The Monstrumologist Paperback – July 20, 2010

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 is no stranger to the strange. As creator of the award winning Alfred Kropp series, he has more than dabbled in the fantastic and has spun many entertaining yarns for the YA reader. In the Monstrumologist, Mr. Yancey kicks off a new series set in 19th century United States featuring Monstrumologist Pellimore Warthrop and his young apprentice Will Henry. Once again aimed at the YA crowd, Yancey overshoots his target audience and makes a book that will be deemed a great read by discerning adults as well.
Yancey expertly tells the story of Will Henry through a series of journal entries detailing an infestation of monsters in the fictitious New England town of New Jerusalem. Orphaned by a father who also apprenticed to driven monstrumologist Dr. Warthrop, Will Henry has inherited his father’s line of work. It is not an ideal situation. Young Will is often left to his own devices by the fanatical doctor and seems little more than a slave to the doctor’s passions. But Yancey clearly portrays the doctor as an unwittingly bad parent, not a bad human being; he knows much about monsters but little about human interactions which makes him a tough boss and an even harder father figure.
Together this mismatched duo will face down a herd of monsters known as Anthropophagi. Make no mistake, monsters these be, with mouths like sharks with rows upon rows of teeth in the middle of their stomachs, eyes black as night in each shoulder blade, razor like claws ten inches long and legs that propel them to incredible speeds and leaping heights of thirty feet, these beasts eat one thing…man. How a herd of thirty remained undetected and in the same town as a man whose sole job it is to study such creatures is a mystery at the epicenter of the plot.
Broken into three folios each with about a half dozen chapters, Mr. Yancey does a wonderful job of propelling this fantastically gruesome tale to a very satisfying conclusion. A sure footed writer, Yancey is more than capable of juxtaposing the gruesome, the beautiful, the profane, and the profound in admirable ways. There are philosophical musings on mortality, about man versus nature, and about human abandonment that stand in stark counterpoint to the numerous vivisections, beheadings, and brain matter. And while the plot veers towards the serpentine as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place to explain the origins of the monsters, Yancey never loses the reader to careless plotting.
That is not to say that there is not a misstep or two in this first outing. As a one star reviewer noted the characters are a little cliché and at times one dimensional. You have your usual crazed monster hunters, bungling gentlemen constables, the mad scientist, and the orphaned apprentice. However, Yancey more than makes up for these common set pieces with the most fantastical of monsters that are at once foreign and familiar and whose ruthless pursuits are described in gore soaked detail that will appeal to the most jaded of horror fans.
There is much to like in this first outing. I cannot say it is a must read, but it is a solid story told with extraordinary skill. Definitely not for all audiences, but if you are at all curious I suspect you will find it worthy of the price and will be looking forward to the next installment.

This was great! At first, I found it really hard to get in to, probably because I am not adjusted to historical fiction as well but once I made the time to read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was pretty gory, creepy, lots of action and even humor. I adored Will Henry and he is one of my favorite main characters to date. I just want to fight for him but he fights for himself pretty well. Dr. Warthrop is a pain in the ass but for the most part, he is a sweet man in a way, if you can look past the mad scientist and neglectful at times care-taker. I enjoyed his and "Will Henreee's" companionship a lot and even though Dr. Warthrop was cruel at times, the story lets on that he is only that way because of his childhood and I understand at times why he is that way with Will. But Will is a trooper!
The monsters: Wow. Anthropophagi. Ok so I kind of picture this Nickelodeon 90's cartoon monster character who was all shoulders, no head, but at times the narrator describes them as crocodile-like in their viscousness and how they hunt and then I saw them as more horrifying. What they do though-geez! Sick. And this author, Mr. Yancey doesn't hold back! I think that's what I loved about the book. I find in a lot of books, there is mundane, mundane, and then in one big climax there is something revolting or so out there that it makes a 3 star book a 5 star just for it's daringness. Well this whole book is pretty daring. In one point the monsters, the anthropophagi, rip apart a family in their home. One of the victims body is literarily in shreds all over the house, you can hardly tell it was once human, and that's a 5 year-old. I feel a lot of authors keep it safe (or sane) and stay away from child brutalities like that but this book is just honest, if that makes sense at all. It could happen to a kid, it does, it's horrifying and sick and it makes the reader, at least in my case, turn the pages even faster to get to the ending to find if justice is served.

At first I didn't think I would be able to go on with the series, but I finished the book last night and immediately started with the Curse of the Wendigo <3. It definitely picks up and then you can't get your head out of the story.

It's not as gory as I suspected. People described it as extremely disgusting. I think if the murders described were in present tense like "the monster rips off the girls arm", it would of been a lot harder to read, but after the fact, it wasn't so hard to swallow. It wasn't sane but it made for a good read. As for worms being filled in ones body, eh, not so bad for me.

I can't wait to read every book in this series and it may just be a top 5 in my favorite series list!

Great book. A little dry at first and repetitive, but after you suffer through that, it gets really good. Warthrop and Will Henry are a fun pair, and the focus on the scientific aspects of monster hunting was fresh and fun. Very Sherlock Holmes at times, and I kept catching myself imaging that character as the doctor. I would surmise that Holmes was the inspiration. Either way, it was a good book, and though it is directed toward young teens, I would say it is more of an adult's book. There is a lot of gore, a lot of killing, and the prose is very well written. There were words in there I wasn't even sure I understood, and I'm a grown man with a college degree.