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danaslitlist's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
*Coming back to edit my review and lowering the rating from 4.5 to 3 after sitting on my feelings.
Tender Beasts is a multilayered thriller that delves into the deep twisted emotions of familial relationships that are burdened with generational trauma and the lengths one would go in order to preserve what they feel matters the most; legacy and survival, or family and future? Or I should say that’s what it attempts and wants to be. Instead by the end we get a book that really shows itself to be trying to say a lot of things at once and results in an archetypical and trope filled novel.
I rounded up my rating because while this book is nowhere near as good as Delicious Monsters, and even feel like a weird paradox to it, I still had fun with it. This book got me out of a reading slump and I think that’s because it’s a compulsive enough story that I had a good time even though the material itself isn’t fantastic. And that kills me because of how much I wanted to LOVE it. I’m someone who yells “READ ‘DELICIOUS MONSTERS’” over and over to anyone who will listen.
Everything about this book felt like leaning into the most predicable set of tropes and that extends to the entire cast of characters. Was our protagonist, Sunny, the best vessel to narrate the experiences on page? I don’t know. I actually really think this book would’ve worked if we were with Dom, an unreliable narrator. Everyone else felt entirely too flat and one dimension, tropes instead of people.
I felt that the mystery and the supernatural element was one of the highlights of the novel. The stakes felt high the entire time and throughout the story I truly was worried about the safety and the wellbeing of the characters. Sambury knows the perfect balance between utilizing gore and violence to enhance her work without it becoming overly excessive to the point of exaggeration. There were genuinely moments where the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up on end and I had my hand over my mouth in shock.
But this suspense doesn’t culminate into anything but a rushed and unsatisfying ending.
The use of the mother’s journal entries to bring us back to her childhood for the flashbacks was also a treat and a very smart way of providing information on the Milk Man without spoiling (pun intended) too much in the present time line.
I’m still unsure of how I feel about the ending. I keep fluctuating between loving it because I understand the metaphorical nature of the themes and also wanting a bit more of a pay off.
I’m leaning more towards the latter, wishing that certain moments hadn’t ended so quickly and we had more time to ruminate. There were also a few plot points that felt ….too convenient, but overall being content with the book.
List of Content Warnings: Death of a parent/grief, animal death (on page - cow and lizards; off page, referenced but not described - cat; off page, referenced and somewhat described - unspecified animals), mentions of self-harm/suicide, drinking and drug use, infidelity, discussions of toxic intimate relationships, detailed body horror/gore, violence, death (includes child death)
Tender Beasts is a multilayered thriller that delves into the deep twisted emotions of familial relationships that are burdened with generational trauma and the lengths one would go in order to preserve what they feel matters the most; legacy and survival, or family and future? Or I should say that’s what it attempts and wants to be. Instead by the end we get a book that really shows itself to be trying to say a lot of things at once and results in an archetypical and trope filled novel.
I rounded up my rating because while this book is nowhere near as good as Delicious Monsters, and even feel like a weird paradox to it, I still had fun with it. This book got me out of a reading slump and I think that’s because it’s a compulsive enough story that I had a good time even though the material itself isn’t fantastic. And that kills me because of how much I wanted to LOVE it. I’m someone who yells “READ ‘DELICIOUS MONSTERS’” over and over to anyone who will listen.
Everything about this book felt like leaning into the most predicable set of tropes and that extends to the entire cast of characters. Was our protagonist, Sunny, the best vessel to narrate the experiences on page? I don’t know. I actually really think this book would’ve worked if we were with Dom, an unreliable narrator. Everyone else felt entirely too flat and one dimension, tropes instead of people.
I felt that the mystery and the supernatural element was one of the highlights of the novel. The stakes felt high the entire time and throughout the story I truly was worried about the safety and the wellbeing of the characters. Sambury knows the perfect balance between utilizing gore and violence to enhance her work without it becoming overly excessive to the point of exaggeration. There were genuinely moments where the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up on end and I had my hand over my mouth in shock.
But this suspense doesn’t culminate into anything but a rushed and unsatisfying ending.
The use of the mother’s journal entries to bring us back to her childhood for the flashbacks was also a treat and a very smart way of providing information on the Milk Man without spoiling (pun intended) too much in the present time line.
I’m still unsure of how I feel about the ending. I keep fluctuating between loving it because I understand the metaphorical nature of the themes and also wanting a bit more of a pay off.
I’m leaning more towards the latter, wishing that certain moments hadn’t ended so quickly and we had more time to ruminate. There were also a few plot points that felt ….too convenient, but overall being content with the book.
List of Content Warnings: Death of a parent/grief, animal death (on page - cow and lizards; off page, referenced but not described - cat; off page, referenced and somewhat described - unspecified animals), mentions of self-harm/suicide, drinking and drug use, infidelity, discussions of toxic intimate relationships, detailed body horror/gore, violence, death (includes child death)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Vomit, Animal death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Confinement, and War
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