バケモノとケダモノ 4 [Bakemono to Kedamono 4]

Monster and the Beast #4

by renji

――私の心はお前と同じなんだ

醜いバケモノのカヴォと、ビッチな美形中年のリアン。ついに明かされたリアンの暗い過去を前に、カヴォは彼を光へ導けるのか――。世間のはぐれ者ふたりの終わりのない放浪の旅を描く、ファンタジーBL感動の完結!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Romance, Yaoi, LGBT, Queer, Graphic Novels

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2022

Reviews

[Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

”Within that world, there were many demons and one hollow beast. The beast had no friends. In this vast, dull world he lived all by himself and always believed he would someday die alone. Until he met a kind hearted monster during this unexpected journey; the monster and the beast’s hearts finally began to connect.”

Oh shut up. This story was the absolute cutest thing ever. I am in love with the lonely, sweet Cavo finding an unfeeling Liam that he unexpectedly fell in love with. To one day have that unfeeling Liam feel something in return to both of their shock. For them to live on and play in the snow and make flower crowns with each other for all of their days 🥹

[เมื่อฉันรีวิวหนังสือ · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 very cute and fun to read! I have been waiting for this volume for almost a year and after reading it I felt that the content is worth waiting for! Really felt happy and heart fully please just by reading this comic 😍

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

AHHHH SO CUUUTE!!!!!

OMG I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Wow, what a gorgeous last volume & ending!

We finally have our answers on Liam's past and it explains SO MUCH. There were definitely hints in the last volume that alluded to some of it but I'm glad that I wasn't able to predict the entirety of his backstory.

I absolutely fucking love these two with my whole heart and I am most definitely going to be coming back to these again and again for a little dose of sweetness. That ending had me smiling like an idiot.

[Jess | jadecanread · Rating 3 out of 5]

This installment was a girthy one. And that's not the only thing that's girthy ehehhe.

We finally get Liam's origin story and it's as fascinating as you'd expect. Then after the major conflict is resolved and they're no longer on the run, Liam and Cavo go about exploring and experiencing life together and I teared up.

Overall this series is quaint and a touch humorous. I think it's missing a certain je ne sais quoi but it's enjoyable as is, I don't regret reading it.

[chromAyshan · Rating 3 out of 5]

moments d'émotion racontés de manière un peu ridicule parfois
+ même si c'est justifié dans le récit je trouve que l'autrice a été lâche de dessiner son héros pas assez vieux
+ leur dynamique est chelou genre Kavo a vraiment l'air d'un gamin
+ mais très mimi

[Jacquie Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last volume ends the series beautifully. We finally get to know more about Liam and how he came to have his powers. He and Cavo go adventuring and settle things between them in a lovely way.
It really was an adorable finale

[空 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t expect a great conclusion to the build-up of Liam’s mysterious past, and you’ll enjoy this more. That’s what happened to me, since I’d completely forgotten about volume 3 — or who knows, maybe I forgot to read it — and just casually started reading this fourth volume when I received it in the mail.

By the end of volume three you’re like, “Gasp, there might be a showdown between Liam and Patricius!” Eh. Instead, Patricius gets Liam to monologue about his entire backstory. Which honestly... It’s fucking 2022 and mangaka still love putting shit like child rape in. Renji could have chosen not to put that in. Is it not already tragic enough that Liam was experimented on and treated as less-than-human? No, let’s pile on to that. Why has that become a trope you put in to heighten drama and/or increase a character’s tragedy? Jesus Christ.

Anyway, once Liam gets to explain himself and his past, Patricius is like, “Cool.” And then he and Roland go on their merry way, but not without leaving vague threats. Boys, y’all are gonna be dead and probably Liam will still look like he does now. It is implied that Liam might be immortal, in which case, props so that Cavo won’t have to live his much-longer life lonely and alone.

But anyway, at least Cavo gets to be all happy and shit, and so does Liam. (Also we’re supposed to accept that Liam got over all his shit casually. I guess Renji’s excuse is, “That’s why he’s a beast! Am I right? Am I right or am I right? I’m right.”) That ending was cute, and I’ll always stan Liam for looking at Cavo and instead of being scared being like, “I’d hit that.”

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monster vol 4

The town Verl Tanas, they make out in a shadowy alleyway. But that leads to a fight about Cavo being worried he will hurt Liam, but leads to sexy times anyway (thigh job). Then, the circus is in town! Liam is asked to join/help since he (Cavo) calmed a horse. Cavo gets jealous and thinks it's a bad idea but Liam says they need the money. The bad guys have found them!

