Customer Reviews

The Monstrumologist

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm a grandmother, somewhere between menopause and death, and my usual selection of books would never include a monster book (except for the Twilight series maybe), but this was a free book for Kindle, so I downloaded it. Late one night, I finished "The Help" (excellent) and just opened this to prove to myself that I didn't like it, and I could delete it from my Kindle. I read a couple of pages, then a couple more, and before you know it, my husband is going to bed and I'm sitting up, scared to death and can't stop reading. Oh, it's gross, it will make your skin crawl at times, it's totally creepy. It's definitely not the kind of book you should read sitting up alone at night with hubby already gone to bed, but I loved it. I'll probably have nightmares for a long time over this, with the cold mist of the fog over cobblestone streets and unthinkable things that go bump in the night.
The surprise was the writing style. I didn't expect eloguent language, talented writing, page-flipping suspense, but it delivered all of that. So don't rule this one because you don't think this would be your cup of tea. It just may be.

Rick Yancey's throwback gothic horror novel, THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST, takes its readers back to 1888 New England where young Will Henry narrates the strange tale of his master, Pellinore Warthrop, and their "search and destroy" mission against a bloodthirsty pod of monstrous killers called anthropophagi. These creatures are headless (though not thoughtless), vicious (though not foolish), and gourmands of human flesh (though not averse to mere animal flesh, if no human cuisine is on the menu). The creatures' mouths, located in the stomach-area (how direct!), are not unlike a great white shark's. Perfect for eating, in other words -- wholesale.

While Yancey's YA gem is undeniably a "plot book," it is also blessed on other fronts. The characterization, for instance, is excellent. The key characters are not cardboard, but real, with traits both admirable and abominable. Dr. Warthrop sometimes lets science get in the way of his humanity, but he's nothing compared to the dashingly dangerous Jack Kearns, a fellow monstrumologist called into the fray when it is learned that there is not just one, but many, anthropophagi living beneath an otherwise tranquil New England cemetery. Kearns delights in the hunt, and the more dangerous, the better. The trouble is, he'll stop at nothing to accomplish his goals and, to him, the laws of church and state are more a source of amusement than reference.

The novel also features a convincingly Victorian style, what with its more advanced vocabulary and numerous allusions to Greek mythology. Both doctors are cool under pressure (and pressure abounds in this creepy book), bringing to mind the unflappable Sherlock Holmes. Overall, it's a singularly well-written book, a riveting display of the horror genre, and, for young Will Henry, a nightmarish coming-of-age tale. Best of all? It's the first of a series. If we are to vicariously hunt more creatures and things that go bump in the night, then, count me in. I haven't had this much fun in a long time.

Alright, alright, so I exaggerate as I am still wearing pants as I write this. However, this book did give me a fright and I had trouble sleeping for several nights due to it. Now granted, I get scared easily. The first time I saw "The X-Files" I had trouble sleeping too so maybe I'm not as stout of heart as others when it comes to these things. But this book creeped me out so I will say it is not for the faint-of-heart since there are *many* gory descriptions and events.

At 432 pages, it is not a book to breeze through considering the author's writing style can be meandering at times. While some ruminations were profound, others were long winded and made the text boring. The story was slow for the first 100 pages but picked up really quickly. Still, once the action was established I could not put it down.

The characters were multi-layered, the plot was interesting, the monsters scary and the ending was satisfying. I'm trying to think of another book to compare it to, or at least to say, "If you like (blank) then this book is for you" but I just can't. This book is truly unique.

I did not give this five stars as I am trying to reserve that for books that I want to read again the moment I finish them. So to be more precise, 4.5 stars. This is obviously the first in a series and I look forward to reading the upcoming books.

The Monstrumologist is one of the creepiest, goriest and most thrilling YA-intended novels I have read recently. Rick Yancy, creator of the popular Alfred Knopp series, has really outdone himself with this gothic masterpeice.

The premise reminded me a lot of Joseph Delaney's popular Last Apprentice series (if you haven't read them, check them out-they are a lot of fun!) in which a young boy is fostered by a local doctor after the death of his parents and becomes an assistant to him. In this surprisingly creepy first novel, we are thrown into the utterly visceral world of pre-turn of the century New England.

Yancey has written such a well thought out, realistic view of life in the late 19th century that you can't help but almost FEEL the grime and filth of that era. There are moments in the story that are so filled with realistic descriptions that you almost feel clauserphobic. You can literally almost smell the cloyingly pungent scent of rotting flesh at times!

