Sign in with FacebookMaggie Stiefvater's Reviews > The Monstrumologist
The Monstrumologist (The Monstrumologist, #1)
by Rick Yancey
by Rick Yancey
Soooo this one is about a rather particular Monstrumologist and his apprentice chasing headless man-eating monsters across Victorian New England.
Here are five reasons why you should read it:
1. These are proper monsters. They don’t want to make out with you or play you songs on their guitar while you snuggle on the sofa. They just want to eat you, except for when they want to insert their babies in your corpse so they have something to snack on as they incubate. Okay, it’s a little gross sometimes. I ought to say that up front.
2. The voice! The voice! Apart from the first and last chapters, which are introduced in modern times (and which I don’t care for), the entire novel is told from the point of view of Will Henry, the Monstrumologist’s pint sized apprentice. He is resolute but afraid, put upon but never whiny. I love the historical aspect. It’s all very gaslight and cobblestones and black cloaks and gasping behind hands.
3. The Monstromologist! He is so high-maintenance and flawed and persnickety. Basically, he is Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle, if Howl never met Sophie. Oh, my love is undying. “WILL HENRY, SNAP TO!”
4. I wish I could just make you read this book now.
5. The beginning. Also, the middle. Also, the end. There is a character twist two thirds of the way through the book that I just did not see and I literally gasped on a plane. Then I was so delighted that a book had made me gasp on a plane that I punched Lover in the shoulder and made wild hand gestures. This book is put together like a puzzle box, and I will be taking it apart again sometime soon.
Here are five reasons why you should read it:
1. These are proper monsters. They don’t want to make out with you or play you songs on their guitar while you snuggle on the sofa. They just want to eat you, except for when they want to insert their babies in your corpse so they have something to snack on as they incubate. Okay, it’s a little gross sometimes. I ought to say that up front.
2. The voice! The voice! Apart from the first and last chapters, which are introduced in modern times (and which I don’t care for), the entire novel is told from the point of view of Will Henry, the Monstrumologist’s pint sized apprentice. He is resolute but afraid, put upon but never whiny. I love the historical aspect. It’s all very gaslight and cobblestones and black cloaks and gasping behind hands.
3. The Monstromologist! He is so high-maintenance and flawed and persnickety. Basically, he is Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle, if Howl never met Sophie. Oh, my love is undying. “WILL HENRY, SNAP TO!”
4. I wish I could just make you read this book now.
5. The beginning. Also, the middle. Also, the end. There is a character twist two thirds of the way through the book that I just did not see and I literally gasped on a plane. Then I was so delighted that a book had made me gasp on a plane that I punched Lover in the shoulder and made wild hand gestures. This book is put together like a puzzle box, and I will be taking it apart again sometime soon.
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Karen
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rated it 5 stars
Jul 04, 2011 10:56am
It's reviews like this one that make me move books to the very top of my teetering 'to read right away' pile.
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I've been trying to decide if I should read this book or not for a little while. I almost bought it yesterday but was still unsure. What a timely review. :)
I think it's a great book and definitely one to reach that most difficult of reading groups...teenage boys. :)
Eek! Howl TOTALLY ROCKS! lol I might try to make myself read this again. I got a bit freaked out because it reminded me of the Korean movie The Host.
My Hubby loves this series of books. He was one of the first readers able to test drive the first installment for free through Kindle in September 2009. Now he's on the last third of the ARC for the final and third book, The Isle of Blood, and he can't put the book down. If you enjoy a proper scare with scary monsters and super creeps, read Monstrumologist. Of course, not in the dark, and not alone.
love this book:3 i remember reading it and it fit perfect for a class assignment. i love will henry!
YES!! My friend read this and she said it was ok, but now I am most definatly going on my to-read list!! At last a book where the monsters don't turn out to be a "sensitive and musically talented teenage boy" who just happens to fall in love with the main character!! (Although I love Shiver!!)
I completely agree with you on this, Maggie, especially about "the voice" of Will Henry. I am so invested in this young boy. I'm curious if you would like "Curse of the Wendigo". Very different but still had me captivated. I'm looking forward to the third installment this fall. Great review.
I read The Monstrumologist. I liked it. Gave it 4 stars, but think its pretty violent and gory in some places. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
A scientist who hunts the things that everyone else says doesn't exist - the things that go bump in the night.
I tried reading that book once. The monster stuff was too much for me, sadly, and I couldn't make myself keep reading.
I only got to read a little bit of the first book because it was a school library book and I checked it out a couple weeks before school got out. I liked a lot of it though, and it was our book club books. I'll be reading it again as soon as school picks up again.If you want a good book, check out Nightwood. Omg was that a good one.
Loved this one. Now reading the second. So nice to see proper nightmarish monsters, and a snarky mentor to a lovely lead...*sigh* Oh Pellinore, you have more depth than every ocean combined, from one universe to the next.
While I was reading this book I was constantly comparing the doctor to Sherlock Holmes, on whom I am convinced! he was based (though with a few more flaws, he is a science man through and through). But I really love your comparison to Howl. I think that's spot-on too.
