Hunting Monsters

Author: S.L. Huang
Series: None
Publisher: Book Smugglers Publishing
Release Date: October 7, 2014

"Happy birthday, child. Careful not to shoot any grundwirgen."

Ever since she was a small girl, she has learned to be careful on the hunt, to recognize the signs that separate regular animals from human-cursed grundwirgen. To harm a grundwirgen is a crime punishable by death by the King’s decree—a fatal mistake that her Auntie Rosa and mother have carefully prepared her to avoid.

On her fifteenth birthday, when her mother is arrested and made to stand trial for grundwirgen murder, everything she thought she knew about her family and her past comes crashing down.

Auntie Rosa has always warned her about monsters. Now, she must find and confront them to save her mother, no matter the cost.

Friggin' gorgeous. Just friggin' gorgeous. How dare you do this to me, S.L. Huang? How dare you?

In this retelling of Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood. Xiao Hong is a young girl that comes from a family of hunters. She's raised by her mother Mei and her partner Rosa, who have given her everything she needs and everything she needs to know. Although her mother is distant and Xiao Hong spends more time with Auntie Rosa, she loves them both more than anything in the world. So when the King's Men break down the door and take her mother to court, tearing her family apart and accusing her of a terrible crime, Xia Hong does everything to prove them wrong. But the people seemed to have made up their mind, and there's little she could do without a hint of proof leading to her mother's innocence.

We all knew trials in this kingdom were swift and executions swifter.

How perfect can this be? People of Color represented in a medieval setting! A protagonist living in an unconventional household and raised by a same sex couple, one of whom is bisexual! Non-negative reinforcement of these elements! Calling out of abusive relationships! Likeable, human characters! Confrontations with moral questions! Beautiful, evenly-paced writing that hooks you in! People of Color! If I should have any complaints, it's that there should be a follow-up, spin-off novel after. I'd like to write a longer, coherent review, but I can't stop raving about how good it is, and anything I'll say will have me spoiling too much. You'll simply have to trust me when I say that Hunting Monsters is one of the most perfect, awesomesauce short stories I and almost every other reader have and will ever come across.