They agree to meet up in the woods where Liam discloses he was an experiment in the war with the power to charm, erase memories, and disarm people (and perhaps be immortal). Liam goes into talking about how he was made to a weapon, how he was raped at 7, and how his powers were probably behind more of the staff molesting him. Damn this series got dark. As he grew he was deemed a failure and locked up. He escaped, killed/broke everyone in the facility and went on to do so in the castle.

The men understand the tale and allow Liam to go free. Liam says Cavo should be scared of him but Cavo says nah I love you too much.

Liam and Cavo head to the snow and play in it, then getting a cabin for sexy times. Then we get a delightful story about Cavo surprising Liam with a flower crown in a field of flowers and telling him he loves him. Which causes Liam to cry (for the first time in his life). Liam is a broken thing analogy who finds a monster.

The ending was sweet and great! Sure it was a slow pace to this part but it was worth it for 4 volumes. Liam says he will working on loving the Cavo back in the same way. Lots of love and fluff with an excerpt that in the future he does and gives him a wedding ring of flowers. 10/10 I loved this saccharine ending.

[Shizunthirst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked from the very first volume because there's just something about a puppy coded sweet and innocent monster top and a seemingly coldhearted old man bottom, that just works. I truly fell in love with both of them and their story and I admit I've been crying my eyes out now that I finished it. I cry fairly often over manga but rarely does a manga impact me so heavily that I feel a bit empty inside after the story is over because I need more of them.

I'm so so glad that I picked this one off the shelf at b&n without having any real info about it.

[María · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pero, ¿y esta pedazo de mierda? Lo he leído con confusión (y asco) hasta el final pensando que tendría alguna relevancia en la trama al final pero estoy ???

[Tessica Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it except the weird no warning S/A part in the middle? Rest was great

[Henriette · Rating 5 out of 5]

1) such a sweet series and a perfect way to finish it.
2) THAT PART COULDVE USED A TRIGGER WARNING, HOLY SHIT?????

[ElioFer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liam no mereces a cavo

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is cute 🤧

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice wrap-up of the story

[Cherryblossoms05 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly beautiful, heartfelt ending to an overall short but romantic tale. This manga series is definitely a great example of how to do a short manga series really well, especially a short romance manga series. Although, one of my personal nitpicks, to contrast my praise, is that I wish it was a volume or two longer because I just simply want more of these wonderful characters and their sweet love story^^ However, it would have benefitted with an additional volume for the part of the story where the two main characters are separated from one another and one of them, Liam, is finally start to realize that he is starting to get feelings for/miss the other lead, Cavo. Given at this point of the relationship and at that point in Liam's character development, I don't think Liam would be starting to feel this way towards Cavo just yet and thus, we needed more time with them being together before we separate them. But again, this is a minor nitpick and doesn't ruin this story for me. Speaking of the characters, this series lives and dies by it's strong characters and their relationship. And for me, the best character in this whole dang series is Cavo, Cavo, Cavo! In this house, we stan for Cavo! Cavo is best boi, we love this boi! You will easily fall in love with Cavo, not only due to his naturally sweet and funny personality, but also how much he respects the romantic and emotional boundaries and the heart of the man he is pursuing Liam. Liam is the beautiful but messy character that you both love and hate, and honestly, I love that kind of feeling when it comes to a character cause it just means that this character was well written and fully realized. Liam is the kind of messy, middle aged, bisexual you need in your life honestly. You will love him for his flirty personality but "hate" him for how he regards his relationship with Cavo at the beginning. He does not treat Cavo badly, but rather it is a situation where Liam was simply a man sleeping with everyone before he met Cavo and at that point he & Cavo were not exclusive yet, so you can't really get mad at Liam but rather at the situation itself. Liam, despite his personality, is actually very respectful of Cavo's romantic and emotional boundaries as well. Due to the amount of respect and development from both sides of the romantic relationship, the sex scenes truly benefit from this kind of dynamic. The sex scenes had healthy amounts of communication from the two parties involved, not to mention, they felt more real and honest due to the awkwardness and the quirkness coming from the two characters involved. This is the kind of story where people may be coming in for the smut, but they truly stay for the genuine romance that has formed between the bois. Despite it being a monster romance, the story is quite chaste with the amount of sex scenes we are given. But to me, that adds more weight to the sex scenes themselves and making them important marks in the overall journey. Though personally, based on my own personal reading tastes, I was more of a fan of the romantic scenes in the manga versus the sex scenes but that's just me. The story does a very good job laying out why Cavo and Liam are the way that they are, and showing how their relationship progresses over time. It also does an overall decent job of showing how these characters have kinda changed over time but still need more years to come to change as well. Especially when it comes to Liam. My other minor nitpick is that most of, if not, all of Liam's backstory is layed out in the final volume and kinda wished it was sprinkled in throughout the story, but again it doesn't ruin the story for me or Liam's character for me. However, my major critique for this final volume, for Liam's backstory, and for this manga series overall is how Liam's trauma was depicted. I think it's important for readers to know that Liam's backstory involves child sex*al ab*se/r*pe and the way it was depicted can be quite triggering, whether you are prepared for it or not. And I was not prepared for it. The way it was depicted was not as careful and tactful as I would have expected given the subject matter. It was unneccessary to show it. It would have been better if the the author had Liam just simply narrating just one or two sentences about this part of his story and not show it. The author needed to be more cautious here at this part of the story and for me, it brings it down one star. Overall, I do recommend this manga series to others with the added note of just skipping Liam's backstory and just asking your friend, who has read the story, to tell you the cliff notes version of Liam's backstory.

