History Literature / TheOneWhoEatsMonsters

* AnimalMotifs: Naomi compares Ryn to a cat multiple times.

''The One Who Eats Monsters'' is a 2017 YA [[UrbanFantasy urban fantasy]] lesbian romance novel by Casey Matthews. Long ago, [[PlaceBeforeTime before history split in two]], the [[ElderGods elder monster]] Erynis was banished from civilized lands, never to be welcome among gods or kings. Fast forward untold millennia to the modern day, and a temporarily weakened [[InSeriesNickname Ryn]] is captured by a gang of nuclear arms smugglers, and then later [[UnwantedRescue "rescued"]] by the US military. The military mistakes her for a feral child, and brings her back to the US.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Asura who can manipulate minds cause this in their victims. As a result of Ghorm's machinations, the Asura Cabal's mortal agents are twisted until they believe whatever wildly contradictory things are needed by the asura to sic them on Senator Bradford and Naomi. An eco-terrorist, a racist rapist, and a religious soldier all work together despite knowing they have been told wildly different stories and would rather kill each other, and they just never question it.
** And then there's [[spoiler: Patrick, who wants to kill Naomi because her father supports pro-gun legislation and a gun killed his mother. When she tries to point out how little sense it makes, she realizes that he can't even hear what she's saying anymore.]]

* MadeOfEvil: Splat, Ghorm, and Mr. Saxby are a trio of Asura spawned by the darkness of humanity. Splat is a misogynistic sadist born from the collective depravity of a snuff-porn ring, and delights in rape and torture; Ghorm was spawned from a cult and is capable of reshaping the minds and perceptions of those he targets; and Mr. Saxby was spawned from one of Josef Mengele's brutal experiments on twins in Auschwitz, and can reshape the bodies of his targets at will.

* WorfHadTheFlu: Ryn is overpowered, brutally tortured, and raped by terrorists at the start of the novel. This only happened because she had just resurrected someone (which exhausted her), given the girl some of her power to heal her (which exhausts her), given the girl some more power to heal her brother (which further exhausted her), it was a new moon (which means her powers were at their weakest to start with), ''and'' the terrorists managed to ambush her due to bad luck. Even so, she killed half of them before they stapled her to a post, and later events in the novel make it clear that she was going to kill the rest of them the second she had recovered enough to break free from the pole. Oh, and also statements made by some of them strongly imply that they realized this and tried to kill her, and failed so miserably that one mook begs Kessler to kill him and take his body far away from her, while she's still stapled to the post, because she can't die and she's going to break free soon.

** Of the Cabal's human minions, only the ex-military religious fanatic is shown to be remotely sympathetic and able to be redeemed. The "Gaia-hugging hippy" and the gun hater are almost as vile as the racist rapist, and Naomi's attempt to talk [[spoiler: Patrick]] down has no effect at all, unlike with Owens.

** When Ryn finally corners the Asura Cabal, Ghorm tries this on her using his ability to stretch her perception of time to make moments last for years, giving him as long as he needs to convince anyone of anything. Except Ryn, being older than time, has infinite patience and far too much experience to get bogged down in trivialities.

* TimeCrash: The new gods "shattered time" somehow, making it difficult for Ryn to pin down her own age. She notes that other gods remember the past differently than she does due to coming from different timelines.

* WorfHadTheFlu: Ryn is overpowered, brutally tortured, and raped by terrorists at the start of the novel. This only happened because she had just resurrected someone (which exhausted her), given the girl some of her power to heal her (which exhausts her), given the girl some more power to heal her brother (which further exhausted her), it was a new moon (which means her powers were at their weakest to start with), ''and'' the terrorists managed to ambush her due to bad luck. Even so, she killed half of them before they stapled her to a post, and later events in the novel make it clear that she was going to kill the rest of them the second she had recovered enough to break free from the pole.

** Of the Cabal's human minions, only the ex-military religious fanatic is shown to be remotely sympathetic and able to be redeemed. The "Gaia-hugging hippy" and the gun hater are just as vile as the racist rapist, and Naomi's attempt to talk Patrick down has no effect at all, unlike with Owens.

