Soul Eater

Monstrous, Book 1

By: Lily Mayne

Narrated by: Michael Lesley

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty years ago, monsters rose on earth and began a new age of civilization.

One where humans live in military-controlled, cramped and dirty cities along the coasts, and the majority of the United States is known as the Wastes. A lawless, desolate and dangerous place, teeming with monsters that have claimed the land for their own.

Including Wyn the Soul Eater.

He appears every three years, making his way across the country and slaughtering humans randomly, sucking them dry until they’re nothing but husks.

I’ve only been in the military for six months, but now I’m part of a unit tasked with trying to stop and capture him. And when I’m the only soldier out of hundreds that the Soul Eater leaves alive, I realise that something about me has intrigued him.

But what is it? What could a twenty-three-year-old guy from the south, with no one and nothing in the world, have possibly done to capture the attention of a death monster with horns, blackened fingertips and a face hidden in the dark depths of his hood?

Soul Eater is book one of Monstrous, a post-apocalyptic fantasy series featuring monsters and human men falling in love. It is a m/m love story and contains sexually explicit content and graphic depictions of torture and violence.

©2021 Lily Mayne (P)2023 Podium Audio

My favorite series come to life!

The Monstrous series by Lily Mayne is probably my favorite mm series to date. Lily is an amazing author and she really knows how to yank at your heart strings and make you fall for her characters even if you don’t think you will. I have been eagerly anticipating this audiobook, and when I found out it was Michael Leslie doing the voice acting I was ecstatic! Lily’s Monstrous world was made for Michael.
While I was very happy with the audiobook as a whole(and loved the sneak preview at the end for “Edin”!) I’m going to give it 4.5 stars due to a couple of details. The first is just my opinion, but I felt the voice for Danny was a bit too deep. He’s just always pictured as “too sweet”, “adorable”, and “charming” and I have always pictured him having more of a southern belle-esque air to him. If that makes any sense lol. Again that’s just me, I felt he sounded too gruff. The other reason is there were a few editing errors, one you wouldn’t know unless you also read the book. It is when Edin is carrying Danny and tells Wyn he can talk to him because they have known each other so long. That whole section from how long they have known each other up to him saying he ripped him arm off once to help Wyn with the Behamots was accidentally narrated in Wyn’s voice instead of Edin’s. Then there were a couple of instances where lines were repeated. Overall though I was thrilled with this book, I knew ahead of time it would be difficult to narrate due to the nature of it (monster lovers with monstrous voices) but Michael pulled it off!

I wanted to like this....

I'm thinking that this may be my first foray into this particular genre. I actually have no preconceived notions of ANY genre before jumping in - basically, I just like to read good stories. Unfortunately, I had a hard time with this one - and honestly, not because of anything you might think.

Underneath everything, this is a love story between Wyn and Danny - in other words a Soul Eating Monster (Wyn) and a 23 year old military young human man (Danny) who has no family left and kind of fell into the military as a last resort. This has the making of a truly wonderful story. But, for me, this is where it fell flat.

I'm a bit confused by all of the HUGE 5 star reviews. For no other reason than I didn't find the actual story that worthy. There is not enough world building for me. How did this monster scape happen? Why are the monsters there? Why are humans relegated to military type cities - yet when we meet Danny, it is not a city type environment that we find - it is more of a front line environment where the philosophy seems to be "throw all of the military guys out as cannon fodder". Why? Not kill the monsters, but to capture the monsters to find out how to use the monsters against your enemies. What enemies.... if not the monsters? The world building doesn't make sense to me. There is not enough time spent on building the necessary building blocks for the reader to understand the "whys" of the actions and events occurring.

The military men that are over Danny are just completely AWFUL men - are we supposed to root for them? I didn't.

And why is Wyn fascinated with Danny? How does he even know his name? It is never explained. There is a small snippet at the end that tells us a little, but still .....it is AT THE END.

Regardless, I don't need to beat a dead horse. I liked Danny and I liked Wyn. I wish I was able to better understand the WHY - the "imprint" mention that was thrown out so cavalierly without any background just ended up making me sigh. But, it is what it is.

Will I be continuing? No, I don't think so.

Phenomenal!!!

I read this book shortly after it was released, and when I saw it coming to audio, I was beyond ecstatic! I was not disappointed!

This book is Lily Mayne's debut novel, and boy, did she knock it out of the park on the first pitch!

If you're into a dangerous, postapocalyptic world with otherworldly monsters (some good and some bad and some you wonder about), interesting genitalia, rogue humans, beasts with interesting eating habits, and a sweetly naive, heart-stealing, momma-loving southern boy that you can't help but fall in love with GET THIS BOOK!

The world building is a little slow but steady as you move further along the story, and there are a couple of minor editing glitches (redo of a phrase for a better tone that missed the editing listen) that in no way take away from the absolute perfection of Michael Lesley's performance.

This book is a must for anyone that loves gay paranormal stories!

Fantastic story, narration was meh

Ok so the Monstrous series is one of my faves. Lily Mayne has created some fantastic characters, highly recommend the entire series. Danny and Wyn are probably my favorite couple too.

