Club Monstrosity by Jesse Peterson - Book Review
Send to KindleClub Monstrosity - Book Review
Written by Jesse Peterson
Published by Pocket Star (April 29, 2013)
Club Monstrosity is kind of like AA for creatures of myth, legend and late night creature features…except there’s no twelve step program for being a monster. Mostly you just have to live with it, and hope that humanity as a whole doesn’t notice you.
Our protagonist Natalie is one of Doctor Frankentein’s later creations, a mishmash of human parts and existential angst. She shares the group with Dracula (who now calls himself Drake but can’t bear to part with his opera cape), Bob The Blob, a sexy werewolf (sic) named Alec, an outburst prone Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dr. Jekyll/Mr Hyde and on a purely theoretical basis, The Invisible Man. Oh and there’s a sexy Mummy who uses her bandages to keep moisturizer in touch with her skin at all times.
Club Monstrosity is an easy, light read with some very clever ideas woven into the tale, but ultimately it’s a tale that doesn’t quite hang together. I finished the book because there are some truly superb moments hidden in club Monstrosity; in particular Jekyll and Hyde manage to have interactions that are both terribly creepy and oddly sweet.
I think the blame for Club Monstrosity’s weaknesses sits with the villain. The antagonist isn’t properly built up throughout the story, and despite a little foreshadowing their appearance in the last twenty percent of the book feels like it comes out of nowhere. The anatagonist has a very good reason for doing the things they do, but it wasn’t properly explored and I couldn’t help feeling that the antagonist’s story was a missed opportunity.
That’s not to say Club Monstrosityis all bad, the characterization of your favourite movie monsters as being actual people works very well, and each of the members of Club Monstrosity feels like a distinct character with their own voice and motivations. The idea that a creation of Frankenstein gets its powers from the bits of the corpses in its make up is not new, but it’s well handled here.
If you want an in depth urban fantasy novel then this probably isn’t it, but if you’re after something light and fun then then this is the book for you.
Review By Andrew Jack
Support group for monsters? Doesn’t sound too far fetched to me. If they existed in our world I suppose there would probably be be reality tv shows about coping with being a monster. Better than Breaking Amish that’s for sure.
To be fair there’s a little bit in the way of sex monsters in this, but for the most part they have very relatable problems. I hope you enjoy it
Light and fun sounds exactly like something I am in the mood for. I am sooooo tired of sexy monsters. Why not ones with day-to-day problems and lives we can relate to, sort of.