Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling

Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling by D. M. Cornish, 434 pages

I am not a reader who enjoys world-building. I read for characters and atmosphere and am generally unimpressed by the energy authors spend creating worlds filled with made-up species and languages and continents (I’m looking at you Mr. Tolkien). Monster Blood Tattoo is a series that involves A LOT of world building, but it’s done in a way that works for me. Cornish’s books are set in the Half Continent, a land filled with monsters and magic, but instead of using up valuable page real estate on world building, there is a 100+ page “Explicarium” (aka glossary) and numerous appendices at the end of the novel. I LOVED this approach – when I wanted more background information, it was there for me to read, but it didn’t slow down the plot.

Foundling follows the adventures of Rossamund Bookchild, an orphan from Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, as he sets out to join the ranks of the Emperor’s Lamplighters. His journey is fraught with misfortunes including piratical riverboat captains, monsters of all shapes and sizes, famous monster hunters and more. What seems at the book’s start to be a black and white relationship between humans (good) and monsters (bad) has begun to become muddied by the book’s end and promises to become even greyer in the subsequent books.

I had a hard time getting past what I consider a truly awful title for this series (maybe “Monster Blood Tattoo” is a more appealing name to teenagers? I feel like it’s just trying too hard). Clearly, I had some hurtles when it comes to this book, but I’m really glad I gave it a shot. I’ll be reading the second book despite the fact that it’s a whopping 700+ pages – a length that would typically deter me.