Ren Ryder

The father had taken Kal in. He had ‘the sight’. But, when he saw monsters from the other side, they saw him.

Kal made contact with a fairy and knew he would need to battle the Ourboros into submission to save his sister, Sammie. Her life weighs on his shoulders and he must save her.

There’s No Such Thing As Monsters by Ren Ryder was not what I expected, but isn’t there always a battle between good and evil when monsters are involved?

It was hard for me to connect to the characters, but show more I could seen some of the scenes playing out inn a Harry Potter, Supernatural sort of way. Some scenes seemed familiar, but isn’t that usually the case. I have read so many books, it’s hard to come up with a new approach to evil in a monster’s world.

I don’t have Book II, but I do have Book III, The Monster At The End of Its Road. We have a lot of magical monsters in this book, and I’m counting on there being a lot more in the next.

I enjoyed my time in New London and am looking forward to another visit.

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Well, I missed Book II, but I am happy to say, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of The Monster at the End of Its Road by Ren Ryder. We have magical action from the opening pages, Kal and Bell fighting for their lives against vampires and other magical creatures.

When he came face to face with his sister…well…I wasn’t expecting that and I loved it. He is determined to save her…no matter what.

Some things smack of the real world, like the division between the rich and everyone else. Kal show more can’t walk away from setting New London free from the Ouroboros, picking up unusual magical creatures along the way. He won’t have to do it alone.

Action! Action! Action!

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Monster at the End of Its Road by Ren Ryder.

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Told in first person, this is an interesting introduction to a world filled with fantasy, steampunk and villainy. Just who can you trust when there's an underworld into slavery, murder, and killing?

There's a nice amount of snark, a Tinkerbell-like creature with pointed teeth and a yen for blood and contracts, and other interesting characters.

I liked the take on elemental and fairy magic and there were some interesting twists and turns.

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Gaslight Faeries series. I borrowed this book through Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: DNF

I got about 25% of the way through this book and just stopped because it was very poorly written. The writing has no flow to it, it is very jerky and abrupt and it was hard to get an idea of what was going on. The world building was awful too, very hard to picture this New London that is introduced.

This seems to be about a young man named Kal and his sister show more who are struggling to make ends meet in New London. When Kal’s sister, Sammie, is kidnapped Kal has to save her. That’s what I got from the first quarter of the book or so, and let me tell you it was a struggle to get that far...this is written in such an uneven way.

The style of writing also does not match the tone of the story. The story is written in an almost child-like style (poor flow, simple language) but the content ends up being very bloody. I couldn't figure out if I was reading a poorly written middle grade novel or a poorly written adult novel.

This was just flat out poorly written (I feel like I am repeating that over and over but it was just sooo awkward). A lot more editing would be needed to make this a good story. The idea seems to be an interesting one but is just very poorly executed. I was drawn in by the cool book cover, the interesting description, and the fairly positive reviews...I shouldn't have been...this was a waste of time.

My Summary (2/5): Overall this feels like a very unpolished and amateur attempt at a novel. It is just so awkward to read and jumps around in fits and starts. I like the idea behind this but this book needs a lot of editing and needs to have better story flow and description. show less