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A review by kevinscorner
Monstersona by Chloe Spencer
2.5
I’m sorry, but several things in Monstersona just did not work for me. Monstersona is a YA scifi horror book following two young women. Riley has just moved to a small town with her recently divorced mom. On the night of the homecoming game, she wakes up to the whole town on fire and a monster on the lose. As she flees, she encounters her disheveled classmate Aspen on the road and gives her a ride. On the way to meet up with her dad across the country, they are pursued by some mysterious characters for unknown reasons.
I thought the book was well paced with its time-bound structure (the whole book takes place in the span of two weeks) giving it a sense of forward momentum. It also didn’t shy away from gore and even had some mild body horror (I don’t normally like body horror, but this did not bother me). I thought the book tried to give the atmosphere a post-apocalytic/dystopian feel, but it doesn’t really make sense given the contemporary setting and the fact that aside from what happened at the beginning, the rest of the country was otherwise running normally. This also removed much of the tension that I should have been feeling because they could have gotten plenty of help at any point in time if they had just thought to ask.
I started off liking Riley, but she wore thin as the story progressed. I started finding her insufferable with her hypocrisy, poor choices, and improper priorities. If there was a scale between her dad and Aspen’s actions, she tipped it completely the wrong way. Aside from proximity, I never actually got what Riley and Aspen saw in each other, thus I never bought into their exceedingly fast romance. Then the book ends quite anticlimactically with a relatively benign resolution to what was supposed to be a high stakes show down.
Monstersona had some great bones, but the meat was a bit off.
*I received an eARC from Tiny Ghost Press in exchange for an honest review.
I thought the book was well paced with its time-bound structure (the whole book takes place in the span of two weeks) giving it a sense of forward momentum. It also didn’t shy away from gore and even had some mild body horror (I don’t normally like body horror, but this did not bother me). I thought the book tried to give the atmosphere a post-apocalytic/dystopian feel, but it doesn’t really make sense given the contemporary setting and the fact that aside from what happened at the beginning, the rest of the country was otherwise running normally. This also removed much of the tension that I should have been feeling because they could have gotten plenty of help at any point in time if they had just thought to ask.
I started off liking Riley, but she wore thin as the story progressed. I started finding her insufferable with her hypocrisy, poor choices, and improper priorities. If there was a scale between her dad and Aspen’s actions, she tipped it completely the wrong way. Aside from proximity, I never actually got what Riley and Aspen saw in each other, thus I never bought into their exceedingly fast romance. Then the book ends quite anticlimactically with a relatively benign resolution to what was supposed to be a high stakes show down.
Monstersona had some great bones, but the meat was a bit off.
*I received an eARC from Tiny Ghost Press in exchange for an honest review.