A monster-slaying revenge tale with a fae twist? Say less—I was in.

Kill the Beast delivers exactly what it promises: sharp blades, dark fairy tale vibes, and two very different leads forced into an uneasy alliance. Lyssa is all rage and vengeance, single-minded and just a little bit of a disaster (in the best way). Alderic? Fancy, dramatic, and clearly hiding something—but I kind of loved that about him. Their dynamic is the heart of the book, and it never turns into a romance, which honestly made it more interesting.

Yeah, I could see the big twist coming from page one—but the fun wasn’t in the reveal, it was in how we’d get there and what it would mean for everyone involved. The story leans gaslamp fantasy—think redcaps and revolvers—with a great mix of cozy banter and heavier themes like grief, vengeance, and letting go.

There are a few tropes I’m personally a little tired of (looking at you, ex-girlfriend tension and gender role lampshading), but none of it pulled me out. If you like prickly girls with swords, sensitive guys in velvet coats, and murder quests that somehow manage to be about healing, found family, and maybe even self-worth, give this one a shot.

Also: dog companion. Automatic bonus points.

I'm always going to be a fan of fairytale inspired books and this one landed perfectly between comforting predictability and refreshing enthralling. There was something so sincere and hopeful about the message woven through this story, especially with the sweet platonic friendship that only strengths after each character's ugliest parts are revealed. I stayed up late into the night to finish this and found myself thinking about it first thing when I woke up.

I could probably quibble with parts of this if I wanted to, but there is such an overwhelming sweetness and gentleness to the way this story approaches healing without ever losing sight of the ugliness of trauma that I truly found at the end that I did not care about any roughness as the edges. This is the conflicted, often cruel protagonist I often feel is buried just under the surface of the fighter girl archetype, and I adored the mess she made in her wake.

Also, the cover is gorgeous and I absolutely wept at the ending. Which means nothing to anyone but me, because I know I literally never cry at books. Something about this just absolutely got to me.

I really loved this! Kill the Beast is a fairy tale-adjacent fantasy, and while the reimagining aspect (and gorgeous cover) are what initially drew me to it, the developing relationship between Alderic and Lyssa is what made me love it. You can see where the story is going from a long way off, but that only adds to the emotional punch of this fun, bloody, and phenomenal book. Definitely read this one for queerplatonic friendships, a feral bisexual main character, fairy adventures, and a lot of heart!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this work of fantasy about a woman monster hunter, her handsome client, her very good dog, and their pursuit of the creature known as the Beast, a creature that has hurt them all, in different ways.

I was never much for fairy or faerie tales as a child. I was read them, I know that, my Mom was a fan. I know I had a few Disney collections. Maybe a Curious George one, the memory gets hazy, but like fables and stories with morals, fairy tales were not for me. As I got older, read more and learned more fairy tales, and folktales became more interesting to me. One could see them as the foundation of many stories that I enjoyed. Plus as one got older one could see the darkness in these tales. The violence, the nastiness, the sexiness of the tales. I have been enjoying the fact that many modern writers draw on these tales, changing them, making them more diverse and more of the time. Especially when they are as well-written and features characters one grows to care about like this book. Kill the Beast is the debut novel of Serra Swift, a story about atonement, the lies we tell, all set in a world that seems vaguely familiar, with one very good dog as a companion.

Lyssa and her brother never had the easiest of childhoods, left at an early age by their father at a workhouse, fighting to survive and slowly making their lives a little bit better. Until the Summer Solstice, when a Faerie monster attacked a fair killing Lyssa's brother and many others. The faeries hate humans, and in their hatred have created hunters, controlled by magic which are very hard to eliminate. Over the last twelve years Lyssa has been doing a good job of wiping these monsters out. However the Beast has evaded her. Until now. A series of letters has brought her to a foppish young man Alderic Casimir de Laurent who seems more drink than human, but has knowledge of the Beast the Lyssa seeks. Alderic knows the Beast's location, and has hired Lyssa to destroy the Beast, for reasons that Lyssa doesn't know, nor really cares. This Knowledge that has put their life at risk as they gather the materials needed to end the life of the Beast once and for all. Different forces are trying to stop the monster hunters, and as time passes truths are revealed, and the fire of vengeance that Lyssa carries, might destroy everything she has come to care about.

The mention of Beast in the title should be enough of a clue to let the reader know what story the writer is drawing from. Since that is out of the way, this is a really good story, with characters that are both intriguing and different in ways. Lyssa is a tornado wrapped in in a forest fire, every step she takes leaves a path of destruction from her father, to childhood friends, to new friends. Alderic has layers that slowly revel themselves, I won't say more. The story is good, as is the use of faerie, magic and the world itself. The story is set ina sort of Victorian, sort of magical place, with electic and gas lights, pistols and good ole swords. For a debut this is pretty polished, there are a few rough spots, but the story moves well, and really gains momentum once the characters are brought together. I look forward to more stories by Swift, as I really enjoyed this one quite a bit.