The Monstrumologist

I expected more of an adventure book than a horror novel. It was definitely the latter. However, the rich text and excellent narration made this a series I will continue to read.

The writing was so vivid, you could taste the fear in the air along with the story characters.

Will Henry, and secretly, Kearns

When they ambush the Anthropophagi pack

Throughout the book the relationship between Will and the Doctor evokes both anger and compassion

Although at times sickening in the decriptions of the horrors, its a verbal car crash that you can not turn away from.

This is well written by Yancey and well read by Boyer. I have to repeat what a prior reviewer said that this is *definitely* not a youth novel. I think they only mention Yancey's youth novels in the synopsis as a way to convey he's a good writer as evidenced by his awards in that genre. What I can't make up my mind about is whether I will listen to the next book (the end makes it plain there will be more). I'm really interested to know what happens next, but the story can convey such hopelessness throughout that I sometimes had a hard time continuing to listen. There is no doubt as to the "lovecraftian" nature of the book (forboding, dark, horrifying, graphic, gruesome, hopeless).
Guess I'll have to wait and see what the next book holds.

It was tedious. I imagine some of it was due to the attempt to write it in 1880s vernacular and description, but there were a great deal of words for not a great deal going on.

It's listed as young adult, but I don't see it - it has some fairly explicit violence and though not a parent I don't think it was appropriate for kids.

I read the blurb for the book on Amazon, and I think I fell into the same trap that Level 26 had for me. Don't read just the good reviews - quite often the truth lies somewhere in between. Then again, maybe I'm being too harsh. A great deal of reviews were from buyers who really enjoyed this book. I really didn't. I think I built it up in my head to be something it isn't. I was really disappointed by it.

If you love "all things Lovecraftian", than this will do for you. It has that Lovecraft feel, very imaginative and satisfying. I hope to see more from this writer. Narrator, also, was excellent.

I am 1/2 way through listening to this book and actually enjoying the homage to Lovecraft.

I knew when I bought that it was about monsters. I even did some research and found the author writes both adult and youth books. Not a problem I quite like that genre if it is done well and the author is an excellent writer. This book was published on the youth side of things and so I expected something a little different than what I found.

So far in the 5 hours I have listened (and without giving anything away I hope) I have been through at least 3 heavily gore encrusted scenes, murder, illegal activities, evisceration, sever (and detailed) sepsis and some fairly high end psychosis involving abandonment issues.

In my opinion this is not a book that should be targeted to youth - unless they tend toward wearing a lot of black and too much eyeliner I would recommend parents listen along with their 'young adult'.

You are warned - it is gory - very Lovecraftian, well written - but gory.

I liked the story, but I almost got sick a few times from the descriptions... evidently, the author is very good at making the reader visualize with his descriptions.

This was one of the better books I've listened to.

Will Henry was a rock of courage

Steven Boyer was excellent.

Most of all, I loved the alliteration. It would have felt silly in any other kind of book, but it totally made sense that Will Henry would tell a story that way. He was so poised under pressure and so proper in his servitude that and he would never write directly how shaken he was. It was almost like the staccato repetition of consonants was his subconcious or "coded" way of expressing the sheer horror of his situation. Incredible work Mr. Yancy

I'm not a big fan of gore. But it was totally worth it for the perfect use of Alliteration. The Bard of Beowulf would be bowing before the accomplishment.

Execution through Rick's writing style alone renders this book a FAIL to me. Telling a story through a supposed twelve-year-old boy's journal is completely absurd when the rhetoric is sesquipedalian in nature and does not read anything like a journal. That is to say he uses large or unusual words to illustrate simple dialogue, as I just did. It removes authenticity from the entire narrative by what seems a shoddy attempt to confuse or impress his young adult readers. I eventually stopped listening in Part 2 of the book after being completely fed up with the author's sloppy overuse of certain words. A few great examples are the words "flesh", "alabaster", and "corpse." I have never seen an author use word repetition to this extent; especially when it would seem his vocabulary is extensive.

Writing style aside, the story was not very engaging in my opinion because you knew what was coming. Perhaps I expected too much from a "monster" book...

Notice I didn't even comment on the gore? I enjoy a good splash of gore and I will credit his ability to illustrate those scenes well, if nothing else.

Rick could have taken his well done research on Anthropophagi and let the story unfold more like a mystery than a poorly scripted dialogue of observations.

Steven Boyer did a great job, given what he had to work with. It would have been nice to hear distinctions among outside characters however, as they were all delivered in the same voice.

I'd start with the useless journal idea and keep cutting...

My review may be a tad harsh but after reading some fantastic books in the horror and YA genres I simply cannot rate this higher than 1 star.

Although I did not enjoy the book I thought Rick's characters were well done and his historical fiction, believable.

I would only recommend this book for those who do not care about writing style or narrative, love monsters and gore and those who don't mind a fairly linear plot.

Bloody, dark, gloomy and so very, very well written. This is a great book and a great first book in the series. (make sure you get the others asap). THe narrator is great, the characters are fantastic. I loved this one.