A beautifully written collection full of swans, bear children, dolls, white lions, mermen and dark fairytale imagery incorporated into the real world and all its complex situations, which is used to explore disability, otherness and bodies. As someone with a disability myself, I’m so happy this collection exists and to see more characters with disabilities in fiction- I can’t wait to see what else this author writes! The story ‘The Pain’ will stick with me for a long time, it’s so weird and yet kind of comforting to see someone else put your pain into words like that. Very rarely can I finish a collection, go back and look at the table of contents and remember what every single story was about but I can in this case and will be thinking about them for a long time- highly recommend!

I first heard of Lottie Mills when she won the BBC Young Writers award in 2020 and as such, I was very excited to see that a compendium is due to be released in May. I was overjoyed ot be gifted an ARC from Oneworld publications and "Monstrum" is every bit as intriguing and enchanting as I expected, and then some!

The strength of the narrative is exceptional. Mills crafts a stunningly ambient space, full of fluid darkness and light, equally undulating around dthe storyline and forming into places and people as a sculptor would with clay and stone. .The reason I describe it in this form, is because the clay is carefully moulded into shape, formed and allowed to harden, whereas sculptures either chisels away at a set piece to create a thing of beauty or weaves multiple entities together to create something new entirely. Please exuse my drawn out analogies, this is purely inspiration in trying to describe this rare talent

Monstrum is a compendium of fairy tales reworked and reimagined for a contemporary world and as you are all probably more than aware by now, I adore a good fairy tale retelling and this collection is fresh and unique, ideally placed in contemporary fiction. I enjoyed this book so much that I have read it through three times over the last three weeks and it is one I will likely continue to read over and over

Absolutely a talent to watch and certainly a highly recommended compilation

Thank you to Netgalley, Oneworld Publications and the outstanding author Lottie Mills for this fantastic ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

#Monstrum #NetGalley