Review: Their Monstrous Hearts by Yiğit Turhan

Their Monstrous Hearts by Yiğit Turhan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC and an ARC of this book via Netgalley and the team Harlequin, all opinions are my own.

This was a strange book for sure.  It is told from the perspective of Riccardo, a struggling writer who can't make ends meet and can't find the word to put on the page.  His agent is begging him for the draft of his first novel after reading a short story that blew everyone away.  At the peak of his dispair, a man shows up with an envelope that could change the direction he is going and possibly pull him out of his downward spiral.  The man has worked for Riccardo's grandmother, Perihan for many years, and she has just passed away.  Riccardo has been summoned back to Milan to attend her funeral and deal with her estate as her sole surviving relative.  There he finds an old journal that spans her lifetime and tells a story that reads like a fantasy novel.  These journal entries are told from Perihan's perspective, and we learn about her life and why butterflies are so important to her story.

Overall I thought the pacing was a bit slow.  I'm not sure if it was the frequent POV and timeline switches or what.  I didn't particularly connect with either character, though I did prefer Perihan's journal entries more than the Riccardo perspective.  It felt like Riccardo wasn't doing anything but reading a book for most of the novel, then at the end everything happens all at once.  This does have some suspenseful moments and mild horror elements, but I felt like it needed more.  This does have a really cool premise and is filled with symbolism

I appreciated that there were two narrators in the audiobook, one for Riccardo's perspective in the present and one for Perihan's perspective when he is reading the journal.  The chapters don't have a clean break for the point of view to switch as Riccardo will be doing something, then he will pick the journal up and start reading, so it was a nice touch that the narration changes as he picks up the book and puts it down.

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