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 g... read full description
reviews
Jan 01, 2012
Cillian
rated it: 
Review coming soon.
There's so much to say, so much to love...
Epic editing!
Let's give The Monstrumologist a proper rating:
Now I feel much better.
What are you people waiting for?
Go read this book NOW!
Really, this was superbly cool.
Now to my review (I can't even make myself call it that), if you're in the mood of reading a professional, well written and neat review, this is not for you.
The world should thank me for More...
There's so much to say, so much to love...
Epic editing!
Let's give The Monstrumologist a proper rating:
Now I feel much better.
What are you people waiting for?
Go read this book NOW!
Really, this was superbly cool.
Now to my review (I can't even make myself call it that), if you're in the mood of reading a professional, well written and neat review, this is not for you.
The world should thank me for More...
24 comments
like
(24 people liked it)
Oct 18, 2010
karen
rated it: 
okay, so monsters.
this reads like victorian teen fiction, only with more arterial spray. it's got all the trappings: it is long, and there are orphans and mad scientists, an evil madhouse director, and then there are monsters that eat people.
there is absolutely no crossover audience between this and twilight. the girls who swoon over edward's restrained bloodlust are going to be horrified by the multiple beheadings and the scene where a child is reduced to a fine mist o More...
this reads like victorian teen fiction, only with more arterial spray. it's got all the trappings: it is long, and there are orphans and mad scientists, an evil madhouse director, and then there are monsters that eat people.
there is absolutely no crossover audience between this and twilight. the girls who swoon over edward's restrained bloodlust are going to be horrified by the multiple beheadings and the scene where a child is reduced to a fine mist o More...
19 comments
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(32 people liked it)
Oct 27, 2010
Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress"
rated it:
The Monstrumologist was an unforgettable read. I can't even imagine how Rick Yancey came up with this idea. I was completely horrified many times, as I read this book. This is a young adult book, but it's not one I'd recommend lightly to just any teen, or adult for that matter. Mr. Yancey doesn't hesitate to make this story gruesome and downright stomach-churning. Due to my biological/medical background, I have a strong stomach. It came in handy when I read this book. There were scenes that I
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19 comments
like
(26 people liked it)
Jan 05, 2012
Jo
rated it:
A note: I promise the follow is actually a review and not my application for the position of President of the Rick Yancey fan club.
"There are times when fear is not our enemy. There are times when fear is our truest, sometimes only, friend.”
"…for only a mad man believes what every child knows to be true: There are monsters that lie in wait under our beds.”
When I was younger I never believed in monsters.
I like to think it was because even then I was a More...
"There are times when fear is not our enemy. There are times when fear is our truest, sometimes only, friend.”
"…for only a mad man believes what every child knows to be true: There are monsters that lie in wait under our beds.”
When I was younger I never believed in monsters.
I like to think it was because even then I was a More...
7 comments
like
(23 people liked it)
Dec 08, 2011
oliviasbooks
rated it: 
I am sure The Monstrumologist is an excellent middle-grade horror novel and one that deserves the Michael L. Printz Honor award, too. More gore and blood and brains (the splattered variety) and monsters and mad, amusingly single-minded and selfish professorism are simply not possible. The etching-style 19th-century medical textbook illustations enhance the lost-diary-illusion the story-in-story narration successfully crafts fort the reader. A male point of view ties the bow oft he altogether per
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2 comments
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(4 people liked it)
May 24, 2011
Megan
rated it:
The Monstrumologist is a literary fiction YA horror which also happens to be a Printz Honor.
What? You wanted more than that for a review? Hmm… The Monstrumologist is well written (yes, yes many people describe it as literary fiction and of course there is the Printz thing.) And it is fantastically gory and bloody (always a plus in horror novels.) Finally it describes a particular adventure of twelve year old orphan Will Henry as he partakes in a hunt for the deadly and ferocious a More...
What? You wanted more than that for a review? Hmm… The Monstrumologist is well written (yes, yes many people describe it as literary fiction and of course there is the Printz thing.) And it is fantastically gory and bloody (always a plus in horror novels.) Finally it describes a particular adventure of twelve year old orphan Will Henry as he partakes in a hunt for the deadly and ferocious a More...
5 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
May 06, 2011
Audrey
rated it:
A 400+ page Victorian Goosebumps.
