Title: Monster.
Author: C.J. Skuse.
Publication Date: September 24th, 2015.
Publisher: Mira Ink.
Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Young Adult.
Format: Paperback, 384 pages.
Source: ARC Provided By Publisher.
My Rating:
There are things out there, real things that we need to worry about.
At sixteen, Nash thought the biggest fight that she'd face would be the battle to become Head Girl of prestigious boarding school, Bathory.
Until her brother's disappearance leads to Nash being trapped at the school over Christmas with Bathory's assorted misfits. As a blizzard rages outside, strange things are afoot in the school's dark, dangerous hallways.
And the girls will have to stick together if they hope to survive.
Review
Monster is a hard book for me to review, mostly because I'm in two minds about what I really thought about it. On one hand it had a lot going for it, with a creepy setting and plot with some rather intense scenes and on the other, it was incredibly slow at the beginning! It took over 150 pages before anything remotely interesting happened, and I was bored to tears during that time and considered DNF’ing it on more than one occasion. However, when it did finally pick up, I found it rather enjoyable! There are quite a few twists and turns throughout Monster, and although it was a little predictable at times, I thought it was a rather fun and creepy stand alone novel.
Nash is our main protagonist in Monster, and I liked her character a little bit, but mostly I wasn’t that fond of her. She managed to keep a level head throughout most of the book, which I commend her for, but other than that I thought she was rather immature, and some of the things she said had me furrowing my brow and wondering what on earth I was reading. She was also a little too stuck up for my liking, and I wasn't keen on how quickly she went from disliking and not wanting to associate with a bunch of the misfits to being all pally with them. The other characters in Monster were well developed and fun to read about and I really loved Maggie, Nash’s new friend, she was incredibly sarcastic and funny. There was also a little bit of romance between Nash and a local boy, Charlie, but I thought it was rather stale, and didn't care for his character whatsoever – it was also a very bad case of instalove!
Overall, I did enjoy reading Monster when the action started to happen and the pace picked up. C.J. Skuse has a very funny and quirky writing style that I found fun to read, and I admit I chuckled quite a few times at some of the lines throughout Monster. However, the slow paced beginning really did drag down the rating for me, and I found it rather disappointing because of this. Also, some of the aspects throughout the book seemed a little too juvenile for my liking, and I was a little confused about some of the general things that were said. I will definitely be reading more from C.J. Skuse in the future as I’ve heard her other novels are really good, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoy them more than I did this one. And finally, I would recommend this book if you’re interested in thriller mystery novels, but please be prepared for a very slow beginning!
Quotes
I had to see it more clearly. I had to know if it was there for sure, the thing I’d been seeing for weeks now, darting across fields, hiding around corners, vanishing behind trees. The killer of dozens of sheep and chickens. And possible humans.
But, in a second, it had gone, vanished into the hedge with barely the rustle of a leaf. - Page 12.
A branch cracked somewhere in the woods.
'What was that?' I said, a frozen ache spreading all through my limbs.
'Maybe it's the Beast, come back for the spine?' - Page 66.
'Keep safe?' said Maggie. 'How are we supposed to keep safe, Nash? We've got a friggin' murderer running loose about the hills, there's so much snow out there I keep expecting a Yeti to come hiking through it at any minute, and we've got no internet connection. How do you expect us not to panic?'
'Leon's not running about the hills,' snapped Dianna. '[...] It's too cold to go out in this. He's probably just as frightened as we are.'
'Poor baby,' said Maggie. 'Are his lil' stabby hands getting all frozy-wozy?' - Page 181.
Maggie, Dianna and Clarice all looked at each other then, one after the other, went into the Aladdin's cave I'd just opened up for them - a dressing room, ostensibly, but also the room where the Saul-Hudsons kept all their most strictly private 'stuff'. It wasn't long before the screams came.
'What the hell is all this stuff?'
'Oh. My. God!' Maggie shrieked. 'It's a total kink fest! Like where Ann Summers went to die!'
I laughed. 'Just bring the fluffy pink handcuffs. Nothing else.' - Page 212.
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