Book Review: Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris

This post reviews a Netgalley digital arc for Strange Beasts by Susan J Morris.

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“A whip-smart, lusciously atmospheric adventure through the dazzling theatres and chilling catacombs of turn of the century Paris.” – Frances White

About The Book 📚

Title: Strange Beasts

Series: Strange Beasts

Author: Susan J. Morris

Publication Date: October 15, 2024

Publisher: Bindery Books

Genre: Action & Adventure, Detective & Mystery, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, LGBT+

Pages: 384

Setting: Paris, 1900s

Content Warnings: May contain spoilers https://susanjmorris.com/content-warnings/

Three Words That Describe This Book: Gothic, Monsters, Mystery

About The Author

“Susan J. Morris is a fantasy author and editor best known for a writing-advice column featured on Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog (which TIME magazine online once called “clever,” and which she hence forth has never let anyone forget), and her work editing Forgotten Realms novels. Susan delights in running workshops for Clarion West and in moderating panels for writing symposiums. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her partner; her cats, Adora and Kitava; and entirely too many plants. Strange Beasts is her debut novel.” Find her online at https://susanjmorris.com/

My Review

› The US cover for Strange Beasts depicts two women wearing turn-of-the-century clothing walking up stairs that lead into the mouth of a skull. The woman leading the way has turned back to glance at the other woman – is she deceptive? is she hopeful? The UK version is stunning. I love the addition of the wolf, bees, and weird slug-looking monster.

› First Line: “Samantha Harker’s heels rang on the fine marble floors as she hurried past plaster reliefs of scenes torn from myth. Gas lights illuminated the carvings, and in their shifting shadows, the Gorgons and Furies and men fighting the Minotaur in his maze seemed to almost move.”

› Strange Beasts takes place in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. Samantha Harker, daughter of Jonathan Harker, works for the Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena. From the classic novel Dracula, we know her father teamed up with Van Helsing to battle Dracula. Samantha has a special ability but her power is unpredictable and she keeps it secret for fear of being admitted into an asylum. Gruesome deaths are happening in Paris and Samantha is assigned to the case along with Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter of Professor James Moriarty – nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. No one wants to work with Helena as her previous partners have all been mysteriously killed.

“The thing you have to understand,” Hel said quietly, as if the shadows might overhear, “is that someone like my father doesn’t have ‘men.’ He’s a whisper of information, a nudge on someone’s baser instincts, a finger on a domino whose effects spiral out in unseen designs.”

› Their investigation takes them all over Paris, including the underground catacombs. Samantha must learn to trust her instincts and decide if she can trust Helena as they attempt to find the murderer.

“Even before her parents realized Sam was a channel, everyone who knew the circumstances of her birth had seemed certain something must be wrong with her, the girl conceived when her mother was under Dracula’s influence.”

› Why the title Strange Beasts? Samantha works for a company that studies strange beasts. Her power is a strange beast that she’s attempting to control. Men have been killed by a strange beast. The deaths of Helena’s partners are strange. There are strange beasts in the catacombs. Love can also be a strange beast. It is bizarre, extraordinary, rare, wonderful, and wild.

› “I read the report. He never could have taken down that vampire without your mother’s visions. Men like him are entirely too quick to call a woman mad or monstrous just because she can do something they can’t. Don’t do it for them.”

› Dracula and Sherlock Holmes are two of my favourite classics, and I was looking forward to reading a story featuring female main characters. Sadly, the characters fell flat for me. The atmosphere is good, however, as the first book of a series I expected more world-building. Although the writing is repetitive, it is of good quality and the plot keeps the pages turning. I struggled to understand the motivation behind the storytelling. Samantha and Helena are British and Irish, so why were they chosen to investigate a case in France? Why would I care about rich, pompous men who cheat on their wives are being murdered? I didn’t understand the tumultuous relationship between Samantha and Jakob and the romantic chemistry between Samantha and Helena was invisible. Despite these criticisms, I had an okay time reading this and look forward to reading the next installment because the concept is compelling.

APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: plot-driven
Pace: medium
Tone: angsty, mysterious, gruesome
Humour: sarcastic
Writing Style: conversational, dialect-filled
Character: awkward, unlikeable
LGBTQIA+ Representation: queer

Read Alikes:
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner
Where Dreams Descend by Janelia Angeles

› In the past I have given a rating out of ten and converted that to a star rating, but I’m no longer giving a star rating here on my blog. I will continue to do that on Goodreads and The Story Graph.

› Final Thoughts
• Strange Beasts is a mysterious gothic story about evil, fear, social struggles, classism, sexism, doubt, instinct, trust, self-acceptance, and love. It leaves us asking what makes a monster. And does the end justify the means? I recommend this book to fans of historical fantasy.