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From School Library Journal

Starred review from January 1, 2022

Gr 9 Up-This debut novel centers on Joan Chang-Hunt, who discovers that her grandmother's joke of the Hunt family being monsters is the not-so-hidden family secret. Joan misses a dream date with fellow museum volunteer Nick after a run-in with a neighbor and realizes 13 hours have elapsed in a blink. She hurries home and learns monsters travel through time by taking life from humans. When Joan is attacked by fellow monsters, Nick quickly dispatches them all, turning out to be the legendary human hero in the stories from her childhood. He warns Joan "I will kill you myself" if she steals time from a human again. Hiding in 1993 with fellow monster Aaron Oliver, Joan decides to change the past, a task Aaron claims is impossible. Taking place mainly in modern-day London and in 1993, this novel is equal parts fantasy, adventure, and caper as Joan plots to change the past and time itself. Joan is mentioned as Malaysian on her father's side, with other main characters depicted as white, including the rest of the Hunt family. Side characters are of various ethnicities. Joan's internal struggle with what it means to be a monster and the cost to humanity makes her a relatable protagonist. This first installment in a trilogy brings excitement into the world of fantasy with distinctive, well-thought-out worldbuilding. VERDICT Unique plotlines and characterization will have readers rooting for the monster; this is a must purchase for all libraries.-Rebecca Greer

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Booklist

January 1, 2022
Grades 10-12 Joan can't wait for her date with fellow museum worker Nick. It's the perfect way to round off her summer--until she blacks out and misses the date. Things get worse when her family is massacred, and Joan learns that she, like them, is a monster with special powers. This power will take her on a journey through time and space to save her family from the heroic monster-slayer who killed them: Nick. Len's clever debut juggles a significant amount of world building and the complicated paradoxes of time travel with grace while weaving in fantastical metaphors for growing up mixed-race. There's also a fresh take on a potential love triangle--sure to be fleshed out in later trilogy installments--alongside themes of family and identity. A fresh and novel contemporary young adult fantasy that's destined to be popular in any time line and joins the growing ranks of time-travel books for teens. Hand to fans of Tracy Deonn's Legendborn (2020) and Holly Black.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Publisher's Weekly

December 20, 2021
Len's deeply imaginative debut follows 16-year-old history buff Joan Chang-Hunt, of Chinese Malaysian and English descent, who has long spent her summers with her deceased mother's mother in London; when Joan was six, her Gran revealed that the Hunts are monsters who "hide in plain sight." This summer, Joan is looking forward to time with Nick, her presumed-white coworker and crush. But when Joan inexplicably loses a whole day, Gran tells Joan the whole truth: that the Hunts are monsters, that monsters are able to time travel by stealing hours from a human's life, and that each monster family has its own power. After her family is suddenly massacred and a hunt for surviving monsters is mounted, Joan partners with haughty 17-year-old Aaron Oliver, implied white, of a "cruel" monster family, to jump back in time and save their families-if they can. Including thoughtful introspection about Joan's multi-ethnic identity and status as a half-human, half-monster, Len carefully reveals Joan's new reality and moral struggle through an entertaining and carefully built trilogy opener. Ages 13—up. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary.

From Kirkus

December 15, 2021
Among monsters--beings with human appearances and the ability to travel through time by shortening humans' life spans--there's a myth about a human hero who threatens their entire existence. This hero's arrival in London and the subsequent massacre of monsters in the city come as a shock, most of all to 16-year-old Joan Chang-Hunt, who only recently discovered that she'd inherited her deceased White English mother's monster lineage (her human father is Chinese Malaysian). Vulnerable and uneducated about the world of monsters, Joan allies with Aaron Oliver, a White boy who is the only other living monster she can find. Putting aside centuries of enmity between the Hunt and Oliver families, the two teens flee to the 1990s together, emerging in a time before either of them or the hero were born. They quickly learn that they are no safer in the past: Someone is hunting survivors throughout time and hiding evidence of the slaughter. The initial repetition of monster as Joan deliberates various meanings of the word is monotonous, but the story soon develops into a fast-paced thriller that blurs the division between villain and hero and features a deeply conflicted protagonist caught in the middle. The rules governing time travel and details about monster society are gradually revealed, with several questions left open for exploration in the next installment. An exciting urban fantasy. (Fantasy. 13-18)

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