Yiğit Turhan’s debut novel, Their Monstrous Hearts, flutters between beauty and horror with the precision of a monarch butterfly navigating its seasonal migration. This gothic tale explores the boundaries between monstrosity and humanity, desire and revulsion, immortality and inevitable decay. Like the iridescent wings of the morpho butterflies that feature prominently in the narrative, Turhan’s prose shifts colors depending on how the light catches it—sometimes achingly beautiful, sometimes gut-wrenchingly disturbing.
When twenty-year-old struggling writer Riccardo receives news of his estranged grandmother Perihan’s death, he reluctantly returns to her opulent Milan villa to attend her funeral. With mounting debts, writer’s block, and an agent threatening to drop him, Riccardo views the inheritance as a potential lifeline. But what begins as financial salvation quickly spirals into a nightmare as he discovers his grandmother’s dark obsession with butterflies, immortality, and the grotesque creature living in her greenhouse.
Metamorphosis as Metaphor
At its core, Their Monstrous Hearts is a novel about transformation. Just as caterpillars undergo metamorphosis to become butterflies, Turhan’s characters shed their identities in pursuit of beauty, power, and eternal life. Perihan, whose name means “Queen of All Fairies” in Turkish, transforms herself from Yeter (meaning “enough” in Turkish) to her glamorous, manipulative alternative self. The monster in the greenhouse oscillates between hideous and beautiful forms depending on how it’s treated. Even Riccardo undergoes his own metamorphosis as he unravels the mysteries of his family’s past.
The brilliance of Turhan’s use of metamorphosis extends beyond plot devices to serve as a metaphor for immigration, gender identity, and reinvention. In one particularly poignant passage, Perihan reflects:
“Mere physical migration cannot guarantee a better life. It slams into our consciousness within the endless queues of unfamiliar police stations, where we yearn for a residence permit in foreign lands… Sometimes, moving a mere few meters or endless kilometers is not enough. The caterpillar knows the secret to survival lies in transformation.”
This exploration of identity and belonging provides a rich undercurrent to what might otherwise be simply a horror story, elevating the novel to something more profound and lingering.
Atmosphere Dripping with Dread
The novel’s greatest strength lies in its atmosphere. Milan becomes a character in itself—a city with “eleven gates” compared to the seven gates of hell. The decrepit greenhouse with its overwhelming scent of tuberoses creates a claustrophobic setting that seems to breathe and pulse with life. Turhan writes with a sensuousness that engages all five senses:
“The pungent scent of decay, mingled with the sickly sweet aroma of rotting tuberoses, assaulted my senses as I ventured into the heart of the greenhouse. The heavy door closed behind me, sealing my fate within its dark confines.”
The juxtaposition of beauty and decay permeates every aspect of the novel. Crystal bottles, designer dresses, and exquisite butterfly collections exist alongside vomit, blood, and grotesque monsters. This tension mirrors the novel’s thematic concerns with superficial beauty masking inner corruption.
A Multilayered Narrative
Turhan employs a sophisticated nested narrative structure that adds complexity to the story. Much of the novel consists of Riccardo reading his grandmother’s manuscript, which itself contains stories within stories. This Russian doll approach creates suspense while raising questions about the reliability of each narrator.
The novel also plays with time, moving between present and past, reality and nightmare, with a dreamlike fluidity. At times, this can be disorienting, but it successfully places readers in Riccardo’s confused mental state as he tries to discern truth from fiction.
Gothic Elements Reimagined
Their Monstrous Hearts embraces traditional gothic elements while reimagining them for the contemporary world:
- The haunted house: Perihan’s villa, with its decaying greenhouse where “the light never goes out”
- Family secrets: The mysterious circumstances of Riccardo’s mother’s disappearance and Perihan’s true identity
- The monstrous other: The creature in the greenhouse that grants immortality at a terrible price
- Doppelgängers: Perihan’s attempt to inhabit Riccardo’s body, erasing his identity
- The uncanny: Familiar objects (butterflies, flowers) made strange and threatening
Rather than feeling derivative, these elements are refreshed through Turhan’s unique cultural perspective and contemporary sensibilities.
Where the Novel Falters
Despite its many strengths, Their Monstrous Hearts isn’t without flaws. The pacing occasionally stumbles, particularly in the middle section where Perihan’s manuscript dominates the narrative. Some readers might find themselves impatient to return to Riccardo’s present-day predicament.
The novel also introduces numerous characters—Maurizio, Licia, the blind twins, Eva, Cristina, Lorenzo—who sometimes blur together. While each plays a role in the plot, not all receive sufficient development to become truly distinctive.
Additionally, the final act feels somewhat rushed after the measured build-up of the preceding chapters. The revelations come quickly, and some readers might wish for more time to process the implications of Perihan’s scheme before the climactic confrontation.
Reflections on Memory and Identity
One of the most thought-provoking aspects of Their Monstrous Hearts is its meditation on memory and identity. When Perihan explains metempsychosis—the transfer of one soul to another body—she notes that the transferred soul “will have lost all memories from my previous life.” This raises fascinating questions about what constitutes the self: Is Perihan still Perihan without her memories? Is Riccardo’s life worth less than hers simply because she’s accomplished more?
The manuscript serves as an attempt to bridge this gap—a way for Perihan to recover her memories after inhabiting Riccardo’s body. This becomes a powerful metaphor for how stories and histories shape our identities and how we might lose ourselves without them.
A Promising Debut
As a debut novel, Their Monstrous Hearts announces Turhan as a significant new voice in literary horror. His background in fashion (hinted at in the novel’s detailed descriptions of clothing and aesthetics) lends a unique sensibility to the narrative. Fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties, or Han Kang’s The Vegetarian will find much to appreciate in Turhan’s blend of body horror, cultural commentary, and lyrical prose.
While the novel occasionally suffers from first-book unevenness, its ambition and originality more than compensate. Turhan’s willingness to explore uncomfortable themes—immigration, exploitation, immortality at any cost—while maintaining a compelling narrative demonstrates remarkable skill.
Final Verdict: Haunting and Unforgettable
Their Monstrous Hearts lingers in the mind long after the final page, much like the scent of tuberoses that permeates Perihan’s villa. It’s a novel that asks difficult questions about what we would sacrifice to escape death and what constitutes a life worth living.
Turhan’s novel might not be for everyone—its blend of beauty and grotesquerie requires a strong stomach—but for readers willing to surrender to its peculiar magic, it offers rich rewards. Like the morpho butterfly, whose blue color isn’t pigment but the result of light reflecting off microscopic scales, Their Monstrous Hearts reveals different facets depending on the angle from which you approach it.
In the author’s note, Turhan writes that “Grief, like a soundproof room, drowns out all other noises of life, trapping you in a seemingly inescapable space.” His novel offers a temporary escape from that room, not through false comfort but through the acknowledgment that beauty and horror often inhabit the same space—much like the monstrous butterfly girl at the center of this unforgettable tale.