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Monster Love
No one in the neighbourhood has seen the Gutteridges' little girl Samantha for months. But Brendan and Sherilyn look happier that ever, so nothing is wrong. Is it?
For the Gutteridges, Samantha was just a thing that threatened to worm its way into their perfect love. For everyone else, her story is the stuff of tabloid headlines. But this time it's not in a newspaper, it's happening right next door . . .
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2008
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1938 people want to read
About the author
Carol Topolski
4 books18 followersCarol Topolski is a British psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Her many previous roles include working on the Woodstock festival, in advertising, and as a prison teacher, nursery-school director, director of a rape crisis centre and refuge for battered women, probation officer and film censor. She lives in London and is married with two daughters and two grandchildren.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 166 reviews
September 25, 2019
Not an enjoyable book as such, it tells the story of a strange couple whose creepy, obsessive relationship feels threatened by the arrival of their unwanted baby and then the disturbing events that follow. I thought it was interesting and clever that the book focuses on the couple rather than what was inflicted on the child, it really conveyed both their weird obsession with each other and complete lack of empathy for anyone else. Disturbing, bizarre, compelling and not for the faint of heart.
October 18, 2019
Iubire monstruoasă este genul de carte pe care o citesti si te întrebi in fiecare secunda de ce? Este, asa cum o spune și titlul MONSTRUOASA. Este o poveste despre doi oameni care in egoismul lor, își ucid fiica, de teamă că aceasta ar putea interveni între ei, separandu-le inimile si distrugandu-le iubirea. N-am citit niciodată o carte atât de defectă, cu personaje atât de defecte si totusi scrisa atât de bine, încât n-am fost in stare sa o las din mana.
Este scrisa sub forma unor scrisori, mărturii mai degrabă, a tuturor celor implicati in vietile celor doi protagoniști. Vecinii, părinții, prietenii, colegii de munca, toți, rând pe rând își aștern gândurile și impresiile despre uciderea Samanthei, dar in acelasi timp isi dezvăluie la rândul lor, problemele pe care le au.
Nici nu stiu cum as putea sa numesc romanul asta altfel decât defect. Cartea asta este cu personaje bolnave, cu caractere dubioase si povești de viata cutremurătoare. Nu cred ca este genul de poveste care sa prindă la oricine. Trebuie să fii tare pe psihic ca sa poti rezista declarațiilor martorilor cu privire la moartea Samanthei și in acelasi timp sa rămâi impasibil la nonșalanța cu care cei doi, Linda si Brandon pozează în nevinovati.
Povestea celor 2 este exemplul cel mai bun ca nu oricine este facut sa fie părinte si nu orice părinte poate fi mama si tata.
Nu stiu ce sa mai spun, sunt încă în stare de șoc și cu greu imi gasesc cuvintele, pt ca ideile mi se plimba prin minte mai ceva ca intr-un carusel.
Ce mi-a plăcut foarte mult a fost modul în care autoarea a creionat personajele. Toate, dar absolut toate au personalitate, sunt diferite, au identitate... ceea ce, privind din cate puncte de vedere e povestită întâmplarea, e mare lucru.
Deși este o carte monstruoasă, mi-a plăcut. Nu atât subiectul, ci modul de expunere, felul în care a fost construită povestea, lejeritatea cu care a trasat liniile unei iubiri bolnave dar sincere in unicitatea ei... chiar mi a plăcut.
Ciudat este faptul că, deși Linda si Brandon sunt niste personaje ordinare, pe care n ar trebui sa le placi, eu nu le am urat. Le am dorit raul, dar n am fost in stare sa le doresc moartea. În prostia lor, au fost unul pt celălalt până la final... Samantha fiind doar un impediment de care s au văzut nevoiți să scape. Dacă am fost de acord cu ei? Nicio clipă... Dar n am putut sa i urăsc, ceea ce înseamnă că autoarea si a facut bine treaba.
4 * cred ca e o notă corecta.
Nu sunt sigura daca recomand totusi aceasta carte... Trebuie să mai treacă câteva ore sa mi revin si poate atunci voi avea o idee exactă despre asta.
Este scrisa sub forma unor scrisori, mărturii mai degrabă, a tuturor celor implicati in vietile celor doi protagoniști. Vecinii, părinții, prietenii, colegii de munca, toți, rând pe rând își aștern gândurile și impresiile despre uciderea Samanthei, dar in acelasi timp isi dezvăluie la rândul lor, problemele pe care le au.
Nici nu stiu cum as putea sa numesc romanul asta altfel decât defect. Cartea asta este cu personaje bolnave, cu caractere dubioase si povești de viata cutremurătoare. Nu cred ca este genul de poveste care sa prindă la oricine. Trebuie să fii tare pe psihic ca sa poti rezista declarațiilor martorilor cu privire la moartea Samanthei și in acelasi timp sa rămâi impasibil la nonșalanța cu care cei doi, Linda si Brandon pozează în nevinovati.
Povestea celor 2 este exemplul cel mai bun ca nu oricine este facut sa fie părinte si nu orice părinte poate fi mama si tata.
Nu stiu ce sa mai spun, sunt încă în stare de șoc și cu greu imi gasesc cuvintele, pt ca ideile mi se plimba prin minte mai ceva ca intr-un carusel.
Ce mi-a plăcut foarte mult a fost modul în care autoarea a creionat personajele. Toate, dar absolut toate au personalitate, sunt diferite, au identitate... ceea ce, privind din cate puncte de vedere e povestită întâmplarea, e mare lucru.
Deși este o carte monstruoasă, mi-a plăcut. Nu atât subiectul, ci modul de expunere, felul în care a fost construită povestea, lejeritatea cu care a trasat liniile unei iubiri bolnave dar sincere in unicitatea ei... chiar mi a plăcut.
Ciudat este faptul că, deși Linda si Brandon sunt niste personaje ordinare, pe care n ar trebui sa le placi, eu nu le am urat. Le am dorit raul, dar n am fost in stare sa le doresc moartea. În prostia lor, au fost unul pt celălalt până la final... Samantha fiind doar un impediment de care s au văzut nevoiți să scape. Dacă am fost de acord cu ei? Nicio clipă... Dar n am putut sa i urăsc, ceea ce înseamnă că autoarea si a facut bine treaba.
4 * cred ca e o notă corecta.
