Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Midwise Publishing 

Genre: Fantasy 

Length: 408 Pages

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At: amazon, Alexandra M. Tran

Blurb:

I often wondered why the prince plucked me from the woods and locked me in his tower of stone. In time, I came to understand that a greedy hand never rests.

All my life, I waited for a sign that my existence had meaning, that there was more beyond the outskirts where I was born. I felt misplaced, a girl adrift in a world too vast and unkind.

But I escaped. I clawed my way out. I found freedom, piece by broken piece. I stitched myself back together with whatever I could find: shattered memories, cracked hopes, fragments of who I’d been.

I made myself whole again.

I learned it’s better to be named a devil than mistaken for a savior.

I won’t be seen as anyone’s salvation, I’ll become their reckoning.

The world will know that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Set in a realm of myth, Maneater follows Odessa, a woman torn between two selves. When fate demands a choice—death or divinity—she must decide whether to die as a mortal or live as a god. Her story is a tale of love, betrayal, wrath, and above all, a woman unafraid to become the anti-heroine.

Review: 

There’s a particular feeling that settles in when regret comes to take hold. It isn’t just one emotion, it’s a storm of them. Sadness. Disappointment. The sting of failure. The ache of inaction. The heavy burden of self-blame. The list spirals endlessly.

Odessa lives in Brier Len a town on the outskirts of their realm. The skirtsfolk are looked down upon for being poor, for supposedly having demons in their midst. Her family is not a happy one. The forest around them is mostly dead, her stepfather can no longer hunt for food because the animals have left. He either drinks himself into oblivion, using any money they have for alcohol, or into a rage and beats her mother or Odessa. Her mother’s mental processes are now mostly dissociative with few moments of clarity. She stirs non-existent food in pots. Babbles or sings parts of songs about things from her past that are not especially intelligible in current day. Mag, the skirtsfolk apothecary, often talks in riddles to Odessa as well, although later in the book some realisations of what she’s said dawn. 

Torhiel, the land of devils, was where my mother had been born. It was a truth I would carry to my grave. If anyone ever discovered that secret ran through my veins, we’d both be condemned.

When she is old enough Odessa works at a local inn for some money to support her family. This forms part of the non-linear progression of the book. It wasn’t a bad job and it kept her occupied. Then a cartographer came to Brier Len for a season, staying at the Inn while mapping the forest. Caz seemed to be in such a grand position, an academic, especially to a young woman who doesn’t even know how to read or write… but Odessa is attractive. Caz asks her to be his assistant until his job is done and he has to go back to the academy. He’ll teach her the basics of reading/writing. Feelings develop between the pair. Odessa was always a tad sceptical so when he asked her to come back with him to the academy, she’s not sure. Why? What could she offer him? How could she leave her family? She relents only to be abandoned by him. Emotionally speaking, it’s just another kick for Odessa.  

Then Prince Gadriel spots Odessa when he’s travelling through the town. The carriage stops for him to look specifically at her. Soon after she’s summoned to the castle in Hyrall in service of the Crown. Her stepfather is offered money for her and though she pleads with him and her mother to not send her away – it was pretty heartbreaking – the money represents greed and alcohol to her father.  

The grim truth of Hyrall was this, whatever scraps of my humanity I once clung to had withered long ago. Each passing day here carved away at what remained.

Odessa’s summons is purely to be a courtesan to the Crown Prince. There are four women in total that serve at Gadriel’s pleasure. The other three have prepped to become courtesans all their lives. Odessa has not. They don’t like her. She’s beneath them. So they give her a hard time, but she’s dealt with harder times. Lived in harder circumstances. She soon works her way into Prince Gadriel’s good graces and becomes his favourite. The feeling is not mutual but Odessa plays a part she doesn’t like with one goal in mind. Escape. 

Odessa has to deal with a lot in this book. Not going to lie, it’s underpinned by sadness and hardship and blow after blow. She cannot catch a break – even on the occasions she thinks she might have. 

The romance aspect of Maneater is uncertain to me. We go back in Odessa’s mind to recall the time she spent with Caz and how much she cared for him, then he left. She was young, vulnerable, hurt. Still, he taught her the fundamentals to read and write for which she is grateful. Her parents were happy to send her away for money. No support. No care. Yet she loves her mother. Mag is an odd bird that Odessa doesn’t fully understand. But Mag helped her.

Interspersed throughout the story, as she grows up, there are moments where Odessa encounters things like yellow eyes in the desiccated Brier Len forest. Ravens become a part of her existence. They aid her. She also has occasions when anger overcomes her, but what occurs after, is it really her memory or something darker than that?

Odessa eventually escapes Hyrall and finds herself in the demon realm of Tohriel. It’s like nothing she’s ever seen before. The trees are alive. Then there’s the Ossirae, the tree of all trees in Tohriel. The tree of gods, demigods and goddesses. Raithe, a son of Vengeance, seeks Odessa out, telling her he’s always watched her from a distance. He starts to teach her about this realm and her status as a daughter of Wrath, how you bargain with humans when they need your skillset and that sustains you. Raithe appears to also be a love interest for Odessa but she has nothing left to give him by the time she becomes aware of this realm. Her status, Raithe, what that all means is another complexity for her.

And yet again another man comes along to thwart any plans she might have of accepting this life she’s just been introduced to. That she apparently should have accepted Tohriel’s pull a decade ago, didn’t know a thing about it, which puts her in another vulnerable situation. What this all means to her – gods and demigods and goddesses – how to harness the power of bargaining with mortals. Raithe’s promise that she is his light, it’s all too much. Or maybe it’s too little too late?  

My Thoughts: 

Maneater is an interesting read. It’s the first book in a duology by the author. I actually bought it because I liked the title and the book cover. I didn’t know a thing about the writer or the book, to be honest. As a character, Odessa’s actions and feelings often seem perfunctory – going through the motions of surviving. Never thriving. The story is told in a non-linear format and it’s written in such a manner that you’ve often read multi-paragraphs before you realise you’re in a different timeline than the one prior, with no warning. Ordinarily that would bother me but this whole story is unusual in the telling so I rolled with it. Also, there are parts of chapters where you’re in Odessa’s head but her thoughts are fragmented. 

Maneater’s pages are full of introspection with minimalist dialogue. Especially compared to the books I usually read. There is not much in terms of action either, it’s quite psychological. As a woman, I found  Odessa’s experiences at the hands of men deeply unsettling at times. The sex is pared back, thankfully, because it’s like Odessa is distancing to get through, especially true of her time with Gadriel. Although she notes he’s more than an adequate lover. It was a juxtaposition – food and other luxuries are available in Hyrall, but at great cost because the loss of self and personal agency is very real. I’m looking forward to the second book. I want to see what happens with Raithe. Also Hadeon. Especially Odessa – may you get to bring on some serious wrath, girl 4 Stars!