* MadeOfEvil: Splat, Ghorm, and Mr. Saxby are a trio of Asura spawned by the darkness of humanity. Splat is a misogynistic sadist born from the collective depravity of a snuff-porn ring, and delights in rape and torture; Ghorm was spawned from a cult and is capable of reshaping the minds and perceptions of those he targets; and Mr. Saxby was spawned from one of Josef Mengele's brutal experiments on twins in Auschwitz, and can reshape the bodies of his targets at will. Tooloo -- while still evil -- is an exception, as she was spawned from the apathy generated by the digital era and is completely emotionless.

* {{Geas}}: Ryn -- and the other Deva too monstrous to pass themselves off as humans -- were placed under one by the Fates, forbidding them from setting foot in human civilizations ruled by kings or gods. A loophole lets her live in the United States, but she's still bound by human laws and cannot set foot inside religious buildings like churches.

** At the Nine Lives nightclub, Denise is drugged into a stupor by John Laek and his thugs and almost winds up their sex-slave -- and is indicated to have at least given him a blowjob. When Naomi intervenes to save her friend, Ryn delivers a thorough CurbStompBattle provoked by one of the thugs declaring his intent to rape them too, stopping just short of killing them... [[spoiler:this time -- the novel's epilogue makes it clear she hunted them down and killed them once Naomi was safe.]]

* HeroesWantRedheads: Anti-hero Ryn falls for Redhead Naomi.

* ShowyInvincibleHero: Nothing Ryn faces even comes close to her level. The only real times she is injured or even challenged are when she allows herself to be hurt during her HeroicBSoD, and at the very beginning of the novel when she deliberately weakens herself during a time when she is already weaker than normal (see WorfHadTheFlu).

* LadyLooksLikeADude: When Naomi and her friends first meet Ryn, who's dressed in a figure-concealing hoodie and cargo pants, they initially assume she's a boy. Elli in particular laments at Ryn being a girl, noting she has a thing for the brooding, mysterious types.

* MeaningfulName: All of Ryn's names have a basis in mythology, though it's unclear if she just shares their names or actually was those figures of myth.

* NoPartyGiven: Averted. Naomi's dad is explicitly a libertarian member of the Republican Party. Note that many US libertarians join the Republican party due to overlapping policies.

* MySensorsIndicateYouWantToTapThat: Ryn's senses are keen enough to detect that Naomi is subconsciously attracted to her, though she initially doesn't register why. Naomi vehemently denies this during their falling out, but [[spoiler:after getting a dose of Ryn's divine power she is mortified to learn that it's true]].
* NoSocialSkills: Ryn is terrible with words, can't read faces, or intuit other people's emotions. Naomi is the only one whose face she understands.

* OurGodsAreDifferent: According to Ryn, the entities that humans worship as gods and goddesses are Deva that were able to blend in to human civilization. Despite being categorized as a monster for her inability to do so, Ryn is a divine being with power surpassing that of most other Deva, and occasionally slips up and refers to herself as a goddess.

* TheSacredDarkness: Ryn has been worshipped as a goddess of both vengeance and darkness, with her kanaf letting her blend into the darkness at-will.

* StalkerWithACrush: Ryn technically stalks Naomi every night and even during the day, but it's purely to protect her and without any of the abusive qualities stalking usually holds. [[spoiler:Naomi is still justifiably freaked when she finds out.]]
* StealthPun: In the epilogue Ryn is hunting the gangster who drugged and tried to rape Denise. One of her hiding places is underneath his bed.

* BerserkButton: Do not threaten Naomi when Ryn is around. Or when Ryn knows you're doing it. Or when Ryn might ''find out'' you're doing it.
** Also, do not tell Ryn she can't do something.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Among Ryn's various biological differences from humans, she has six gill-like slits on her back, from which she can produce black, razor sharp fibres she calls her "kanaf", which she can control to use as armour, clothes, a weapon, camouflage, grappling hook, ect. She can even change its colour and texture, which she uses to make it appear that she is wearing human clothes. It's a little bit like an angel's wings, and a little bit like an eldritch abomination's tentacles. The clothing made from her kanaf can be removed from her body and worn by somebody else. However, it remains a part of her. Naomi describes it as oddly warm, and Ryn is rather embarrassed by being wrapped tightly around her entire torso.

* PreAssKickingOneLiner: Ryn gets one in every once in a while: