When the last of your hope is lost, is it worth swallowing your pride to ask for help? Especially if the person to help you is a monster, quite literally?

In A Fable for Hollow Creatures by R.R. Schaefer, we meet Ji, imprisoned in a cell alongside the few surviving members of her monster-hunting group. She became a hunter to seek revenge for the deaths of everyone she lost to a monster called the ruseizhe, whose parasites eat people from the inside out and manipulate their corpses like puppets. Against all odds, Ji survived but only because of Halesz, a kerzin whom society also considers a monster.

Ji once considered Halesz a friend until she discovered he had manipulated her emotions with his supernatural abilities. Even though the trust is gone, she sends for him out of desperation, and he comes to help without hesitation. Hoping to rebuild what was lost, Halesz joins Ji, Medja, and Karlitz on their monster hunts, where buried secrets begin to surface, and strange connections between seemingly unrelated events emerge.

The world-building in this novel is rich, from the monsters to the landscape. While there are plenty of tense and unsettling moments, this isn’t purely horror, nor is it a traditional fantasy adventure. (And I am hoping beyond hope that there isn’t some horrible portmanteau of horror and fantasy floating around like the word “romantasy”. But I digress.) This book is as much about personal growth, trust, and forgiveness as it is about hunting monsters.

I enjoyed this book. The characters are compelling, the discoveries kept me turning the pages, and the emotional journey felt just as important as monster hunting. If you enjoy dark fantasy with memorable creatures, layered relationships, and thoughtful character development, A Fable for Hollow Creatures is well worth picking up. I’ll definitely be looking forward to the next installment.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. Many thanks to the publisher, Berkley Publishing Group/Ace, the author, R.R. Schaefer, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.