The narration was not great. Danny’s voice seems way to old and gruff for his character. And his southern accent just seemed to disappear sometimes. The narrator also has a pretty emotionless voice. Scenes full of anger, sadness, or sex all got read in basically the same tone of voice. I did eventually get used to Danny’s voice and it stopped bothering me so much.

I actually did enjoy Wyn’s voice. I was really excited to see how it would be handled and I wasn’t disappointed. He does inject more emotion into it as the story goes on. So I was looking forward to hearing Edin’s big, booming voice. But he was just… a Russian guy? I don’t know, I thought I was a really bizarre choice. I never did get used to it, it pulled me out of the story every time he spoke. And several lines of Edin’s and Danny’s are spoken in Wyn’s voice.

Overall I don’t know that I would of finished the audio version if I didn’t already love the story so much. But I seem to be in the minority, so don’t let it stop you from giving this wonderful book a try.

Just being honest here

So, I love this series, adore it. I’ve read all the books so when I found out the audiobooks were finally coming out I was so stoked. Soul Eater is still a wonderful book, emotional and sexy and interesting. But Michael Lesley’s southern accent was…. Not great. I did get kinda used to it from about chapter 4, onwards, though. But it was sometimes inconsistent and fade away a little here and there. Also, and I’m not sure if it was a weird audible glitch or editing snafus but sometimes I’d hear a sentence repeated. And a couple times I heard Edin or Danny’s voice sound like Wyn. I did really like his Wyn voice, though. It was dark and raspy and great for the character.

Despite my criticism, the Edin preview at the end of the book made me look forward to the next book. I just hope Michael Lesley improves his accent for the Wyn novella.

New heights!

The audio version of Wyn really takes this story to new heights! I liked it even more when listening than reading, and it was pretty darn good to start with too!

My comfort book brought to life!

The monstrous series has always had a special place in my heart. Since audiobooks are often the only way I can read books to say I was ecstatic when I heard this one was coming out is an understatement.

As excised as I was, I also worried I wouldn’t like the voice that would be used for Wyn. I shouldn’t have worried. I absolutely loved it. Gave me chills, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Can’t wait for Edin and Hunter in March!

So good!!!

I have been waiting on this audio for what seems like forever! Michael Lesley did not disappoint and brought this amazing book to life! He is so talented and having him narrate the amazing words of Lily Mayne was absolute perfection! Can’t wait for the rest of the books in the series.

Amazing audio book!

They did such an amazing job with this audio book! The story is so good and the voice acting is perfect! I love Danny and Wyn’s voices!

One of the Best books

I have been WAITING for this gem to be put on audio, and I was not disappointed. Michael Leslie is one of the most talented narrators I have ever had the privilege to listen to, and he does a magnificent job with Soul Eater. Wynn’s voice is stunning, Edin’s is breathtaking, Danny’s fits his sweet southern personality perfectly. I loved this novel, and the audio version brought it to life in a way I would never have expected. I was immersed and enjoyed traveling the Wastes with Wyn and Danny, my stomach rolling when the military caught up with them and melted with all the sweet gooey goodness that is Wyn and Danny.

What a delightful surprise

This book was a bit out of my comfort zone but I had heard such good things about this series that I had to try it when it became available in audio. And it was delightful! A sweet road trip romance with monsters, a human mc too precious for this post-apocalyptic world and a monster love-interest not as monstrous as everyone believes him to be.

I’ll definitely listen to the next book!

Enjoyable Story

A well written story with and interesting  concept.  The characters are likeable and the narration is very good.

Finished in three sittings!

Wholesome humans and awkward creature from another dimension with the right touch of angst? Sign me up! This was a new kind of storyline for me but I enjoyed it nevertheless! I cannot wait for the other books in this series!

Nice book!

I very much enjoyed listening to it!
The story is different and changes a bit from other M/M. The characters are nice and we don’t get bored.

Michael does a great job with the narration, I liked how the demons voices were perfomred and the accents as well.

It’s not super dark, some torture scenes and the fact that it’s a human/demon relationship but nothing disgusting so it can be listened to by a wide public I’d say.

Incredible!

It's so much fun to hear my favourite story and favourite characters narrated. Lily Mayne has built such an intriguing world with the most endearing, wonderful characters and I love her so much for it. Now onto Edin!

Enjoyed the monster voices, Danny not so much

Narrator did a great job with the monsters but Danny sounded way too old and grizzled for his character. Didn't ruin it but took some time to get used to.

Incredible

Lily Mayne builds such an amazing world around her characters. you feel like you are really there with them. the narrator was spot on as well. looking forward to listening to the next book!

Loved it!

I was already a fan of this book, but this audiobook brought it to life. The voices were perfect and I didn't want it to end - I can't wait for the rest of this series to be on audio too!

Stunning narration for a stunning book

Michael did so amazing. Danny’s twang and Wyn’s voice… goosebumps. Incredible performance. And the little glimpses of Edin!!! Cant wait. Standing ovation.

Overall 4.5

The narration was just so good for this book! It was my first time experiencing the story and I think the audio enhanced it for me.
I got the hype on this series and am looking forward to reading/hearing Edin