Wear Your Soul Round Your Neck

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

This is a story about Thyssa, a disgusting monster who becomes a pretty girl with the power of a sinister, possibly cursed amulet. It would be very convenient for those around her if she'd realize she doesn't need the amulet, and learn a valuable lesson about Being Yourself.

But she...does not do that. Instead, she keeps the amulet, unwilling to part with her humanity, however artificial.

And anyone who wants to take that from her, well, she'll just have to fight them.

Cover art by @BYZANTIUUM. Portrait by @benvey0. Both are trans artists.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Author: Deus Ex Lachina

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.9/ 5.0
Followers: 30
Views: 24,048

Chapters(33 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Chronicles.of.LuminaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This novella was a joy to read. Well-written, it tells the tale of Thyssa and her journey to become human, and the trials and tribulations along the way.
Along the way, we meet characters from the Walled Garden, members of the Grendel pack, and the wasteland they are forced to endure.
The story is fast-paced but well-structured, and the worldbuilding is engaging with details about the setting weaved into the story.
This could easily be turned into a full-length novel if the author wanted.
As it stands, I look forward to reading what you write next!
T. H. WattsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I read this entire story in one session and found it captivating right the way through. The world was fully realised, and the story told with clarity, and each chapter flowed effortlessly into the next.
Thyssa was a tragic and relatable character, a malform made from the undesirable parts that others cast away.
Stylewise this piece had a beautiful flow to it with effortless sentence construction, and variety and rhythm to the language. I also appreciated the clarity throughout, which made the story easy to follow.
Story. The story was compelling, and I was immediately transported into the world the author created. Every chapter pushed the plot forward in exciting and interesting ways. The world building was also impressive, telling you enough, while not getting bogged down in unnecessary information.
Grammar. The grammar seemed perfect to me. Didn’t notice a single issue.
Characters. The characters in the story were a highlight, each seeming fleshed out and fulfilling a role in the narrative. Thyssa was the obvious stand out, but the antagonists were also well written and suitably unhinged.
All in all, I thought this was a fantastic story. Look forward to seeing what this author comes up with in future.
FalstaffRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Intriguing and compelling.
I was all in by the end of page 1, but in Chapter 7 the world expands in a big way, and from there, the story hits the gas and opens up a lot of interesting questions and potential.
Chapter 7 is hard to sit through, but it's handled very well. It's not obscene or gratuitous, but it's harrowing, and it sets the story on a clear direction moving forward. I was very impressed.
And I'm enjoying the exploration of malform society very much.
Imagine a world where all the undesirable parts of a person could be removed and thrown out. Ugliness, shame, aggression, 'deformities,' selfishness, anything and everything 'wrong' gets excised and discarded, so all that's left is perfection. Bland, stale, insidious perfection.
And all that refuse? That's you. You're 'born' in a pool of byproducts and chemical waste. You live in constant pain, disgust at your own reflection, rejection from everyone but false prophets, and if you try to change or improve yourself, the world will set daggers against you.
That's a terribly compelling and sadly relatable premise.
The use of ellipses makes my eyelid twitch and a few tiny errors slipped through the first rounds of beta readers, but those weren't egregious enough to diminish my enjoyment.
Chapters are very short, which I love, but I'll admit a few chapters could sit and breathe for a moment.
HyenasRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This was definitely one of the best Royal Road stories I have read. It had a novel plot, interesting characters, and an interesting world. I'm generally very critical, as you could tell by my other reviews. This is very high praise.
The author stuck it through and completed it. I've seen a lot of equally interesting plots stop a third of the way through. That's very frustrating to readers, so thank you.
KhetiennRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Wear Your Soul Round Your Neck is a haunting and deeply resonant novella that uses the framework of dark fantasy to explore themes of identity, transformation, and the desperate lengths we go to for acceptance. The story follows Thyssa, a "malform" - a creature born from the discarded, unwanted parts of humanity - who volunteers for an experimental procedure that promises to make her human through a mysterious amulet.
The worldbuilding is one of the story's greatest assets. The author creates a visceral dystopia where perfection is achieved by literally excising and discarding all "undesirable" traits - creating a society of bland perfection while the refuse becomes sentient beings living in constant pain and rejection. This premise is both horrifying and brilliant, serving as a powerful metaphor for societal rejection and the pressure to conform.
The prose has a fairy-tale quality that enhances the story's dark themes. The writing is clear and evocative, with particularly strong use of symbolism and metaphor. Spelling and grammar is strong.
Character development, especially Thyssa's journey, is compelling. Her evolution from a self-loathing creature to someone fighting for her right to exist as she chooses is both heartbreaking and empowering. The complex relationship between Thyssa and Lili - part mother-daughter, part captor-captive - adds layers of psychological complexity that elevate the narrative beyond simple allegory.
The pacing is notably fast, which left me wishing for more breathing room to explore relationships and world details. Time skips occasionally leave gaps where deeper character development could have occurred, particularly in showing the evolution of Thyssa's relationship with Lili. Some exposition sections, particularly when explaining the world's lore through dialogue, can feel dense. While the information is fascinating, the delivery occasionally interrupts the narrative flow.
The story asks profound questions about identity, authenticity, a