Nu sunt sigura daca recomand totusi aceasta carte... Trebuie să mai treacă câteva ore sa mi revin si poate atunci voi avea o idee exactă despre asta.
June 2, 2014
This has all the grace and subtlety of a feature length Daily Mail article. The reader is presented with two people who have inflicted the most awful crime on their own child, we're told and retold about the crime in gruesome detail. Vox pops from friends and family (indicated by sweepingly stereotypical regional dialects) provide only the barest level of understanding of why the two committed the crime - they had troubled childhoods, big surprise. These sorts of crimes are tragic and disturbing when they actually occur in reality, to make one up for amusement without insight is gratuitous at best.
Plus if the above wasn't bad enough there's also a fairly graphic child rape scene - linked to the plot by the barest sliver of necessity.
Plus if the above wasn't bad enough there's also a fairly graphic child rape scene - linked to the plot by the barest sliver of necessity.
January 4, 2016
I read this one when it first came out, when I was 13-14 and going through my "look at me I'm so edgy and angsty and different from all you other teenagers" phase, which meant that I couldn't resist a book about a couple who torture and murder their 3-year-old child. Apparently, I still can't and therefore have perhaps not grown out of that disturbing teenage phase, because I vaguely remembered this book and wondered what I'd think of it now, as I suspected my ambivalence came from a feeling of being totally horrified by the language/violence/sex, as those were the main things I remembered.
It starts off so well. The first 50% is masterfully written: disturbing, chilling, bleak, and precise. Obviously the subject matter is beyond horrible; I suspect that if I ever have children, I'll never be able to reread this book, because of the descriptions of Samantha, Brendan and Sherilyn/Linda's child, being locked in a cage. Even as a childless 21-year-old, I'll admit some of those parts did bring me out in a cold sweat. Tupolski has a wonderful feel, especially, for Sherilyn's voice. There's even moments of terrible comedy, like when Sherilyn and Brendan say that they can't send their cat to somebody else, so they put him outside and "trust him to find another home" (they're leaving their daughter to starve in a cage, by the way). There are also moments of nearly breathtaking insight, where Brendan sees a newspaper article in which he is being - obviously - slammed for being the most horribly abusive parent in the world, who never took his daughter's photograph once in her life, on top of abusing her, starving her, and torturing her. Does he focus on that? Obviously not. His big moment of horror comes not from their condemnation, but from the horrifying realisation that they have a picture of his and Sherilyn's wedding day. The whole book has such a resonant ring of realism, complete with the little details of Brendan and Sherilyn's world on the outside. It's horrific, but also amazing, insightful, and very, very dark.
Until, it seems, Tupolski sends them both to prison and somehow decides she's not gone dark enough. Then it all becomes terrible in an entirely different way. First of all, WHY DID SHERILYN HAVE TO BE A VICTIM OF SEXUAL ABUSE? I appreciate that sexual abuse screws you up terribly, but I'm so sick of every author feeling that they have to make their female villain somehow "comprehendible" by making them a victim of sexual abuse. It's cheap, disgusting, and, personally, I think suggesting that sexual abuse survivors become child-murdering control freaks is getting really old and really worn. While some horrifically famous murderers have had sexually abusive childhoods, like Ed Gein or Rosemary West, I personally felt that Sherilyn's childhood prior to the big revelation that her dad had molested her was far more believable to create such a character: her mum is insane after a series of stillbirths drive her over the age - that is, until she finally has Sherilyn's younger sister, a beautiful little girl who suddenly consumes their parents' worlds. I thought that Sherilyn's hunger for her own home - where she could be herself - was far more adequately expressed in Marilyn, her mother's, ramblings about how little sister Anne-Marie would beg and beg for Sherilyn's cake from Food Tech, for instance, "always wanting what somebody else had," and Marilyn's recollections of all the games she and the social, bubbly, incredibly popular but thick as a brick Anne-Marie used to play. Contrast that with the plain, mousy, precise, obsessive Linda, with her finicky neatness and determined introversion.
We did not need the "I'm a bad person because my dad raped me when I was a child" incredibly lame, useless, and easy plot device trotted out. Rape is not easy for the survivor. It just isn't. Rape should feel problematic and terrible in a narrative, because that's what rape is. Rape, especially of the familial abuse variety, is not just some catch-all explanation to make us sympathise with a character, especially when the characters are nearly always female. It's lame, sexist, and stupid. Especially for a book like this. I'm not kidding when I say that I felt it deflated all the tension. There's still something incredibly fascinating and compelling about a novel where the characters are not so much narcissists in the traditional sense, but somehow narcissistically, mutually obsessed with one another. How can Brendan call his wife his goddess when he apparently has no problems with locking his daughter in a cage? Why does Sherilyn briefly look so relieved when somebody else does something as simple as wipe her daughter's nose? What motivates somebody to torture their child for so long, rather than 'just' killing them if they have that i mind and hate them so much?
Unfortunately, once they're in prison, all the urgency or real genuine interest goes out of this, in part because we already have our answer: Sherilyn was raped. Well, it's no surprise she has problems then, is it? Brendan was beaten terribly by his father and made to wallow in his own urine by his stepmother. You might wonder why I've chosen to focus on Sherilyn's backstory and not Brendan's in this review: because at least Tupolski doesn't think we're so simultaneously naive and voyeuristic to 'keep' the revelation that Brendan was physically abused from us. It's not treated like a 'twist.' Similarly, physical abuse doesn't have the same kind of ring of being eteeeeeernally dragged out as the motivation for Everything You Can Ever Imagine as the sexual abuse of women does.
It gets worse. So much worse. It's like Tupolski can't recover from this low point. Though Brendan and Sherilyn's flashbacks to their time together are as effective as ever, she then piles on the nasty and cheap plot devices. We meet James. James is a serial paedophile, rapist, and murderer. All three. We get some really unpleasant flashbacks of him doing his thing, too, along with the fairly heavy implication that he was sexually abused by his largely unseen mother, though that's all about the depth he does have. He's meant to be so fantastically pretty that the moment Brendan sees him he "wants to kiss his neck." Uh, I'm sorry, what? We know that Brendan and Sherilyn practice some BDSM stuff, but I was pretty weirded out by the sudden introduction of Brendan's apparent bisexuality (I guess?) and this unbearably pretty, evil charmer the MINUTE he and Sherilyn are separated. We're led to believe that they can't even bear to be separated for a minute because they are "always together/never apart" as their rings say. I'm pretty sure there's some fucking weird and damn offensive subtext here - we're never told that Brendan has any interest in men, or literally anybody except from Sherilyn... - because it seems like Tupolski almost suddenly developing bisexuality along with a hankering for a male paedophile is sort of par for the course for Brendan.