Here are my two favorite bits:
p. 105: "Creatures not of this Earth but from the very Bowels of Hell. I thought of the thing hanging on a hook in the room over which I stood, of the pale, muscular arm bursting through the loose soil of Eliza Bunton's grave, of the sickening squish of its paw puncturing the leg of the old man, of the mass of sickly white flesh and glittering black eyes and drooling mouths laced with row upon row of triangular More...
Here are my two favorite bits:
p. 105: "Creatures not of this Earth but from the very Bowels of Hell. I thought of the thing hanging on a hook in the room over which I stood, of the pale, muscular arm bursting through the loose soil of Eliza Bunton's grave, of the sickening squish of its paw puncturing the leg of the old man, of the mass of sickly white flesh and glittering black eyes and drooling mouths laced with row upon row of triangular More...
4 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Jan 03, 2011
William Thomas
rated it:
When I was younger, I had to read adult books to get the things I wanted out of my reading experience. There wasn't anything comparable to the things being published for young adults over the last few years. So now I find myself reading young adult novels that are larger in their scope, more literary and riskier than the same genre of adult lit.
The Monstrumologist is in a league of it's own right now. It has no peer for style or for literary worth. It's vocabulary was extensive but More...
The Monstrumologist is in a league of it's own right now. It has no peer for style or for literary worth. It's vocabulary was extensive but More...
2 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Jul 27, 2009
Cindy
rated it:
I enjoyed the thrilling horror novel, The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey, and thought it was one of the best Victorian mystery, horror stories that I have ever read.
The characters and monsters for that matter, come to life in the vivid descriptions throughout the book. Orphaned William Henry James, the doctor's young twelve year old apprentice-assistant, has his grisly work cut out for him with late night dissections, and cemetary visits on the quest to seek and destroy the elusive More...
The characters and monsters for that matter, come to life in the vivid descriptions throughout the book. Orphaned William Henry James, the doctor's young twelve year old apprentice-assistant, has his grisly work cut out for him with late night dissections, and cemetary visits on the quest to seek and destroy the elusive More...
Dec 25, 2011
Anachronist
rated it:
Synopsis:
An elderly resident of an old people’s home, called William James Henry, dies in his sleep. He claimed he was born in 1876 which would make him a 131-year old man in the moment of his death but nobody believes him. His notebooks are lent to the narrator/the author.
That’s how, after a short intro, we are plunged into a story within a story, featuring a first person narration of younger Will Henry who describes one event that shaped his entire life. Will was an orp More...
An elderly resident of an old people’s home, called William James Henry, dies in his sleep. He claimed he was born in 1876 which would make him a 131-year old man in the moment of his death but nobody believes him. His notebooks are lent to the narrator/the author.
That’s how, after a short intro, we are plunged into a story within a story, featuring a first person narration of younger Will Henry who describes one event that shaped his entire life. Will was an orp More...
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 02, 2011
Whaaaat? The PDF was real easy to find, so sue me...
14 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Sep 26, 2011
Samantha
rated it: 
I have a love/hate feeling for The Monstrumologist. This is going to be hard for me to accurately rate this book.
I thought that it was a clever, beautifully written piece of work. I adore the beauty of metaphor, and I loved the way Yancey used beautiful metaphors to describe something grisly, dreadful, or disgusting.
The circumstance is made More...
I thought that it was a clever, beautifully written piece of work. I adore the beauty of metaphor, and I loved the way Yancey used beautiful metaphors to describe something grisly, dreadful, or disgusting.
"The burlap fell back on either side, draping over the table like the petals of a flower opening to welcome the spring sun.
The circumstance is made More...
9 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
May 30, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it:
"There are monsters that lie in wait under our beds."
Will Henry is but a 12 year old boy with parents he lost in a fire. However, his life is not as simple as it seems. He is the assistant to a "monstrumologist" who studies monsters as his life practice. Things get strange when an unexpected visitor drops by the house and offers a find so improbable Dr. Warthrop, the monstrumologist, does not know what to make of it. After sleepless days and nights of study, Will More...
Will Henry is but a 12 year old boy with parents he lost in a fire. However, his life is not as simple as it seems. He is the assistant to a "monstrumologist" who studies monsters as his life practice. Things get strange when an unexpected visitor drops by the house and offers a find so improbable Dr. Warthrop, the monstrumologist, does not know what to make of it. After sleepless days and nights of study, Will More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 13, 2011
UPDATE: So there's a fourth one! *happydance*
So I heard this series is going to be cut short.
