REVIEW: Kill the Beast by Serra Swift
The Witcher meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this debut original faerie tale of revenge, redemption, and friendship—for fans of T. Kingfisher, Naomi Novik, and cozy fantasy with a dash of gritty adventure.
The night Lyssa Cadogan’s brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.
Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and—even more surprising—retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.
Alderic is ill-equipped for a hunt and almost guaranteed to get himself killed. But as the two of them search for the rest of the materials that will be the Beast’s undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa’s better judgment, an unlikely friendship begins to bloom—one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa’s quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.
CW/TW – Lots of blood and injuries, suicidal ideation, self harm, non-fatal pet injury
But it was hard not to look back, when she had dedicated her life to avenging the past.
Dear Ms. Swift,
It was the cover. Yeah, definitely the cover. I saw it and thought “Whoa, need to know what this book is about.” One thing I do want to mention is that I might be a little vague about details and readers should NOT go into the book expecting a romance or romantasy. What is there is lovely but it’s not a romance so don’t look for one and you won’t be disappointed. It also doesn’t have whimsy or, in my mind, cozy. It’s much darker. Nor do I think it should be marketed directly at fans of Novik or Kingfisher. It’s also very light on worldbuilding.
The blurb was step two in getting me interested in reading this as I have a sweet spot for a gender flip. Here the “hero” is Lyssa, a woman forged into steel by the strength of her vow to avenge her dead brother. Stumbling away from the horror of the scene where the Beast of Buxton Fields slew so many, she winds up with Ragnhild, a witch, and later also apprentice witch Nadia in a world of magic. Ragnhild saw broken Lyssa, took her in, and helped set Lyssa on her path – that of slaying Hounds, mindless beasts that kill humans.
This path also ultimately split Lyssa from her lover and friend whom Lyssa had opened up to with all her secrets and deepest pain before that person turned towards the enemy and left Lyssa. In their meetings since, Honoria has tried to get Lyssa to come with her to a place where Honoria can explain why she and others try to protect and save Hounds. To Lyssa this is an abomination and she showed Honoria that when Lyssa stabbed the other woman through her hand. Well, Lyssa is often a woman of few words.
Now after killing a troll (ewww, they stink) and showing the cheapskate who owes her money that it’s not a good idea to attempt to short change her, Lyssa has picked up her mail (mostly flyers – even in a fantasy the characters get junk mail) and discovered that her estranged father (hork, spit) as well as some asshat sounding idiot (Lyssa is quick to judge) are attempting to contact her. Her father she’ll ignore for eternity but the most recent message from the rich asshat (his name just screams privilege) is succinct and desperate. Okay, Lyssa will at least meet him.
He’d fall apart, she told herself. And he can’t fall apart until we’re finished.
Alderic is all Lyssa imagines and worse. Rich, rich, silly, rich, and very, very drunk. But he has a proposition Lyssa can’t ignore as it’s something she vowed to do already so, good. Then Ragnhild throws Lyssa for a loop with the declaration that Lyssa must take the fop with fancy waistcoats with her to gather what is needed to forge the weapon which will – you guessed it – kill the beast.
“Because I don’t want you to die, you fucking idiot!”
Now for some honesty. As I read the story, some little things jumped out at me and made me wonder how Lyssa missed them. I realized that everything is not as we think it is and that Revelations would ensue later down the line. Lyssa seems to discover a few things about herself and Alderic in a Lessons Learned sort of way. A bit heavy handed and very obvious at times.
And I’m wondering when Lyssa will notice some of the clues being sprinkled along the way. I was at the point when I start to begin to weigh up my reading experience and tentatively assign a grade. Good, definitely good but … eh, maybe not what I’d hoped for. Oh and for some reason the mention of photography and paper cups jerked me out of the scenes they were mentioned in.
It was the first time she had made that promise without thinking of her brother when she said it.
Then The Revelation arrived and I will admit that what I had guessed is not quite this. When I thought back, the clues were there and I’m sure others will catch on more quickly but whoa and damn. The emotion and self discovery start thick and fast now.
What do you do when you’re about to get everything you’ve planned and vowed to accomplish but the price is something you don’t know if you can pay? Your life has revolved around something you’ve been willing to die to get but the cost might be even higher. Yet if you don’t proceed, the cost to others might be even worse. How can you reconcile something like this?
Shove the rest down deep.
You can break later.
From this point, I was glued to the story. What would happen? How would Lyssa do what she knew she had to do? She had always said she had to hide her feelings and stuff emotion down deep. But this is close to breaking her.
And her dog liked him.
For roughly the first half of the book it will be exasperating if readers aren’t willing to wait for Lyssa to begin to change. In her defense, she has had losses in her life that have rocked her and to do what she does, she has to stay mentally tough and hard. She is locked into the raging self she’s become though she adores her dog and mentions to Alderic that she’s charging him through the nose because he can afford it and the extra money will allow her to do pro bono work for poor people.
Lyssa is going to learn the most about herself but she also realizes the true person Alderic is. Until then, she does stomp and swear, and at times mock him before feelings begin to creep in. They are feelings of friendship though. It takes a while before the ice she’s surrounded her emotions with cracks and melts a bit. Alderic, who is truly a delight to get to know, also discovers something Important about himself but I won’t go into that. I like that they get to the point where they see each other and their friendship chemistry is (eventually) delightful. They are much more alike than they would at first appear.
The resolution is messy because remember Lyssa is hunting an evil Hound that kills indiscriminately. It’s also messy because Lyssa has to face her inner demons and make a choice about herself. This reader was wrung out by The End but the grade, yeah the ending brought that up as it showed me how neatly things had been written all along. B
~Jayne
“This is for seeing who I really am, and being my friend anyway.”
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This sounds intriguing but also like a tragedy. I looked for spoilers on Goodreads, but everything blurred out as a spoiler said basically “this isn’t a romance.” There were also reassurances that the dog makes it. But what about the people! Giant eye roll.
@MaryK: LITTLE BIT OF A SPOILER HERE —
Would it help if I said that no one alive at the beginning of the book dies by the end?
Yes, that does help. I don’t know if I’ll risk it though as I don’t have a great track record with litfic fairytales. I found the ending of Silver in the Wood low grade depressing.
I’m susceptible to Howl’s Moving Castle comparisons even though I almost always get burned by them. :/
@MaryK: I’ve never read Howl’s Moving Castle and waited until after I’d finished this book to read about it. From the plot summary I read, I’d say that the comparison is apt but I’ve seen a whole lotta fans of that book complain about comparisons to it that didn’t pan out for them. From what you’ve said, it sounds like this might not be the book for you.