All These Monsters

From New York Times best-selling author Amy Tintera, a high-stakes sci-fi adventure about a teen girl who will do anything to escape her troubled home—even if that means joining a dangerous monster-fighting squad. Perfect for fans of Warcross and Renegades.

Seventeen-year-old Clara is ready to fight back. Fight back against her abusive father, fight back against the only life she’s ever known, and most of all, fight back against scrabs, the earth-dwelling monsters that are currently ravaging the world. So when an opportunity arises for Clara to join an international monster-fighting squad, she jumps at the chance.

When Clara starts training with her teammates, however, she realizes what fighting monsters really means: sore muscles, exhaustion, and worst of all, death. Scrabs are unpredictable, violent, and terrifying. But as Clara gains confidence in her battle skills, she starts to realize scrabs might not be the biggest evil. The true monsters are the ones you least expect.

The narration ruined a just-ok book

Perhaps some of the worst accents I've ever heard and beyond that the narrator brought little to the story. The writing and story itself were both adequate. I find the tag like "The true monsters are the ones you least expect" highly ironic. It's all transparent from the beginning and only the moderate amount of action keeps the book from being a total dud. I might have rolled my eyes so hard I bruised my skull more than once. I bumped up the story one star because, as a YA book, it tackled some important topics--familial abuse, homelessness, and other real hardships (not just teen mellow drama). Just don't expect any depth of character, story, or world building and you'll be fine.