That's without even getting into the descriptions of rape/molestation we get - unnecessarily - from James's POV. Especially laid alongside Sherilyn's memory of being molested by her father, it feels highly questionable and odd. It almost reminded me of the thing that Sherilyn references when she says about the trashy magazines with stories like "I Fell In Love With My Best Friend's Ferret." This felt, by the end, like one of those magazines. Rather than the psychological depth or horror or insight I'd wanted to feel - and really believed I could feel in the earlier pages - there just seemed to be a new, disgusting horror on every single page. Although I did almost giggle, in a choked, horrified way, when Brendan reads James's novel whose sole plot seems to be raping little girls, and then throws him out of the cell in disgust. Yeah, James, even Brendan, the guy who built a cage solely keep his little daughter, beat her, starved her, put cigarettes out on her, drugged her and caused her to be sick, then left her to die (I'm going solely by memory) knows that raping children is wrong. That's a lesson for you!
So, apparently, that maybe justifies the ending. I'm not looking for an easy ending. I know there isn't going to be one. I'm all right with feeling ambivalent feelings towards book characters, even two as irredeemably horrible as Brendan and Sherilyn. They did, nevertheless, feel like real characters, with control freak tendencies, strange character quirks, and opinions in between the torture/the murder. Until they go to prison and apparently develop superpowers which allow them to hear one another's thoughts (I'll be fair to Topolski and say that it was at least inferred a couple of times throughout the book, but it turned far too much towards the magical-realistic and the "love makes everything better" for a novel about two such sick horrendous people, i don't care if they were raped as children, stick your lame and convenient plotting), and then to journey towards an ending which has the possibility of a heaven for these two. I'm trying not to spoil completely but Jesus Christ, I could practically hear "The Power of Love" playing over the ending. No, thank you.
It starts off so well. The first 50% is masterfully written: disturbing, chilling, bleak, and precise. Obviously the subject matter is beyond horrible; I suspect that if I ever have children, I'll never be able to reread this book, because of the descriptions of Samantha, Brendan and Sherilyn/Linda's child, being locked in a cage. Even as a childless 21-year-old, I'll admit some of those parts did bring me out in a cold sweat. Tupolski has a wonderful feel, especially, for Sherilyn's voice. There's even moments of terrible comedy, like when Sherilyn and Brendan say that they can't send their cat to somebody else, so they put him outside and "trust him to find another home" (they're leaving their daughter to starve in a cage, by the way). There are also moments of nearly breathtaking insight, where Brendan sees a newspaper article in which he is being - obviously - slammed for being the most horribly abusive parent in the world, who never took his daughter's photograph once in her life, on top of abusing her, starving her, and torturing her. Does he focus on that? Obviously not. His big moment of horror comes not from their condemnation, but from the horrifying realisation that they have a picture of his and Sherilyn's wedding day. The whole book has such a resonant ring of realism, complete with the little details of Brendan and Sherilyn's world on the outside. It's horrific, but also amazing, insightful, and very, very dark.
Until, it seems, Tupolski sends them both to prison and somehow decides she's not gone dark enough. Then it all becomes terrible in an entirely different way. First of all, WHY DID SHERILYN HAVE TO BE A VICTIM OF SEXUAL ABUSE? I appreciate that sexual abuse screws you up terribly, but I'm so sick of every author feeling that they have to make their female villain somehow "comprehendible" by making them a victim of sexual abuse. It's cheap, disgusting, and, personally, I think suggesting that sexual abuse survivors become child-murdering control freaks is getting really old and really worn. While some horrifically famous murderers have had sexually abusive childhoods, like Ed Gein or Rosemary West, I personally felt that Sherilyn's childhood prior to the big revelation that her dad had molested her was far more believable to create such a character: her mum is insane after a series of stillbirths drive her over the age - that is, until she finally has Sherilyn's younger sister, a beautiful little girl who suddenly consumes their parents' worlds. I thought that Sherilyn's hunger for her own home - where she could be herself - was far more adequately expressed in Marilyn, her mother's, ramblings about how little sister Anne-Marie would beg and beg for Sherilyn's cake from Food Tech, for instance, "always wanting what somebody else had," and Marilyn's recollections of all the games she and the social, bubbly, incredibly popular but thick as a brick Anne-Marie used to play. Contrast that with the plain, mousy, precise, obsessive Linda, with her finicky neatness and determined introversion.
We did not need the "I'm a bad person because my dad raped me when I was a child" incredibly lame, useless, and easy plot device trotted out. Rape is not easy for the survivor. It just isn't. Rape should feel problematic and terrible in a narrative, because that's what rape is. Rape, especially of the familial abuse variety, is not just some catch-all explanation to make us sympathise with a character, especially when the characters are nearly always female. It's lame, sexist, and stupid. Especially for a book like this. I'm not kidding when I say that I felt it deflated all the tension. There's still something incredibly fascinating and compelling about a novel where the characters are not so much narcissists in the traditional sense, but somehow narcissistically, mutually obsessed with one another. How can Brendan call his wife his goddess when he apparently has no problems with locking his daughter in a cage? Why does Sherilyn briefly look so relieved when somebody else does something as simple as wipe her daughter's nose? What motivates somebody to torture their child for so long, rather than 'just' killing them if they have that i mind and hate them so much?
Unfortunately, once they're in prison, all the urgency or real genuine interest goes out of this, in part because we already have our answer: Sherilyn was raped. Well, it's no surprise she has problems then, is it? Brendan was beaten terribly by his father and made to wallow in his own urine by his stepmother. You might wonder why I've chosen to focus on Sherilyn's backstory and not Brendan's in this review: because at least Tupolski doesn't think we're so simultaneously naive and voyeuristic to 'keep' the revelation that Brendan was physically abused from us. It's not treated like a 'twist.' Similarly, physical abuse doesn't have the same kind of ring of being eteeeeeernally dragged out as the motivation for Everything You Can Ever Imagine as the sexual abuse of women does.
