In this standalone dark fantasy we follow Alma, a young woman who finds out she’s the bastard daughter of House Avera, one of the four noble families that serve the gods and are imbued with their powers. Her father is the vessel of the Dread Beast - the most frightening god of all and a harbinger of death. Alma agrees to bind herself to House Avera in exchange for his help in finding a healer for her ailing mother, but soon realizes she’s walked into becoming a pawn in his wicked schemes. After her mother’s death this story quickly turns into one of deadly revenge as Alma vows to seek vengeance against her father.

House of the Beast promises morally gray characters, toxic-codependent relationships, court intrigue, a vengeful FMC, and a nightmare realm full of monsters. It certainly delivers on many of those points, but lacked in others. I thought the use of gods was unique, however most of the delivery fell flat for me… I just didn’t feel intimidated by any of the major players and the middle was slow to get through. It read like a YA story from the internal dialogue of our MC.

Alma’s relationship with her god was the most intriguing part. I really appreciated the glimpse into Aster’s past and thank the author for showing us why he was eager to choose Alma to usher in change and aide her in seeking her revenge. Overall I think House of the Beast is a good story that will find its audience. It was just a like, not a love for me.


**Thank you NetGalley and HarperAudio for the ALC of this book in exchange for my honest review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to HarperAudio Adult for an advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This was a wild descent into magic, madness and undiagnosed psychiatric complexes. The story is a lot to unpack. Alma is blackmailed into going to live with her infamous father after her mother takes ill. Her father, who is quite literally the worst human possible, bargains for her cooperation with promises of good doctors and curing treatments. Her Father believes he's destined to become a ruler and wants Alma to train and join his retinue to compete in the ruthless trial that will crown him with everything he's always wanted. Alma isn't going to let that happen without a fight. Alma and her invisible romantic sidekick beast/god, Aster, combine forces to thwart her farther, take revenge for her mother's death and win the trial. It's a deeply chaotic whirlwind of bipolar decisions, manic emotions, and a murder body count that would make a warlord weary. If you're sensitive to battle, death, etc, be aware, the violence is relentless. Did I mention they cut off her arm to bring her closer to their god? No? Yeah, that happens.

The book's overall vibe makes it feel like nothing I've ever read before. Yes, imaginary brain monsters are a thing and yes, the whole trial thing has been done, but the sheer bedlam and insanity of the characters was so outta pocket that it felt originally unhinged. Alba is a mess of a character, whose mental health I sincerely worry about. One minute she's all empathy and light and the next she's snapping necks and running swords through people with reckless, angry abandon. Then the next she's a whiny codependent child. Aster was also just as all over the place, sometimes sadly juvenile, sometimes a bloodthirsty devil. I love morally grey, but this felt wholly confusing. The fluctuations were so incredibly jarring that it made it hard to like anyone or root for anybody's side of the story. As for the book's writing, I listened on audio and the narrator really slayed the tonal undercurrent. The prose was relatively easy to follow and carried me through even the most deranged moments. As intense as it was, the audio gave the story some much-needed grounding and the pacing swung from tense slow-burns to explosive action.

If you're looking for something completely different, if you want a violent blood-soaked adventure, if you're looking for a romantacy-adjacent read with an "us against the rest" love trope, you'll be into House of the Beast.

I feel blessed to have been given the chance to experience this amazing story so early on.

The story kept a steady pace, constantly regrabbing your attention. The characters were well developed and drew you in. I loved the feel of the entire book.

It was not the ending I had imagined, thanks to a twist at the end, but I still left happy/content with it. I cannot wait for more from this author!!

🩷🩷

For fans of Phantasma, the fantasy world was super rich without being overwhelming, and the themes hit hard. There’s sword fights, creepy magic, family betrayal, and moments where I literally had to pause and whisper “damn.” My only tiny complaint is that it was a lot to keep track of at times, but I think that’s just how immersive it is.

If you love morally gray girls, monsters who are maybe also soulmates, and a heroine who claws her way up from nothing, this is your next favorite read. 10/10 would join House Avera just to burn it down from the inside with Alma.

This left me absolutely devastated in the best way.

I'm pretty stingy with my five stars, but House of the Beast earned it after only the first few chapters. Something about it just drew me in and had me absolutely hooked. I wish I could just crawl inside this book and live in it forever.

Alma was an interesting heroine to follow. She wasn't quite morally grey, but there was an aspect of her character that made it so she wasn't the stereotypical, virtuous fantasy MC we see a lot of. She struggled with sustaining the morals instilled in her by her mother, and the duty she was saddled with by her father. Wong did a great job balancing Alma's inner struggle with her actions. Her relationship with her monster gave me very complex feelings, but to me it was the highlight of this whole story.

