The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Putnam, $18.99

Published May 2013*

Can we please be done with vampires, please?

What would you do if aliens invaded the earth, but you couldn’t see them? What if the aliens had no corporeal presence, and instead were implanted in some humans like sleeper cells? Whom could you trust?

In The 5th Wave, most of humanity has been eliminated by aliens in four waves of death, starting with a complete cessation of power, followed by a tsunami, a plague virus, and finally the activation of the dormant aliens. The fifth wave is when things get interesting, since now nobody can tell who the real humans are, and the alien/human people use this confusion to manipulate the remaining humans to kill each other.

However (you know there has to be a however) the alien inhabitants are now part of their host, in a kind of symbiotic relationship. They are now corporeal; therefore they have all of their human memories; they feel what humans feel; and they won’t survive if their host dies. It’s not clear who is human and who is more than human. Maybe it doesn’t matter because in the end the aliens will be changed just as much as their human hosts. So what defines a person? Who is really human?

In case you’re thinking that this book is some sort of metaphysical treatise, fear not: it’s a YA novel, so there are some laugh-out-loud moments, mostly involving 16-year-old sarcasm, which I happen to find extremely funny, having teenagers myself. Also included is a truly amusing Donald Rumsfeld ramble, a kickass heroine, an old high school crush, and a mysterious new love interest.

Fans of I am Number Four, Passage, Divergent, The Hunger Games, and Battlestar Galactica should enjoy this book.

~Lysbeth

*Note from Eight Cousins: Books that are pre-ordered more than 10 days before publication will receive a 20% discount.

While attempting to disprove that Homo vampiris, the vampire, could exist, Dr. Warthrop is asked by his former fiancé to rescue her husband from the Wendigo, a creature that starves even as it gorges itself on human flesh, which has snatched him in the Canadian wilderness. Although Warthrop also considers the Wendigo to be fictitious, he relents and rescues her husband from death and starvation, and then sees the man transform into a Wendigo. Can the doctor and Will Henry hunt down the ultimate predator, who, like the legendary vampire, is neither living nor dead, whose hunger for human flesh is never satisfied?
This second book in The Monstrumologist series explores the line between myth and reality, love and hate, genius and madness.

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i didn’t think i would like this better than the first book. BUT I REALLY REALLY DID. yancey outdid himself here. a seriously good book.

it’s like the monstrumologist on steroids. in this book we get a much deeper look into the doctor’s personal life – his family, his friends, the woman he loved. i enjoyed the plot of this one. very fast-paced, very suspenseful, and extremely well-written. i also love the character development of will and the doctor – gut wrenching! and i LOVE yancey’s prose. it’s so fluid and amazing and beautiful.

holy smokes do i love the writing. it’s like water. it flows so well, so smooth – it can even make a horribly mutilated corpse seem poetic. and again, this book is not for the faint-hearted and weak-stomached. the details of the murders (and there are quite a few) are extremely gruesome, very very graphic. i warn you now, yancey goes all the way with every single detail to enable you to see it clearly with your mind’s eye – and proceed to vomit. ok, that might be a little dramatic, but it is horrible. i unintentionally cringed a couple times while reading. it’s much more violent than i thought it’d be. how does he think of all these mutilations…………

there are a whole lot of new characters introduced in this book, including the Society of Monstrumologists, which i found so interesting. i love that this book is a little more wide-spread, a little more adventurous than the previous book. instead of being limited to just the two of them in their house the doctor and will explore way beyond their town. they go on journeys and hunts which i really enjoyed.
and oh, I AM SO FOND OF THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST. i find him so endearing. really. especially when you see the choices he made and understand why he made them. “a hard candy with a surprise center~~” wat. ignore me
and i love will’s fierce loyalty. he is so extremely courageous and quick, and faithful to the point of ” will where the hell is your self-preservation??”
i liked how all the characters played into the plot well and seamlessly, and give this book more depth and background than i expected.
ALSO, PROLOGUE TIDBIT. LILLIAN, GUYS.

the last action scene was so intense!!! and the ending!! my feelings. cannot wait to read the last book.
really REALLY liked this one. miles better than the monstrumologist and that’s saying something. 8/10.
also, this book is just chock-full of quotable sentences, I CAN’T.

read my review to the first book in the series, The Monstrumologist, here.

- S

“There are no human words for what I mean.”

“There are things that are too terrible to remember, and there are things that are almost too wonderful to recall.”

“Men might be the stronger sex, but women are made of much sterner stuff!”

“What boy my age didn’t dream of fleeing the well-tended lawn and lamp-lit street for the untamed wilderness, where grand adventure awaited on the other side of the horizon, where the stars burned undimmed in the velvet sky above his head and the virgin ground lay untrodden beneath his feet?”

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts?

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what a read! when i told people i was reading this book and said it was about a monster, i’m sure people thought it was lame. me too, at first. monsters? come on. but i picked it up anyway and i’m so glad i did.
three words: gory, scary and thrilling.

so supposedly (in the prologue and epilogue), an author named rick yancey had 12 journals in his possession which were written by a man called william henry who is the assistant of a monstrumologist. this book covers the first 3 journals. yancey states that the book is copied straight from henry’s journals and only edited by him, yada yada.

so for the first 3 journals, the monstrumologist (also referred to as ‘the doctor’) and his assistant are after a species called Antheopaphdjdsomething (i’ve read the word a hundred times and yet i can’t remember the spelling). they are carnivores who feed on humans. the story begins when a visitor knocks on the doctor’s door with proof that the Anthrothingies are thriving and breeding in that very town.

such an awesome read. the plot was fast and suspenseful, but still thoughtful and smart. the style of writing was just amazing. i really loved how everything was phrased. and oh gosh, the gore. everything was very violent and precisely described, so it might not be for the faint-hearted, but it fully served its purpose. pretty creepy and scary. it’s very graphically detailed, but more of thrilling than horrific. extremely well written, i just.. phew.

i hope i’m not alone in this, but i’m quite fond of the monstrumologist himself. he’s very eccentric and moody and selfish, but quite loyal, very intelligent and (at rare times) sympathetic. he’s very passionate about his work which was admirable.

will henry is super brave for a 12 year old. i thought his point of view was slightly a bit too sophisticated and mature to be fully convincing, but that’s probably because i was a stupid 12 year old hahaha. i let it pass easily. he has a very smart and curious mind and i really liked his flow of thought. loved the way this book was written.

and the Anthroshizzles themselves… wow. definitely something you should check out yourself.
i recommend this strongly. consistently captivating, and i’ll be reading the second one as soon as i can.
this review is a pretty feeble attempt to convey how much i liked this book. it is so worth the read, guys. 9/10. READ IT GOOOOO

also, cool ripper reference, yes or yes, hmmm?

- S

“We may strive with all our might to put off the bitter harvest, but theshing day always dawns.”

“Perhaps that is our doom, our human curse, to never really know one another”.

It has been a while since we declared a book a Promising Bloom, but we just can’t resist with Rick Yancey’s upcoming book, The 5^th Wave.  It doesn’t come out until May 2013, so you have a few months to wait.  Once you get your hands on it, though, you won’t want to put it down.  I know I didn’t.

The book begins with a quote from Stephen Hawking:

“If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

Forget all alien movies you’ve seen or the science fiction novels you’ve read about the aliens we’d like to visit us.  In The 5^th Wave, the aliens aren’t cute or nice.  They aren’t here to make friends with us or share their superior technology.  They are here to destroy us, and they seem to know just how to do it.  As each wave of attack devastates the earth’s population, the survivors are forced to remake their lives with whatever is left.  The first wave left them without the technology on which they’ve come to rely.  The second and third waves took many lives and homes.  Cassie has managed to stay alive through each wave, but now she’s on her own with no one to trust.  You can’t trust anyone anymore, not after the fourth wave.

This is a science-fiction-adventure-thriller that will have wide appeal among teens looking for action.  But it’s also a novel about courage, love, and identity that explores big questions about what it means to be human.

