Leanne Olson

by Liselle Sambury

Releasing February 28, 2023 from Simon & Schuster Canada

Delicious Monsters wrecked me in the best way. Going in, I thought I was just reading a YA haunted house book, but it was so much more.

The book follows two Black girls in Ontario, Canada. We meet Brittney in present day, who runs a web series focused on hauntings. She’s investigating the story of Daisy, a teen girl a decade earlier, and what happened to Daisy after she moves from Toronto to a supposedly haunted house on an island in Timmins, Ontario.  

The majority of the book is Daisy’s story, with Brittney’s documentary working as a framing device and to echo the major themes of the book.  The haunting aspect is wonderfully done, with some very weird and creepy “rules” to the afterlife and related magic. But the story is also about how Black girls go missing without the world caring, about trauma that is passed down through generations, and about the relationships between daughters and mothers.

The story and characters are twisty and complex, and the plot and motivation had me guessing throughout. I was a big fan of Sambury’s Blood Like Magic/Blood Like Fate duology, but this book is even better. 

Sambury’s writing is so fresh and unexpected, and Delicious Monsters is creepy, funny, thoughtful and heartbreaking all at once. I adored it.

🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

I’d recommend checking out the trigger warning for this one, it’s classed as YA but there’s some tough material particularly around abusive relationships. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for my review copy of this book.