The magic system was a little bit underdeveloped, but overall the rules made sense and were consistent. The worldbuilding was also lacking a bit as we were confined to one country that supposedly had different rules pertaining to magic than the rest of the world, but as we were confined to Kugara for the duration of the book and only focused on its inner politics, it wasn't very noticeable.

This reminded me a lot of Blood Over Bright Haven, not because the story or themes were similar in any ways, but just based on the way it made me feel. Kind of warm and comforted despite the though themes. I will be re-reading this book (and BOBH) many times in the next coming years.

I don't know what I was expecting when I started this, but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. Do you hate your readers, do you want to fuck with their emotions, do you just like tormenting people to see how they react? Absolutely 100,000% recommend this to whoever reads this, it pissed me off and made me want to throw the book across the room, except I didn’t have a book to throw, gonna go buy the book and read it again just so I can throw the book across the room.

House of the Beast is a beautifully eerie and emotionally raw debut. Alma’s journey—from powerless outcast to vengeful force—is haunting, powerful, and filled with grief, rage, and resilience. The worldbuilding is rich and unsettling, with divine rituals, deadly family secrets, and a monster-god who lingers like a shadow. 🕯️

There’s no romance in the traditional sense—but the connection between Alma and the Beast is compelling, strange, and addictive. If you like your fantasy dark, layered, and full of quiet fury, this is for you.

I devoured it. Can’t wait for more. 👁️🩸

Did you ever have an imaginary friend? It would be a bit disconcerting if there was a person who you sculpted with your mind that no one else can see and they could interact with the world. And rip people's jaws off when you are upset. So it's a bit different in Michelle Wong's "House of the Beast." Out 5 August 2025.

Having to deal with judgmental neighbors is never fun. But Alma got through it because of her caring mother. Up to when she gets sick. Out of options she reaches out to the absent father, a scion of the Dread Beast. Alma leaves with him, in exchange for her mother being healed. And then they cut off Alma's arm to mark her as one of the Beast's chosen. While recovering her old friend returns and with some new ideas.

Narrated by Jeanne Syquia, think this was the first time I heard them narrate and it was great work.

Reasons to read:
-Y'all got parent issues?
-Oh so they are just unrepentant, can't feel bad about that
-It actually takes the time so Alma can go from random youth to proficient
-Toxic codependency
-You made that into a religion?

Cons:
-Don't like worms coming from there

4.75 rounded up.
Gothic horror-esque fantasy with romance!!! Desperate to save her gravely ill mother, the only parent she has known, Alma reaches out to her estranged father for help. Unbeknownst to her, she is the daughter of a member of the wealthy House Avera and the vessel of the feared Dread Beast. In this world, four houses are vessels for four gods and have access to their powers. Her father agrees to help her mom if she becomes a vessel for the beast. Out of desperation, she agrees, but soon regrets her decision when her father refuses to allow her to visit her mother and her mother dies alone. Furthermore, Alma was born as a result of an affair and is treated with disdain by the members of the House of Avera, growing up in solitude. Lonely and angry, she befriends a god-like boy who becomes her sole companion and promises to help her seek vengeance against her family.

This book was a beautiful read, yet fierce and gruesome. Wong did a fantastic job showcasing the brutality of manipulation, grooming, desperation, vengeance, and the hunger for power, while at the same time highlighting the human potential to overcome, grow, and the power of love.

My only critique is that I would have liked a bit more world-building. I couldn't tell what period we were in, and was curious about the rest of the year.

SPOILER: My favourite relationship - besides Alma and her monster- was between Alma and her cousin's fiancé. I find it difficult to read stories that pit women against one another. Still, this relationship demonstrated two women who grew together as things became clear and supported one another despite all that was against them. Alma and her monster's relationship was an accurate depiction of loving the villain. My heart truly hurts for the monster, and he is a victim of the hunger for power. The resolution was truly the perfect way to end this book.

This was a lot of fun! The story started out with a very impactful opening scene that really detailed the start of Alma's journey. Plot wise, this was great. Fast pace, intrigue, and an epic adventure for power. I really enjoyed Alma and Aster, as well as some other characters that Alma begrudgingly befriends along the way. My only complaint is that I wished that Alma and Aster's relationship was explored more. Aster appears into the story, and then we have a time jump and I wished to see more reasons as to why he was so enamoured by Alma. Otherwise, great read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 5 stars
Single POV
⤷ Heavy romantic tension and complex power dynamics
I’d give this an age rating of – 16+
⤷ Themes include grief, twisted devotion, trauma, control, and revenge. This isn't your typical 'dark romance' novel.

⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡🖤 My Thoughts 🖤⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡
This was everything I didn’t know I needed in a fantasy book. It jumps so far outside the usual tropes and offers something that felt fresh while still being incredibly easy to follow. The world-building was immersive without being overwhelming, the plot moved at a steady, engaging pace, and I devoured it in just a couple sittings. I loved how dark and eerie the atmosphere was, but it still had heart. It’s rare for a fantasy book to hit that perfect balance for me, but this one nailed it.

⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡🖤 The Plot 🖤⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡
This is the kind of story that pulls you into a strange, cold world and never lets you come up for air. Alma’s desperation was felt from page one, and every choice she made—every sacrifice—hit like a knife twist. The pacing is slower, but that worked perfectly with the intensity of the story. This isn’t a book that rushes anything. You sit in the pain, in the strange intimacy, in the betrayal. And beneath all the chaos and divine cruelty, there’s this quiet voice whispering—“What if love could destroy everything?” It’s unnerving, but it’s so beautifully done.

⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡🖤 The Characters 🖤⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡
⤷ Alma: I felt for her. Watching her grow from someone grieving and surviving into someone full of rage, purpose, and quiet power was such a satisfying journey. Her arc is deeply personal and layered, and I loved how she never let the cruelty around her erase her humanity.
⤷ Aster / The Beast: Easily one of the most fascinating characters I’ve read in a while. Not a love interest in the traditional sense. He’s monstrous, seductive, obsessive—and yet, somehow, still feels right for this world and for Alma. This is not a redemption arc. It’s a descent.
⤷ Supporting cast: Twisted, cruel, elegant, and drenched in politics. They’re not there to soften the story. They make it more terrifying, more suffocating, and more unforgettable.

⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡🖤 Romance & Tone 🖤⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡
This is romantic tension at its most destructive. There’s no spice, no neat arc. What you get instead is obsession, longing, and a codependent connection so intense you start questioning what counts as love. The “imaginary friend” aspect? Done brilliantly. The slow-burn? Excruciating in the best way. The intensity between Alma and Aster was enough to make my heart ache, and the payoff—even when it hurts—is worth it. This is not your typical romance, and that’s exactly why it worked so well.

⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡🖤 Conclusion 🖤⟡𓂃 ⟡ 𓂃 ⟡
This isn’t just a romantasy. It’s something stranger, darker, and more daring. It unravels slowly, layer by layer, and what you find underneath is not soft—it’s raw, it’s jagged, and it refuses to hold your hand. House of the Beast is the kind of story that lingers in the back of your mind long after the last page. It’s not for everyone—but for readers like me who want fantasy that isn’t afraid to be messy and monstrous and meaningful… this is a gift.

I've already read the eARC but wanted to listen to it as an audiobook too since I love this novel a lot!

I find the narrator does a mostly decent job. Some of the voices don't match quite what I had in mind when reading it, but it isn't so off-putting that I had to stop listening. Just small things like I think Kaim's voice texture could have been different and Aster had a whiny kind of childlike adolescent voice that I didn't think really befitted his being...

And maybe it's because I read the novel already, but something about it in the audiobook format felt much longer than the novel/me reading it with my eyeballs. The pacing or something felt off.

thank you netgalley and HarperAudio for the eARC! I was able to enjoy the story a second time around in a different format.

2.5 stars

Wong’s illustrations are beautiful in the physical edition, and the narrator was a great choice in the audiobook (I switched between the two).

Wong shines most strongly in writing action sequences and making illustrations. The plot wasn’t particularly unique, but I’m also not going to fault it that. My main criticism is with the painfully generic protagonist, antagonist, and character motivations. The prose and the internal monologue did little to compel me further, and it left me feeling bored until the pacing and the action scenes picked up in the later half.

Ultimately I feel like this was out of line expectations on my part. It reads like a young adult fantasy story, and should absolutely be marketed as such. I wouldn’t choose to read it, nor would I recommend for other adults well versed in fantasy, but I think it would be more compelling to teenagers.

I absolutely love this cover, it almost has a Coraline feel to it (I think it's the color palette that's really doing that)!

This is a dark and spooky fantasy novel about Alma. Alma is kind of shunned by society, so she reaches out to her father (who she has had no contact with up until this moment). Except he happens to be working with the Dread Beast, so that's causing some problems. The Dread Beast is a harbinger of death and one of the most powerful gods.

Alma is being used by her father to help get things done for the Dread Beast, she is not a huge fan of this situation. As one can probably assume and imagine.

I found this book to be very long, it just felt like some moments were dragged out. We didn't need to spend as much time on some things as we did. And Alma's adventure doesn't really begin until quite a ways into the book.

This also reads very YA (except for the fights), I don't really know how to explain it. But I really thought this was for a younger audience for most of the book. I think it had to do with the voice of the writing. That's not a bad thing, just an observation. I think it might actually do better if labeled as YA (but those fights can be brutal, so those would need to be toned down).