Whether I have read the series or not, it always bothers me when it doesn't get its full run. This one really bothers me because it's horror. YA fiction sure doesn't have enough of that. It's all paranormal romances and dystopians crowding the shelves. Where's the horror?! Sure, there's always a handful of Lois Duncan's novels at the library but nothing recent. The two I've read More...
So I heard this series is going to be cut short.
Whether I have read the series or not, it always bothers me when it doesn't get its full run. This one really bothers me because it's horror. YA fiction sure doesn't have enough of that. It's all paranormal romances and dystopians crowding the shelves. Where's the horror?! Sure, there's always a handful of Lois Duncan's novels at the library but nothing recent. The two I've read More...
0 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Dec 30, 2010
Orrin
rated it:
I don't think it's hyperbole to say that The Monstrumologist is one of the most gruesome books I've ever read. Within the first chapter, the fetus of a headless cannibal monster is aborted from the womb of a dead girl, just to give you a taste of the grotesque horrors contained herein. If this were a movie, it would be rated R so hard. It's also one of the best books I've read in some time.
The story concerns Will Henry, the apprentice to the titular monstrumologist, a scientist who hun More...
The story concerns Will Henry, the apprentice to the titular monstrumologist, a scientist who hun More...
0 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Jun 06, 2011
Allyson
rated it:
For anyone who is a true horror fan this is the perfect book for you. Will Henry, a 12 year old monstrumologist assistant-apprentice, goes into rich and often gruesome detail about his life under the tutelage of Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a doctor of monsters. There were times where I had to stop reading before bed because Will Henry’s accounts of headless carnivorous monsters with thousands of teeth were so vivid and frightening. When I wasn’t frightened, I was repulsed and wanted to gag when Will
More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Dec 22, 2011
± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ±
rated it:
1 1/2
A lot of reviewers have talked about the goriness of the story, and there is that. It's not lingered over lovingly like, say, certain Clive Barker stories, but it's definitely there. Personally, I didn't feel like it added much to the story, and I'm not really a fan of gore for the sake of gore. That said, I think 12 to 14 year-old boys, the probable intended audience for this story, would probably love it.
But the gore wasn't really my issue. There were two thing More...
A lot of reviewers have talked about the goriness of the story, and there is that. It's not lingered over lovingly like, say, certain Clive Barker stories, but it's definitely there. Personally, I didn't feel like it added much to the story, and I'm not really a fan of gore for the sake of gore. That said, I think 12 to 14 year-old boys, the probable intended audience for this story, would probably love it.
But the gore wasn't really my issue. There were two thing More...
3 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 07, 2010
Anastasia
rated it:
"Tonight you will witness the stuff of nightmares. You will see things that will shock and appall you. that will freeze you down to your God-fearing marrow, but if you do everything I say, you may survive to see the next sunrise, but only if you do everything I say. If you are willing to make that pledge now, with no reservations, you will live to enthrall your grandchildren with the tale of this night. If not I suggest you take your Winchesters and go home. I thank you for your kind attent
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 06, 2010
Erika
rated it:
Before I go any further, let me warn you: this book is peppered with gory descriptions not for the faint of heart; in some instances, brimming is the more appropriate word. In this case, the gore is seething and crawling with a life of its own, not the tasteless in-your-face type of blood explosions seen in pop horror movies; Yancey’s gore is every bit ambiance as it is instrumental in understanding the horrors hidden in The Monstrumologist.
William Henry is apprentice to Pellinore W More...
William Henry is apprentice to Pellinore W More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 06, 2010
Bettie
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
10 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Dec 31, 2011
Pixie/PageTurners(Amber)
rated it:
Thrilling, horrific, gory...oh so gory. The graphic gore in this story will make your skin crawl; this book is not for anyone with a week stomach. I love reading horror books, but this is probably the scariest one I have ever read. I can not wait for the next book. Yancey's writing is amazing, you feel like you are reading a book written in the era, the book (journals) take place.CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF MY REVIEW
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 11, 2010
Erica -
rated it:
I was intrigued by this cover once we received it at our library. Hearing about it at a recent conference made me want to read it but the book trailer definitely sold me on it.
In 1888, Will Henry is the orphaned assistant of Dr. Pellinore Warthrop. Dr. Warthrop has a very strange specialty, monstrumology, he studies monsters. Late one night, they are visited by a grave robber who brings with him a most unusual creature. As Will Henry, the doctor and the grave robber soon realize this creature is More...
In 1888, Will Henry is the orphaned assistant of Dr. Pellinore Warthrop. Dr. Warthrop has a very strange specialty, monstrumology, he studies monsters. Late one night, they are visited by a grave robber who brings with him a most unusual creature. As Will Henry, the doctor and the grave robber soon realize this creature is More...
