There’s a very strong visual element here with the island setting of Sollonia as well as the class distinction between Landers, people who live underground, and Renters, known as the “Others.” It’s arguably an original and interesting set-up, even if it does base its storyline off of the popular young adult trope of a competition. That might be because the worldbuilding is so expansive. In the end, the writing itself presents the opposite problem: a lot of terms are thrown around and not enough is explained.

Ironically, that leads to more disorientation, as the reader’s constantly having to figure out what a character might be referring to or the whole background context of a scene taking place. Sometimes conversations come across as overly complicated and rigid it’s as if the intended meanings aren’t articulated clearly enough to the reader and Berwah has to compensate by interjecting a bunch of external information into every sentence. Monsters Born and Made has a writing style that often feels quite fragmented. In the Glory Race, she must face Dorian Akayan, the “Golden Boy” with whom she shares a rocky past, along with other challenges that will test both her physical endurance and her will to survive. When Emrik is injured during a hunt and a maristag goes free, Koral’s forced to participate in the Glory Race, betting on the fact that winning the championship and the resources afforded to the champion will enable her family to survive. The novel follows Koral Hunter, a sixteen-year-old girl who hunts maristags - sea monsters - with her brother Emrik for the upper class in the Glory Race, the ultimate competition of this world in which charioteers race maristags. Although it’s engaging, the book ends up feeling quite cheesy and delivers a rather artificial conflict. There’s a rebellion, a competition that’s essentially to the death, and a corrupt authority figure. Broken down into parts, however, many aspects are confusing when it comes to the details and feel like engineered inclusions.

When considered as a whole, Tanvi Berwah’s debut novel Monsters Born and Made is an enjoyable and captivating ride.

Monsters born and made book