Hunter

25% in and I can't stand this.
Joyeaux Charmand is the main character and even her name sounds like the author is desperately trying to convince you she is cool and you will love her. I didn't. Basically she is some sort of a warrior type, raised on a mountain (or Mountain, as they call it, wow) in some monastery. In this place everyone is welcome, except Christians, because religious differences that are part of history and even today are nothing, just Everyone Good VS Christians Bad. The creativity! The originality! The daring! I'm not even religious at all, but even to me this was laughable.
So at Monastery Diverse they are raising people to hunt scary scary magical creatures who started showing up because of some magical catastrophe, I think very creatively caused by Christians.
But now Joy needs to go to the capitol, which is very Hunger Games, because her influential uncle called her there. Apparently hunters are celebrities there? Dunno.

This book is very teenage girl in the worst sense of it. It's immature and lacks a feeling of depth, like nothing going on is serving a real purpose in a plausible society. Of course teenage characters are super mega competent and trusted with things. Like who the fuck would assign a teen bodyguard to do something important? Would you trust a kid with your life like that?
Joy's personality makes just as little sense. She constantly has to narrate her own feelings, saying how a real hunter should be. She is ... I will be real, she is a whiny child. Why is she simultaneously presented as this hyper competent hero and also completely useless and annoying? Even her inner monologue made me cringe. She called two characters she just met “yummy strangers”. Now some of you will probably say hey, she is just layered. But no, her personality is not built up, it's just cliche and lame, whining and being a baby, but I am told she is very badass. I have Throne of Glass flashbacks.