A review by audreychamaine
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

4.0

Three manuscript notebooks describe horrors witnessed by a twelve year-old monstrumologist's assistant in late nineteen-century New England. Orphaned Will Henry works for Dr. Warthrop, a driven, half-mad scientist who studies what the rest of us would call monsters. Late one night, a frightened grave-robber brings the corpse of a nightmare he discovered during his dark work, leading to a story of the discovery of and fight against an ancient man-eater, the Anthropophagi--a creature with no head and a mouth in its chest, believed by most to be a mere myth. Horror ensues as the doctor and his assistant become both hunter and prey.

I was surprised that the story revolved around this single monster from ancient literary sources, one that most people don't even know nowadays. Yancey does not shy away from grizzly scenes and bloody violence. At times, the story dragged to me, but I think it was due to the gothic literary genre in which he is working, so I found it forgivable. This is a dark adventure that probes the depths of human evil and morality.