Title: Mr. Monster (US release)
Author: Dan Wells
Publisher: TOR
Release Date: September 28, 2010
ISBN: 978-0765322487
Size: 288 pages, 5.5x8", hardcover
Genre: Speculative/Horror
Series: I Am Not a Serial Killer (v1)
John Wayne Cleaver has always known he has a dark side but he’s fought hard to oppress it and live a normal life – separating John from Mr Monster to survive. But after confronting and destroying the vicious killer that was terrorizing his town, his inner monster is getting stronger and harder to contain.
And now more bodies are being discovered...
With the police failing to catch Clayton County’s second serial killer John is going to have to use his secret knowledge of the first demon-killer to trap the second...but will he be able to avoid suspicion falling on him, and, in the face of extreme horrors, will he be able to restrain Mr Monster?
1 Reviews:
I absolutely loved the first book in this series (in a kind of morbidly fascinated way) so I braved the "occult" label my local library put on the spine of Mr. Monster. This second installment is certainly more gruesome and graphic. I was grateful I could just skip part of it- namely all of the torture. I also read on the author's blog how he has to listen to all kinds of awful music to get into the right mindset to write, which was quite off putting.
In the end I still liked the book. John Wayne Cleaver is a great character and I feel like the writing is above average. The themes of choice and redemption and working hard to overcome natural inclinations are valuable. Whether they're worth reading all the sick and twisted torture is debatable. I don't know that the sick feeling over reading what humans do to each other was really much different to me than when I read "A Child Called It" which was required reading in an Elementary Education Class. (About child abuse).
In the end, because of the disturbing torture, I can't really recommend this book to others. It was a good book in many ways and if you're the kind of person who doesn't mind that or reads over it or forgets it, I'd say go for it. I was still happy at the end of reading it, (and really, it's not my style at all) and I'm hoping to read the third installment when it comes out.
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