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sea_caummisar's review against another edition
5.0
What I love about this book is that it's about real life monsters (people). People are the worst right? Not only is this book very extreme, it kinda pulled on my heartstrings in a messed up kind of way. The whole book, my mind went back and forth... who should I feel sorry for? It's the kind of book that messes with your mind, and that's not only because it's gory, but because it actually has a story to it. Then some time after reading the book, I stumbled across the movie!!!!!! WOW! WOW! Re read finished May 31 2021
nothingamonth's review
2.0
The authors of MONSTER preface the book with a warning to the readers, cautioning them about the contents of the book. They really play it up: debating whether or not the story was too dark or too extreme and needed to be censored. It's ridiculous. If you've seen the first five minutes of the remake of The Hills Have Eyes 2, you've read this book. Matt Shaw really phones it in. He seems to be doing pretty well, popping out a book every month or so, and probably making a decent bit of cash too. So you'd think he'd be able to afford an editor. MONSTER is riddled with typos that should embarrass professional writers, like the misuse of "it's" and "its" in the same sentence, and a complete lack of knowledge on how quoting dialogue works. Also, it's almost impossible to get a sense of where this book is set until they explicitly tell you. All the characters use British slang and spellings, but it's set in Indiana. Okay.
Matt Shaw says in the introduction that he writes his endings to leave the audience reeling. That's true. Because I wasted three hours or so on one of the most underwhelming, anticlimactic, predictable endings I've ever read. It felt like he was written into a corner, so he just STOPPED. That's how abruptly it ends. And yeah, we all get it. "Who's the real monster?" Really original.
Also, it's Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, not NIcholas. Wikipedia is a thing. So is imdb. Do your research!
Matt Shaw says in the introduction that he writes his endings to leave the audience reeling. That's true. Because I wasted three hours or so on one of the most underwhelming, anticlimactic, predictable endings I've ever read. It felt like he was written into a corner, so he just STOPPED. That's how abruptly it ends. And yeah, we all get it. "Who's the real monster?" Really original.
Also, it's Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, not NIcholas. Wikipedia is a thing. So is imdb. Do your research!
bryanhmoyer's review
5.0
A sick and twisted exploration into the depravity of people. An abusive pure psychopath, an abused sick mother, and an abused deformed son form a sick family that would fit with the worst of them. It's hard to decide who the true monster really is as the events unfold at a breakneck pace. I found myself alternating between sympathy and disgust for mother and son as they both suffered and caused suffering. It's a birthday party from hell leading to an even darker and more evil endgame. Another fantastic collaboration between Matt Shaw and Michael Bray.
mudmule's review
5.0
If you've not read anything by Matt Shaw be warned, it is graphic and gory.
****Warning there are spoilers below******
Richard, the father, is a wife beating bully who turns into an alcoholic wife beating bully and then he starts beating Andrew. My heart went out to Andrew and his mother. I wish she would have gotten the guts up to leave Richard. After he forced her to drink draino while carrying Andrew she should have went to a real doctor, not one of Richard's buddies, and then aborted Andrew. Even though Andrew is a monster, he's not the true monster of this story, his parents are.
The pages kept flying by and the horror mounting. This was a great read.
****Warning there are spoilers below******
Richard, the father, is a wife beating bully who turns into an alcoholic wife beating bully and then he starts beating Andrew. My heart went out to Andrew and his mother. I wish she would have gotten the guts up to leave Richard. After he forced her to drink draino while carrying Andrew she should have went to a real doctor, not one of Richard's buddies, and then aborted Andrew. Even though Andrew is a monster, he's not the true monster of this story, his parents are.
The pages kept flying by and the horror mounting. This was a great read.
mareeva's review
4.0
4 stars
Song: ring-a ring-a roses
I never put songs in my reviews so don't ask why the one & only time I do, I use that one.
Some people should never, under any circumstances reproduce. This book is what happens when they do.
⛔SPOILERS⛔If you're easily disturbed, might wonna sit this one out. And I'm sorry but this review is such a mess
Song: ring-a ring-a roses
I never put songs in my reviews so don't ask why the one & only time I do, I use that one.
Some people should never, under any circumstances reproduce. This book is what happens when they do.