Overall, I did enjoy reading this, there were just a few things that I didn't really love.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

Starts out brutal.
Interesting concept, just felt a bit off for me. Not sure if it was the writing or the narrator. That being said still a solid fantasy that a lot of people will love! Just didn’t hit home for me.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars, rounded down.

It took me so long to finish this book and I was only able to finish it because I was approved for the audiobook version. I don’t know why, but the beginning put me in an incredible reading slump. I was extremely bored, and I couldn’t stand the protagonist.

Luckily, things got much better once I started listening to the audiobook. I really began to enjoy the story around the 40% mark, when the various “trials” began. The audiobook was excellent, the narrator did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life and really pulled the story together. It was also great to read along while listening, because the digital copy features beautiful illustrations done by the author herself. But it’s only thanks to the audiobook that I made it through the novel.

That being said, a couple of things still didn’t convince me:

• Why did the author decide that a fearsome divinity should manifest as a skinny white boy with a terrible personality? I wanted to punch him every time he showed up. I hated him, and I hated the “romantic” relationship he had with Alma.

• Why build such a strange world, where one country is ruled by gods and another has modern tech like phones and the internet without giving any explanation for how that all works?

However, the rest was ok. I just want to add one final thing: don’t go into this expecting a romantasy, this is not a romantic story. It’s a tale of revenge, perfectionism, strong women, and toxicity.

I really loved this story! It kind of started a little slow, but swiftly sucked me in. House of the Beast is not a romance. It has a lot of the tropes, but subverts expectations. The main love interest is deliciously villainous and he and Alma are toxically codependent. They feed into the worst of each other with their hunger for revenge. The story is dark, twisted, and complex, full of intrigue and gore. The terrors are truly monstrous, but the worst of them might just be some of the humans. Well done to Michelle Wong on her debut novel. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

~~~

“‘Liar,’ he said. ‘My sullen, cowardly, soft-hearted liar. You were the worst of the worst, Alma, and I loved you anyway.’”

~~~

Alma is a lonely, poor child who has a single friend, an imaginary prince named Aster. When her mom becomes sick and cannot be healed through any means available to them, Alma finds a way to contact her father and seek his help. Her father is a hand to one of the gods, the Dread Beast, and agrees to help Alma’s mother in exchange for Alma going with him and dedicating herself to the Dread Beast as well. Alma is accepted as a hand of the Beast after enduring a shocking act of violence. In trying to get back to her mother and escape from the cruelty of her father, flees her father’s estate, but is promptly caught. It’s through this that she discovers that not only did her father not save her mother, but that her imaginary friend was never actually imaginary. Together, they pledge to seek revenge against Alma’s father for her mother’s death.

From here, the story skips ahead 8 years to Alma finally being ready to face her father. The servants of the gods must embark on a pilgrimage to kill a fallen star. If Alma is able to kill the star, she will gain immense power and become the head of the family. But everything is far less straightforward than Alma thought it would be. Alma and Aster are thrown into political and religious plots and Alma is forced to face the fact that, despite her desperate desire for revenge, she has a soft heart and doesn’t want to kill. Aster is a chaotic red flag who is utterly obsessed with Alma and has an insatiable bloodlust. He can’t comprehend why Alma feels guilt and drives her to commit increasingly violent acts.

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
House of the Beast
Author: Michelle Wong
Thank you so much to Harper Audio for my copy! Readers beware, this is not a romantasy, but honestly it was even better. Alma is born out of wedlock and raised by her mother, but when her mom becomes ill, Alma agrees to live with her estranged father, a cruel man who serves the Dread Beast. In exchange for medicine to help her mother, Alma sacrifices her arm… and the medicine doesn’t even work. Now stuck under her father’s control, Alma clings to one secret: her imaginary friend, a god disguised as a boy that no one else can see or hear. With him by her side, she’s focused on one goal: revenge. The narration in the audiobook was phenomenal, and I never hit a slump with this story. I felt every ounce of Alma’s anger and passion, and the ending completely broke me. This is such a unique fantasy and I need more people to read it when it releases on August 5.

House of the Beast by Michelle Wong is one of those books that makes you feel like you’re losing your grip on reality—in the best, most unsettling way. From the start, something feels off, but you can’t quite put your finger on it… and that sense of unease just builds until everything clicks near the end. It’s eerie, strange, and kind of brilliant.

The writing has this dreamy, disorienting quality that makes you question everything: the characters, the world, even your own assumptions. It’s like wandering through a haunted fairytale where nothing is quite as it seems. If you love unreliable narrators and stories that unravel slowly, this one will absolutely scratch that itch.

Now the audiobook? So good. The narration pulls you even deeper into that foggy, unsettling atmosphere. The voice acting adds just the right amount of tension and emotion—never overdone, but always making you feel like something’s lurking just beneath the surface. It really brought the weird, creeping vibes to life.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced audiobook

I really enjoyed this audiobook! The ending was unexpected but really good!