Don’t want to wait until May to read it?  We have good news!  We have two signed advance copies to give away to Books in Bloom readers! 

• To enter, leave a comment on this post with your favorite alien or UFO related book or movie
• Contest is open until midnight tonight (Thursday, February 7th)
• We’ll choose two winners on Friday morning with help from Random.org

Good luck!

Blogger:  Mindy R.

Okay, now that Midwinter is over, we are well and truly into 2013. All those 2012 books I missed? Too bad!  On to the new, shiny ones! Well, actually there are still a few I’m going to read, but anyway, lots more on the horizon.

Here are some new YA books that I got ARCs of at Midwinter. How to prioritize?

Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave. The is the first in a new post-apocalypse series. I’m actually pretty much a sucker for first contact and post-apocalypse stories, plus this one is by Yancey, so it’s going right up near the top of the stack. Due out in May from  Putnam.

Cat Winters, In the Shadow of Blackbirds. This one intrigues me, based on the description. It takes place in 1918, during the post-war Spanish influenza epidemic and it apparently also incorporates the spiritualism that was so prevalent at that time. (Hmm, reminds me of The Diviners . . . ) Anyway, it includes multiple illustrations, including health posters and photographs from the time. Some of the photographs are apparently of ghostly apparitions, so that should be fun. Due out in April from Amulet.

Karen Finneyfrock, The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door. This is a debut novel by a Seattle performance artist and poet. It is, apparently, in fact a novel of revenge. Sherman Alexie blurbs it as “Hilarious, exciting, and as painful as anyone’s teenage years.”I do enjoy the occasional mean-girl-gets-what’s-coming-to-her” book, so I’m looking forward to this one. And it’s got a great cover. Due out from Viking Penguin this month.

Gail Carriger. Etiquette & Espionage. Today is actually the release day for this book, which Karyn referred to over on Someday in a post I can’t find as a “Mary Poppins” book–practically perfect in every way. Plus it already appears to have three starred reviews (Kirkus, PW, and Booklist). So that one has to go to the top, too.

So, clearly, I already have too many things to read. And those are just some of the things I have sitting around and/or on hold at the library.

Plus, very soon we have to talk about 17 & Gone, by Nova Ren Suma, and Towering, by Alex Flinn. I know you’ve read both of those.

Oh, and while we’re talking about upcoming books, any great nonfiction titles that you’ve heard about?

- Mom

Eiiik!!!

“A cross between Mary Shelley and Stephen King”

I almost won!

What a perfect description of the book you are about to read. The Monstrumologist is written from two different points of view in two different eras. The first era is at an old people’s home, where the main character, Will Henry, has just died. A writer has been contacted by the home director, who has found Will Henry’s old journal that has interesting tales and folk legends, just the material the writer needs for his next story.

Spoo-key!

Pull back into the days when Will Henry was a young boy under the apprenticeship of the Doctor Warthrop. Will Henry is an orphan, taken under the wing of Dr. Warthrop because his father died as a servant to Dr. Warthrop. Dr. Warthrop is a hard to like character; at times you question his love for Will Henry. Although Dr. Warthrop does save Will’s life above all other lives, the way that he treats Will Henry is a story line within itself.

Dr. Warthrop’s business is more than that of just a regular doctor. He is also a Monstrumologist, which is exactly what it sounds like. The book series is like a mixture of Van Helsing stories, Hellboy, and Sherlock Holmes. The author does a brilliant job of combining mythology and incorporating writings from writers of the time. You know that a science-fiction/fantasy author has done their job well when your mind begins to get warped into that fictional world. It reminds me of the time when I read Life as We Knew it, and I began to stock-pile canned goods. The integration of other texts from that time period definitely work their way into your mind, blending the lines between reality and fiction.

I would recommend this book to older readers, and most definitely males. I can imagine that they would like the viewpoint of young Will Henry, who at times is unsure and definitely his age, but also bright, and the author does a good job of showing that Will Henry is smart, not just telling us like I felt Suzanne Collins sometimes did with the character of Katniss (who I felt was too often just lucky). The book is a longer one, and it also has very mature scenes, not in a sexual sense, but the complexity of the language, as well as some of the horror scenes can be scary for readers who are not yet prepared for it. Another sign of a great writer– you are scared by their ideas and depictions. Rick Yancey creates that tight fictional world that is set in our real world.

Rick Yancey also does a fantastic job of character development with Will Henry, and even the doctor. His characters are brilliantly written, and the dialogue is imaginable, like a movie played out in your head. Will Henry questions life and death, with death being more common than life (at least for the humans in the book). There are so many components to the book that make it worth reading, and Rick Yancey did a terrific job in crafting an almost flawless book for young adults. I am excited to read the Printz winner for 2010, since the Monstumologist was in the running but did not win.

Also the drawings are freaky within themselves.

Fantastic! What is it!?

Rating? 9.5 out of 10 kit-kats.

This week was a HUGE Stacking the Shelves post because of last weeks RazOrbill/Penguin Canada Blogger Night. I had a little bit of car trouble and wasn’t able to post all the books I got but here they are! Also check out the e-Book links below for their goooorgeous cover art AND synopsis!

E-Books:

“Dare You To” by Katie McGarry
“Every Never After” by Lesley Livingston
“The 5th Wave” by Rick Yancey

This week’s: WOW posting of “The 5th Wave”

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by “Breaking the Spine” where bloggers can inform all their anticipated readers about upcoming books they’re excited about!

OH BOY! *insert bookaholic squeal* This weeks “Waiting on Wednesday” I cannot contain my excitement for! This past week on Thursday January 17, 2013 Penguin Canada hosted a blogger event; because I am employed by them as their social media liaison for RazOrbill Canada (and their community blog) I got to help set up and listen to all the publicists and marketing guru’s discuss their most anticipated books coming out this year. THIS book is in my TOP 5 – like nothing can compare to how excited I am for this one! (and others lol)

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Expected Publication: May 7, 2013
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (Penguin)

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother–or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Ok, where to begin! Well the synopsis because that is basically where my obsession with this book is going to start and end. What a thriller! The questions jumbling around in my head cannot contain themselves, “who are Them?”; “Waves of what exactly?”; “Why is Cassie a survivor?”; “Who is Evan? Can we trust him?” – SO many questions and just from a little synopsis. As I said above the hype about this book in-office at Penguin Canada headquarters is outrageous, it is contagious actually and I cannot wait for all of you to catch the 5th Wave fever! The dystopian/survivor/post-apocalyptic theme’s are undeniable within this book and fans of such dystopians as “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins & “Divergent” by Veronica Roth will definitely be interested in this rising dystopian. Also because I cannot resist NOT talking about book covers, the cover. Simple but ominous, we can’t tell who the character is on the front, is that Cassie? one of Them? The cover is probably one of my favourites thus far for books that don’t involve a scantly clad buff boy, or whimsical innocent model – its a bit unnerving to be honest, and fits 110% into the entire premises of the book!

So Bookaholics, will you be adding this dynamic dystopian to your TBR pile?

“When dark creeps in and eats the light,/ Bury your fears on Sorry Night./ For in the winter’s blackest hours,/ Comes the feasting of the Vours,/ No one can see it, the life they stole,/ Your body’s here but not your soul…”  With arguably the scariest beginning ever written, The Devouring by Simon Holt centers around the mysterious Vours: spirits that prey upon a person’s deepest fears and which can take possession of a body on Winter Solstice.  Reggie discovers their existence through an old journal she finds at the bookstore and though intrigued, she dismisses the claims as the ranting of an unhinged mind.  Little does Reggie know that soon, she will be battling the Vour that stole her brother’s body and to recover his soul, she will literally have to fight her brother’s worst fears.  Unfortunately, her young brother Henry is fearful of many things and the nightmarish landscape Reggie has to endure to bring him back is pretty gruesome.  Since the Vours are exploiting the primal fears that many people have (spiders, clowns, fear of drowning), readers may recognize some of their own as Reggie valiantly slays her way through each terrifying phobia.  The first of a trilogy, The Devouring can be read as a stand-alone, though it does conclude with a twist.  Fans eager to follow Reggie’s path to more horror, more gore, more Vours! will want to pick up book two, Soulstice and book three, Fearscape.

