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 of blood splatter-painting a living room.

so why isn't this book awesome?

years ago, before i was captured and dragged kicking and screaming into the Land of Teen Fiction, i had a certain conception of what teen fiction was "like", and i thought "this is not for me, it is for teens and unbright adults". and then i read some really great teen fiction, and felt ashamed for being so dismissive without having done any actual legwork.

but this book is pretty much the way i thought teen fiction was before my conversion. it's fine...for kids. it's got a fast pace; even though it is long,you just burn right through it, there are a lot of action sequences, the characters aren't terribly original or developed, but it's all about the monsters, right? and the gore.

it's not awful, it's just not terribly sophisticated, despite its references to jonathan swift and shakespeare (william) and herotodus and other classical mythologies.... oh, and the kid's name is william henry james. so, there's that..you know, for the kids.

but, it is probably a fine, quick halloween read. i shrugz.