The Curse of the Wendigo: Volume 2 (Monstrumologist, #2)

by Rick Yancey

In 1888, twelve-year-old Will Henry chronicles his apprenticeship with Dr. Warthrop, a New England scientist who hunts and studies real-life monsters, as they discover and attempt to destroy the Wendigo, a creature that starves even as it gorges itself on human flesh.

• ISBN10: 141698450X
• ISBN13: 9781416984504
• Publish Date: 12 October 2010 (first published 1 October 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[nannah]

Dang, Yancey really knows how to bring a story to a climax. I think it was even more intense than in The Monstrumologist, which is saying something.

Again, Will Henry's relationship with the doctor is the most intriguing part of this novel. The secondary characters had a lot more to them this time around, which I did like, but Will Henry and the Monstrumologist shone again, and I can't even explain how glad I am that their relationship was still fresh and brilliant and confusing and sometimes horrible. Great writing.

I think things did get a bit lengthy, and by the end of the novel I was really tired of Will Henry having to be saved all the time because he's gone through so much already and I'm sure Yancey's got a whole lot more in the plans to torture him with in the next one.

Anyways, still pretty terrifying, although I was less satisfied with the more ambiguous ending on this one. I tell you, though, these books are digging up some macabre streak in me I didn't know I had: I'm now watching zombie shows and getting more books that'll scare the potatoes outta me. Yancey's got a way with making stories that stick with you and making you want more. I'm glad I rented the next one right away!

[lizarodz]

I’m sure that it doesn’t matter how hard I try I can never do this series justice. The Monstrumologist is a masterpiece and it was hard to imagine that Mr. Yancey would be able to match it, but indeed he did.


The Curse of the Wendigo starts very soon after the end of The Monstrumologist with brave Will Henry as our narrator and protagonist.


The book can be divided in two parts: first, the expedition to the Canadian forest in search for Dr. John Chandler, and second, the trip to New York City for the monstrumologist’s annual convention. Both parts have their up and downs and we get introduced to many new characters and a new and perfectly horrid “monster”. We learn in this book about Dr. Warthrop’s ex-fiancé and one of the reasons why he behaves the way he does (coupled with a very un-loving childhood). We also meet many of Warthrop’s colleagues in the search for the “Wendigo”.


One of the most fascinating things about this series is not only its mesmerizing story line and plot, but the brilliant writing by Mr. Yancey. He makes images and pictures come to life just by stringing words together. He makes a forest comes to life and be another living character, he describes monsters and the monstrosities they commit in a way that had me cringing in disgust and despair. Take the following paragraph for example:


“There is no future in it, Will Henry,” he said pensively. “The future belongs to science. The fate of our species will be determined by the likes of Edison and Tesla, not Wordsworth or Whitman. The poets will lie upon the shores of Babylon and weep, poisoned by the fruit that grows from the ground where the Muses’ corpses rot. The poets’ voices will be drowned out by the gears of progress. I foresee the day when all sentiment is reduced to a chemical equation in our brains—hope, faith, even love—their exact locations pinned down and mapped out, so we may point to it and say, ‘Here, in this region of our cerebral cortex, lies the soul.’”


Needless to say, I cannot wait to read The Isle of Blood, the third installment in the series. This series is not for the faint of heart, but it is so, so good. If you like horror movies (which I do not) give The Monstrumologist a try.


About the cover: The cover is a lot less scary than The Monstrumologist’s was, and still there is a scary face in the background, kind of sneaking on you. We can also see the forest and the red symbolizing death and blood.