It gets worse. So much worse. It's like Tupolski can't recover from this low point. Though Brendan and Sherilyn's flashbacks to their time together are as effective as ever, she then piles on the nasty and cheap plot devices. We meet James. James is a serial paedophile, rapist, and murderer. All three. We get some really unpleasant flashbacks of him doing his thing, too, along with the fairly heavy implication that he was sexually abused by his largely unseen mother, though that's all about the depth he does have. He's meant to be so fantastically pretty that the moment Brendan sees him he "wants to kiss his neck." Uh, I'm sorry, what? We know that Brendan and Sherilyn practice some BDSM stuff, but I was pretty weirded out by the sudden introduction of Brendan's apparent bisexuality (I guess?) and this unbearably pretty, evil charmer the MINUTE he and Sherilyn are separated. We're led to believe that they can't even bear to be separated for a minute because they are "always together/never apart" as their rings say. I'm pretty sure there's some fucking weird and damn offensive subtext here - we're never told that Brendan has any interest in men, or literally anybody except from Sherilyn... - because it seems like Tupolski almost suddenly developing bisexuality along with a hankering for a male paedophile is sort of par for the course for Brendan.
That's without even getting into the descriptions of rape/molestation we get - unnecessarily - from James's POV. Especially laid alongside Sherilyn's memory of being molested by her father, it feels highly questionable and odd. It almost reminded me of the thing that Sherilyn references when she says about the trashy magazines with stories like "I Fell In Love With My Best Friend's Ferret." This felt, by the end, like one of those magazines. Rather than the psychological depth or horror or insight I'd wanted to feel - and really believed I could feel in the earlier pages - there just seemed to be a new, disgusting horror on every single page. Although I did almost giggle, in a choked, horrified way, when Brendan reads James's novel whose sole plot seems to be raping little girls, and then throws him out of the cell in disgust. Yeah, James, even Brendan, the guy who built a cage solely keep his little daughter, beat her, starved her, put cigarettes out on her, drugged her and caused her to be sick, then left her to die (I'm going solely by memory) knows that raping children is wrong. That's a lesson for you!
So, apparently, that maybe justifies the ending. I'm not looking for an easy ending. I know there isn't going to be one. I'm all right with feeling ambivalent feelings towards book characters, even two as irredeemably horrible as Brendan and Sherilyn. They did, nevertheless, feel like real characters, with control freak tendencies, strange character quirks, and opinions in between the torture/the murder. Until they go to prison and apparently develop superpowers which allow them to hear one another's thoughts (I'll be fair to Topolski and say that it was at least inferred a couple of times throughout the book, but it turned far too much towards the magical-realistic and the "love makes everything better" for a novel about two such sick horrendous people, i don't care if they were raped as children, stick your lame and convenient plotting), and then to journey towards an ending which has the possibility of a heaven for these two. I'm trying not to spoil completely but Jesus Christ, I could practically hear "The Power of Love" playing over the ending. No, thank you.
July 5, 2015
Very compelling. I kept turning the pages. Twisted. Great writing. Especially liked Angela's letter to her son. beautifully written. A study into how children are failed by their parents and how they in turn, when adults, fail their children. Scary, warped, a glimpse into twisted minds. A read that had me turning the pages.
August 12, 2011
I wish I'd never read this book :( It actually gave me nightmares, the storyline is so intense and disturbing. It's well written, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone because it's just too much.
September 12, 2012
There aren't many books I can say I wish I had never read but this is definitely one of them. As another reviewer said it is a bit like watching a train wreck, I kept wanting to look away but couldn't. I suppose on the positives I would say that the technique used by the author of swapping perspectives between the many witnesses meant that the gradual reveal of the story kept me turning the pages. However by the time the full horror of events is revealed, I actually felt quite nauseous and wanted to take a shower.
I had so many problems with believability in this book. The biggest one being the characters at the centre of the drama, Sheralyn and Brendan both narcissistic, shallow control freaks, obsessed with outward appearance. For starters I can't imagine either of these bloodless, two dimensional characters falling in love with anyone other than themselves although I suppose we are lead to believe that they are two kindred spirits in appearance and attitude. I certainly couldn't believe that they would have allowed a pregnancy to happen, I'm sure Sherralyn would have made sure the morning after pill or abortion were employed. Even if she were to go through with the pregnancy and bring the baby home, am I really supposed to believe that someone as damaged as Sheralyn would opt for building a cage in the spare room and allow the baby to lie in her own filth rather than simply putting a pillow over the baby's face and claiming a cot death. The whole thing is just too ridiculous for words!
I had so many problems with believability in this book. The biggest one being the characters at the centre of the drama, Sheralyn and Brendan both narcissistic, shallow control freaks, obsessed with outward appearance. For starters I can't imagine either of these bloodless, two dimensional characters falling in love with anyone other than themselves although I suppose we are lead to believe that they are two kindred spirits in appearance and attitude. I certainly couldn't believe that they would have allowed a pregnancy to happen, I'm sure Sherralyn would have made sure the morning after pill or abortion were employed. Even if she were to go through with the pregnancy and bring the baby home, am I really supposed to believe that someone as damaged as Sheralyn would opt for building a cage in the spare room and allow the baby to lie in her own filth rather than simply putting a pillow over the baby's face and claiming a cot death. The whole thing is just too ridiculous for words!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2020
I would probably give this one a 1.5/5, I enjoyed the different character perspectives in the beginning however I felt as though they didn’t build a strong enough picture on each character and I was left wanting more from each. Especially in the second half of the book. I thought given how twisted the 2 main characters were there would be more of a twist or interesting ending about why they did it, but it was all the disturbing details with little explanation.
did-not-finish
September 17, 2016Bought a second hand copy of this on impulse after reading a piece about literary villains which ended with a list of 'Five Notable Books Featuring a Villain’s Perspective'. Three of those five books are existing favourites of mine, so I assumed this one would be a surefire hit too.
I can see why Monster Love was included on the list – the subject matter is about as disturbing as it gets. It centres on the story of a couple who see their daughter as an inconvenience and consequently imprison and starve her to death; there are also many references to and descriptions of child abuse, including sexual abuse, suffered by other characters. However, while the other books on that list (American Psycho, Crime & Punishment, The End of Alice) are told entirely from the perspective of their 'villains', Monster Love is told through a multitude of voices; the monstrous parents are just two among many.
