DATING & DISMEMBERMENT

A formidable female monster meets her match in Brody’s romantic comedy, the first in a new series.

Darla Drake, feared across her family’s territory of Clear Creek as the Duchess of Death, is having an existential crisis: Hunting awful humans with her scourge is no longer giving her any fulfillment, and, in a completely out-of-character moment, Darla finds herself letting a victim go with his life. Utterly confused, Darla retreats to her cave, where she lives with her mother and occasionally seeks the company of her best friend, Gretl. A year passes, and one night Darla stumbles across another monster in the forest—a tentacled creature she has never seen before who is trespassing on her territory. His name is Jarko Murkvale, and he proves to be surprisingly tall and attractive when Darla confronts him (“she hated herself for even thinking it, but the creature was… kind of hot?”). With Darla having abandoned hunting for so long, Clear Creek is now open territory, and she realizes she has to get back to basics to keep control of her home and avoid losing her heart. This is a quirky romance, set in between the realms of monsters and humans. Brody does a great job of worldbuilding and bringing dark comedy, but the narrative begins a bit abruptly, plunging readers into the initially jarring circumstances of Clear Creek and Darla’s existence before they can get their bearings. However, the pace soon evens out as the story is effectively driven by strong female characters in the form of Darla, her mother Dolores, and Gretl. (In a particularly compelling side-plot, Gretl’s pregnancy makes Darla reconsider her own relationships and what she wants out of her life.) This might be a comedic story of monsters, but Darla’s issues will resonate with any adult woman trying to understand her own worth: “Darla was one of a kind. It may have taken a while for her to understand that, but that realization meant everything.”

An entertaining romance for readers with a taste for comedy and horror.