Synopsis:
Monsters Born and Made is the debut novel by Tanvi Berwah.
Sixteen-year-old Koral and her older brother Emrik risk their lives each day to capture the monstrous maristags that live in the black seas around their island. They have to, or else their family will starve.
In an oceanic world swarming with vicious beasts, the Landers―the ruling elite, have indentured Koral’s family to provide the maristags for the Glory Race, a deadly chariot tournament reserved for the upper class. The winning contender receives gold and glory. The others―if they’re lucky―survive.
When the last maristag of the year escapes and Koral has no new maristag to sell, her family’s financial situation takes a turn for the worse and they can’t afford medicine for her chronically ill little sister. Koral’s only choice is to do what no one in the world has ever dared: cheat her way into the Glory Race.
But every step of the way is unpredictable as Koral races against contenders―including her ex-boyfriend―who have trained for this their whole lives and who have no intention of letting a low-caste girl steal their glory. When a rebellion rises and rogues attack Koral to try and force her to drop out, she must choose―her life or her sister’s―before the whole island burns.
She grew up battling the monsters that live in the black seas, but it couldn’t prepare her to face the cunning cruelty of the ruling elite.
Review:
When I came across Monsters Born and Made on Audible and saw it was being compared to The Hunger Games, I knew I needed to read it. Other than there being a competition with teens that could result in death, there are zero similarities. Not that I was expecting this to be a carbon copy of The Hunger Games, but comparing a book to it sets my expectations very high. Sadly, these weren’t met.
I do think overall, Monsters Born and Made was an entertaining read. The narrator did a good job overall, just a few voices I didn’t like and the pacing seemed to be pretty good. But as I listen at a fairly high speed, this is always hard to gauge with audiobooks for me.
The politics of this world were pretty interesting. Instead of having a normal class system, you instead have ‘Landers’, who are the upper class society that, ironically, live underground. I can’t remember what the people who live above ground are called, but they are the working class. Koral’s family are ‘Hunters’ that capture and raise the maristags for the Landers to compete in the Glory Race. This class system created an interesting dystopian world where Koral’s family didn’t belong to either side.
Speaking of Koral. She was an ok main character. I didn’t love her, but I also didn’t hate her. Which isn’t really something you want for a main character. You should root for them to win but I just didn’t really care what happened to her.
The romance was also pretty subpar. I wanted to like them because I love childhood friends to lovers, but this plot just wasn’t given enough time. I don’t think in a book like Monsters Born and Made you can make a romance believable in just one book. If romance isn’t the main plot/genre you can’t do it justice in such a short space of time. I did enjoy learning about their history though, I found their rivalry far more entertaining.
One part I did enjoy was the competition itself. It was great seeing Koral build her relationship with Storm Gold and the action scenes were pretty well written. For a debut, these were quite impressive and I do think this book has a lot to offer. The potential is definitely there but the ending was a little lacklustre in my opinion.
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