Reviewed by LadyJay for TeensReadToo.com
Young Will Henry is apprentice to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a doctor of a different kind of science.
Dr. Warthrop, a monstrumologist, hunts and studies creatures that are the stuff of nightmares. He has spent his entire life documenting and dissecting an array of bizarre creatures, and now his knowledge will be put to the test.
A nest of gruesome monsters, the Anthropophagi, is wreaking havoc on the sleepy town of New Jerusalem. These horrific beasts feed on human flesh and will stop at nothing to find and kill fresh victims.
With the help of Will Henry, Dr. Warthrop must stop the Anthropophagi before the entire population of New Jerusalem is destroyed.
Rick Yancy has created an exceptional horror/mystery/thriller/paranormal young adult novel. The storyline is extremely engaging - I was hooked at page one! I was very impressed with his use of vocabulary and dialogue.
I will say that this novel is definitely not for the faint of heart. Some of his scenes are very graphic, and his imagery can be intense at times. This would be an excellent Halloween read! I am hoping for more Monstrumology stories to come!
Young Will Henry is apprentice to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a doctor of a different kind of science.
Dr. Warthrop, a monstrumologist, hunts and studies creatures that are the stuff of nightmares. He has spent his entire life documenting and dissecting an array of bizarre creatures, and now his knowledge will be put to the test.
A nest of gruesome monsters, the Anthropophagi, is wreaking havoc on the sleepy town of New Jerusalem. These horrific beasts feed on human flesh and will stop at nothing to find and kill fresh victims.
With the help of Will Henry, Dr. Warthrop must stop the Anthropophagi before the entire population of New Jerusalem is destroyed.
Rick Yancy has created an exceptional horror/mystery/thriller/paranormal young adult novel. The storyline is extremely engaging - I was hooked at page one! I was very impressed with his use of vocabulary and dialogue.
I will say that this novel is definitely not for the faint of heart. Some of his scenes are very graphic, and his imagery can be intense at times. This would be an excellent Halloween read! I am hoping for more Monstrumology stories to come!
Like Lovecraft for today's YA crowd.
very much enjoyed this book! The author's writing style and the words he uses very much reminded me of some of H.P Lovecraft's writings. In other places the gruesome descriptions made me think of someone like Clive Barker or Stephen King.
I have to say at reading the description of the book I was figuring it was another attempt to jump on the Hogwart's Train but I couldn't have been more gladly wrong! There's not much lightheartedness to be found here. This isn't a fantasy world with magical beasts, think more along the lines of cryptozoology and legends. You don't realize it much while reading but the monsters aren't seen much. This, in my opinion, is the best way to build suspense and horror by not over exposing the beasties.
While a lot of YA offerings could be read by an eager, younger child I would not recommend it here unless they really enjoy monsters and a bit of gore here and there. Some sections were definitely getting an "ew!" or "ow!" from me while reading them.
The tale seems to drift from the main story once or twice but everything has it's place and the slow burn that builds is well worth the payoff. I'm looking forward to learning more about the characters.
very much enjoyed this book! The author's writing style and the words he uses very much reminded me of some of H.P Lovecraft's writings. In other places the gruesome descriptions made me think of someone like Clive Barker or Stephen King.
I have to say at reading the description of the book I was figuring it was another attempt to jump on the Hogwart's Train but I couldn't have been more gladly wrong! There's not much lightheartedness to be found here. This isn't a fantasy world with magical beasts, think more along the lines of cryptozoology and legends. You don't realize it much while reading but the monsters aren't seen much. This, in my opinion, is the best way to build suspense and horror by not over exposing the beasties.
While a lot of YA offerings could be read by an eager, younger child I would not recommend it here unless they really enjoy monsters and a bit of gore here and there. Some sections were definitely getting an "ew!" or "ow!" from me while reading them.
The tale seems to drift from the main story once or twice but everything has it's place and the slow burn that builds is well worth the payoff. I'm looking forward to learning more about the characters.
A New England towns oldest resident dies leaving no known surviving family. His journals end up at the university where a professor loans them to a writer friend. In the first three folios, we learn of young Will Henry whose father and mother died in a terrible house fire leaving him to the care of his fathers employerWarthrop. Warthrop is a monstrumologist. He studies monsters, and people arrive in the middle of the night for his help. One night a grave robber arrives with the body of a young girl wrapped in the horrifying embrace of an anthropophagusa creature with no head and a mouth full of shark-like teeth in the middle of his chest. Will Henry, as the assistant apprentice monstrumologist, soon finds himself sucked into the secret horror found in his hometown.
More than a delicious fright, beautiful language, and lifelike characters though, the narrator, being an older man looking back on his youth, brings to light several serious real-life questions that there arent any easy answers to, but it is lovely to read about within literature. Youll be reading along, enjoying the terror and horror and wit of the main story, then stumble upon a passage like this:
Perhaps that is our doom, our human curse, to never really know one another. We erect edifices in our minds about the flimsy framework of word and deed, mere totems of the true person, who, like the gods to whom the temples were built, remains hidden. We understand our own construct; we know our own theory; we loved our own fabrication. Stilldoes the artifice of our affection make our love any less real? (page 362)
And you stop, and you close the book, and you think about it, and maybe you cry a little bit, then you get back into it to see how Will Henry does against the monsters, but that thought, that beauty, that fact that someone else on the planet has wondered the same thing as you (only put it quite a bit better) sticks with you afterward. And that is what takes good writing and characterization into the land of exquisite storytelling.
Frankly, I think everyone should read this book.
Check out my full review.
More than a delicious fright, beautiful language, and lifelike characters though, the narrator, being an older man looking back on his youth, brings to light several serious real-life questions that there arent any easy answers to, but it is lovely to read about within literature. Youll be reading along, enjoying the terror and horror and wit of the main story, then stumble upon a passage like this:
Perhaps that is our doom, our human curse, to never really know one another. We erect edifices in our minds about the flimsy framework of word and deed, mere totems of the true person, who, like the gods to whom the temples were built, remains hidden. We understand our own construct; we know our own theory; we loved our own fabrication. Stilldoes the artifice of our affection make our love any less real? (page 362)
And you stop, and you close the book, and you think about it, and maybe you cry a little bit, then you get back into it to see how Will Henry does against the monsters, but that thought, that beauty, that fact that someone else on the planet has wondered the same thing as you (only put it quite a bit better) sticks with you afterward. And that is what takes good writing and characterization into the land of exquisite storytelling.
Frankly, I think everyone should read this book.
Check out my full review.
