Book Blog - The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Before I get to my book blog...

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Ok, now on to the meat'n'potatoes...

I was 16 or 17 when I read THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS while camping at a desert Utah lake in mid-July. I stayed up most the night, huddled inside a sleeping bag even though it was at least 184^oC (which is a lot hotter than 184^oF, mind you). If I stuck my head out for a breath of fresh air, my flashlight would draw every moth in the four-corners to attack my face. And we all know what moths are to that story. My heart is beating double time just typing about the experience. It scarred me for life.

Thus began my personal manifesto to avoid both moths and horror. My friends start to tell me I should watch DEXTER, but stop themselves, murmuring ‘too scary.’ Yes, I’m sorta a wimp when it comes to the gruesome genre (though I love Stephen King’s more fantasy/creepy stuff like THE DARK TOWER series), but when I saw Rick Yancey’s THE Monstrumologist  on the shelf, I had to read it, even if it was obviously horror.

You see, the author, RickYancey, wrote the Alfred Kropp books – all-time favorites of mine. Plus, he received a 2010 Printz Honor for THE Monstrumologist  . The final push came from reading the description.

From Amazon.com:

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me. So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her, Will's world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagus--a headless monster that feeds through a mouth in its chest--and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatening to overtake and consume our world before it is too late. The Monstrumologist is the first stunning gothic adventure in a series that combines the spirit of HP Lovecraft with the storytelling ability of Rick Riorden.

This tale plops you down in the middle of a Victorian horror/mystery and an amazing new world. A place where the monsters are more than just vehicles for terror, they’re a fully realized species to be studied – a strange predator that preys on us, the reader. The characters, especially Will Henry and the doctor, are complex and unique. The writing is done with a hand so delicate that it’s a crime to skim over the gruesome sections, though I often wanted to. Everything about THE Monstrumologist  is horribly enthralling. 

Now, Rick Yancey has come out with a sequel, THE CURSE OF THE WENDIGO and I’m going to have to read that too. *Shudders*

At least there aren’t any moths in it.

Wait, there are no moths in it.

Right?

RIGHT?