J. P. Hightman, the author of Spirit, is also a screenwriter and maybe that’s why this book feels like a horror movie placed in an historic New England setting.  Tess and Tobias Goodraven are a young, wealthy married couple from a privileged background whose hobby is laying ghosts to rest.  While most travelers are journeying to attend a winter carnival, the Goodravens are on the train to reach the spirit of an accused Salem witch.   When the train is derailed, they’re thrown into mortal danger and the body count starts rising.  Real horror fans will find the storyline traipses the “path of doom” that many characters in scary movies follow:  they leave the scene, they walk through the woods. . . at night. . .in the snow. . .and the fog, people get separated, and *sigh* someone always has to walk into an empty, creepy building–in this case an old church, which is never a safe santuary!   However, the malevolent witch ghost does manage to dispatch her victims in graphic and gory ways.  Readers looking for a quick atmospheric read with lots of blood and supernatural violence, enjoy!  Also recommended for those who like to mock characters’ poor decision-making skills.  At least the author saves a big punch for the end.

A biting cold Canadian winter is the backdrop for Bonechiller by Graham McNamee.  Told in the first person voice of Danny, a late night encounter with a supernatural beast would have him questioning his sanity, were it not for the mark on his arm and the slow chill creeping through his body.  Then the same thing happens to his friend.  As Danny delves into this mystery he discovers that teens have been disappearing during the coldest winters for generations and no one has dared suggest it could be anything more sinister than running away.  Without the support of authorities, Danny and his friends must find and battle this creature themselves.  A tight thriller with some parallels to Stephen King’s It and Rick Yancey’s The Curse of the Wendigo, Bonechiller offers less gore, but more than makes up for it in psychological intensity and frightening action sequences.  Recommended for readers who enjoy vividly described settings, rich characterizations, foreboding suspense and explosive endings—literally.

Synopsis: (From the inside cover.)

“It is called Atcen…Djenu…Outiko…Vindiko.  It has a dozen names in a dozen lands, and it is older than the hills, Will Henry.  It feeds, and the more it feeds, the hungrier it becomes.  It starves even as it gorges.  It is the hunger that cannot be satisfied.  In the Algonquin tongue its name literally means ‘the one who devours all mankind.’”

As apprentice to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, Will Henry has lived a life dedicated to the pursuit of monstrumology: the study of monsters.  But when Dr. Warthrop is informed that his old mentor Dr. Von Helrung is trying to prove the existence of the mythical Wendigo, He Who Devours All Mankind, a creature that starves even as it gorges itself on human flesh, Will’s world is plunged into fresh turmoil.

Will and Dr. Warthrop must traverse the desolate wastelands of Canada…and in the process, may discover a truth far more terrifying than even they could have imagined.

First sentence:

From Prologue: The reader was a retired middle school English teacher whose mother had come to live at the facility in 2001.

I actually really don’t like this opening line.  It’s not until the second paragraph that we even understand why she’s referred to as ‘the reader’ –because she came in as a volunteer to read to the residents of the home where Will Henry had stayed as an old man.  I think we could have given her a name, any name, or a last name, something.  It was unnecessarily jarring and I’m really not sure why Yancey chose to do it that way, since I’m pretty positive he doesn’t do anything in the monstrumology series without it serving some purpose.  Maybe so we could focus on the woman, Lillian?

First Chapter: I do not wish to remember these things.

Nothing strikingly dramatic.  The first chapter starts off with Will Henry admitting he doesn’t want to write any more of his journals, or to think any more of Pellinore or his past, but he can’t escape it.  A nice lead-in to the story itself, especially considering there’s been a couple of years from book one to book two, so understanding that Will Henry is writing whatever it is he remembers, as he remembers it, makes the jump in time barely noticeable.

The Good:

Let me just start off by saying this book was BEYOND amazing.  It exceeded every expectation I could have had, coming from the first book.  But in particular, my favorite points were how Will Henry grew as a character and how his relationship with Pellinore grew.  We got to see Will actually challenge his master’s opinions, he stood up for himself or at least what he was thinking.  What was even more pleasant to see was how Pellinore reacted to it.  For the most part, he took it in stride!  I think their relationship really grew (as much as their dysfunctional arrangement can progress).

My second favorite thing about this sequel was the dialogue.  The dialogue in the first book was well done and had moments of humor, but in Curse of the Wendigo it just shot up to the next level.  There was humor and dry, biting remarks and comebacks, even from Will!  It was one of the things that definitely helped show how Will and Pellinore’s relationship had changed and grown over the years that passed since the first book.  And it was just down right entertaining.

The Bad:

I am hard pressed to find something about this book that I didn’t like.  I suppose if I were going to be nit-picky I could complain about how stubborn and blind Pellinore seemed to the obvious facts, even for his character.  BUT, considering the circumstances, his best friend, his ex-fiancé and best friend’s wife there were a lot of factors that would make him actively choose not to see the truth.

From a story-telling vantage, as a writer, I was surprised to see the ending mimic the first book in so many ways.  Will is separated from the group, dragged into some unknown pit, he faces off the big-bad and subsequently kills it.  While on one hand I enjoy seeing him take charge and overcome his fears and kill creatures, it seems as though every other monstrumologist ever, is just not up to the task.  They’re all conveniently out of the way.  On one hand, I can see the reasons for it, even for Will finding himself in a hellish pit, these are hellish creatures after all, but on the other it’s so reminiscent of the first book, and we know Pellinore to be a man of some considerable abilities, so to never actually see him use those (besides his reasoning and attitude) is a little disheartening.  But, not so much so that it ruins the book or the ending.

The Unexpected:

The level of gore and depravity in this book really just through me for a whirl.  Yancey outdid himself with the creature in this book, what he was capable of, what he did—wow!  I really felt for Pellinore in this book, I loved him from the first book but this one made him seem more human and tragic.  I actually knew nothing about the plot when I picked it up, just that it was the sequel to a book I loved, a wendigo was some form of vampire, and it was bound to be enjoyable.  I think I partially expected a story about a bunch of wendigos, but it was actually much, much more personal and intimate to the main characters and that worked far better than anything I could have anticipated.

Final Thoughts:

I said it once, I’ll say it again—this book was amazing.  I winced and gagged at the gore and I felt heartbroken and shocked at the story behind it all.  I also liked the nods to the Dracula story, Lucy and Mina become Lillian and Muriel, Jonathan is Hawk instead of…Harker is it?  And then there’s Von Helrung of course.  It’s done in a way where the events precede Stoker’s writing of his novel so we’re lead to believe he based it off of these people and changed the names (and events) around.  It’s interesting and fun without detracting from the legitimacy of Yancey’s own story.  I can’t wait to read book three!

Anonymous

Synopsis from Goodreads.
While Dr. Warthrop is attempting to disprove that Homo vampiris, the vampire, could exist, his former fiancÉe asks him to rescue her husband, who has been captured by a Wendigo—a creature that starves even as it gorges itself on human flesh. Although Dr. Warthrop considers the Wendigo to be fictitious, he relents and performs the rescue—and then sees the man transform into a Wendigo. Can the doctor and Will Henry hunt down the ultimate predator, who, like the legendary vampire, is neither living nor dead, and whose hunger for human flesh is never satisfied? This second book in The Monstrumologist series explores the line between myth and reality, love and hate, genius and madness.

Things I Have Learnt From YA Books #678019 : When the Monstrumologist gets scared… you should  too.

Honestly, I didn’t think that Mr Yancey could top The Monstrumologist but he did… and then some.

The plotting is immaculate. The characters are absolutely superb. The setting is one of my favourites. It is both terrifying and heart breaking. Stomach churning and butterfly-inducing. Thought-provoking and all the superlatives I can think of.
“Let us go then, you and I, like Alice down the rabbit hole, to a time when there still were dark places in the world, and there were men who dared to delve into them.”