⛔SPOILERS⛔If you're easily disturbed, might wonna sit this one out. And I'm sorry but this review is such a mess
dark_reader's review
3.0
At some point in my mid-twenties I was feeling out of sorts, a little lost, depressed, and I had a desire to find some horror novel that was truly disturbing, I supposed to shock me out of my funk or just to give me an intensity of feeling. I didn't find it. I didn't look super-hard, to be fair, and I did find [a:Brian Lumley|20602|Brian Lumley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1246727488p2/20602.jpg]'s books as a result, which did not fit that particular bill but at least entertained me.
I read Monster now to give Matt Shaw a try after seeing a lot of his books reviewed by my GR friend Mort. I was nervous at the outset; could I handle black-cover extreme horror? The answer is, apparently, "yes." I found the whole thing rather silly, to be honest. It reminded me of scenes from Saw and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Putting candles in the birthday cake? Funny. The most horrifying part was the torturous domestic abuse, not so much disturbing in-text but but because it made me think of certain real-life accounts of awful child abuse and neglect. Now those are terrifying and disturbing. I'm a bigger fan of supernatural or cosmic or demonic horror in general.
The book was okay. The (victim) character backgrounds were decent, well-rounded. The story's location was confusing, because the first guy appears to be in England, as evidenced by calling diapers 'nappies' and the social expectation of buying equal rounds of pints in the pub, but the story is otherwise specified as set in Indiana, and there is no Indiana in England that I could find. I suspect that the authors were not mindful of these Britishisms, and I don't know that there was a third-party editor involved who could have caught that. The book could have used some more internal layout work, in terms of visually setting the layers of parts, chapters and sub-chapter headings, although maybe this type of story is best left a little disorganized.
Surprise, the real monster may not be who you expect!
I read Monster now to give Matt Shaw a try after seeing a lot of his books reviewed by my GR friend Mort. I was nervous at the outset; could I handle black-cover extreme horror? The answer is, apparently, "yes." I found the whole thing rather silly, to be honest. It reminded me of scenes from Saw and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Putting candles in the birthday cake? Funny. The most horrifying part was the torturous domestic abuse, not so much disturbing in-text but but because it made me think of certain real-life accounts of awful child abuse and neglect. Now those are terrifying and disturbing. I'm a bigger fan of supernatural or cosmic or demonic horror in general.
The book was okay. The (victim) character backgrounds were decent, well-rounded. The story's location was confusing, because the first guy appears to be in England, as evidenced by calling diapers 'nappies' and the social expectation of buying equal rounds of pints in the pub, but the story is otherwise specified as set in Indiana, and there is no Indiana in England that I could find. I suspect that the authors were not mindful of these Britishisms, and I don't know that there was a third-party editor involved who could have caught that. The book could have used some more internal layout work, in terms of visually setting the layers of parts, chapters and sub-chapter headings, although maybe this type of story is best left a little disorganized.
Surprise, the real monster may not be who you expect!
5hadow_girl's review
5.0
[a:Matt Shaw|1089965|Matt Shaw|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1341165127p2/1089965.jpg] & [a:Michael Bray|2301413|Michael Bray|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1450444038p2/2301413.jpg] reunited at last!
Since 1991 sixteen people have disappeared without a trace. The abductions are always at the beginning of August.
Christina Cooper has been following the case since the first disappearance, and searches for her own answers.
Today is August first, and Christina is about to learn more than she ever wanted to know.
There are some uncomfortable scenes, but they are necessary.
The characters wouldn’t be the same without them, and their actions wouldn’t have the same impact.
These guys managed to have me in tears reading an extreme horror novel! So IMO – they did everything right.
Full review posted on BBB.
Since 1991 sixteen people have disappeared without a trace. The abductions are always at the beginning of August.
Christina Cooper has been following the case since the first disappearance, and searches for her own answers.
Today is August first, and Christina is about to learn more than she ever wanted to know.
There are some uncomfortable scenes, but they are necessary.
The characters wouldn’t be the same without them, and their actions wouldn’t have the same impact.
These guys managed to have me in tears reading an extreme horror novel! So IMO – they did everything right.
Full review posted on BBB.
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