[Cas ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I weren’t so exhausted so I could really spend some quality time gushing about how much I loved this book (and this series as a whole, tbh, like it just got better with every volume) but I ofc, feel terriblebadtired and I know I won’t remember to come back with this level of enthusiasm, so this will have to do.

Cavo is everything. He is sweet, and lovely, and protective, and GOOD despite being a monster/demon, despite being the creature that everyone is afraid of because he’s different. Except Liam, of course, who is the real actual, horrifically (human disgustingness) created monster that everyone SHOULD be afraid of. And the contrasts between the two characters is so good I want to squeeze or shake something! Cuteness aggression but in a “this is so queer-coded and such a good commentary on society and I wish I had the spoons to explain every nuance, every perfect little detail” way.

Without spoilers, I think that Cavo’s softness contrasts the extremely horrific things that Liam went through (and is) so perfectly, and I think that the ending was so expertly crafted I almost want to go back and change my lower ratings on the first few volumes to match this one THAT is how much I liked it.

I also… really want physical copies (and I wish they weren’t censored lmao) because I looooved the intimate scenes between them so much.

[Ryofire · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really neat and lovely ending to a good series! The protagonists are just so fun! I do have a sort of issue with the thread of "polyamorous character finds happiness by being monogamous" and the way they both kind of manipulate each other with their affection is a bit mmm (like ah, yes, having a polyamorous character who's "mean" to his partner by threatening to be with someone else... not a great look). Overall the writing was good though, I love the art style (and Cavo is so beautiful. And him being happy is so sweet to watch. Liam's backstory is really great, and I like how it was resolved, even if the knights following them just sort of disappear. But they just felt kind of added in, so that's not terrible.

If you're looking for m/m kind of Beauty and the Beast if the beauty was a middle-aged bisexual lech and the beast was a giant nervous softie, plus some dubcon (and size difference and xeno, obviously) this is good for you!

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an odd little series. I do think that Cavo and Liam have some communication issues, but they largely work through them and forgive each other. We slowly see them get better at opening up with what they want, set some boundaries, and compromise, which is sweet. The censoring made the sex scenes awkward.

I am really sick of books using (TW SA)rape and/or child molestation as character backstory and development, but at least this was mercifully short. I also appreciated that the power of love doesn't immediately and completely 'fix' trauma, and they are slowly growing and healing with each other's support.

The weakest part, honestly, was the team pursuing Liam. For a pair so motivated, so dogged in their hunt, they flip really fuckin' fast. I also thought that the reveal of Liam's backstory went a bit too far in trying to absolve him of any wrongdoing; let him stay a bit grey and weird.

[Elaine White · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final volume was everything I could have wanted. It resolved all the questions I had about the plot and the characters. It gave us ALL of Liam's background that I could have hoped to find out about, and also left us with a beautiful HEA.

As the series went on, it did give me vibes of Black Butler, Vol. 1 and A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation, Volume 1, with Liam's childhood plot, and some plot choices, like Liam helping out the circus, saving a boy's village and such.

[Yuuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Tw for sexual abuse toward a minor in the flashbacks of Liam’s past)

It was good to finally get the full story of Liam’s past, even if it was messed up and a bit heartbreaking, but it was heartening to see that he had a reason for destroying those people’s minds. Plus it was great that Patricius believed him and called off his pursuit because Liam hadn’t maliciously attacked his grandfather in the past.