The thing that struck me most about this book was Mr Yancey’s vivid attention to detail to the dichotomy between the natural world and what dwells in its darkest shadows.

And that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write in one of my reviews.

I sound like I’m writing a uni essay on it! But that’s it, I could write an essay on this book. I don’t know whether it’s just because I’ve spent too much time with Dr Warthrop and his thirst for knowledge has rubbed off on me but I almost, kinda, definitely want to write an essay on this book. There are so many layers that I want to strip back and make notes about in margins and highlight with gel pens and write a few paragraphs and then watch a bit of Come Dine With Me and then go back to it and think “What? When did Will Henry make a soufflé and how does that relate to the idea that sometimes it’s us that make the monsters that haunt our dreams?” and then spend all my washing machine change on the photocopier that always eats your change because my library books are due back and that hill to the library is just too.damn.high to crawl up in Welsh weather.

…….

I mean, I already have my last few sentences written. I always liked to end my essays on an epic line that required a pause after you had read it. A pause of reflection. And learning. And italics.

And it would be: “In Yancey’s writing, he explores the relationship between the natural world and the one that lives within its shadows. Both are treated with the utmost respect because unlike us, the stars in the sky, oblivious to fleeting human activity, and the monsters who stalk us are eternal.”

Yeah, I never said I was the best student, did I? Eh?

God knows what Dr Warthrop would think of me seeing as he dislikes poets and writers and dreamers (“The poet’s voices will be drowned out by the gears of progress.”). He is one of the most fascinating characters in any book I have ever read. This would be the bit where I tell you that he’s not always likeable but he has a good heart but I’m just going to make two minor adjustments to that sentence: He’s never likeable but he has a brilliant heart. And I love him fiercely.

And of course we can’t forget Will Henry who is one of my favourite heroes. He’s had to go through so much, he’s seen so much and he’s lost so much. And he’s only twelve. He doesn’t have any friends his own age. The only regular conversation he has is with a cantankerous doctor who cares more about teeth and raspberry scones (although, who can blame him? I always get cravings for raspberry scones after I have finished one of these books) And he gets nibbled on by monsters an awful lot. I adore him.

And of course, the relationship between these two characters was just as fascinating, sad and beautiful as it was in the first book. Perhaps even more so as we got to see a bit more of an insight into each character, especially Dr W. And I lovedlovedloved the slight shift in the relationship between Will and Dr Warthrop and I don’t mind admitting that I read that final paragraph with slightly misted eyes. I can’t wait to see where their story goes in The Isle of Blood.

Just as in The Monstrumologist, this book is vile. And graphic. Oh so beautifully graphic. But what I loved about these descriptions (in addition to being a sick sick sicko) was that you could tell it wasn’t just a way of Mr Yancey channelling his inner Mel Brooks but that it was vital to the story. It set the blood-soaked scene, it created the terrifying atmosphere and, more importantly, it established the characters and the themes that are explored as the story goes on.

It also provided some of my favourite passages of the book:

“Ice crystals glittered like jewels festooning his ribs, lining the walls of his ripped-open stomach; his lungs looked like two enormous multi-faceted diamonds; his frozen viscera shone as brightly as wet marble. It was terrible. And it was beautiful.”

Just one example… there are many writers nowadays that relish in their ability of turning something beautiful into something horrid. There aren’t many who do the opposite so convincingly.

(I can’t tell you how many quotes I wrote down from this book. There were so many I could probably start a Tumblr entitled “Rick Yancey Talks About Life and Stars and, In Doing So, Speaks Directly to My Soul” and I would never run out of material.)

Mr Yancey doesn’t seem to be a fan of happy endings or, actually, even hopeful endings. But they’re realistic… in a way a book about monsters can ever be realistic. These characters survive, they live to tell their tale, whether that’s a happy ending or whether that’s a curse is left to you to decide.
I think the way Mr Yancey has constructed this story (with the added narrative of him finding Will Henry’s diaries) makes everything all the more poignant because we know the beginning and, unfortunately, we know the end.
So what about the middle? Well… I guess Will Henry’s not finished just yet.
Seeing as I’ve already used my fantastic line that would have got me an instant first in my essay and I can’t end my review on an epic and solemn and thought-provoking way, I’m just going to say: If you ever see this book lying around in the shop or the library or wherever, please get yourself a copy. Come on, snap to!

Unless you’re squeamish at the thought of “curdled arterial spray” and “empty oracular cavities”. If so.. um… you should probably give this one a miss.

Last week we were talking about the various different components of a book and how we personally rank them–character, plot, prose, ideas, etc.  But there are many other factors we use when we evaluate books: age range*, genre, or (what I want to talk about today) how a book fits with an author’s other work.  Over at The Hub, I’ve been writing a series of posts called The Completist, in which I evaluate an author’s entire body of (YA) work, and it has made me realize that whenever I pick up a book by an author I know, I am always reading it in the context of everything else I’ve read by her, finding interconnections, continuities, and discontinuities between the works.

All these interconnections can not only be interesting in themselves, but really improve the quality of the works as I perceive them.  So, sometimes you have an author like AM Jenkins who can take a single idea and explore it from different angles in different novels.  Other authors have various themes and allusions they come back to over and over.  An interesting example is Rick Yancey.  In his Alfred Kropp books, he introduces readers to his take on Arthurian legends, but he pretty quickly seems to get distracted by plot concerns.  Then, in his adult series, The Highly Effective Detective, he begins exploring the concept of knights further, but this time in the context of a ordinary guy just trying to do the right thing–is it possible for him to act as a knight in shining armor, or do those values act contrary to modern society (the climax of this question is a throwaway joke in which the detective renames his agency White Knight Associates–he walks into the newly minted agency while the stenciler is in the middle of writing, so that the agency appears to be called “White Knight Ass”).  In the third of these books, he even briefly outlines the story of Sir Pellinore and the Questing Beast**, giving the reader an enormous clue about the existential themes he has been pursuing in the series.  Meanwhile, in the Monstrumologist, published the year before, Yancey names his main character Pellinore, and as the Monstrumologist series progresses, the idea of the Questing Beast moves from the very literal Anthrophagi of the first book to the almost entirely metaphysical quest for the “Holy Grail of Monstrumology” in The Isle of Blood.

Even in cases less dramatic than Jenkins and Yancey, it is fascinating to see an author develop their style and approach to plot, character, setting and the rest.  This is, of course, particularly interesting if what you read an author’s books out of publication order. So, for example, I read Rebecca Stead’s three novels in this order: When You Reach Me (2009), Liar and Spy (2012), First Light (2007).  My experience of these books was that I liked each one of them more than the last, which leads me to wonder, is First Light really her best novel, or did I like it more for knowing what she would later do with her talents?  When You Reach Me, of course, won the Newbery Award, and I liked it well enough at the time, but now I plan to go back and reread it at some point to find out if my opinion of it has changed now that I’ve read Stead’s other books.

And that leads me, finally to my last point (for now), which is the interaction (or non-interaction) between all of what I’ve been talking about and awards committees.  Because on the single book committees, like the Printz and the Newbery, the members are specifically instructed not to do what I’ve been doing–that the book must be judged only against other books from the same year.  I have serious doubts as to whether it is even possible to do this entirely, but in any case, it leads to some very interesting cognitive dissonance when you look at the lists of winners and honor books.  So, for instance, you have Walter Dean Myers and Laurie Halse Anderson getting Printz recognition in the very first year, but (to date) never again, despite having each continued to write at an extremely high level.  Or, you have Libba Bray winning the Printz for what I consider to be her weakest book (Going Bovine).  I’m not saying that the awards committees should do things any differently, but I do think it’s important to keep in mind, for working librarians, that the awards have very specific charges that don’t necessarily coincide with what we want our collections to look like.  So that, if I’m starting a YA collection, I’m going to buy every Laurie Halse Anderson book right off the bat, but I would have to think hard about whether I even want one of David Almond’s, despite his Printz Award and Honor.

