I didn't know what to expect with The Monstrumologist but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised! Rick Yancy certainly told a fabulous action packed story from cover to cover with this one! I was captivated with it from the first line and then I read greedily until the last line. There are a few things that I found interesting about this book the first of witch was the fact that this is considered YA Fiction. I have never experienced YA quite like this before and I want to point out that this is YA at it's finest in my opinion. No vampire romances, no sorcery schools, no prom nights, no fighting with your best friend over a boy friend, actually no high school at all, and where I do enjoy an occasional trip down Twilight Lane I think sometimes YA Fiction gets pigeonholed when it comes to content. The Monstrumologist is just so different from anything I have read in YA that it was certainly a nice surprise. Another thing that I found very interesting was the amount of words I had to look up. In the first few chapters I had already made a list of 20 or so words that I needed to look up. I love a book that challenges the mind like that! And being YA, this book would be great to read right before SAT's because it will stretch your vocabulary for sure!
The Monstrumologist starts out in modern time, when a nursing home director stumbles across a big bundle of leather bound journals in a recently deceased patients room. When the patient arrived at the nursing home a few years before he only identified himself as William Henry and told everyone that he was over 130 years old. Because Will Henry had no living relatives there was no way to confirm or deny his identity but the coordinator was certain that he couldn't 130 year old. When he starts to read the journals he thinks what he is reading is a work or fiction but is it? Then the book flips over to a time in the late 1800s when Will Henry is only a boy of 12. Will Henry's parents had passed away a year before in a fire and he went to live with his fathers employer Dr. Pellinore Warthrop. Dr. Warthrop is a very strange man who's profession is Monstrumology (the study of Monsters). And when a graver robber arrives at the Doctors door step one dark and stormy night with evidence that proves that the small New England town has an infestation of Anthropophagi, (a large beast with razor sharp teeth, deadly claws, and no heads) Will Henry is thrown into the horrible adventure! The story gives some answers to not only what the beast is but also a clue to who Jack the Ripper might be, as well as an explanation to the longevity of Will Henry.
As I mentioned before I loved this book from cover to cover and I would recommend it to anyone that loves adventure, horror, and drama. I would not recommend this to anyone that is easily scared or has a weak stomach as some of the book is a bit gory. The story ends with a little bit of a cliff hanger, or at least an open ended invitation for another book to come, and when I was checking out Rick Yancy's website earlier I noticed that the saga continues in September 2010! So I am excited to see what the next journal of Will Henry holds. I sure hope it is as riveting of an adventure as the Anthropophagi brought!
BOOK vs. MOVIE: I think this is a rare case where the movie could outshine the book. As far as I know there is no plans so far to turn this into a screen play but seriously people! Snap to!!!! Get it done! I wanna see an Anthropophagus!!!!
RATING: 5 Stars
3 More reviews of The Monstrumologist:
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancy
ISBN 9781416984481
Pages: 448
If you liked The Monstrumologist then read: Monster by Frank Peretti
Wow! Sounds great and like it needs to be added to the tbr stack. Thanks for an excellent review!
ReplyDeleteGreat review! Adding to my tbr list now. :)
ReplyDeletexx,
E.J.
What a beautiful cover! Sounds like a great book. I'll add it to my TBR list ;)
ReplyDelete