Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury

 

Sunny Behr is 17 years old and knows that her mom, Ainsley, wants her to lead the family and maintain the level of wealth and power they’ve become accustomed to. Instead, her older sister Karter takes over the family in their mom’s place and, with no proof of her rightful place as leader, Sunny must bide her time as the only instruction she received from her mother at her will reading was a sticky note simply stating “Take care of Dom”, her younger brother. The issue is that Dom is basically a stranger to her, constantly alienated from the rest of her family by their mother. Sunny soon finds that her family is involved in something much darker than she could have ever imagined. Faced with the possibility that Dom is a murderer and no one to turn to, she’s forced to believe in her brother for the first time in her life.

I received Tender Beasts in an Instagram giveaway (and my first advanced reader copy!) and it was an absolute rollercoaster. It was a little slow at first, I’ll admit, but once it started to pick up, I couldn’t put it down. Not only was Sunny dealing with supernatural forces, she also had to deal with the issues within her own family unit. Liselle Sambury wove the storyline together really well in my opinion, making Sunny feel overwhelmed trying to solve all the problems in her life while still maintaining her signature “Sunny” attitude. There was a lot of foreshadowing leading up to the ending and I was still shocked by it, I genuinely thought that Sunny’s parents were just crazy.

While Tender Beasts had an incredibly interesting concept, the actual characters fell a little flat. All of the Behr children had a role to play to please their mom and the idea is that throughout the book, the children slowly began to shed their “perfect” personas to show who they really are, but I honestly felt like we never really got to see them. There were definitely glimpses of their true selves, but it could have been expanded on more. For instance, Karter comes across as the snide older sister who has to take control of everything, but she never really steps out of that role. Occasionally we see a softer side to her, but, again, it’s really only glimpses. Also, the dad was barely in the book until the end and seemed nothing like he was as a young adult which I never really understood.

Overall, I’d give Tender Beasts a 3.5/5. Although the characters were lacking, the plot was really interesting and the epilogue blew me away. I would definitely read a sequel if the author decides to write one.

Favorite Quotes

• Page 47
• No matter how much money we had, how much good our family did, how much acclaim, people would look at Dom and see a guilty dark-skinned Black man—not an innocent fifteen-year-old boy. Because at the end of the day, he was an easy and familiar target.

• Page 164
• She was always sorry in the end.
• But it didn't make me feel very forgiving. Not today.