Will Henry is our main character...A young boy of twelve who serves as an apprentice for Doctor Warthrop, the town of New Jerusalem's eccentric monster-slayer. Of course, the Doctor's monster hunting title is hush-hush and the locals of the town just take him to be a crazy scientist of sorts...but his huntings are 100% real and VERY scary!

This was a fantastic new entry to the world of horror and I definitely recommend it to fans of The Last Apprentice or even Stephen King. Honestly though, I am quite surprised that it IS intended for young adults since the violence and gore are so extreme at points. There are some fairly graphic scenes of dismemberment, mutilation, and typical blood and gore fare that come with monsters ravaging human flesh. There is even a rather disturbing human/monster impregnation that reminded me a lot of the Alien franchise that I am not so sure a lot of parents of young kids would be happy to find out there kids were reading about. Don't get me wrong, I loved every second of it...Just not sure this is for the younger crowd. I would aim it more so at the mid to late teen age range.

That said, BUY THIS BOOK NOW!!! This will leave you reading far into the late hours of the night. It's the kind of book that leaves you seconding guessing the shadows in your room once the lights go out.

AMAZING new start to what is surely going to be a top-notch horror series. I am very excited about the next installment!!

'Monstrumology, the science of the unthinkable'

If you take a mixture of H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, E.A. Poe, added a smackeral of Dickens to the mix with the original, imagination of Rick Yancey, there you have it: The Monstrumologist, a literary feast of horror.

'The Monstrumologist' by Rick Yancey, is a Victorian monster story unlike any I have ever read. Poor twelve year old William, an orphan, is the apprentice-assistant to The Monstumologist. His is a peculiar life, full of late night dissections, cemetary romps, visits to lunatic asylums, and bloody battles in the depths of the earth. You merely glimpse at his young playful side only once in this story - and the rest of the time is serious business as he is indispensible to the doctor.

The characters in the story come alive with depth, clarity, and vivid descriptions. I felt like I knew each person in the book and cared quite a bit for a few of them. One character that I really, really liked was Dr. Kearns,or J. Schmidt, an elusive, scary man, festive in an odd way, but what what an awesome character!

The monsters in this book are fierce, The Anthropophagi, are hungry beasts that set out to hunt and eat humans, and the Monstrumologist and his assistant are forced into a blood curdling adventure to stop them before they kill again. There are many twists and turns in the book that make it a page turner. This is a book that will make you want to stay up late and read, though thoughts of it as you try to sleep might make it difficult.

I truly hope there are scores of notebooks to be found written by William, because I want to follow along in this poor boy's life for a long, long time and read every word of his journey. In other words, I hope there will be a lot of books!

While reading this book, I would try and explain to my family of five the occurances of what happens therein, and they would look at me with their mouths open, agape in horror at what I was describing. It's a book you have to read, mere explanations will not do it justice. From me, it also calls for a second, slower reading, in hopes I didn't miss anything.

I also found, the same as when I was a child watching Frankenstein, or The Mummy, or other monster movies, I always felt sorry for the monster - I haven't changed. But the chase and the action are just as fun still today and I thoroughly enjoyed with the utmost of giddiness this superior novel of grisly horror.

This wasn't really the book I was expecting. Based on the Alfred Kropp novels, I was expecting it to be a bit more lighthearted. Make no mistake, this is a dark and serious novel, of real monsters, both in human form and not. If I had picked up this novel in a store, the 19th century woodcut-style illustrations of anatomy and surgical tools on the opening pages probably would have tipped me off to the true style and content of the novel.

Our hero, 12 year old Will Henry, became the monstrumologist's assistant when his father, the former assistant, died a horrible death in a fire. An orphan, Will Henry is taken in by Dr. Warthrop, where he becomes privy to all the horrible secrets of the doctor's house but none of the doctor's soul.

When a grave robber calls in the middle of the night with an abomination, a dead headless monster, an Anthropopagus, in the process of consuming a wealthy corpse, the horror begins in earnest. Part detective story - how did Anthropopagi come not only to America, but to this particular town, one of the few places in America where an expert would recognize them - and part action story - the pod needs to be killed before they devour the town - the story is lively even as it is macabre.

Horror is not my genre; and yet, I dug in and finished this novel quickly. It is well written and intelligent. Will Henry makes an excellent guide through the horrors of the story. For my own self, I would probably just as soon not have read it, and it was definitely a mistake to stay up an extra hour to finish it on a night where I needed a full night's sleep... because when I finished it, sleep did not seem like a very good idea at all.

