The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donohue

The Boy Who Drew Monsters

by Keith Donohue

"Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier,10-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean, and she seeks answers from the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper who fill her head with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach, frantically searching for a strange apparition running wild in the dunes. And the boy's only friend, Nick, becomes helplessly entangled in the eerie power of the drawings. While those around Jack Peter are haunted by what they think they see, only he knows the truth behind the frightful occurrences as the outside world encroaches upon them all. In the tradition of The Turn of the Screw, Keith Donohue's The Boy Who Drew Monsters is a mesmerizing tale of psychological terror and imagination run wild, a perfectly creepy read for a dark night. - For readers of Neil Gaiman, Jason Mott, and Audrey Niffenegger"--

Reviewed by jeannamichel on

3 of 5 stars

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It started out so spooky and then it got repetitive and a bit dull. Most of the characters were flat. However, I did like the execution of the plot, its structure and how the monsters were created. The ending was a page-turner. And even though I predicted what was going on early on, it was still awesome how Donohue connected it all together.

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  • Started reading
  • 20 March, 2019: Finished reading
  • 20 March, 2019: Reviewed