Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

The Monster of Elendhaven is the debut novel of Jennifer Giesbrecht, and it is a dark and deliciously disturbing tale. It is full of lush details, violence, and LGBT love. As far as debut novels go, this one knocks it out of the park. And will leave readers hoping for more.

Elendhaven is a dark and cursed city. War, plagues, and industrialization decimated it, leaving little behind for the survivors. What it does have is a strong and disturbing bit of lore revolving around the poisoned waters of the shore.

That is where the monster came from. He’s a creature of their own making, even if he doesn’t understand what that means. Or what it’ll cost. His journey is a fascinating one, the sort that will dig into readers’ heads and refuse to vacate.

Writing

The Monster of Elendhaven is a lush and thrilling read that will captivate readers from start to finish. Giesbrecht may be a new author, but she has the chops to pull off some outstanding writing here.

The world and characters that fill it are all amazingly fleshed out. They bring the story to life, but they do so in the most enchanting and perturbing ways possible. You see, there’s a dark mystery lingering over this city. And readers will find themselves trying to solve it before the end. I know I enjoyed trying to sort it all out.

There was something so beautifully tragic about how the city and the main characters were introduced and developed. It was lovely and heartbreaking all at once. And in many ways, it was over too soon.

The Monster of Elendhaven is a quick read, only about one hundred and sixty pages long. In some ways, it was the perfect length. But in others, readers will desperately wish that there was more to read.

Development

The Monster of Elendhaven was a fast-paced read that accelerated quickly once the world and characters were fully introduced. In no time, we went from falling in love with the leading gentlemen to seeing them set their path in stone.

There was such an elegance to the way the story progressed. Like moths drawn to a flame, Johann and Florian couldn’t resist each other. It was a breathtaking story of how they found each other and interacted. Yet something was lurking behind the shadows the whole way through. It made for a brilliant and compelling read.

The world-building in this novel was beyond anything I could have hoped for. The world seemed so full of life. It was so rich and detailed as to feel like a real world. And that made its history all the more beautiful and tragic.

Conclusion

The Monster of Elendhaven is a striking and disturbing tale. It’s the sort of story that digs under the readers’ skin, for good or ill. The elegance is not to be easily ignored; that much is certain. Perhaps the saddest part about this novel is just how quickly it ended. Here’s hoping that we’ll be seeing more from Jennifer Giesbrecht very shortly.

This review was originally written for Word of the Nerd, but has been ported over to Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks now that the site has shut down.

Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks | Quirky Cat’s Comics | The Book Review Crew | Monkeys Fighting Robots | Storygraph | Bookhype | Bookstagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Reedsy