Anyway, I hope all of this makes some sense.  Do you have any thoughts?

- Mark

*I read a really interesting review on goodreads of (one of your and my favorite books) Tender Morsels. The author of the review gave the book 3 stars but essentially copped to the fact that if the book had been marketed as an adult book she would have rated it higher. Weird.

**the gist is that Pellinore always searches for but never is able to find the Questing Beast

Memories can bring comfort to the old and infirm, but memories can also be implacable foes, a malicious army of temporal ghosts forever pillaging the long-sought-after peace of our twilight years.

Rick Yancey, The Monstrumologist 

The first beef I have with Wendigo is the level of goriness. I didn’t sleep for the next two nights after I read the confounded book! Two nights! And I’ve been in a cadaver lab twice, done extra credit dissections in school, and been in Youth Group with a nurse fond of sharing work stories. That should tell you something about the level of detail Rick Yancey puts into his work. He has a disconcerting way of creating word pictures in your mind that you just can’t unsee, regardless of how much you want to.

Secondly, I got the impression that Yancey is one of those authors that loves to read his own words, and therefore uses a lot of them. Even when they don’t need to be there. Beyond the description (*shudders*), there was a vast amount of exposition that didn’t appear to have a point other than the author trying to share every single facet of his characters. And when I’m wondering where exactly the cannibalistic monster is going to eat someone again, I don’t care much about Professor Whatshisface’s loneliness or his relationship with his assistant.

I will admit that it was a good plot that held the reader’s attention outside of the exposition chapters. The suspense was palpable and very good throughout the book. Also, the setting was impeccable as far as capturing the atmosphere of the late 19th century and the attitudes of an era caught between old superstitions (which just might be true) and encroaching science (which isn’t very helpful).

1. Rick Yancey: I am blaming my editing woes on one of my favorite authors. It took me to about page 5-ish of his novel The Monstrumologist to realize I was in love. Well, recently I learned he wrote another series that sounded interesting, the Alfred Kropp series. Well, I started that book yesterday and I’m on page 170.

2. Shopping: I mean, come on. It was the weekend. My whole family went out. I think this explains itself.

3. The Ocean: Same deal as above. My family was going to the ocean. And I, like the dutiful writer I am said, “No, I’m not going to the beach, I’m going to sit in front of my computer and edit this story I’ve read three times already.” Yeah…that didn’t happen.

4. TV/Movies/Sports: Falling Skies was new last night. I figured, whatever, it’s just one hour. When I watch a TV show, I watch every episode. Even Smallville. That’s right, I’ve seen every episode of Smallville, all 10 seasons. Anyways, later that night, my sister and I wanted to watch a horror movie. Dawn of the Dead got pulled from the bag. It was actually pretty good and *spoilers* Kevin Zegers was in it and he lived till the end Yea! *end spoilers* Tonight Teen Wolf is on. And think, this is summer TV. Just wait until the fall when like 6 shows come back. Also, I’m a die-hard NASCAR fan. There was a race on yesterday and I cannot express how perfect it went. I may do an entire off-topic post about it later. Let’s just say I bleed Jeff Gordon’s colors and he won!

5. Another Story: I know, I know. Red Flag! Red Flag! This girl can’t work on one story at a time! She’ll never get anything published! Not true! My sister, who is also a writer (follow her at http://ideastoworlds.wordpress.com/) (see what I did there? see what a great sister I am?), and I are working on a story together. I highly do not advise you ever try to write a story with someone you live with. Though, when we’re talking with the 7 different directors who want to turn out story into a movie, we’ll laugh at all the little squabbles we had over extremely important things like whether Isis is 16 or 17 (I’m not kidding). Anyways, right now we are making real progress and we haven’t fought about something in a few days so that may be a new record!

So, am I forgiven for not editing as much as I should have yet?

Our final guest for the month of June is Rick Yancey!

Rick is the author of several series including the Teddy Ruzak mysteries, the Alfred Kropp series and his most recent series (as well as my introduction to the author) The Monstrumologist.  Monstrumology is the science of studying malevolent creatures that aren’t usually recognized as being real, and hunting said creatures.  The series follows the life of William James Henry and his mentor (and oft times, only companion) Pellinore Warthrop as they discover and destroy these creatures.  The first book, The Monstrumologist deals entirely with the creature Anthropophagus.  They’re frightening things, they really are.  The book itself is incredibly well-written and delivers on all things you’d ever want from a book: amazing plot, enthralling characters, sharp dialogue, perfectly phrased descriptions that will pull you into the setting (something you may not want in a scene full of nightmarish creatures!)  There are three books in the Monstrumologist series, with a fourth, The Final Descent, expected out Fall of 2013!

Let’s see what he had to say from one writer to another!

1. What do you do to pump yourself up for a scene you’re not all that excited about writing, but is necessary?

I attended a screenwriting conference and the presenter talked about this. He said write every scene as if it was going to go in the trailer or be played on Oscar night. There should be NO scene that exists solely for exposition. Every scene must move the action along.

2. When working on a new project do you start at the beginning or just jump in wherever feels right?

Always the beginning. Tried it the other way and it just ends up creating more work. Sometimes, when I’m first building the story, certain scenes occur to me first and I jot down the idea and a general idea of where the scene might go, but once I actually start the first draft, I begin with Chapter One, Page one.

3.  Is it more difficult to write the beginning or the ending?  What about transition scenes?

Everything is difficult. Sometimes the beginning more so than the end, sometimes it’s the other way around.

4. Do you put together profiles of all the major characters or discover them as you write?

Profiles bore me. Character is revealed through action (and I’m including their thoughts in that). I don’t feel I have to know them inside and out before I begin. So I guess I allow them to reveal themselves. One of the best feelings you get as a writer is when your characters does something totally unexpected. That’s when you know they’re “alive” and not mouthpieces for whatever your agenda is. (and if you tell yourself your only agenda is to “tell a good story,” then you’re lying to yourself.)

5. Do you ever experience writer’s block or a slump?  What do you do to get out of it?

 I open my monthly bills.

6. Do you write every day?  Do you feel it’s necessary to?

Nearly every day, because when I don’t I have this restless, gnawing fear that I might be sucked into a rogue black hole and never be able to write again.

**Any last words on the writing process you want to share?

If you’re not writing because your life depended on it, you probably shouldn’t be writing.

Also, Rick was kind enough to answer a few questions specific to The Monstrumologist series.

1.  The language and style of the Monstrumologist series is very different from your other works, like the Alrfred Kropp series for example.  How did you discover the voice for Monstrumologist?  Did writing it present any difficulties?

I wanted something elegant, introspective, intelligent. What I got was a 131 year old man who’d been around the block a few times. Seemed logical to me he’d write that way.

2. There are so many creatures of lore, myth and legend, what made you decide on the Anthropophagus? 

They scared the shit out of me. Also, loved the fact Shakespeare et al mention them but they somehow never passed into popular culture. Like an idiot, I wanted to get away from the obvious choices of werewolf and vampire and the like. Because I didn’t want readers to go, “Oh great, another vampire story.”

3. Even though the language and style of the story was very engaging, for me, it was the characters that really brought everything alive.  Their personalities are very distinct and well put-together.  Which character did you enjoy writing the most and why?  (Warning: this one contains a mild spoiler if you haven’t read all 3 of the books!)

I love all my characters, so it’s kind of like asking me to pick my favorite child. My heart breaks for Will Henry. I laugh out loud at Warthrop (and sometimes, honestly, am awed by him and a little envious). I like von Helrung’s style and earnestness. I LOVED Torrance and really hated killing him off. As for real historical people, Rimbaud in Book Three was my favorite. Very cool character/person.

——–

An enormous THANK YOU! to Rick for answering my questions and participating in the Writer to Writer series!  If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out The Monstrumologist series and the story of Will Henry & Pellinore Warthrop, it’s amazing!  I, for one, am currently reading the second book, Curse of the Wendigo and can’t wait for book 4 to come in September of 2013!

