A battle-hardened young woman bent on revenge teams up with a foppish young nobleman to take down the faerie-made creature that destroyed her life in Serra Swift's adventurous and warmhearted first novel, Kill the Beast.
Lyssa "the Butcher" Carnifex is a monster-hunting version of Robin Hood; she kills menacing faerie creatures that trouble the rich and uses her earnings to support her passion for killing the monsters that trouble the poor. One creature has eluded her despite her dogged hunt for it: the Beast of Buxton Fields, "the horror that had shaped her life into something she hardly recognized, and still haunted her nightmares almost thirteen years later." The Beast killed Lyssa's brother, and she cannot live with herself unless she destroys it. "It's okay to live for something other than revenge," her friend and mentor Ragnhild the witch cautions, but Lyssa disagrees. She finally gets a lead on the Beast's whereabouts in the form of Alderic Casimir De Laurent, a drunken, flippant dandy who offers her an enormous sum to slay the Beast. Ragnhild advises Lyssa and Alderic to work together to gather the ingredients needed to forge a magical weapon capable of dispatching the monster. Lyssa doesn't expect a nobleman who crochets flowers onto floppy hats to be up to the hardships of the quest, especially with her dangerous ex-lover, Honoria, leading a squad of monsters' rights advocates to thwart their goals. But Alderic turns out to be surprisingly capable, and Lyssa finds herself beginning to trust him after years of pushing other people away. The friendship that blossoms between them could bring Lyssa back to a life of love and closeness. The secrets both she and Alderic keep could wreck what they've built. The Beast awaits them.
This fantasy has traces of The Witcher in its DNA, with its monster-slaying, loner heroine, and plenty of creatures to satisfy readers looking for a perilous fantastical world. Swift packs in plenty of fun action-adventure moments but also layers in messaging about the ripple effect of trauma and the complexities that can surround perpetration and victimhood. The concept often dwells in darkness, but the story's underpinnings of connection, healing, and redemption give the narrative a surprisingly warm tone, and secondary characters support the message of strength in community. Readers looking for a sweet yet substantial pause from the romantasy offerings should enjoy this friendship-forward fairy tale. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: A young woman bent on revenge and a foppish nobleman take on a savage predator in this adventurous, warmhearted fantasy novel.