Reviews with content warning for Racism - Tender Beasts

My first reaction upon finishing this book was WOW. Tender Beasts is masterful. Weaving complex and emotional themes throughout, Sambury creates a waking nightmare filled with violence, secrets, and plenty of mystery. Think Slenderman, think Get Out, and then put it in a blender with Dear White People and that's almost close to the journey of emotions and plot twists you're witness to in Tender Beasts. Do yourself a favor, read it!

Content Warnings

bookishmillennial's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Had Shirley come to warn me about her family or mine?

Thank you to Simon & Schuester & Netgalley for the ARC - I provided this honest review of my own accord. Wow wow wow wow WOW I was truly creeped the fuck out by this and was not expecting anything that I read. *still processing*

The book opens with matriarch Ainsley Behre de-planing and walking to the airport garage, before she meets her untimely death after a tragic slip on the icy walkways. Then, we are introduced to the first-person POV of second-to-youngest child, Sunny Behre, and we meet her younger brother Dom, the "middles" Kiley and Darren, and the eldest child Karter. Their father Jay and Karter take up leading the family after Ainsley's death, as the family quietly tries to deal with Dom's charge of second-degree murder of his late girlfriend Torri (she died exactly one year before Ainsley passed away). The family is quite well off, and they run an high school/full-scholarship academy specifically for underprivileged kids, to give them the education and advantages that they normally would not in the public school system. Since Ainsley's death, she left behind something for each of her kids, and she leaves a note for Sunny, stating: "Take care of Dom," which is just as helpful as it is elusive. When more and more murders happen at the school, Sunny and Dom team up to find out who is doing this and trying to frame him for it.

I spent the entire book at the very edge of my seat because I could not decide what the outcome and final explanations would be. I refused to believe there was any validity to the Milk Man boogeyman horror stories, and almost with equal fervor, I refused to believe in a world where any of the Behres were capable of such malicious, horrifying behavior. LS deserves her flowers for the intricate and calculated way she developed these characters, their dynamics, and the societal context that they existed in. It broke my heart to see Sunny reckon with the way that she, her siblings, and her parents treated Dom and the way no one ever questioned or challenged it. They simply allowed him to feel excluded from his own family, and pushed him into the arms of those who likely weren't the best for him. Sunny grapples with being the person she thought her mom wanted her to be versus the kind of person she feels proud to be, and that's a central theme that runs through this story.

AND it's not just Sunny who Ainsley and Jay Behre did a disservice; it is all of their kids. Regardless of the Milk Man cult being real or not, they passed that trauma and those expectations onto their kids, rather than try to confront this together as a family. They encouraged their children to internalize messaging about the way things "had to be" versus trying to envision a different life for all of them, one where they didn't have to hide or sacrifice one for the good of them all. They were fully resigned to a fate they thought they could not escape, which I found could be a mirror to the systematic racism and classism that surrounded them. In this light, I can't wholly blame them; they tried to make it work within a system that was already rigged against them. However, I was so moved by Sunny's choices in the end, choosing hope and envisioning a different way, rather than simply accepting her fate.

Honorable mention to Mercy and Shyanne, whose authenticity and upfront demeanors were utter perfection. I loved the scene with Sunny towards the end where they have an open dialogue about how Sunny's privilege, facade, and position within the school played such a massive role in how others perceived her. I love a little tough love, and I appreciate a call in. Craig, from the very beginning, is a predictably dusty crusty dude, and you know how it's kind of horrible but you still kind of root for someone to die in a slasher like this? That's this dude (at least for me lollll). Last honorable mention to Jeremy, Dom's bestie and an overall cutie whose vibes I approved of from the very start!

see content warnings below - this was wildly fucked up so take care while reading

Quotations that stood out to me:

"You know that if you suffer just so other people are happy, that's not okay, right?"
I didn't know how to tell my brother that was my strength. That was what Mom had admired about me. Because part of me thought that maybe it wasn't okay either. But also, I wasn't sure how to say that I didn't know how to stop.

Maybe Marsha Allen had a point. Maybe our family was more beast than bear. Not majestic predators but something else. Something twisted and toxic and snarling. I'd spent so much time pretending to be otherwise when I should have just embraced the monster I was meant to be.

There was something very wrong with this family. And it wasn't the "Milk Man," but it was something.

Mom shouldn't have made anyone leader. Normal families didn't have leaders. The pressure of our success and survival should have never put on one person.

Our parents were not the same parents to all of us. I got the best of them. But Karter ... Karter had gotten a very different version. And she'd thought we hated her, and still, she was doing something she believed would help us all. My sister loved us so much. And she didn't know how to tell us, so she'd done this instead.

Mom had us in the academy trying to act like we were the same as those kids when we weren't. I knew now, more than ever, that pretending nothing was wrong wasn't how you protected people. My friends hadn't wanted me to act like I was like them. They'd just wanted me to take a minute to understand how their lives might be different and actually listen when they told me.

Because how could we call ourselves a family if we could only be that by leaving someone behind? Maybe that was how Mom and Dad needed to survive. But it didn't need to be how we did it. We weren't beasts anymore.

The Milk Man might be a monster, but we were Behres. And he would come to learn that we had claws too.

Content Warnings

daniellereadslikealot_'s review

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

I really enjoyed Delicious Monsters so I was excited to get a copy of Tender Beasts in advance. While the murder mystery was a big focus of the book, it was the family dynamics of the Behres and the generational trauma that really made the book for me. I thought it was such a wonderfully nuanced look at racism, privilege and familial roles. The murder mystery was certainly intriguing and I had no idea where it was going so being surprised was great, but I did have a bit of a hard time understanding how everything even began in the first place. I did love Ainsley’s journal entries that were peppered in. The pacing was overall slower, but I did like that it was very character driven at times. However, when action was happening, it was HAPPENING. I think this will definitely appeal to YA horror fans, but I’d recommend it to anyone comfortable with gore, looking for a unique story.

CW: death of a parent, animal cruelty and death, murder, gore, racism, child abuse, mentions of self harm, infidelity

Thank you to Simon Teen for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings

pagesihavenotyetread's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Eerie, dark, and deliciously entrapping.

I was lucky to receive an ARC for this book, and I’m so glad I did. Without going into too much detail, here’s my review:

Liselle Sambury has crafted a beautifully tragic story that kept my heart beating out of my chest as I devoured page after page. As someone that seldom reads thriller, this was an uncharacteristic pick for me as a reader, but I LOVED it! I would highly recommend to those interested in the thriller genre or looking for a dark mystery to send their thoughts swirling. I loved that the author included important perspectives on wealth and race, especially in reference to the justice system. I think that’s something that many people like to try to pretend doesn’t exist, but it’s so important to talk about. I also found that the author’s use of our main character’s POV intertwined with journal entries from her mother was incredibly interesting and made unraveling the mystery of the murders so compelling. I found myself trying to decipher and predict how we got from point A to B between Sunny and her mother’s words.

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