Feb 15, 2012
Ningerbil
rated it:
A good book for high schoolers who are fans of the vampire/zombie/monster genre. This story is set in a world where Monstrumology is a more-or-less accepted field of study (more on the less side). Will Henry has been an apprentice to Dr. Warthrop, a monstrumologist, since the unfortunate death of his parents. The work had always been difficult with the temperamental doctor, whose work schedule and drive in the name of science is bizarre and all-encompassing. Things take a dangerous turn when a g
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Feb 14, 2012
Michelle
rated it:
I just loved this book. There is very little words that I can say, to describe how refreshing it was to read a book that had real written art! The words flowed easily, the story moved calm but fast so one minute you are calmly reading it lounged in the sun; the next your sitting up leaning over it. The story itself was amazing and new and the characters! On reading the back just last week I passed on the book, but suddenly finding myself stuck in the library for five hours I spotted it in the lo
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Feb 03, 2012
Rhiannon
rated it:
The first time I saw this book on the shelves, days after it was first released, I knew it would be right up the hubbies alley. The cover and interior art was super cool and the subject matter was unusual, creepy and perfect. I was right (aren't I always?!) and he ate it up, but the gory passages he kept reading off to me totally put me off reading the book forever, which, it turns out, was totally my loss.
From Goodreads:
These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I nev More...
From Goodreads:
These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I nev More...
Jan 14, 2012
Johnp
rated it:
I am a big fan of Rick Yancey’s Alfred Kropp series. I thought it was inventive and exciting. So, it was a major surprise for me to read this story about a monster hunter in turn of the century New England.
The idea was an interesting one - there are man-eating monsters alive and prowling the Earth. It’s up to Dr. Warthrop and his young ward, Will Henry, to track them down and kill them. The choice to give this horror story a Victorian setting, is, in my opinion, what made it a BIG More...
The idea was an interesting one - there are man-eating monsters alive and prowling the Earth. It’s up to Dr. Warthrop and his young ward, Will Henry, to track them down and kill them. The choice to give this horror story a Victorian setting, is, in my opinion, what made it a BIG More...
Dec 19, 2011
Josh
rated it:
Are you a fan of horror books about monsters and you feel today’s books are becoming softer by the minute? Are you dying for a new monster horror novel but you just can’t find one? Well have no fear, Rick Yancey's book the Monstrumologist is here! When a man comes in the middle of the night in the nineteenth century with a dead human and a dead anthropophagus, eleven year old orphan and Monstrumologist assistant Will Henry and Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, Will Henry’s guardian and the one he assists,
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Nov 16, 2011
Abby
rated it:
Here are some of its main characteristics
1) Protagonist is Will Henry, an orphaned 12-year-old boy who serves as assistant to the monstrumologist Dr Warthrop (he studies monsters).
2) Written as a journal, with elevated, period language, a great vocabulary and an overabundance of alliteration.
3) long, flowery descriptions of blood and gore.
4) A mystery about a monster infestation. Where did they come from? Why are they here?
5) Anthropophagi: the monsters in question. Cree More...
1) Protagonist is Will Henry, an orphaned 12-year-old boy who serves as assistant to the monstrumologist Dr Warthrop (he studies monsters).
2) Written as a journal, with elevated, period language, a great vocabulary and an overabundance of alliteration.
3) long, flowery descriptions of blood and gore.
4) A mystery about a monster infestation. Where did they come from? Why are they here?
5) Anthropophagi: the monsters in question. Cree More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 30, 2011
Kyle
rated it:
From what I read (100-120 pgs), the book is pretty much about scientists studying a new species called the Anthropophagi. The creature is said to have big claws and big eyes, which make it horrific and deadly from seeing it on a picture or up close. However, up close would be worse and I am sure many people can agree with me on that. The Anthropophagi started in one area in a small group of eggs and spread in their evolution to many places around the one they grew up in. The creature ends up
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Oct 02, 2011
The Monstromologistpresents itself as the purported diary of William James Henry, former apprentice to “monstrumologist” Dr. Pellinore Warthrop. Will Henry’s story begins on a dark night in 1888, when a grave robber delivers the corpse of one the Anthropophagi, headless, man-eating monsters based on the mythical cannibals known as “Blemmys.” However, these monsters are not native to New England, and it is up to Warthrop and 12-year-old Will to investigate and eliminate the infestation.
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