Nemo BlancRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a beautifully haunting story about transformation, identity, and the cruelty that often hides behind progress. It follows Thyssa, a malform, something monstrous, cast out by society, who volunteers herself for a medical experiment that might let her become human. What starts as a tale of scientific hope quickly unfolds into something much deeper and darker.
At the center of the narrative is the relationship between Thyssa and Lili, the doctor who takes her in. Lili is cold and clinical, but also protective and maternal in a twisted way. Their dynamic is complex: part mother-daughter, part captor-captive, part idol and worshipper. It's hard to tell where love ends and manipulation begins. That ambiguity is what makes the story so gripping.
The style is clear and consistent. Dialogue feels natural, especially for Thyssa, her halting speech at the beginning gives way to more fluent language as she adapts to human life, which subtly reinforces the themes of transformation and self-perception. The tone is eerie but not overwrought, letting the emotional stakes land without melodrama.
There are some moments where the exposition gets a bit dense, particularly when Lili or Dr. Goodfellow explain the lore, but it’s mostly handled well through character interactions. Dr. Goodfellow himself is a fantastic villain: calm, creepy, and ideologically terrifying. The story is strongest when it leans into psychological horror and social commentary.
Grammatically, the prose is clean with only a few rough patches. Some phrasing could be tightened, and a few sentences are a little overlong, but it never becomes distracting.
All in all, this is a sharp, affecting story that explores monstrousness, gender, identity, and how far someone will go to be accepted.
It’s tender, a bit disturbing at times, but it's disturbing in a good way.
So, very cool!
ShadowAetherRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I like the use of bold text—it’s eye-catching and adds emphasis right from the start. The story has a strong opening and conveys a good kind of scary vibe that draws me in. However, I’d love to see more details about the setting to build atmosphere and a description of what Thyssa looks like to help visualize her.
An Actual KiwiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I don't really know how to feel about this.
On the one hand, it's a very good psychological story that delves into manipulation, abuse and other such things.
On the other it advertises itself as a story about a monster turned human, not an allegory of the struggles trans people go through.
I personally don't really have a problem with it, as all stories and all worldviews are interesting, but I do think it's a bit unfair to not even slightly mention it in the synopsis. Especially when it's obviously such a large part of the story and the author's life as well.
Now, onto the actual story. It's very good. The style, the grammar, the story, it's all extremely solid and all serve to deliver exactly the story the author intends.
My only problem is the characters. They feel a little bit... caricaturised. Like, I understand that the author is trying to tell a story here, but I don't think that they need to be so absolutely blatant with it too. You can inform someone of something without blaring it into their ears at max volume, and you can show me whether someone is good or evil without making it painfully obvious.
But yeah, apart from that, really solid book. Highly recommend.
StudioBunBugRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
It starts off rough, it feels like it’s attempting to cram a great deal of exposition and worldbuilding into a restricted space. The perceptions of the main character very clearly delineate—in ways that only become more apparent, what is human and what is not. The pronoun “it” is used by all sides to great emotional affect and import. It grew on me. The monsters are very human. Which makes sense in the context of the story. There is a wealth of metaphor in this story, in addition to its vivid and visceral imagery.
Style: The style is neither sci-fi nor fantasy exclusively and this was jarring at first, but once I stopped expecting the story to conform it worked quite well. Which could be a metaphor for the story in general.
Story: The pacing was excellent, each chapter ended with you wanting to turn the page. The story is almost an archetype for a hero’s journey. At every turn a new challenge, a new opportunity for growth.
Grammar: There were few grammatical errors and they didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the story.
Character: The main character starts off one-dimensional and grows as the story progresses. Then, too, the side characters you never expect to see again get developed into more well-rounded characters. The story as a whole is defined by self-development.
robbieDubyaRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Thyssa’s journey through this fantastic rich world was engaging and immersive. Her struggle against her nature - natural and that forced upon her - was captivating, endearing and empathically inspiring.
The characters we meet throughout this story always carry some heft. They come with well thought out histories giving them meaningful goals and motivations. Their various factions may shape their overall intent but each has attributes making them feel non-disposable. The relationships between the lead characters are revealed in a well structured and enjoyable way.
As readers we learn the most about Thyssa. We struggle with her as she makes huge discoveries about her past, her soul, her world. We learn about her future and what it means to be - or become - your real self. How Thyssa responds to setbacks and discoveries, occasionally lashing out, all feels so real and are infinitely relatable. Thyssa’s initial form, awareness and agony formed a solid base for her journey.
The fantastic world the story is told in is fleshed out exactly the right amount to give the reader an involving environment and a clear vision of where the action is taking place. As more characters and factions are introduced, often in a new environment, their realities are drawn directly from the atmosphere swirling around them.
Each environment was substantial enough to be home to more adventures, tangible enough places to revisit if there are more stories set here, not dreamed up to be simply forgotten.
The story also has massive potential for continuing. Or being ‘prequeled’. Without spoilers; there are so many aspects of the two main societies and key characters shared with us in the story that are elaborate and substantial enough to easily foresee them becoming standalone releases,
‘Wear Your Soul Round Your Neck’ was intriguing, engaging, deeply touching and a ‘must finish reading!’