Customer Reviews

X Files YA #12 Grotesque

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I started reading this book in a local bookstore and it got me curious so I had to purchase the book to find out the rest of the story. I found the book to be excellent: it keeps you on the edge of your seat, it leads you to believe things (only to find out you didn't know what you thought you knew), it has different twists to throw you off, is well written, and is easy to read. To be honest, I'm 32 years old and pick up "young adult" type books in order to give me a break from books by Grisham or Clancey. It's good to enjoy a book without having to think too hard. I have not read any other books in this series (and have watched X-Files only once), but I'm going to start.

Define "young adult." What age is the target audience? Appropriateness and censorship have come up recently in conversations about the suitability of certain books for this age group. Perhaps "Grotesque, #12, The X-Files" belongs in this conversation.

As an elementary/middle school librarian, I believe it is part of my responsibility to evaluate a book's appropriateness for placement on a shelf for maturing students (middle school). Its position there makes it accessible to younger students, too, whose radar takes them straight to books I think too "mature." Let me tell you about "Grotesque," and you be the judge.

When I came to this small Catholic school library four years ago, there were already four books in the X-Files series for young adults (none of which I have read). After students tire of Goosebumps, they want something better (define how you want). Most turn to Star Wars, some find X-Files. I show them other titles, but they want GB and SW. The last time I went to the local bookstore, I found "Grotesque" and decided to add it to the library collection. I just finished reading it.

If you remember, X-Files was a television series about the supernatural, aliens, anything beyond the realm of "natural." The term in the title of this book refers to an ancient gargoyle who apparently is snatching the body of a living person in order to have a vehicle for mayhem and murder. Specifically, the gargoyle slashes faces to a bloody pulp then stabs them to death or leaves them to die. Not all bodies are found.

The story begins with an interior monologue of an older artist in a night class. He sweats and mumbles to himself, then leaves immediately at the end of class. The nude model, a young college student, is found later slashed and stabbed.

Mulder and Scully are called in by a very frustrated FBI agent who cannot catch this serial killer. He knows Mulder's propensity for the supernatural. It is a secret request because the agent and Mulder are enemies from way back. For the first time Mulder works separately from Scully. This is a bad case.

When the artist is arrested for this latest murder and placed in the mental ward on suicide watch, Mulder intuits that this is not the killer. He finds dozens of head sketches of this grotesque gargoyle attached to the walls all over the artist's studio apartment. Then he makes a horrible discovery: there is a secret room with some really damning evidence.

What I have revealed in no way gives away the shocker in the story. If the reader accepts the premise of the story, i.e., can willingly suspend disbelief, he/she knows early on that the artist is the killer. Or is he? Is a gargoyle really using his body for murder? It is for the shocker that I give three stars. I easily suspend disbelief, but not this time, not for this. While the surprise IS possible, I don't accept it.

Also for the graphic details of the slashing and stabbing I give three stars. I've seen my nephew's violent video games, but frankly, they don't compare with the details in this book. Or the disturbing possession of living bodies by evil spirits to be used for evil. And the haunting and horrible descriptions of the possession. Place this in high school. No problems there. But middle school students who want to read this book can go to the bookstore or public library. I don't want to be the one who puts this book into their hands.

Any thoughts?

Note: I just discovered that there are two X-Files series: one for middle school and one for high school and mature younger readers (10 and up). An example of the middle school series is X Files #08 Voltage (X Files Middle Grade), the series in my library. I feel comfortable with these designations.
I tried to change my rating to four stars, but the program won't allow it.