The end of the manga was absolutely perfect, very sweet and soft and obliterated my feelings in the best way. Here’s hoping Liam and Cavo are together for a very long time, since we don’t really know how old either of them are or how long they’ll live.

(The bonus story with the rings made of flowers took me OUT, suddenly it’s raining on my face, hmm, how strange)

[Frank Chillura (OhYouRead) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few notes I wanted to make:

I love the size difference. That’s a big plus for me in books, so A+!!!

The ending felt rushed. It felt like this series could have gone on for a while, but you wanted to finish it and gave them a happy go lucky ending that didn’t feel accurate to the characters.

The book is wrapped, so I’m not sure the reasoning behind blurring out the privates? If you’re blurring anything, it does not need to be wrapped. Stop creating waste if there is no reason to do so.

I wish we had been given 1 panel with Cavo’s face. We never saw it in ANY of the books. That was sad to me.

Overall, I enjoyed this much more than the last book. It just had much more potential that it didn’t meet.

[Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness I’m crying from how cute this was!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭, I love Cavo so much , I love how emotionally intelligent he is and how self aware he is . At first I didn’t really like Liam because he seemed kind of emotionless to me but then finding out his backstory and I realized that he doesn’t even know what emotions are and Cavo is the first to bring out emotions from him 🥹🥹
The proposal???!! Oh my God my heart couldn’t take it the fact that Cavo saw a random proposal outside and said yes this is what I’m going to do to show Liam that I love him 😭😭😭
And Liam making the rings and oh my god everything was so perfect and the fact that Liam is immortal as well 😭😭so that means they can be together forever my heart is cryingggggg

[avis03 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall Series Notes: MM (Yaoi Manga), Monster, Fantasy, Complete Series (4 Vols)

Liam: Middle Aged, Bi, Insatiable, Flirt, Nomad, On the Run

Cavo: Monster, Isolated and Outcast, Kind, Innocent, Sexually Inexperienced

Notes: Monster Agrees to Guide Human Through the Forest, Size Difference, Human On the Run From His Past, Human and Monster (Secretly) Traveling Together

Sex Notes: Licking, Blowjob, Ass Eating, Frotting, Thigh Fucking

CWs: Child Abuse/Rape, Torture and Experimentation

[Charla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Within that world, there were many demons and one hollow beast. The beast had no friends. In this vast, dull world he lived all by himself and always believed he would someday die alone….until he met a kind-hearted monster. During this unexpected journey….the monster and the beast’s hearts finally began to connect.

The ending was so adorable! Liam’s past was finally revealed in this finale volume and everything just fell into place after that 💛

I hope Cavo and Liam continue to travel and be by each other’s sides for a long long time.

[NanaloveKoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t even begin to explain how much I enjoyed this 😭. Amazing characters, well-built plot and character development, heartbreaking back stories, no unnecessary drama, your fair amount of good and dirty smut, and lots lots lots lots of fluff, sweetness, cuteness and warm and fuzzy feelings 😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️

Honestly, Liam’s past broke me in ways I haven’t experienced before and everything about his personality made so much sense.

This is definitely gonna become one of my comfort reads🫶🫶

[Sol · Rating 5 out of 5]

TRIGGER WARNING / CONTENT WARNING: This book contains CSA / R*pe (It is NOT portrayed in a positive light, and it is part of a character's backstory. Please read with care.)

I found this volume to just be so touching. They have both grown so much. I think I'll be thinking about this series for a long time because there's so much to like about it. It feels classic and unique all at once, and the characters truly touched my heart. I wish there was more, from the bottom of my heart!

[1-800-fvck-off · Rating 5 out of 5]

this shit was delightful. had an aromantic like myself geeking out over that ending. the world needs more love stories like this. that bonus implying liam falling in love with cavo and showing it by making wedding rings out of flowers made me tear up and have to take a moment to collect myself over how warm it made my heart feel. i know it’s cheesy to say, but i hope they stay happily together, exploring the world at each other’s side, for a long, long time.

[Kayla Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon Monster and the Beast by Renji while searching for Beauty and the Beast retellings earlier this year, and this turned out to be my first ever erotica series! I honestly didn’t expect it to be so wholesome, and the art is fantastic, too. I definitely recommend this series to anyone looking to read something heartwarming and sex-positive. To me, this is ultimately a story about finding love a bit later in life, when you least expect it, or have even given up on it.

[Ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great wrap for the story. A story of two parts: first, we get the full backstory for Liam - it is rather dark, though not totally unexpected (do check TWs). Then we get the HEA - sweet, touching and lovely. Good to have the lighter tone chapters too - the snow chapter was very funny. Very happy to have read this whole series!