by Amelinda Bérubé
Published on August 6, 2019 by Sourcebooks Fire
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Genres: Horror, Young Adult
The Blair Witch Project meets Imaginary Girls in this story of codependent sisterhood, the struggle to claim one’s own space, and the power of secrets
Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. Moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over.
In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.
Then Deirdre disappears.
And when something awful comes scratching at Skye's window in the middle of the night, claiming she's the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.
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I’ll be honest, I generally don’t pick up horror of any kind but despite knowing that Here There Are Monsters falls in the genre, I wanted to try it anyway. Unfortunately it didn’t pan out and it wasn’t because of the horror.
Frankly, I didn’t like either of the main characters, Skye and Deirdre. Neither sister really endeared herself to me as a reader and, combined with the timeline jumping and alternating chapters, I quickly lost interest in the book as a whole. They’re both selfish and just plan unrelatable in the way they acted. I don’t need to like a character but I do need to be invested in what they’re doing in a character-driven story like this one. And I wasn’t, and it meant Here There Are Monsters was a complete loss for me.
I think the book would have worked better if there had been less of a character focus and more on the atmosphere the story created. I’m imagining a mashup of And the Trees Crept In and Wink Poppy Midnight here that might have saved this read for me. The potential was there and I loved the creepy, eerie feel this story created. Even though the characters pulled me right out of that and made me want to throw my kindle across the room out of frustration.
As for the writing, that aspect was solid and why I made it as far as I did (around the 56% mark before DNF-ing). I could see myself reading other books by this author, though perhaps not on the horror spectrum. My only issue with the writing came down more specifically to the story. The ending just wasn’t satisfying. For all the build-up, it fell flat.
While Here There Are Monsters certainly didn’t work out for me, I think some readers will still enjoy it.
About Austine
I'm a 20-something research proposal developer with a background in the life sciences and education. Reviewer of books since 2011, amateur photographer by day, and aspiring author by night. I believe animals (and books) are better than people.
Well, that’s sad! I was really hoping this would be awesome. Win some and lose some, I guess!
I was disappointed. Was hoping to start getting into YA horror a bit more but I just couldn’t get past the characters. I think some people might like it? But I can’t recommend it personally.