Monsters Born and Made Published by Aladdin on November 2, 2022 Pages: 352
Goodreads
LIMITED PRINT RUN: EXCLUSIVE FIRST EDITION. The first printing includes an exclusive designed case! Available only while stock lasts.
*A Book Riot Must-Read South Asian Book of 2022*
*A BuzzFeed Highly Anticipated YA Book of Summer 2022*
She grew up battling the monsters that live in the black seas, but it couldn't prepare her to face the cunning cruelty of the ruling elite.
Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and These Violent Delights, this South Asian-inspired fantasy is a gripping debut about the power of the elite, the price of glory, and one girl's chance to change it all.
Sixteen-year-old Koral and her older brother Emrik risk their lives each day to capture the monstrous maristags that live in the black seas around their island. They have to, or else their family will starve.
In an oceanic world swarming with vicious beasts, the Landers--the ruling elite, have indentured Koral's family to provide the maristags for the Glory Race, a deadly chariot tournament reserved for the upper class. The winning contender receives gold and glory. The others--if they're lucky--survive.
When the last maristag of the year escapes and Koral has no new maristag to sell, her family's financial situation takes a turn for the worse and they can't afford medicine for her chronically ill little sister. Koral's only choice is to do what no one in the world has ever dared: cheat her way into the Glory Race.
But every step of the way is unpredictable as Koral races against competitors--including her ex-boyfriend--who have trained for this their whole lives and who have no intention of letting a low-caste girl steal their glory. As a rebellion rises and rogues attack Koral to try and force her to drop out, she must choose--her life or her sister's--before the whole island burns.
Perfect for fans of:
- Dystopian Fantasy
- Sea Monsters
- Exes-to-Rivals-to-?
- Golden Boy x Pariah
- Deadly Competition
- Rebellion
- Angsty Teenagers
- Fans of Chloe Gong
- Female Friendship
Praise for Monsters Born and Made:
An exhilarating race of willpower and defiance, set on an utterly unique world filled with glorious monsters. --Xiran Jay Zhao, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Iron Widow
Monsters Born and Made takes well-beloved YA tropes and turns them on their heads, creating an action-packed rallying cry against oppression and a riveting tale of one girl's desperation to survive no matter the odds. --Roseanne A. Brown, New York Times bestselling author of A Song of Wraiths and Ruin
Review:
Scorpio Races meets the Hunger Games in an intense race with monsters from the sea in a race that could change everything. The themes found in this book’s pages are fierce competition, underdog main characters from low-income families, class warfare, revolution, a forbidden love interest from a family of high status, and a young sibling struggling for her life.
Koral is from a family that only goal is to be hunters of the sea for these monsters of the ocean called Maristag. Once captured, they are to be raised and sold to the rich for the Glory race. So we have Landers vs. renters, and renters have never entered a Glory race today. Monsters Born and Made is an intense, bloody story about a race that can change Koral’s life if she succeeds and is not killed. Like all tales, her victory may happen, and it maybe is destroyed just as quickly. I am unsure if we get more stories from this author in this tale, but it does end like we could get more.