I didn't finish the book properly because I didn't like the style of writing from the beginning. Many of the characters use language that's completely inconsistent with their context/background, and they don't sound different enough from one another for the multiple-narrators thing to really work. But I was intrigued by the premise and wondered what the ending would be, so I skim-read much of the book and particularly the last few chapters.
Monster Love turns out to be much more about the relationship between the couple, Brendan and Sherilyn, than it is about the abuse and death of their daughter. And it gets weird. Once they're both in prison (this happens earlier in the book than you might think, since their crime is known from the beginning), it turns out they can communicate with and 'visit' each other – even have sex – psychically. There's a hitch when Brendan starts falling for fellow inmate James, and 'leaves' Sherilyn (remember this is all happening via their psychic link; he does it by appearing to her in a mirror at the prison gym and then turning and walking away from her) but then he finds out James is a paedophile and all that goes out of the window. Ultimately they both commit suicide at the same time and are united in the afterlife (or something) as a single entity.
This is all ridiculous anyway, of course, but it might be a little more effective if the name of this entity wasn't 'Brendalyn' – seriously, BRENDALYN – which evokes many stupid ship names in various fandoms, but also just sounds ludicrous in and of itself. (The book closing with 'I'm walking towards the light... I AM BRENDALYN' just made me laugh. I can't imagine the author was actually going for humour, but surely it is impossible to read that with a straight face.)
So yeah, I think this is one of the strangest, most baffling books I have ever come across.
I can see why Monster Love was included on the list – the subject matter is about as disturbing as it gets. It centres on the story of a couple who see their daughter as an inconvenience and consequently imprison and starve her to death; there are also many references to and descriptions of child abuse, including sexual abuse, suffered by other characters. However, while the other books on that list (American Psycho, Crime & Punishment, The End of Alice) are told entirely from the perspective of their 'villains', Monster Love is told through a multitude of voices; the monstrous parents are just two among many.
I didn't finish the book properly because I didn't like the style of writing from the beginning. Many of the characters use language that's completely inconsistent with their context/background, and they don't sound different enough from one another for the multiple-narrators thing to really work. But I was intrigued by the premise and wondered what the ending would be, so I skim-read much of the book and particularly the last few chapters.
Monster Love turns out to be much more about the relationship between the couple, Brendan and Sherilyn, than it is about the abuse and death of their daughter. And it gets weird. Once they're both in prison (this happens earlier in the book than you might think, since their crime is known from the beginning), it turns out they can communicate with and 'visit' each other – even have sex – psychically. There's a hitch when Brendan starts falling for fellow inmate James, and 'leaves' Sherilyn (remember this is all happening via their psychic link; he does it by appearing to her in a mirror at the prison gym and then turning and walking away from her) but then he finds out James is a paedophile and all that goes out of the window. Ultimately they both commit suicide at the same time and are united in the afterlife (or something) as a single entity.
This is all ridiculous anyway, of course, but it might be a little more effective if the name of this entity wasn't 'Brendalyn' – seriously, BRENDALYN – which evokes many stupid ship names in various fandoms, but also just sounds ludicrous in and of itself. (The book closing with 'I'm walking towards the light... I AM BRENDALYN' just made me laugh. I can't imagine the author was actually going for humour, but surely it is impossible to read that with a straight face.)
So yeah, I think this is one of the strangest, most baffling books I have ever come across.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2017
This novel left me with mixed feelings.
In short.. it is a story about a couple that has tortured and killed their only daughter. They and the people surrounding them look back on these facts.
At first, you don't really know what happened, but it becomes clear rather quickly. And as I felt appaled of this having happened, the story extracts all emotion out of it and leaves only a dry and decaying lump of a novel.
This is accomplished through the emotional distance in with the chapters are made up off. You get someone casting their eye on the whole deal, subjectively giving their thoughts and ideas. And that's it. No connections, no story line. Just a bunch of witness reports of what has happened and how it could have happened.
And then I shuddered at the clichés used. Why does it always implicate a bad childhood when someone does a thing like this? Parents aren't responsible for their children's actions, they have a conscience of their own, but in here the underlying story is indeed that both of the perpetrators have been abused during childhood, psychically and emotionally.
And this is meaning to be a love story, which it kind of is. The murder of the little girl isn't center topic in this novel, it's a means in which to portray the love Brendan and Sherilyn feel for each other.
I wouldn't go so far as call it love though.. feels more like obsession. And their personal reflections do betray a fondness for such behaviour.
I didn't like it, because I felt like it wasn't up to being real life. It all felt black and white. Not much actual feeling left to ponder. Everyone seemed to ponder the death of the girl, and everyone presumably felt the effects it had on their life.. some in gravely exaggerated form.
It lacked credibility and lots of it. I read in the 'Acknowledgments' that this novel came to be because she wrote a maddening two page essay of the girl's thoughts. If she had gone from there, it might have been an improvement.
In short.. it is a story about a couple that has tortured and killed their only daughter. They and the people surrounding them look back on these facts.
At first, you don't really know what happened, but it becomes clear rather quickly. And as I felt appaled of this having happened, the story extracts all emotion out of it and leaves only a dry and decaying lump of a novel.
This is accomplished through the emotional distance in with the chapters are made up off. You get someone casting their eye on the whole deal, subjectively giving their thoughts and ideas. And that's it. No connections, no story line. Just a bunch of witness reports of what has happened and how it could have happened.
And then I shuddered at the clichés used. Why does it always implicate a bad childhood when someone does a thing like this? Parents aren't responsible for their children's actions, they have a conscience of their own, but in here the underlying story is indeed that both of the perpetrators have been abused during childhood, psychically and emotionally.
And this is meaning to be a love story, which it kind of is. The murder of the little girl isn't center topic in this novel, it's a means in which to portray the love Brendan and Sherilyn feel for each other.
I wouldn't go so far as call it love though.. feels more like obsession. And their personal reflections do betray a fondness for such behaviour.
I didn't like it, because I felt like it wasn't up to being real life. It all felt black and white. Not much actual feeling left to ponder. Everyone seemed to ponder the death of the girl, and everyone presumably felt the effects it had on their life.. some in gravely exaggerated form.
It lacked credibility and lots of it. I read in the 'Acknowledgments' that this novel came to be because she wrote a maddening two page essay of the girl's thoughts. If she had gone from there, it might have been an improvement.
