Monstrous

by Marcykate Connolly

Skottie Young (Illustrator)

• ISBN10: 0062272713
• ISBN13: 9780062272713
• Publish Date: 10 February 2015 (first published 1 February 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Despite being highly predictable (You can probably guess the major plot points from the jacket summary alone), Monstrous is a charmingly engaging book.  Though I would have loved to have been more surprised by the twists the story takes, I firmly believe that being able to enjoy a story when you know what's going to happen is the mark of a good tale. You know you'll be able to reread it and still find something to love.  With its captivating characters, a hint of mystery, and a dash of magic, Monstrous fits the bill. I can imagine it becoming a childhood favorite for many young readers.

Though the pacing is arguably slow in the beginning of the novel, with a sharp turn to sudden action at the end, I found myself more immersed in the beginning.  Sure, there is not a lot of "big" action, and it is really clear what major revelation Kym is going to have, it is really engaging to watch Kym simply discover the world.  She loves life, exploring, and people.  It's almost what would result if L.M. Montgomery decided to write a fantasy novel, and I was really into it.  Though Connolly does put some unique twists on the conclusion of the story, it still read as more "typical" fantasy fare to me, so the opening is really where the story shines.

Kym is certainly my favorite character, vivacious, brave, and full of curiosity.  However, there are a lot of great fantasy stock characters here for fans of the genre: a kindly king, a page boy who has secrets about the castle, a dragon, an evil minion, and of course the wizard.  Connolly gives them all developed personalities, so they break from being only stereotypes, even as they fill the role.  I do think the wizard could have had more convincing motivations for some of his actions, but perhaps the thing to do is just accept the existence of evil and the idea that power can corrupt.

Monstrous is simply a charming middle grade novel that puts some original touches on favorite fantasy themes.  I usually struggle to think of books that evoke the tone of L. M. Montgomery, but this one gets it just about right with a main character who's full of life and open to the beauty of the world.  The only reason I'm hesitating to read the companion book, Ravenous, is because I wasn't a huge fan of  Greta, the new protagonist, in Monstrous.  However, it so far has good reviews, ad Connolly has such an engaging writing style, that I think it will be worth picking up.

[KitsuneBae]

Monstrous has all the ingredients to be an amazing book but sadly, the result was less than delicious. We have an amnesiac heroine, Kymera, who basically came back from the dead and found herself only functional due to the fact that she’s a patchwork of different animal parts put together. This fact didn’t bother her, however, for she is naïve and pure at heart. All she ever wanted is to put her new capabilities to good use. Good use means saving the kingdom of Bryre and its young girls from an evil wizard, Barnabas. As I’ve said, Monstrous knew where to start but apparently, got lost during the journey.

Monstrous was off to a nice start introducing us to our brave but naïve little heroine, Kymera and her father who’s a brilliant scientist. Everything was going well in the first 30% of the book and then, it just went downhill. For a book that targets a middle grade audience, Monstrous really needs some humor to spice things up. I think monotonous would be more apt to describe this book. If you’re up to it, feel free to fill me in with some parts of the book that I’ve missed because I swear, I did drift off for some time reading this.

It’s not only the monotony that bothered me but also my lack of sympathy for our characters. I liked Kymera at first but then, as I spent time with her, I felt that we could never be friends. She’s just too-good to be true. The side characters including the love interest, Ren and the villain weren’t interesting at all. The relationships between our characters were almost non-existent. Given where the story of Monstrous is going, I think there would be heartbreaking confrontations and heartwarming reunions but all I got was dialogues that felt so awkward. The plot was so predictable despite the fact that you can see how the author was trying to make it otherwise. Too many clues were left that the author might as well have announced the twist on the first chapter. And that ending...why?.

The chapter illustrations were, however, beautiful and the world building adequate but I don’t think that these are enough to compensate for the pain that this book gave me.