Tuesday, January 28, 2014


The best book I've read in the last few years has to be The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey. The writing is so wonderful that it transports the reader to its intended time period, the late 1800s. The narrator, young Will Henry, is innocent at first, but loses so much more than his parents and his childhood by working with Pellinore Warthrop: he loses his sense of self.

The horrific aspects of this novel are occasionally shocking, especially considering the intended YA audience. But my God, did I love this book! I has since read the three sequels and have enjoyed each one equally well, though the last was a tiny bit of a let-down. At first it was a huge success since Simon and Schuster had decided not to publish it and fans seemed to have changed their minds. I was beyond myself happy with the announcement that the fourth book would be published. And it is quite a conclusion to the series. Only it emphasizes the theme I mentioned in the first paragraph here: Will loses himself completely due to his work with monsters and Dr. Warthrop. It's a gradual loss through the first three books, but it's obvious that it's happening nearly from the start.

I will reread this series the way my wife rereads Harry Potter. I think these books are pure art. The characters are so complex, the stories so chilling, the writing so passionate and beautiful. I wrote down bits of it in the journal that I keep about my own writing, as if to tell myself, "Here's something to aspire to."

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