June 2, 2013
The premise of a couple so in love that they couldn't love their own child was chilling and compelling. I wanted the author to explore this and explain how it was possible that people who had the capacity to love so deeply could commit the vile crime of killing their own child.
The explanations given for why Brendan and Sherilyn ultimately decided to leave their own child to starve to death in a cage were vastly inadequate. Why would they not see the birth of a child as the ultimate culmination of their love or as a possibility for redemption from their pasts? Notwithstanding, why would they hand themselves in to the authorities and face being separated if their love and being together was all that mattered? The sudden twist that they seemed to be telepathically connected was just bizarre.
Plot holes aside, I also felt that the book should have given a voice to Samantha (the couple's child). Almost every character comes across as vacuous; they all discuss Brendan and Sherilyn at length, but the notion that Samantha's life was important is only given fleeting thought. The characters are more concerned with how they felt, rather than this horrific loss of young life. In the notes at the end of the book, the author is almost apologetic for not giving Samantha any platform, which makes me wonder why she did not rectify this.
In better hands, this book could have been a disturbing psychological thriller addressing a serious issue in a hitherto unexplored manner; rather it turned out that a heinous crime was used as the catalyst for a salacious throwaway romance story.
The explanations given for why Brendan and Sherilyn ultimately decided to leave their own child to starve to death in a cage were vastly inadequate. Why would they not see the birth of a child as the ultimate culmination of their love or as a possibility for redemption from their pasts? Notwithstanding, why would they hand themselves in to the authorities and face being separated if their love and being together was all that mattered? The sudden twist that they seemed to be telepathically connected was just bizarre.
Plot holes aside, I also felt that the book should have given a voice to Samantha (the couple's child). Almost every character comes across as vacuous; they all discuss Brendan and Sherilyn at length, but the notion that Samantha's life was important is only given fleeting thought. The characters are more concerned with how they felt, rather than this horrific loss of young life. In the notes at the end of the book, the author is almost apologetic for not giving Samantha any platform, which makes me wonder why she did not rectify this.
In better hands, this book could have been a disturbing psychological thriller addressing a serious issue in a hitherto unexplored manner; rather it turned out that a heinous crime was used as the catalyst for a salacious throwaway romance story.
September 6, 2011
Possibly this makes me a sociopath, but I found the chapter where Brendan and Sherilyn recount the events that led them to cage up Samantha and then abandon her to starve to death to be the only really interesting part of the book. Maybe "interesting" is the wrong word. It was the only thing in the story that felt new or novel, that level of attempt at insight into how someone would rationalize doing such a reprehensible thing. The rest of the book just felt like padding: all the things you learn from their family and friends and co-workers and neighbors and parole officers that give insight into who Brendan and Sherilyn are and why they might have become the way they are feel clumsy and predictable compared to the one paragraph where they make up show tunes parodies while they're building the cage.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2015
Oh, my. This is definitely not a book for everyone, even for those with a strong stomach and dreamless sleep. I've read my share of doozies, and this is likely the most disturbing book I've ever read. People, that is sayin' something. Cruelty and perversity in the extreme. Need I say more?
Still, the inventiveness of this author is a wonder. I went out of my way to acquire this and another title by the author, and devoured both books, wide-eyed and agape. I have an unashamed, abiding love for any author who can provoke that kind of reaction in me. Do your tastes run to the dark and demented? I dare you to give this little horror a go.
Still, the inventiveness of this author is a wonder. I went out of my way to acquire this and another title by the author, and devoured both books, wide-eyed and agape. I have an unashamed, abiding love for any author who can provoke that kind of reaction in me. Do your tastes run to the dark and demented? I dare you to give this little horror a go.
November 8, 2018
Aceasta este cu siguranță cea mai bolnavă carte pe care am citit-o. Brendan și Sherilyn sunt o pereche de îndrăgostiți inseparabili, suflete-pereche. Aceștia simt că iubirea lor începe să se clatine, când în viața lor apare fetița lor. Micuța este văzută imediat ca un dușman care încearcă să pătrundă între ei, așa că se simt îndreptățiți să o supună la o mulțime de chinuri, până când o lasă să moară de foame, în cușca în care o țineau.
Cartea este scrisă sub formă de mărturisiri, ale persoanelor cu care au avut contact, dar sunt prezente și mărturisirile lor.
https://mbuubooks.blogspot.com/2018/1...
Cartea este scrisă sub formă de mărturisiri, ale persoanelor cu care au avut contact, dar sunt prezente și mărturisirile lor.
https://mbuubooks.blogspot.com/2018/1...
May 10, 2015
Good idea, poorly executed. The writing style was awful, like some kind of GCSE attempt at being really descriptive and poetic that failed miserably. Not that I was hoping for lots of gruesome bits, but the book lacks focus; I don't care about the lives of the neighbours, the jurors, the judge. I get what the author was trying to do because this kind of thing has worked in other books but this was just rubbish.
October 2, 2016
This wasn't one for me. It's been on my tbr for about 3 years, and I thought I should read it or move it off. It wasn't the subject matter, although there's not denying that's difficult, it was the writing style and the repeating structure: really the same brief story told over and over by different people. The voices often sounded the same and used the same vocabulary, and nearly everything seemed overwritten.
November 22, 2014
Very sad book, not my usual cup of tea. Very cleverly told though - through the voices of people around the crime. The few chapters by the evil parents are very insightful.
This was hard to read at times, and I cried, but overall it was good.
This was hard to read at times, and I cried, but overall it was good.
August 9, 2021
3 stars
Pros
+ follows the aftermath of a married couple who kill their young daughter who "got in the way" of their life together
+ 1/2 drip-feeding what happened + 1/4 court case + 1/4 jail time (all through 20+ POVs from people who knew/interact with the couple as well as some POV moments from the couple)
+ Sherilyn (wife): a self-contained woman who wants to move up in the world and comes off as cold to everyone but her husband
+ Brendan (husband): a physically intimidating man who is a real softie inside towards his wife
+ rep: bisexual/pansexual MC
Neutral
/ I kept reading because I wanted to see what would happen to the couple... still divided if it was worth it
/ This book has 20+ POVs in addition to the 2 main characters. I'm not a huge fan of multiple POV narratives so this plot style really wasn't my favorite.
Cons
- The story doesn't give a POV to the little girl who died
- With each chapter giving a different facet to the couple's dynamics/childhood, it felt like the author wanted us to empathize or sympathize with how the couple ended up at the conclusion they did. I was like ??? yeah nothing is going to get me like these characters...
