Book Review: The Shape of Monsters by CL Hellisen
Genre: Dark fantasy
Age: Adult
Format: Audiobook
CL Hellisen is my auto-buy author. I have also had the privilege of meeting Hellisen in person and am honored to call them a friend. I have yet to read a novel, novella, or short story by this author that I did not love. The Shape of Monsters is no exception.
The Shape of Monsters is dark fantasy that sways more toward horror at times. While ultimately a story of love—both romantic and familial—this book gets extremely gruesome, so readers (listeners) make sure you have a strong stomach for this one! That said, as usual Hellisen renders the macabre and grotesque exquisite through their lush prose, balancing the bleak and dismal with generous dollops of black humor.
At the heart of this story are siblings Aleks, a walking disaster whose favored mechanism for coping with childhood trauma involves drugs and alcohol, and his little sister Vaira, a vegan runner who meditates. The somewhat estranged siblings are thrown together when Vaira inherits an estate steeped in the legacy of complicated magic both siblings have been trying to avoid as the last survivors of their family line.
Thus ensues much magical mayhem as old rivalries reignite and new conflicts emerge when Aleks, the supposedly magicless one, manages to summon a demon-like entity wielding terrifying void magic from the Long Dark. Both siblings are forced to reckon with the truth of who they are while trying to survive the ruthless machinations of the mages who want the siblings’ power for themselves.
While the plot unfurls slowly in the background, relationships remain the focus of this story as Hellisen delicately explores sibling rivalry, the bonds of family, and how far both Aleks and Vaira
are willing to go for the ones they love, and for each other, while dark and terrible magic threatens the fabric of reality.
Despite initial impressions, rest assured, this book is queer with multiple identities represented on the page in a world that appears entirely queernormative.
Suffice it to say, I adored this book and cannot wait for the much-needed sequel after that ending, which leaves readers teetering on the precipice. While the narrator did a fabulous job of bringing this book to life, I do wish I could also read this novel because The Shape of Monsters deserves to be savored, with many gorgeous lines of prose I’d like to revisit. This scores a solid 5/5 stars.
Purchase Link (Currently Audible original and exclusive)
Review by Xan van Rooyen
