see further stories in this world as well, there are several excellent secondary characters and fascinating glimpses into the world with room to explore.

Now that I’ve finished I want to read it again, and I can’t wait to buy it and put it on the shelf next to Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher.

Content warnings for the following: child death (past) suicide attempt (past) and suicidal ideation (current)

First off, our main character Lyssa is my current favorite fictional heroine. She is fierce and vicious, but also… still just a girl! Oh I loved her.

After a monstrous Beast killed her brother, Lyssa has vowed to kill it. She just hasn’t been able to get close. After years of searching, years of hardening herself, killing faeries and other creatures they have made (like the Beast), Lyssa is approached by Alderic, a wealthy man with a love for extravagance. Not only has he found the Beast, he has one of its claws. That is closer than Lyssa has been in thirteen years.

This claw, along with some other important ingredients can be used to forge a sword that can kill it. Lyssa is all in, especially if he has the coin to reignite her search. She won’t tell him the reason she wants to kill the Beast, and it becomes clear that Alderic has some secrets of his own. Their quest starts and these absolute opposites form a friendship… that I LOVED!!! I loved these characters so much.

I knew very little about this going in, intrigued by the cover first. What I found was a beautiful but brutal story of revenge that turns into so much more. I highly recommend this book.

What a master piece. I loved every page and now I think I will be visiting more of Serra's works :) It was an absolute blast to read!

I thought this would be a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast although it is not even though there is a Beast. Lyssa Cadogan (now using the last name of Carnifax) is someone who is tough and unhappy and has searched for 13 years for the Beast who killed her older brother Eddie. She has done this by becoming The Butcher, a bounty hunter who can kill magical creatures such as trolls and faeries and does so to earn enough to continue her search to find and kill the Beast. Lyssa has become able to go in and out of faerie land with the help of the witch Ragnhild and has learned from her how to create swords that can kill these creatures. In this world the faeries are evil but as people continue to populate the land, they are losing ground.
Needless to say, Lyssa is not a person with many social graces. A man named Alderic de Laurent has been trying to procure her services for over a year. She finally agrees to meet him, and he turns out to be a fop who also wants the Beast killed -- and he has some of the magical things needed to do it (and money is no problem). Of course, he doesn't have everything and thus starts a quest to gather them once Ragnhild tells them what they are. Lyssa and Alderic slowly learn to work together but as they are both hiding secrets there are misunderstandings as well. This book keeps you reading.

I love a classic adventure premise, and Kill the Beast delivered on it: kill a monster and get revenge. Two unlikely people coming together with a cast of interesting supporting characters and some light wit peppered in, plus a strong introduction.

Personally, the writing style was not for me. It is accessible and I think for many people this will be very enjoyable, but I found it a bit flat and the characters felt simple. Still, a great premise and interesting world that I am curious to see if the author writes more into down the road!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for the ARC!