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Kill the Beast by Serra Swift
Feb. 1st, 2026 08:08 pmKill the Beast
3/5. Standalone fantasy about a very angry young woman who gets hired to kill the dangerous beast that killed her brother.
This is just okay. Points for having the relationship that develops between protag and her employer be a friendship rather than a romance. Otherwise, this telegraphs its twists so hard that I spotted the one that drops around the 75% mark when I was only 15% in. Yikes. And it’s not just about wanting to be surprised, either – the emotional arc of this book probably only works decently well if you don’t see everything coming. Because the protag doesn’t, and she does need a few hard kicks to get her head on straight. But when you do see everything coming, it all just takes too long to play out.
Content notes: A lot of violence, references to parental death and abandonment, alcoholism.
3/5. Standalone fantasy about a very angry young woman who gets hired to kill the dangerous beast that killed her brother.
This is just okay. Points for having the relationship that develops between protag and her employer be a friendship rather than a romance. Otherwise, this telegraphs its twists so hard that I spotted the one that drops around the 75% mark when I was only 15% in. Yikes. And it’s not just about wanting to be surprised, either – the emotional arc of this book probably only works decently well if you don’t see everything coming. Because the protag doesn’t, and she does need a few hard kicks to get her head on straight. But when you do see everything coming, it all just takes too long to play out.
Content notes: A lot of violence, references to parental death and abandonment, alcoholism.