- Many of the POVs were boring, unnecessary, or repetitive
- The couple learned NO lessons and got no real comeuppance (other than jail which they didn't give a sh*t about)
TW: child torture, child death, starvation, parental abuse, physical abuse, pedophilia, vomiting, masturbation, suicide, cheating, bedwetting, anorexia, bulimia, role play
Pros
+ follows the aftermath of a married couple who kill their young daughter who "got in the way" of their life together
+ 1/2 drip-feeding what happened + 1/4 court case + 1/4 jail time (all through 20+ POVs from people who knew/interact with the couple as well as some POV moments from the couple)
+ Sherilyn (wife): a self-contained woman who wants to move up in the world and comes off as cold to everyone but her husband
+ Brendan (husband): a physically intimidating man who is a real softie inside towards his wife
+ rep: bisexual/pansexual MC
Neutral
/ I kept reading because I wanted to see what would happen to the couple... still divided if it was worth it
/ This book has 20+ POVs in addition to the 2 main characters. I'm not a huge fan of multiple POV narratives so this plot style really wasn't my favorite.
Cons
- The story doesn't give a POV to the little girl who died
- With each chapter giving a different facet to the couple's dynamics/childhood, it felt like the author wanted us to empathize or sympathize with how the couple ended up at the conclusion they did. I was like ??? yeah nothing is going to get me like these characters...
- Many of the POVs were boring, unnecessary, or repetitive
- The couple learned NO lessons and got no real comeuppance (other than jail which they didn't give a sh*t about)
TW: child torture, child death, starvation, parental abuse, physical abuse, pedophilia, vomiting, masturbation, suicide, cheating, bedwetting, anorexia, bulimia, role play
June 5, 2019
This is an oral history of a tragedy. Topolski skilfully switches between characters which do not often reoccur, and the manner in which multiple people portray the same event is extremely fascinating. This book is worth your time if you're into crime fiction. It's Gillian Flynn meets Cap Ou Pas Cap. It's not a whodunit and it's not a thriller; it's a portrayal of l'amour fou between two sociopaths and the manner in which they will protect their love.
The big reveal comes halfway through the book, which seems to be the issue in a lot of negative reviews of the novel - that it drags from there on out. If you're looking for a thriller or a mystery, I can understand how the second half of the novel is a frustrating read. However, if you're more interested in the nuances of psychopathology, the banality of evil, as well as what happens after a tragedy is uncovered, the second half of the novel truly does hold up. I enjoyed the fact that we learnt of the subtle influences that created these two cold individuals, and I truly enjoyed the way the plot progressed.
I felt the ending of the novel was honestly a bit naff, a bit predictable honestly and a bit cheesy, but I don't know how else the story was to be wrapped up, so I suppose it couldn't be helped.
The big reveal comes halfway through the book, which seems to be the issue in a lot of negative reviews of the novel - that it drags from there on out. If you're looking for a thriller or a mystery, I can understand how the second half of the novel is a frustrating read. However, if you're more interested in the nuances of psychopathology, the banality of evil, as well as what happens after a tragedy is uncovered, the second half of the novel truly does hold up. I enjoyed the fact that we learnt of the subtle influences that created these two cold individuals, and I truly enjoyed the way the plot progressed.
I felt the ending of the novel was honestly a bit naff, a bit predictable honestly and a bit cheesy, but I don't know how else the story was to be wrapped up, so I suppose it couldn't be helped.
August 25, 2017
Probably more like 2.5 stars. This is the kind of book I should love but something just didn't connect for me.
January 31, 2019
Loved it until close to the end when it became a bit cheesy.
Again, hate this cover. Mine was more contemporary.
Again, hate this cover. Mine was more contemporary.
October 23, 2024
Feeling weird about this one! I read it in high school (maybe even Year 9????) and absolutely loved it. This time round though I found it really hard to stomach—likely because I understood a lot more of the awful things presented.
Ultimately a very gripping read which more substance than some of the trash thrillers I read. However, I won’t be coming back to it again.
Ultimately a very gripping read which more substance than some of the trash thrillers I read. However, I won’t be coming back to it again.
December 28, 2009
A fabulously powerful story about a child cruelty and murder case, and the people – largely flawed, but all interesting – that surround and are affected by it.
I would recommend Monster Love to anyone for the writing in an instant, and yet the subject is one that makes me hesitate to recommend it at all – a paradoxical feeling that sums up the ambivalence of having discovered a book that tells a horrific story with absolute humanity and insight.
Sherilyn and Brendan seem like the perfect couple – a bit detached from everyone else, a bit distant, but obviously in love and at home with each other. Nothing comes between them. Not even their daughter. Topolski ruthlessly undoes the romantic notion of the ‘soulmate’, taking it to its tragic extremes… the origins that might create such a dependency, and the results of two people being the all-consuming obsession of one another.
Topolski’s voice changes with each of her narrators, adopting the concern, the disgust, the passion, the almost trivialised neglect, the foulness that creeps into the soul, unchecked and undetected; her ability to conjure something like this from all angles is masterful, as is her ability to summon empathy from an unwilling reader.
I think what I found most astonishing in Monster Love is that the shocking central event is entirely underplayed – reactions are not, but at no point does Topolski give into the need to embellish or dwell upon the child’s misery… in the stream of characters who step up to tell their story, never do we hear from Samantha – an exquisite highlighting of the parent’s achieved goal; to send their daughter back to the oblivion from which she was sent to ‘part’ them.
This book will unsettle and upset you, but not gratuitously. It will make you think about humanity and all the ways in which it can go wrong. And when you close it, you will be left undecided about whether you have read something horrible, or something wonderful.
I would recommend Monster Love to anyone for the writing in an instant, and yet the subject is one that makes me hesitate to recommend it at all – a paradoxical feeling that sums up the ambivalence of having discovered a book that tells a horrific story with absolute humanity and insight.
Sherilyn and Brendan seem like the perfect couple – a bit detached from everyone else, a bit distant, but obviously in love and at home with each other. Nothing comes between them. Not even their daughter. Topolski ruthlessly undoes the romantic notion of the ‘soulmate’, taking it to its tragic extremes… the origins that might create such a dependency, and the results of two people being the all-consuming obsession of one another.
