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celestial_being's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
nicoleceballos's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
I was so excited for this, but ended up being disappointed. The short stories were all over the place. Some were great and some weren't. I feel like the good ones would have worked better as full length novels because they kinda just ended, with nothing resolved.
flowerwineandbooks's review
4.0
This is an odd book, and a hard one to rate and review, but I think it's ingenuity deserves that much. The more I sit on these stories the richer I find them and I enjoy the stories much more then I did while reading them at face value. At first glance, the characters felt underdeveloped/disconnected on the surface, but after having read the entirety and looking back with the big picture, I can see that they're beautifully wound together in an inter-generational story as well as a fully integrated character arc spanning across centuries.
This is definitely some lovely, weird, creepy horror!! This Indigenous horror is just so incredibly terrifying and densely layered. Readers will definitely get more out of these stories with some background knowledge on Cherokee history in the US.
Also - THE ILLUSTRATIONS! Wow. The black pages with the white graphics worked SO WELL and the images themselves seamlessly combined with the Cherokee syllabary is absolutely stunning. It adds an atmospheric tone to the genre, themes, setting, characters, everything.
There are tons of trigger warnings for grief, suicide, sexual assault, death of children, murder, MMIW, school shootings, domestic abuse, and I'm likely forgetting some.
Scariest Stories:
An Old-Fashioned Girl
Man Made Monsters
Lens
Deer Women
Most Impactful Stories:
Snow Day
Ghost Cat
Ama's Boys
The Zombies Attack the Drive-In!
Favorite Stories:
Hell Hound in No Man's Land
Me and My Monster
Deer Women
I Come From the Water
This is definitely some lovely, weird, creepy horror!! This Indigenous horror is just so incredibly terrifying and densely layered. Readers will definitely get more out of these stories with some background knowledge on Cherokee history in the US.
Also - THE ILLUSTRATIONS! Wow. The black pages with the white graphics worked SO WELL and the images themselves seamlessly combined with the Cherokee syllabary is absolutely stunning. It adds an atmospheric tone to the genre, themes, setting, characters, everything.
There are tons of trigger warnings for grief, suicide, sexual assault, death of children, murder, MMIW, school shootings, domestic abuse, and I'm likely forgetting some.
Scariest Stories:
An Old-Fashioned Girl
Man Made Monsters
Lens
Deer Women
Most Impactful Stories:
Snow Day
Ghost Cat
Ama's Boys
The Zombies Attack the Drive-In!
Favorite Stories:
Hell Hound in No Man's Land
Me and My Monster
Deer Women
I Come From the Water
mx_mistoffolees's review against another edition
3.25
These stories are wildly inconsistant. Some are really amazing, some really miss the mark. Also confusing at times because some stories feel really, really young and some feel really mature and dark. Overall a good enough read but I was confused about who this is for at times.
oracleofde1phi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
meaganmart's review
4.0
"Man Made Monsters" is an incredible horror anthology. The sense of creeping dread that Andrea Rogers manages to imbue story after story in sometimes as few as ten pages are truly astounding. I could not read through the stories quickly enough as I was consumed by the stories spun within, determined to see what new monster, what new tragedy, what horrible scenario would be lurking behind the next short story.
I loved the way Rogers stretched the stories through generations of the same family. It gave the story so much weight as the reader was able to see how things changed (or how they didn't) for the indigenous people of the United States through each progressive story. I relished the chance to learn about Cherokee folklore, to begin discovering their traditions and history, and to see how that history is being reclaimed by successive generations, refusing to die quietly in the night. A must-have for any library collection that has readers who enjoy horror or readers who are eager for narrators whose culture and lived experiences can match their own. I know our own Cherokee kids will be thrilled to have a copy on our shelves soon.
Special thanks to NetGalley and to Levine Querido for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy of "Man Made Monsters" in return for an unbiased review!
I loved the way Rogers stretched the stories through generations of the same family. It gave the story so much weight as the reader was able to see how things changed (or how they didn't) for the indigenous people of the United States through each progressive story. I relished the chance to learn about Cherokee folklore, to begin discovering their traditions and history, and to see how that history is being reclaimed by successive generations, refusing to die quietly in the night. A must-have for any library collection that has readers who enjoy horror or readers who are eager for narrators whose culture and lived experiences can match their own. I know our own Cherokee kids will be thrilled to have a copy on our shelves soon.
Special thanks to NetGalley and to Levine Querido for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy of "Man Made Monsters" in return for an unbiased review!
bookchelf's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0