As a middle school teacher, I read a lot of Juvenile fiction, though the horror genre isn't my most common draw. I feel that Rick Yancey's imagery is a little more grotesque than is necessary to convey his plot. This is horror fiction however, and that may be part of the appeal. This book is not about the gore though, it is about monsters, and the monsters that humans can become.

In the end I felt that the Monstrumologist left a lot on the table. On occasion, characters seemed to be forced away from drawing obvious conclusions, possibly in order to save those revelations for a sequel. The blurb references HP Lovecraft, but I feel that the author draws his inspiration more from popular television such as Fringe, or Sanctuary (who in turn reference HP Lovecraft). And like those television shows, Yancey spends a lot of time laying the groundwork for followup novels. The wrap up was unsatisfying as a result, since the story is clearly not yet over.

As an introduction to the series, I found it difficult to like all of the primary characters, possibly because in their pursuit of monsters their more monstrous behaviors had become commonplace. If you need to have wrongs righted, and villains punished, horror fiction isn't going to scratch that itch. It will however, show you the worst that we can become, and our bright shining moments that are only visible in the darkest hours.

Mr. Yancy has just produced a chilling story that is definitely movie material. I know the age is for teen fiction, but at 40+ I found this story to be delightfully gory and scary. You can smell the blood and gore, you can feel the fear of the unknown and you start to dread when night comes. Will Henry, a young boy who lost his parents and is now the apprentice to a doctor who happens to hunt monsters... Both Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop share a unique bond of likeness that only the most clever of readers can pick up...These monsters are disgusting and keep you turning the pages to see what happens next! Mr. Yancy cleverly weaves in the flavor of Moby Dick, Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes all into a new and unique story filled with humor, blood and fear. I really hope this book becomes a movie - it is totally scary and the end has a marvelous twist!

If I had only two words to describe "The Monstrumologist" by Rick Yancey, they would be "deliciously creepy." I had not read a horror novel in some time, and I had almost forgotten the thrill of wondering what will happen next, yet almost being too afraid to turn the page!

The book seemed, to me at least, to be almost a cross between a Young Indiana Jones adventure mixed with Stephen King. (Heavy on the King.) The story, set in late 1880s New England, is told from the perspective of 12-year-old Will Henry who is taken in by his parents' employer, Dr. Warthrop, after their deaths. His life irrevocably changed, he becomes the apprentice to the monstrumologist, or monster hunter. Though the people in the town think the doctor is just an eccentric recluse of sorts, the monsters he hunts are all too real. And when a grave robber comes to their door late one night, with a shroud-wrapped creature in his cart, Will Henry is thrust headlong into a horrifying hunt to find the others... for where there is one, there are more. And they are very, very hungry.

The story is extremely graphic in its horrors, with detailed descriptions of death, mutilation, blood and gore... stuff any horror fan will love. I don't think I would recommend this to younger kids, but older teens who enjoy the thrill of the macabre will love it. It's the kind of book you'll want to read in the dead of night, under the covers with a flashlight. The monster itself is unique and not one I was familiar with, but is written about in such detail that the reader is left with no doubt as to how truly horrifying it is.

The journals of Will Henry, as read in "The Monstrumologist," tell only one tale of his adventures as an apprentice monster hunter. I, for one, cannot wait to read more!

This is too scary to even tell about!
Don't read it if you are alone.
Don't read it if you are scared of monsters!
Don't read it if you are scared of the grave yards!
Don't read it if you are scared of scary things!

The plot starts with a prologue when a very old man dies and leaves behind his diaries. The diaries include a strange story of Monstrumologist.
The monstrumologists seem to have exists and even have had a society of their own even if nobody knew it.
A young boy called Will Henry tells how a man called Erasmus Gray pulls his horse and cart up to Dr. Warthrop's house (where the orphan boy lives) in the middle of the night. He reveals the body of a young woman and an Anthropophagi, "one wrapped around the other in an obscene embrace." The girl has part of her neck and face torn out..with fangs or something like that.
Dr. Warthrop dissects both the girl and the monster, and finds an Anthropophagi fetus in the dead girl's womb.Warthrop explains to Will Henry that Anthropophagi require a host to grow their young in. Dr. Warthrop theorizes that because Anthropophagi are indigenous to Africa and have never been seen in the Americas before, there could only be one or two more in the area at most...or so he thought...The following night, Warthrop, Gray, and Will Henry go to the cemetery to return the girl's body to her grave.They meet the monsters, one of them loses his live and the other ones need to reconsider their theories and beliefs of these horrible monsters.