Tender Beasts

By: Liselle Sambury

Narrated by: Kimberly Woods

After her private school is rocked by a gruesome murder, a teen tries to find the real killer and clear her brother’s name in this “creepily potent story of a family legacy that gives terrifying shape to monsters real and imagined” (Kirkus Reviews) perfect for fans of The Taking of Jake Livingston and Ace of Spades.

Sunny Behre has four siblings, but only one is a murderer.

With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious note: “Take care of Dom.”

The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her mother’s simple request becomes a lot more complicated. Dom swears he’s innocent, and although Sunny isn’t sure she believes him, she takes it upon herself to look into the murder—made all the more urgent by the discovery of another body. And another.

As Sunny and Dom work together to track down the culprit, Sunny realizes her other siblings have their own dark secrets. Soon she may have to choose: preserve the family she’s always loved or protect the brother she barely knows—and risk losing everything her mother worked so hard to build.

©2024 Liselle Sambury (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Hard start, but gets real good 1/4 through

The first 1/4 was not clicking - the performance started one note, and the main character was unlikable. But then it started to all come together and by the end, I loved it. Definitely give it some time.

Like Delicious Monsters, Liselle is hitting a more adult horror, reminiscent of Mike Flannagans work. Clearly there is inspiration or they’re both just geniuses.

This was a long story

I enjoyed the ending of the book. When everything started to make sense. The narrator was ok however in some parts I couldn’t distinguish what character was in place. The messages in the book were deep. I appreciated those . At first I was struggling to get through it but overall it was a good story

Perfectly Plotted

Tender Beasts is one of those rare novels that had me so completely immersed and hooked that when it ended, I immediately restarted it. The mystery of this supernatural thriller was so solid that it feels like I've read two separate novels, one where I was discovering everything alongside the heroine and one where I was able to pick up additional clues and context. The plot was solidly structured, yet still felt character driven. And those characters driving this story were amazing.

Sunny Behre, the protagonist of the novel, is realistically flawed and unique as far as heroines go. A teenager from a wealthy Black family, Sunny lives a life of great privilege alongside the constant threat of racial bias against her and her loved ones. She navigates the world hiding behind the persona of a happy, peppy, "sunny" girl with a constantly positive perspective and a spotless reputation. On the inside, she is very different as her inner monologue depicts her as more pessimistic, manipulative, and strategic. She was honestly a joy to read as she navigated the struggle of grieving her mother and trying to protect her family as a series of murders threatened to destroy them.

Alongside the modern-day mystery are a series of diary entries written by Sunny's mother in the 1990s where backstory is given on the mysterious Milk Man who is still terrorizing the family. I love the dual timeline these entries provide. The way Sunny's mother annotated the diary entries also added a unique touch as she provided additional wisdom of hindsight as well as advice.

While this story isn't a sequel to Sambury's previous novel, Delicious Monsters, it clearly takes place in the same universe. It's not necessary to read that book before Tender Beasts, but if you do, there's a well-placed Easter egg.

Overall, Tender Beasts is excellent. Absolutely a give star read.

Very readable and daring

I liked this book. It was very readable, moving forward steadily and quickly. The writing is strong and the character development in the protagonist Sunny is well done. I loved this voice of this tightly wound, always performing girl who realizes a smile can’t fix everything. At points her facetious, insincere, uptight personality reads almost sociopathic, which I think has potential to go some interesting places over a three book arc.

My main challenge with this book is the plot and the mystery and backstory feel too convoluted. I feel like this is something I’m seeing in a lot of horror and thrillers lately where there is all this twisty turny stuff when I feel like what really makes a story scary is the atmosphere and the connection of the themes and the darkness in the everyday. I think there are some good thematics here around greed and social mobility but that doesn’t get to sink in enough in all the stuff happening. And what happens when things are over complicated is that the characters end up doing a lot of explaining and telling, where what I want in a mystery thriller is to see the significance of the clues as they’re presented and figure it out alongside the characters. I truly feel like a lot of writing today is being influenced by the high serialization of TV where it’s all about the next turn and keeping people tuned in for the next episode. But if you defer and red herring and withhold too much it can be frustrating for readers especially if they’re not entirely sold on the payoff when it finally comes.

I also think the backstory with the mother would have been better and her childhood just told through a full on second POV rather than journal entries, because the writing of those sections sound very narrative rather than what someone would have written in a journal, and maybe giving more space to that backstory would have allowed it to be more fleshed out and what happened there more clear. It was actually quite interesting and I think would have been cool to follow that and the present day story alongside one another in a more direct way.

Despite these issues the payoff was just good enough for overall satisfaction and I’m into the writing, daring, imagination, and characters enough that I plan to continue the series.

Really good story of generational trauma

I really like the way the story was told from mother and daughter's pov. I did not like the first half of the book because it was so slow. It picked up in the end but I was hooked when the mystery seemed to be another mystery. So so good!

She’s done it again

Couldn’t stop listening, the twists and turns kept me in the edge of my seat! Can’t wait for the next book she comes out with!

9/10 recommend

I liked how the story keep me on my toes trying to figure out who really did it. In the beginning I thought it was dom but then everything started pointing to someone else. Only thing I disliked was the transitions between the mom’s entire and Sunny’s POV. But over all it was a good book and I wish it was a series 😭

whew

get out this was wild Slow Burn everything immediately clicks together by the end of the book though and I am pleasantly surprised I cannot wait to see more from this author

very engaging

I knew there was a supernatural element to the story but the way it kept me wondering if it was real almost to the very end is why i give this a 5 stars rating... It was just that good. The story is a bit "quiet" which i liked. The only negative is that some of the characters, and siblings could have been removed completely from the story without affecting it much.

Great read

I did struggle a bit getting into this book which is weird since Liselle is in my Top 3. Once i started over twice, I was able to getting settled into Tender Beasts. The dynamics of the kids was different because usually the oldest child is left to be the family matriarch. In this case, Sonny is given that role in order to save her brother Dom from himself.

Overall great read!!! Definitely worth making into a movie!!