Reviews and Comments

Oh dang, there I go giving another book five stars. But this was so good! Even when part way through I realised this could pass as magical realism, and I don't like magical realism!

Monstrilio weirdly reminds me most of a Paul Auster family drama, despite all the blood, guts, fur and fangs. Every character is so well realised yet I didn't notice when this happened. The structure, where each act is told through a different character, kept the story fresh and continually building. I was expecting a different ending, I'll leave it at that to avoid spoilers. I just really loved this. I've run out of books again.

I need to finish this over the weekend or I suspect I'm going to be ugly-crying on my commute next week

Honestly this is an absolute banger of a book and maybe my favourite horror novel. It's tense, scary, multifaceted, funny, shocking and entertaining. I haven't actually seen the movie before, quite an omission on my part but I'm really glad I read this book first - I didn't see the ending coming.

That didn't take long

This is a very incremental psychological horror about our propensity to absorb and assimilate the not-quite-right in ways that aren't good for us. It's quite brilliantly done as sort of a haunted house story, but also a story about two people and their relationship. I really loved it.

My main worry when I started this book was that it wouldn't do much but cover the well-trodden ground of US race politics. That worry was founded, but at the same time this is such a we'll-executed book it doesn't really matter. It was evident early on what was going to happen, save a few minor plot twists. So it was a bit predictable, but also meant that the book was very tense all the way through - I was terrified of reading the climax. At the time I was going through a difficult period in real life so I avoided reading more than a little bit at a time. The scares in this book aren't supernatural. They're real and they're pretty sadistic too. I know I'm not selling this book but it was good - the characters, even, especially the minor ones, were well-written and the world fully realised.

I was completely taken by the Ikea catalogue parody design of Horrorstör and that counted for a lot. I enjoyed this a lot although once the shit hit the fan it seemed a bit rushed. Grady Hendrix can be very scary but in this case didn't quite make it. The ending however did not cop out. I recommend this if you're looking for something light and fun in between horror reads.

So I did enjoy this - it made me happy. Even though it was overly long, kind of boring and whiny. Oh Louis, get over yourself. Like re-reading Pride and Prejudice, or Dracula, in that it's the kind of book that makes me want to tell the characters off. But not as well-written as either. Anne Rice farts around too much, and obviously had her own tortured relationship with good, evil, sin, etc to process via this book. Anyway. It was better than I expected.

It's finished! I adored this trilogy, especially the first book because it was such a revelation. I will definitely be re-reading them all not least because there are so many characters and waiting for the next book to come out meant forgetting some.

I find my interest in slasher movies is even greater than it was, now having read these.

Can't wait for whatever SGJ does next.