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Kelsey Shelton's Reviews > Monstrilio
Monstrilio
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I don't think I understood the power of prose until I read this book. This novel is divided into 4 parts: Magos, Lena, Joseph, and Monstrilio. You'd expect the perspectives to shift as we watch how they experience the loss of Santiago and learn to live with a monster. But the prose doesn't change for any perspective. Everyone very straightforwardly recounts the same story.
This was supposed to be a book about grief, but the writing holds you at such arms length, you don't feel the weight of the grieving process. I feel it a bit from Magos' perspective but it evaporates as soon as Lena's takes over. And where's the inference! The implication! One user said this story reads like a screenplay and how true that is. I found myself wondering why this story was even told via this medium if it wasn't going to take advantage of the freedom this medium allows. There's no lyricism, no rhythm, no particular care to show what each of these characters is going through.
Since the writing is so straightforward, I don't finish this book caring about any of the characters. Instead, I find myself confused about their relationships, confused about their lack of reactions to Monstrilio, and confused about what it is they even love about him. There is a large time jump in the middle of the story where all the characters change immensely. The readers don't get to witness this change, rather we enter Joseph's POV with a new cast, a teenage Monstrilio, and a completely new story. This makes it even harder to feel any connection with this cast when they've all gone through something wholly separate from the audience.
The blurb is so, so misleading. I was really excited for a literary horror novel that used grief to exacerbate the horrific nature of it, but this was a coming of age story that occasionally featured fangs. I won't say I'm disappointed because I would've never realized what I like about character specific writing until I read this book, but I am befuddled by the choices made in this one.
This was supposed to be a book about grief, but the writing holds you at such arms length, you don't feel the weight of the grieving process. I feel it a bit from Magos' perspective but it evaporates as soon as Lena's takes over. And where's the inference! The implication! One user said this story reads like a screenplay and how true that is. I found myself wondering why this story was even told via this medium if it wasn't going to take advantage of the freedom this medium allows. There's no lyricism, no rhythm, no particular care to show what each of these characters is going through.
Since the writing is so straightforward, I don't finish this book caring about any of the characters. Instead, I find myself confused about their relationships, confused about their lack of reactions to Monstrilio, and confused about what it is they even love about him. There is a large time jump in the middle of the story where all the characters change immensely. The readers don't get to witness this change, rather we enter Joseph's POV with a new cast, a teenage Monstrilio, and a completely new story. This makes it even harder to feel any connection with this cast when they've all gone through something wholly separate from the audience.
The blurb is so, so misleading. I was really excited for a literary horror novel that used grief to exacerbate the horrific nature of it, but this was a coming of age story that occasionally featured fangs. I won't say I'm disappointed because I would've never realized what I like about character specific writing until I read this book, but I am befuddled by the choices made in this one.
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Reading Progress
April 2, 2023
– Shelved
April 2, 2023
– Shelved as:
books-for-2023
April 2, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
April 21, 2023
–
Started Reading
May 4, 2023
–
Finished Reading
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rated it 3 stars
Nov 30, 2023 05:25PM
I just finished this book and came here looking for a similar review! The lack of explanation about the changes when we start Joseph's POV actually made me go back to see if I had missed something.
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I’m about 50% done with this book, and so far I feel like I agree with you
Yes! I just finished Monstrilio, wrote my thoughts down (negative), and came to Goodreads curious to see what others got from this book. I was shocked to see so many positive reviews. Your review completely covers how I feel.
There are so many lack luster descriptions of crying, lack of crying, going red in the face, but there’s practically no interior life for any of the characters. No thoughts or inference, as you said. Just bland description - “this happened.”
I found myself continuously shocked and frustrated at characters lack of holding each other accountable. I’m all for unlikeable characters. But jeez, we HAVE to ground the surrounding character’s behavior towards said unlikeable character in reality. I couldn’t understand why Joe and Lena unwaveringly loved Magos, or why all three of them loved Monstrilio.
I connected with none of the characters. The lack of emotional devastation in this book combined with a completely boring and predictable ending left me feeling frustrated and baffled.
Thank you for articulating my dissatisfaction so well. I finished and went..."wtf.". I've been trying to coherently explain it to my husband and I just keep coming back to "I wish he would have eaten his f'ing family."