Genre: Young Adult > Horror | Fantasy

(The Monstrumologist #1)

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her, Will’s world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagus—a headless monster that feeds through a mouth in its chest—and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatening to overtake and consume our world before it is too late.

Literary Awards: Printz Honor (2010), Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award Nominee (2010), Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Finalist (ALAN/NCTE) (2010), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2013)

*****

I am not an easy person to scare. I like horror books; more so on movies. The Monstrumologist is not that really scary to begin with, but with the overall creepiness of the story, it gave me this horrific effect that i should be scared of monsters. real, eat-you-alive-in-the-grossest-way-possible monsters. Mr. Yancey, I was afraid of the Anthropophagi, not because of the monstrosity, but because of the cunning and intellect that came with that monstrosity.*shudders*

Will Henry‘s life was not easy. Watching your parents burn to death is not something short of a nightmare. Then, you spend your life with a man whose eccentricity and brilliance shuns everybody around you. including you. not to mention your services are indispensable to this (sometimes) crazy scientist. your services, not you.

I like Yancey’s writing. With a story so unique, his characters and monsters became vibrant through his easy storytelling.

Kearnes is my favorite character! His madness is infectious. Oh, he has faults, yes, but i can’t help but admire him. he’s a formidable hunter, but as a person? Ha! Better ask Will Henry. or Dr. Warthrop for a more definitive response. Also, the Sanitorium scenes are alive! Sanitorium: that one place that i’m the scariest.

If you are into horror and gore, you’re gonna love The Monstrumologist. Monsters both literal and psychological, you will find it here. To those who have read this: whose life is sadder, Will Henry’s or Dr. Warthrop’s?

Full of fascinating lore and heart-buckling scenarios, Will Henry will make your nights worthwhile. Read this at night time! it adds to the suspense. *winks*

Monsters are real. That’s a fact. =)

Check out these other reviews:

• Tina of One More Page
• Aaron of Guy Gone Geek
• Tricia of In Lesbian with Books

Synopsis

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her, Will’s world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagus—a headless monster that feeds through a mouth in its chest—and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatening to overtake and consume our world before it is too late.

As far as blurbs go, this works wonderfully.  It sets up the beginning for you without giving away so much that you’re wading through the first few chapters waiting for something exciting to happen.  To be honest I think I prefer the blurb on the back of the book itself, mostly because it doesn’t include the first few lines to the actual first chapter.  They’re great lines and some of their kick is removed by having read them in a blurb.

I would say that summarizing what happens in the beginning, the visitor coming “with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her” almost ruins the initiating event of the story, but Yancey’s prose is so wonderfully crafted, that that really isn’t a factor.  You’re caught up into the character of Will, you’re caught up into his vision of the Monstrumologist, and then the descriptions, the descriptions!

First sentence:

From the Prologue: The director of facilities was a small man with ruddy cheeks and dark, deep-set eyes, his prominent forehead framed by an explosion of cottony white hair, thinning as it marched toward the back of his head, cowlicks rising from the mass like waves moving toward the slightly pink island of his bald spot.

WHOA! That is one hell of a sentence.  A bit long, yes.  But it works and I’ll tell you why.  Most importantly this tells us what the story telling is going to be like.  If you couldn’t make it through that sentence you won’t make it through the book.  That’s not the say the book is filled with immensely long descriptive (although they are present) but that it is written in a particular style—a particular language that can be hard for some to get accustomed to.  That being said, even though I’m generally not a huge fan of prologues, I wanted to read more.  Describing his hair as ‘an explosion of cottony white’, it’s just something I wouldn’t expect, and it pulled me in.

From the First Chapter: These are the secrets I have kept.

Well…that was in direct contrast to everything else before it.  But again, this is what you can expect from the book.  Now, it’s not a terribly exciting first line, I’ll give you that, but the prologue did such a wonderful job of setting up the story that it means more than you would initially think.  (Which almost makes up for the fact that the first line of the first chapter was ruined by the blurb.)

The Good:

If I had to give this book stars, it would get 5/5, it would receive both of my thumbs pointed as far up as I could hoist them and fireworks just for the hell of it.  I don’t want to spend an entire review gushing about every aspect of the book, so I’ll pick some of my favorites.

The Ick-Factor.  Before I even finished the second chapter I was making a face, going ‘ew’ and everything else that’s part of that song and dance.  The rest of the book does not fail to deliver.  You’ve got blood and gore and guts and brains and parasites and pus-like sores and just ugh.  It’s gross.  It really is.  But the writing pulls you in and you’re in that scene so when the gross is thrown at you, it hits you.

Characterization:  We have Will Henry, which I liked, although not as much as his mentor, the Monstrumologist.  I liked him, I really did.  I liked him, I pitied him, and there were times when I felt just so frustrated with him, I wanted to hit him.

Then there was Kearns.  As a reader, I hate Kearns.  I.  Hate.  Him.  He’s disgustingly amoral, sneaky and put the characters I DID like in danger far too often.  As a writer, I love him.  His way of looking at life, his philosophy behind it all is so beautifully deranged!  You want to admire him just for the sheer fact that he can do what nearly no one else can, because he looks at life and matters in a way no one else does, in some situations in a way you wish you had the fortitude to.  But because he is such a wonderfully developed character, it’s that same intriguing characteristic—the one that puts the other characters in danger—that makes you to dislike him.  As a writer, I can appreciate that.  He’s flawed.  They all are.  Kearns, to me, is the definition of an anti-hero.  Yancey didn’t design him so that he does what’s necessary and pulls no punches only when none of the other main characters are involved, he does it always.  That’s the beauty of Kearns, I love him for the way he’s designed but the actions he takes because of that design, makes me hate him.  (I’m sure both he and Pellinore would have loads to say about that.)

The fact that these characters bring out that kind of conflicted emotion in me, just solidifies how well they are developed, how well they’re written.

Bringing It Back:  There are points in the story where things are mentioned, items are found, clues are left, and they all come full circle!  They are mentioned when the writer wants you to know them, not when the story dictates you need to know them, which makes all the difference.  You’re given the information in a way that makes sense for the character to discover it but earlier enough for you as the reader to forgot about it until it’s really relevant.  It’s very difficult to pull this off (and I’m not saying by any means that I can do it myself) but it’s one of the things that will instantly place a book in my favor when done well.

The Bad:

This isn’t really a bad, but it is something that stopped me from finishing the book in one setting.  And that was the prose.  For as beautifully written as it is, it is also rather…thick, for lack of a better word.  It’s heavy.  It pulls you in and then it sits on you and holds you there.  For me, that gave me a bit of a headache, but that’s a personal taste.  I also did find myself getting a little annoyed in the beginning portions whenever the anthropophagus is described, it was as though every third line reminded us just exactly how long their claws were, how gaping their maw seemed, how black their eyes were against their alabaster skin.  It did it’s job, which was to solidify without question the image of the ‘poppies’ until they were as engraved in your brain as poor Will’s, but on the same hand there were points where it felt as though it detracted from a scene where the focus could have been elsewhere.

A small nitpick, I think.

The Unexpected:

Will Henry is twelve through the course of the story although what we’re reading is the written diary of the man once he’s well, well, into his 90’s.  When I first started the book I remember hoping that there would be a bit of time skip, so that we would get to the portion of the story where Will Henry is a bit older, I mean how much could really happen or be shown when dealing with a 12-year-old?

Well, the book never experienced such a time skip and apparently a lot can happen, and subsequently be shown, with a 12-year-old.  In fact I’m glad that there wasn’t a time jump, the juxtaposition of the story being told by an older man as he remembers seeing it through his eyes when he was a child, but with the added thoughts and reflections that only hindsight can provide, works wonderfully.  Some novels fall on the tool of using a character new to the setting, whether they’re from another part of the world or fell into the universe unexpectedly, to develop their world-building and answer any questions the reader may have, to sate any curiosities or doubts.  Here, we have a child that has been a part of this darker world long enough to become jaded to some of the more grotesque aspects, allowing the writer to just dive right into it, but is young and naïve enough to have questions, to be unsure, to be confused, which is how we as a reader can identify.

