Monstrous Design Blog Tour
Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Monstrous Design Blog Tour. Thank you so much Zephyr Books, Midas PR and Amber Choudhary for organising the tour and letting me be a part of it!
For my stop on the tour I will be sharing my review of this fabulous book!
Title: Monstrous Design Author: Kat Dunn Series: Battalion of the Dead #2 Publisher: Zephyr Books Published: 10th June 2021 Genre: YA, Historical, Fantasy, Rating: 4.5/5 stars
With swashbuckling, super-fast paced action and own voices queer romance, The Battalion of the Dead return in a dazzling new adventure, set amid the opulence and squalor of 18th-century London and Paris.
1794, London: where luxury and squalor rub shoulders and men of science conspire to raise the dead and make monsters.
From the glamorous excesses of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens to the city’s seedy underbelly, Camille continues her search for Olympe de l’Aubespine – the girl born of magic and mayhem.
But with half the battalion trapped in Paris and a new enemy lying in wait in London, time is running out. Camille must decide how much she’s willing to risk. To get what you want, how far is too far? -Goodreads
I fell in love with Dangerous Remedy, the first book in this series when I first read it in 2020, and I reread it at the end of last year because I enjoyed it so much! The combination of French Revolution setting, a touch of fantasy, and the amazing characters and their queer relationships makes this one of my favourite YA series. When I heard there was going to be a blog tour for the sequel, I jumped at the chance to take part!
I was super happy to open the book to find a small summary at the beginning, giving readers a reminder of how the first book was left, and where we find our characters at the beginning of this novel. Despite only reading the book at the end of last year, this was seriously appreciated as it reminded me exactly where we stood.
Unlike the first book, this one takes place in both England and France. I think the reason I didn’t *quite* enjoy this one as much as the first was because of this. I’m not a massive fan of regency England settings in books, I have to really be in the mood for it, so this definitely affected my enjoyment. As half the novel is set with Camille and Al in England, I found myself impatiently reading their chapters to get back to France. These chapters were just a wee bit slow for me, the descriptions of parties and tea and dresses just didn’t keep me interested. But this is a personal preference, and definitely won’t be a problem for everyone!
That being said, I do still love Camille and Al a lot, they are an unusual team, but both are brilliant characters who bounce off each other. Another party enters the scene in England too, someone else is hunting for Olympe! This definitely ups the drama and tension within the novel, Camille and Al have a lot on their plates. Dunn has dramatically raised the stakes of danger in this novel, which really impressed me! How it could be more dramatic than the first novel is amazing work!!
I still adore all the characters in this novel a lot. Camille and Ada are my absolute favourites, and we gained some new insights into how they act apart from each other, and how this distance affects their relationship. I love how they are together, but seeing them grow and develop apart from each other was really lovely to see! Having a canon bisexual character in the novel, and it just not be an issue that she is interested in men and women is so refreshing to read.
Al is as perfectly witty and sarcastic as in Dangerous Remedy, he is a dark and comedic break within the narrative, and I love him so much. He struggles with a purpose and place during this novel, and it was lovely to see Camille support him. I also think we got a lot more insight into Olympe as a character too, she really grows in England as opposed to France. She is given quite a lot of time in this novel, and we really get to see more of her.
Overall I really enjoyed this novel a lot. It was a perfect sequel to Dangerous Remedy. The character growth and development was excellent, and the novel ends with another huge plot twist, which I really did not see coming!!
Thank you for reading my Monstrous Design Blog Tour post! Buy the book from Waterstones here.
