Monstrous by MarcyKate Connolly

Monstrous

MarcyKate Connolly

Synopsis from Goodreads

The city of Bryre suffers under the magic of an evil wizard. Because of his curse, girls sicken and disappear without a trace, and Bryre’s inhabitants live in fear. No one is allowed outside after dark.


Yet night is the only time that Kymera can enter this dangerous city, for she must not be seen by humans. Her father says they would not understand her wings, the bolts in her neck, or her spiky tail—they would kill her. They would not understand that she was created for a purpose: to rescue the girls of Bryre.


Despite her caution, a boy named Ren sees Kym and begins to leave a perfect red rose for her every evening. As they become friends, Kym learns that Ren knows about the missing girls, the wizard, and the evil magic that haunts Bryre.


And what he knows will change Kym’s life

My Review

4/5 Stars

I bought this book for my son for his 8th birthday. I might have bought it for him for me to read though because I couldn’t not read it. A girl who is put together with animal parts along with human parts is helping save a city from an evil wizard. Yup, I was sucked in. I waited for him to pick it up, but he was already reading another book so I said I was going to read it to make sure it was okay for him to read. So I fibbed a little. I felt guilty buying a book for him then reading it before him but to be fair I now know I can push this one on him because I know he would enjoy it.


Anyway so lets get to the review and not my guilty confession…


This was a great middle grade read. Kymera can only go out at night because humans will not understand why she has wings, bolts in her neck, claws and a spiky tail that she can sting with. The reason she goes out at night is to save the city girls who are being poisoned by a wizard. Every night she eludes guards when she can and sneaks the girls out to her home. On night she gets caught by Ren a boy from he town and they become friends.

Ren knows about the poisoned girls that are being kept secret, the wizard and the hidden king and the rest of the stuff he knows makes Kym start questioning things and making some life changing decisions.

Kym also becomes friends with a dragon who also is in hiding from the wizard who accepts her spike tail, claws and all.

Kym although she might look monstrous was an endearingly innocently sweet girl who was just trying to listen to her father and do good. When she finds out that something is amiss she fights to fix it. I enjoyed reading about Kymera and her struggles to get control of her animalistic appendages, figure out why people would be so cruel to judge her as a monster when all she was is a sweet loving girl, discovering her friendship and deepening her friendships with Ren and Batu, how she handles the haunting memories that come to her and the action filled adventure she goes on to make thing right.


There was some parts where my heartbroke for the sweet girl and parts where I was smiling about how she handled things and how brave she was.


This book was great. It had adventure, action, mystery, mythical creatures and a message for kids not to judge a book by its cover. Great story, Great characters. had a dark fairy tale vibe to it that I enjoyed.