A review by magentabyfive
Monstrous by Jessica Lewis

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

 

I read an eARC of Monstrous by Jessica Lewis. Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Children’s Press. 

 

This horror book starts fast. Like that synopsis? Yeah, that mystery is solved really fast. When Latavia (Avia to her friends), she’s already attending the third funeral that summer, she’s extremely weirded out by the town, and by all the rules not only her aunt has, but that people in the community that also enforce that rule. She can’t go in the forest and she has to go straight home after church. Then when going to the candy store, one of the locals talks about making sure that she has the essentials for the full moon, that she should at least take the silver talismans for protection if nothing else. 

 

This all happens so fast, I was wondering how the book would draw out the big reveal, and then it didn’t. Within 20 to 30 pages, we’re knee-deep in the thick of it, and the plot is ready to happen. The only thing is, we have a lot of pages to cover, and not nearly enough to do. This means, in my opinion, the plot drags from this point. I understood some of it, but honestly, I felt like there was enough to fill it. This meant a little too much time with Avia with her friends, and way too much time with Avia apparently being extremely thick about certain “reveals” later that are not revealed at all to those reading the book. Like, the information was already given to her, and one thing had already been told to her in an indirect fashion, but one she should have more quickly figured out in order to move on to what was going on with her 

 

At the end, I did enjoy the book. When it’s at it’s horror moments, that when I really started to have fun with the book, but it did end up dragging despite its quick start.