A review by midimichi
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

2.0

Ugggghhh. I struggled with this book. I felt that the first installment of the series was great. It was clever, an interesting concept, the characters were relatable and well developed, their motivations were clear… I understand why they chose to turn it into a film, even if they butchered the story completely. (I don’t blame Tom Holland, I love him) but… the second book in this series drove me a tad crazy. It was dragged out. The story didn’t progress much. The mayor is the absolute worst and I hated how much time Todd spent with him. Viola’s part of the tale started out fascinating and heart wrenching at times but that mistress… Coyle? Hated her from the first second. Stop calling her “my girl.” Ugh, annoying. Anyway, it just continued for too long. And this book was much the same. The entire book was the war. Non-stop. People conniving, fighting, barely surviving, worrying about each other… I don’t know. I think a book with war and all these complex emotions and scenes are fantastic, but not an entire book that is this without end. And then what happens to Todd?? The lack of ending?? Gar. Fine. We as the reader can fill in the gaps and choose the ending. I get it. Admittedly I intend to do something similar in a series I’m writing… I just. I got tired of the mayor. So so tired. He needed to be gone. I struggled with Todd and the way he was being manipulated. Viola’s part of the story was more interesting in ways and yet still, annoying so much of the time. Honestly the Spackle, 1017? Was the most interesting part of the book in many ways. I understood why his character was the way it was. His story came full circle and I appreciated that. But this ending reminded me of Eragon. Does anyone else remember how poorly that story turned out? Started out great! Unique, new, interesting, well crafted but it ended a fiery heap of garbage. Such a disappointment. Oh well. I would read the first book but skip the movie and the rest of the books… for both of these series. Just know Viola didn’t die at the end of the first book and you’re good to go. And let’s just pretend the couples that should be together are, at the end of the stories? Yep. Happily ever after sounds nice right about now.