Topolski’s voice changes with each of her narrators, adopting the concern, the disgust, the passion, the almost trivialised neglect, the foulness that creeps into the soul, unchecked and undetected; her ability to conjure something like this from all angles is masterful, as is her ability to summon empathy from an unwilling reader.
I think what I found most astonishing in Monster Love is that the shocking central event is entirely underplayed – reactions are not, but at no point does Topolski give into the need to embellish or dwell upon the child’s misery… in the stream of characters who step up to tell their story, never do we hear from Samantha – an exquisite highlighting of the parent’s achieved goal; to send their daughter back to the oblivion from which she was sent to ‘part’ them.
This book will unsettle and upset you, but not gratuitously. It will make you think about humanity and all the ways in which it can go wrong. And when you close it, you will be left undecided about whether you have read something horrible, or something wonderful.
June 22, 2015
There's no denying that this is an interesting premise for a novel, but what disturbed me the most about it was that the author is a psychologist, and so I presume (perhaps incorrectly) that she has dealt with people like Brendan and Sherilyn in the past and drawn on her experiences to create their characters.
The problem with this book is not necessarily that it deals with grim and upsetting subject matter, although I can see that this in itself could be enough to put a great many people off. It's that the same horrible bit of story keeps being retold again and again from different points of view. The criminal act at the centre of the story doesn't seem to make any more sense in the retelling, either, and as another reviewer has commented, I had problems with believing in the premise. Why would the couple have allowed Sherilyn's pregnancy to continue once they found out about it? I can't now remember the reason given - perhaps it was too late for an abortion by the time they realised - but if they were the sort of people who could murder their own little girl, I'm sure they could have found a way to have an illegal late-term abortion, or just do it themselves.
I never really felt that I believed in the story (just as well, perhaps) but I don't give one-star reviews if I can see some merit in a book, and I thought that this one was well-written enough to deserve two stars. I still wouldn't recommend it though.
The problem with this book is not necessarily that it deals with grim and upsetting subject matter, although I can see that this in itself could be enough to put a great many people off. It's that the same horrible bit of story keeps being retold again and again from different points of view. The criminal act at the centre of the story doesn't seem to make any more sense in the retelling, either, and as another reviewer has commented, I had problems with believing in the premise. Why would the couple have allowed Sherilyn's pregnancy to continue once they found out about it? I can't now remember the reason given - perhaps it was too late for an abortion by the time they realised - but if they were the sort of people who could murder their own little girl, I'm sure they could have found a way to have an illegal late-term abortion, or just do it themselves.
I never really felt that I believed in the story (just as well, perhaps) but I don't give one-star reviews if I can see some merit in a book, and I thought that this one was well-written enough to deserve two stars. I still wouldn't recommend it though.
October 12, 2013
Brutal in its portrayal of how much damage lack of empathy and love on the part of a parent can cause. I'm working my way through the most disturbing books listed and consider myself pretty immune but this book, specifically Brendan and Sherrilyns blasé recounting of Sammys treatment by themselves, actually upset me. For those claiming the characters lack of insight, probing of their own actions, reasoning etc is unrealistic I would say that that is what allows people to commit such horrendous acts whilst sleeping soundly at night and that there have and will be cases of much worse abuses in real life committed by people just like this. Read a few more true crime books and marvel at how many of the accused were lacking in fangs and were generally considered as "ordinary really, keeping to themselves". More akin to Fowles "The collector" rather than Shriver whose work I consider similar only in as much as it is a horrible topic regarding children. Last I heard she hadn't cornered the literary market regarding exploration of killers psyches and to claim "Monster love" is an attempt to cash in on Schrivers success is pretty narrow minded as this book stands on its own merit and concept, society as a whole attempting to understand a horror collectively.
April 8, 2015
A disturbing book. The subject matter is far from pleasant, and to be honest the plot seemed to be too far-fetched: a woman so slim, self-aware and self-controlled is unlikely to miss an unexpected and unplanned pregnancy (there is after all more than one sign of being pregnant) and have no qualms at all about opting for a late abortion, or giving up a child for adoption at birth - whatever they chose they would still have received financial compensation. All the characters seemed to be caricatures of a 'type' and the psychoanalytic psychologist background of the author made me feel uncomfortable, as though actual known individuals were being ridiculed or manipulated for personal gain. The structure of the novel also seemed like a very clever project, very effectively and efficiently carried off. A book that made me glad when it was over.
July 27, 2014
I'm unsure whether it is the relentless evil, terrors and torments that almost every character endures or pursues, or if it is the deeply unconvincing relationship, nay, existence, of the main couple, left me feeling like I'd watched a particularly nasty BBC cop drama.
The writer has talent, else I'd have found the story unreadable, especially near the dénouement. Topolski seems unable to give the reader breath, and whist I can admire her literary audacity, I felt that I was being suffocated. No-one escapes a myriad of crimes, nor can they escape the crime that sits at the centre of the novel.
The writer has talent, else I'd have found the story unreadable, especially near the dénouement. Topolski seems unable to give the reader breath, and whist I can admire her literary audacity, I felt that I was being suffocated. No-one escapes a myriad of crimes, nor can they escape the crime that sits at the centre of the novel.
March 12, 2009
This book was left behind by a guest, and while I usually still well clear of this general genre, it's thin and I needed something a bit brainless. Oof. Brainless is the wrong descriptor entirely. So far it's not particularly graphic, which I appreciate, and I've been quite drawn in by some of the narratives. I think actually that it's a pretty interesting glimpse into how a truly horrifying crime can impact so many lives so completely. That being said, I don't think I'd recommend it. At least not yet.
July 18, 2011
Sometimes I question whether the multiple narratives is becoming a rather lazy option for novelists. At times I felt the additional voices added little to the story. In fact my favourite bits were when we stayed with the voices of the central couple. I also felt like Topolski was trying to justify or explain their monstrous actions - to somehow make it a safer read for us. But overall a good and thoughtful read.
July 27, 2022
4.5 stars. A while back I saw a list of the 10 most disturbing novels, so kept a record and happened upon this in a charity shop in Nelson. Very quick read. And yes, dark and challenging in its content. Told from numerous viewpoints, we hear how the terrible neglect of toddler Samantha affects a multitude of characters and also from the parents' families as to their histories. It was well written and truly engaging. Pretty much everything stopped till I'd read it.
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