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A review by the_coycaterpillar_reads
We Are Monsters by Brian Kirk
4.0
We Are Monsters is Brian Kirk’s debut novel and what a debut it is. The walk of sanity is a knife-edge. One slip and you can tumble to your death via a savage tumbling that cracks you open. Coping mechanisms may not be healthy and realities shift. One day you are a fully functioning individual, the next you are embarking on a divine mission to rid the world of demonic evil. Is sanity truly sane? Why were people committed to insane asylums for teenage pregnancy, infidelity and mild depression…are the realms of diagnosing insanity moral/accurate? When the real apocalypse arrives and if it’s anything close to this, dig a hole and throw yourself in because that is your only chance at survival.
Brian Kirk tackles some real hard-hitting themes – mental health, radical research which has immoral connotations and psychiatric treatments. The book is primarily told in the perspectives of Alex (Psychiatrist), Eli (Chief Medical Director) and Alison (Social Worker). Dr Eli Alpert has built his stellar reputation at Sugar Hill Hospital for his humanistic approach to mental health treatment. He believes that compassion and drug free methods has a higher success and relapse rate rather than purely medicinal treatments. He has a dark and troubling past which comes back to haunt him.
Dr Alex Drexler has constantly pissing against the wind. You really got to feel for the guy. He is at the top of his game, waiting in the wings for Eli to retire and capture the end goal of Chief Medical Director Position. Both Alex and Eli have different ethos. Alex having formulated a medicine that could potentially cure Schizophrenia. If only it wasn’t for that pesky issue of testing on humans without backing. His marriage, his career and his financial stability is riding upon this being regulated. The scenes with Dr Drexler testing his medicine gave me major anxiety. My eyes watered, my heart wanted to escape, and my stomach felt like it was on the super spin cycle.
Sugar Hill is seriously creepy. Chills down your spine, skulking along the corridors awaiting an axe murderer to end you. It restricts your breathing, engages your fight or flight response. Fear is an icy sweat. Fear is imagination losing all semblance of sanity. Fear is a broken psyche. This book gave me serious Gothika and Shutter Island feels. Brian Kirk is nerve-splittingly brilliant at examining the human condition. He has pulled back the layers of life to highlight how mental health is shoestring – pull too hard and it’ll break.
The second half of the book really goes into top gear. It’s on steroids. Just when you think that you know the remits of sanity, you are smacked across the face with a 2×4. It’s not the monsters that we should be fearful of…It’s insanity. It’s raw and excruciating, but at the end of it all it is indescribably human. It gains traction, it’s unique and terrifying.
Brian Kirk has created a true skin crawler. We Are Monsters has disguised itself as the most unapologetic trojan horse. If you enjoy deep, psyche breaking horror, this should hit the spot.
Brian Kirk tackles some real hard-hitting themes – mental health, radical research which has immoral connotations and psychiatric treatments. The book is primarily told in the perspectives of Alex (Psychiatrist), Eli (Chief Medical Director) and Alison (Social Worker). Dr Eli Alpert has built his stellar reputation at Sugar Hill Hospital for his humanistic approach to mental health treatment. He believes that compassion and drug free methods has a higher success and relapse rate rather than purely medicinal treatments. He has a dark and troubling past which comes back to haunt him.
Dr Alex Drexler has constantly pissing against the wind. You really got to feel for the guy. He is at the top of his game, waiting in the wings for Eli to retire and capture the end goal of Chief Medical Director Position. Both Alex and Eli have different ethos. Alex having formulated a medicine that could potentially cure Schizophrenia. If only it wasn’t for that pesky issue of testing on humans without backing. His marriage, his career and his financial stability is riding upon this being regulated. The scenes with Dr Drexler testing his medicine gave me major anxiety. My eyes watered, my heart wanted to escape, and my stomach felt like it was on the super spin cycle.
Sugar Hill is seriously creepy. Chills down your spine, skulking along the corridors awaiting an axe murderer to end you. It restricts your breathing, engages your fight or flight response. Fear is an icy sweat. Fear is imagination losing all semblance of sanity. Fear is a broken psyche. This book gave me serious Gothika and Shutter Island feels. Brian Kirk is nerve-splittingly brilliant at examining the human condition. He has pulled back the layers of life to highlight how mental health is shoestring – pull too hard and it’ll break.
The second half of the book really goes into top gear. It’s on steroids. Just when you think that you know the remits of sanity, you are smacked across the face with a 2×4. It’s not the monsters that we should be fearful of…It’s insanity. It’s raw and excruciating, but at the end of it all it is indescribably human. It gains traction, it’s unique and terrifying.
Brian Kirk has created a true skin crawler. We Are Monsters has disguised itself as the most unapologetic trojan horse. If you enjoy deep, psyche breaking horror, this should hit the spot.