There are parts where we are told, in no uncertain terms, that a character will die.  And we’re prepared for it, but it doesn’t happen when we think it will.  It doesn’t even happen the time after that.  And we’re drawn into the events of everything else until BAM! We’re caught off guard.

We know the narrator lives through it all, we’re reading his diary, written decades and decades after the fact.  But there’s still an element of suspense, just because he doesn’t die doesn’t mean he can’t get maimed in some horrible way, and we’re still afraid for him.

Final Thoughts:

The Monstrumologist is the first a trilogy and I will, without a doubt, be reading the other two books.  This book jumps to the forefront of my list ahead of all else.  Despite it’s moments of difficulty, I loved, loved, loved the prose, the characters, even the ones I hated, were amazing, the plot was wonderfully constructed and executed, and the ick-factor, I love the ick-factor.  Never before have I read a book that I had to choose between putting it down and walking away until my nausea abated or continuing to read and just swallow whatever rose up.

I think a part of me may be in love with Pellinore.  I have a soft spot for flawed characters, especially ones with egos, and he’s as flawed and narcissistic as they come.

-Anonymous

Will Henry never loved Dr. Warthrop, the man who took him in when his parents died. No, he never loved Dr. Warthrop, but he did keep the doctor’s secrets.

It’s the late 1800’s and the town of New Jerusalem has been infested… with monsters. These Anthropophagi have no heads, eyes on their shoulders and mouths in their torsos. And we are their prey.

How did these monsters get from their native habitat in Africa to the middle of New England?  How is the town going to get rid of them? And how did Will Henry, who was born in the 1800’s, live into the 21^st century?

Find out when you read The Monstrumologist – a book filled with blood, guts and gore. Oh, and monsters.

Three months have passed this year and I am here with my reading report. I pledged to read 100 books this year, and at the rate I am going, I’m not going to achieve that if I don’t step up.  I hope to make up for it this week-long break.

After three months, I am happy to report I was able to read 14 books.  Not a lot [in fact, 10 books behind per my schedule] but it’s a little better than my previous year’s ‘performance’. =D

Out of 14, half was young adult, the rest mostly of the horror genre.  My standouts were first books in a series: The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey and Feed by Mira Grant.  Both young adult; one deals with grotesque monsters, the other, zombies in post-apocalyptic America.

The Monstrumologist had me commenting aloud, “Is this YA?!” precisely because of how gruesome it is.  I loved it because of the same reason.  My book club friend Tata lent me the second book in the series, Curse of the Wendigo, and I intend to dabble into it soon.

Feed, as I mentioned elsewhere, is like a zombie story plus campaign season in The West Wing plus social media spectacle rolled into one.  It’s good that I love all three elements; it made me appreciate Feed and I could not wait to get my hands on its next installment, Deadline.

Goth Girl Rising, Paper Towns, and Will Grayson Will Grayson are angsty young adult books which entertained me.  The last two are from John Green, an author buzzed about by my favorite book bloggers.  I am lining up his other books in my pipeline: Looking For Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and The Fault in our Stars.

Killing Mr. Griffin, Altogether One at a Time, and The Lottery were fast reads.  The Woman in Black [as in the book where the Daniel Radcliffe-starrer was based from] and The Man in the Picture, both penned by Susan Hill, were chilling.  Short but chilling. Sure, I was able to catch on the plot but there are things that are still creepy even when you know it’s going to happen anyway.  But yes, there were surprising twists, too.

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah sa Kalakhang Maynila was not mine but my friend XP’s. He was right; it isn’t as funny as the first Zsa Zsa comic book. There were funny moments, yes, and maybe it’s just setting the tone for its sequels.

I liked Twinkle Twinkle and it’s a little disappointing because with all the build-up, I was expecting to love it. I made a very short review on Goodreads about it. I guess the Haruki Murakami and Natsuo Kirino references created a bar which I shouldn’t have subjected this book on. Still, flowery characters.

Naked Heat is the second Nikki Heat novel by Richard Castle. I won’t go into who is Castle and how it made me giddy and excited but suffice to say, it’s related to the TV show I’m so into now – uh, Castle. =D Anyway, it isn’t extraordinary, but it’s enjoyable. It’s like I’m watching intermeshed episodes of Castle as I was reading it. Surely there were scenes straight out of the show. I will try to read the first and third books in the series when I have time. Lastly, 666 Park Avenue; a Candace Bushnell-type of book with witches and magic. It’s a fluffy read.

There you go, my first quarter reads. I am hoping to up my numbers this next quarter.

And oh, no books bought! So proud of myself! I think I can keep this up until June 30.

So, you, what’s on your Read list?

Why I Read It: This book was the end result of our first sponsored theme for the Theme Park book club. The theme was Michael L. Printz Awards & Honors, and the poll resulted in a tie between this book and Terry Pratchett’s Nation. While neither were the books I would’ve voted for personally, between the two, I had more interest in reading Yancey’s The Monstrumologist, so here we are! I’d heard nothing but good things about this book (and trilogy, for that matter), so I couldn’t wait to see what all the fuss was about.

The premise: ganked from Amazon.com: “These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets.

The one who saved me…and the one who cursed me.”

So begins the journal of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a grueso me find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts?

Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay, as it’s a book club selection and you can’t have a proper discussion without spoilers. If you haven’t read the book yet, or if you aren’t finished, just skip to “My Rating” and you’ll be in good shape.

Discussion: Instead of jumping straight into my review, I wanted to preface the review with some discussion questions. I’ll answer the very same questions, and you’ll have the opportunity to answer them in the comments, should you desire.

Please note, I won’t be doing this for every book club discussion, but my Kindle copy of The Monstrumologist afforded me some discussion questions and topics for me to consider, and I thought it’d be a shame not to use those to facilitate our discussion here. I should note, too, that I’m not typing these questions verbatim from the text. The following questions/topics are inspired by those from the discussion guide in the text. Without further adieu, here’s some questions and discussion ideas for commenting. You don’t have to address or answer any of these, but they’re here if you need them.

The Monstrumologist is no doubt a horror story. Is the horror genre a part of your reading diet? If not, why not, and did this book encourage you to read more in the genre? What scares you personally, and did this book come anywhere close to touching on those fears?

Honestly, I don’t read a whole lot of horror these days. I read urban fantasies, which use horror tropes (vampires, werewolves, ghosts, etc) to tell fun, dark, interesting stories, but there are very few urban fantasies that I’d classify as horror, and whatever other books I have with horror elements, I don’t think any of them would be strictly classified as horror. That being said, when I was in middle school, two YA authors were all the craze, and those two authors were Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine. Yes, they wrote horror. It’s funny, because I’d devour Stine’s books, which never really truly terrified me but I could always count on to give me a cheap thrill, whereas Pike’s work tended to freak me out on a deeper, emotional level, so I chose his works with care. I don’t know why I broke away from reading that genre either: maybe it was because R.L. Stine became utterly predictable once you’d read enough of his work, and maybe it’s because I discovered this thing called Star Wars and it was all over from there.

I watch a lot of horror, both in film and television, but I’m not an aficionado. The last book I read that could probably truly count as horror was Richard Kadrey’s Aloha from Hell, but one could easily argue that’s more urban/dark fantasy than horror, so the genre, truly, is subjective. However, I did read George R.R. Martin’s Fevre Dream last year, and no doubt, that was a historical horror. So I guess I do read a bit of it, but I certainly don’t go out of my way to do so, and I suspect that’s going to be the case for the near future.

What scares me personally? Ghosts. Not cheap ghosts either, but the kind that reach in and touch that primal part of you and warns you to get away. The kind that makes you want to cry for no reason at all. This is also true of GOOD haunted house stories and those folk stories (Bloody Mary and the like). For me, it’s the kind of horror that’s abstract, intangible, and lurks right around the corner. You can’t put your finger on it, even if it were RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, but you know it’s there, and that’s why it’s so damn terrifying.

