BBNYA2022 Blog Tour ~ Lesser Known Monsters

Being the chosen one isn’t always a good thing...

Oscar Tundale is not a hero. Anxious, indecisive, and awkward, he can barely get through a normal day. Now he’s about to find out monsters are real. Oscar’s friends: brave, stubborn Zara, and hyperactive, paranoid Marcus, might help discover what hunts him, and unravel the truth about the handsome doctor he pines for. But only heroes can save the world, so maybe the best Oscar can hope for is to not end it by accident.

I received this book to read and review as part of the 2022 BBNYA competition and the BBNYA finalists tours organised by the TWR Tour team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest.

BBNYA is a yearly competition where Book Bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website or Twitter. 

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Book source ~ BBNYA

Lesser Known Monsters

Lesser Known Monsters, #1

Rory Michaelson

31 October 2020

LGTBQIA+ | Fantasy

306 Pages

My Rating ~ 3 bites

Buy Links

Oscar Tundale is just going about his business working in healthcare when his life takes a sudden left turn. Oscar is more than he could possibly think and he’s about to find out how and why. The question is: will he believe?

Ok, so there’s a lot that I like about this story. The diverse cast, the lesser known monsters (or in my case, the not known), the plot, and the world. 

However, there’s much that falls flat. Oscar. Let’s talk about the MC for a minute. I get it. He doesn’t think he’s special. Don’t most of us think that of ourselves at some point? But Oscar takes it to the extreme. And I can’t forget to mention how wishy washy he is. With no spine. I mean, at all. It gets really frustrating how ineffective he is. There’s no real depth to him and he doesn’t grow during the book. Disappointing. Dmitri is a bit of a cliche and I cannot tell you how much I loathe when a character refuses to explain things. Even a little bit. “Oh, it’s so complicated. I’m trying to keep you safe.” But I’m not going to tell you a damn thing so you can go off and be in danger. FFS. Marcus is so annoying I wonder how anyone can be friends with him. At least his character grows. Zara is someone I could hang with. Although her character’s path is a bit too convenient for me, I'll accept it. The villain has a cartoonish feel making it hard to be afraid.

The writing feels clunky and a tad amateurish. It doesn’t flow as smoothly as I thought it would for a 10th place finalist. All-in-all this is a different take on a monster/end of the world story and it is intriguing even with the issues that bug me. While this is a mixed bag for me, plenty of others have really enjoyed it, so pick it up and dive in.

Rory Michaelson is always doing too many things, and rarely the ones that they ought to be. The Lesser Known Monsters series includes Rory’s debut novel and short story collection. They were born and raised in the UK, love stories in all forms, and are easily bribed with cookies.

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BBNYA is a yearly competition where Book Bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie or small press authors. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the 2023 BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website, Twitter BBNYA, or follow this link  to enter! Please make sure to carefully read our terms and conditions before entering.

If you are Book Blogger or reviewer you can apply to be part of the awesome 2023 BBNYA panel via this form. Please remember to read the terms and conditions before signing up.

BBNYA is brought to you in association with The Folio Society and the book blogger support group TheWriteReads.