So given that, this book didn’t come remotely close to touching on my personal fears.

How do you feel the frame story of “Richard Yancey” discovering these “journals” of a William James Henry affect your take of the story itself? Did it make the story more realistic and plausible, or was it a distraction?

Eh, I rather feel this was done to lend an aura of authenticity to the story, to make its target audience (hello, pre-teens and teens!) think twice before dismissing the story as fiction. To paraphrase the often quoted phrase in ABC’s horror series The River, “There’s [horror] out there,” and I think this book didn’t want its audience to take that for granted. I think that’s why the frame was used, but I’m not the target audience, and I found the frame story a wee bit unnecessary. However, if I were to read the full trilogy, I might discover an arc to the frame, so maybe it serves a purpose. For those of you who’ve read the full trilogy, can you tell us, without spoilers, whether or not this is the case?

Now, moving onto my review.

I’m torn.

On one hand, I can recognize that this book is rather brilliant. The description and the imagination that’s put into the Anthropophagi is wonderfully detailed, making it difficult for the reader to dismiss it as pure fancy. Of course, perhaps I feel that way because the book so easily utilizes the scientific process to reveal its horrors, and that very straight-forward, objective way of looking at horror makes the horror all the more vivid.

And the writing had some wonderfully vibrant passages. Allow me, if you will, to get a little quote-happy:

Page 71:

The mind of Erasmus Gray was gone; the remnants of its vessel floated, as light and insubstantial as popcorn, in the water. Which fluffy bit held your ambition, Erasmus Gray? Which speck held your pride? Ah, how absurd is the primping and preening of our race! Is it not the ultimate arrogance to believe we are more than is contained in our biology? What counterarguments may be put forth, what valid objections raised, to the claim of Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity”?

Page 73:

“We are slaves, all of us, Will Henry,” he said, pulling the book from my hand and placing it upon the nearest stack. “Some are slaves to fear. Others are slaves to reason — or base desire. It is our lot to be slaves, Will Henry, and the question must be to what shall we owe our indenture? Will it be to truth or to falsehood, hope or despair, light or darkness? I choose to serve the light, even though that bondage often lies in darkness.

Page 94:

So often the monsters that crowd our minds are nothing more than the strange and thoroughly alien progeny of our own fearful fantasies.

Page 232:

He did not appear comforted. Indeed, he seemed shaken to his spiritual marrow.

I loved that this was set in the United States, albeit a fictional New England town. All to often, such stories are set in the rather predictable London, so I’m thrilled that the U.S. is getting some historical monsters of its own. Of course, that’s not to say the U.S. has been neglected in horror: far from it: much of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire takes place in the U.S., but still, in the past few years, with all the attention on steampunk historicals, getting a horror story set in the U.S. felt like something of a novelty. It shouldn’t have, but it did.

But that didn’t stop Yancey from giving us an idea of what was happening in the rest of the world. The very strong suggestion that Jack Kearns was actually Jack the Ripper was fabulous, and had be really curious to find out if Kearns makes further appearances in the trilogy, and if so, if Will Henry has anything to do with stopping the Ripper’s crimes? I’d love to find out.

I also, albeit VERY SLOWLY, warmed up to the relationship between the Doctor and Will Henry. And when I say VERY SLOWLY, I mean it. I don’t think it was toward the last third, perhaps last fourth, that I realized how utterly important Will Henry was to the Doctor, and once I did, I found myself moved by various moments toward the end of the book, particularly the gifting of the new hat. That choked me up just a bit, I don’t mind admitting.

All that being said, I never emotionally connected to this book until, perhaps, the very end. At first, it was because Catherynne M. Valente’s blemmyae are so prominent in my reader’s imagination, so seeing a different version of them, a version that are meant to be monsters, was hard to reconcile. This, of course, is entirely my problem, and I have no illusions otherwise.

However, the verbosity of the text sometimes overwhelmed me. Pages upon pages were spent upon the monologues of Dr. Starr, and while it was quite obvious he was a swindler, I grew tired of it and wanted the story to get on with it. This is just one example, mind you. There were several times in the text where my brain was going, “come on, come on, get on with it!” and I never enjoy that feeling while reading. Yet, despite my impatience, there were moments during such sections that sent chills down my spine. Using the previously mentioned Starr, his suggestion that Will Henry stay with him while Dr. Warthrop visited the Captain was ripe with adult suggestion, and it completely creeped me the hell out, because while it’s something younger readers might easily miss, it’s something I still couldn’t believe was in a YA. Of course, that whole section was rather very dark for YA, with the Captain himself begging Warthrop to kill him, but despite my own shock at finding such moments in a YA text, I do have some admiration for those. It creatures a stronger, more realistic place of what kinds of horrors that can lurk in all corners, and that means we, as the readers, are always on edge, because we never know what’s going to happen next. Let’s face it, there were plenty of cringe moments in this story, not because they were badly written, but because they were so well described I couldn’t help but imagine them with all of my senses, and of course, that triggered the ick-factor.

But my disbelief wasn’t always suspended, and this is where the format of the journals became rather problematic. I’ll admit I don’t always have this issue when this format is used, but in this particular case, I often shook my head at Will Henry’s seemingly perfect recall of the events and conversations, especially given how old he was. Even if he’d recorded these entries right after they’d happened, the recall wouldn’t be this exact, which makes me wish for a work of fiction that’s told via journals or letters but doesn’t over-rely on dialogue that the journalist couldn’t possibly remember anyway (I know those books are out there; I just don’t know what they are). At this point, I can’t even write off the perfect recall as a weird side-effect of Will Henry’s parasite, which was utterly surprising and out of left field. That, too, I would hope develops over the course of the trilogy, but as it stands, it stood out like a sore thumb.

My Rating: 7 – Good Read

Rating this was actually hard. For most of the book, I didn’t care for it. At all. I wasn’t emotionally engaged, and to me, in order for horror stories to be truly effective, they have to be able to engage the reader on some kind of emotional level. And horror-wise, this book never really engaged me on that level, especially with its main monster, the Anthropophagi. Other things freaked me the hell out, or shocked me with its darkness, so I suppose the book did get to me with some scares, though what I’ll remember from this is the ending, and the arc of the relationship between Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop.

And while I didn’t care for this book for most of my reading, it isn’t by any means a bad book. Overlooking some verbosity in parts, the writing was wonderful, and Yancey’s detailed and scientific (I say scientific because it gets into the inner workings of the beast, NOT because the beast is scientifically plausible) of the Anthropophagi was just plain admirable. I highlighted several portions of the text because I felt they were well-written on a host of levels, and after giving myself a bit of distance from the book, I knew I had to rate it higher than I’d planned (and I kid you not: originally, when I first started reading, this book was a “5 – it’s a gamble” and then it progressed to “6 – worth reading, with reservations” once I finished), because with the exception of the verbosity and the strain of my disbelief with the found-journal format, it really is a solid book and a good read. I can see why so many people are in love with it, and while I’m not one of them, I’m not going to dock points for something that’s well done, regardless of my own emotional distance.

That being said, despite there being a few things I’m curious about (how does the frame story progress through the series? And what about that Jack Kearns?), I don’t see myself continuing the trilogy. That’s okay: there’s always a chance that when my TBR pile gets far more manageable that I’ll give it a shot. But at this time, I’m really not that interested in continuing.

But make no mistake: this is a good book!!!! If you’re a fan of horror, and/or if you want to see more true horror in YA instead of horror conventions that fall in love with human girls, you don’t want to miss this book. It’s an easy book to recommend, despite my own disconnect.

Cover Commentary: Honestly, I like the original cover better (here). It’s what originally caught my eye about this book, and it better portrays the absolute creepy factor of the pages. The newer cover (shown at the top of the review, is still interesting, especially when matched side-by-side with the other covers in the trilogy. But I don’t think it would catch my eye in the store.