Title: Girls
& Monsters
Author: Anne
Michaud
Publisher: DarkFuse
Publication Date: April
30, 2013
Genre: Horror
Reviewed by: Books4Tomorrow
Source: Received
from publisher via NetGalley
My star rating: 4/5
SUMMARY
This dark but uplifting collection of five
Young Adult novellas includes:
Death Song: Liz is in love with Joe, but the monster of the lake has other plans for them.
Black Dog: Scarlet is engaged in a struggle for her sanity, but according to the voice in her head, she may be too late.
A Blue Story: When Katherine's beloved dog goes missing, she fears her strange new neighbor might be involved.
Dust Bunnies: Christiane faces her childhood arachnophobia and ends up confronting even greater fears in this test of sisterhood.
We Left at Night: Brooke and her family must abandon their home and their lives to make it out of a disease-plagued town overrun by zombies.
Girls & Monsters is for everyone who has ever been brave enough to confront their childhood fears...and lived to tell about it.
Death Song: Liz is in love with Joe, but the monster of the lake has other plans for them.
Black Dog: Scarlet is engaged in a struggle for her sanity, but according to the voice in her head, she may be too late.
A Blue Story: When Katherine's beloved dog goes missing, she fears her strange new neighbor might be involved.
Dust Bunnies: Christiane faces her childhood arachnophobia and ends up confronting even greater fears in this test of sisterhood.
We Left at Night: Brooke and her family must abandon their home and their lives to make it out of a disease-plagued town overrun by zombies.
Girls & Monsters is for everyone who has ever been brave enough to confront their childhood fears...and lived to tell about it.
REVIEW
I’m not
a huge fan of novellas and much less compilations of novellas, but I found Girls & Monsters to be quite
riveting. The cover played a big role in my decision to request it for review,
but so did the title of each novella which got my curiosity working overtime. I
wouldn’t say any of these short stories are “uplifting”, as suggested by the
blurb, but they were entertaining in a macabre sort of way.
Death Song: Vengeful mermaids aren’t something
you read about every day, and as interesting as it was to read about a mermaid
terrorizing a community and stealing people through water pipes, the ending was
confusing for me and I didn’t know what to make of it. If there was a double
meaning to the end of the story, it went way over my head.
Black Dog: I must admit, ever since being
attacked by a black dog when I was six-years-old, I’ve had a paralyzing fear of
dogs in general, black dogs more than others. The author effortlessly tapped
into my fear of canines by creating a story about a girl hunted by a black dog
everywhere she goes. Is it real, or is it only her imagination? A riveting
read, yet my least favorite of the five novellas. It was too dramatic for my
taste.
A Blue Story: Here is where the
book really picked up and got a solid hold on me. If you love your dog, cat,
parrot, whichever pet you have, this novella will probably make you view your neighbor
differently. I enjoyed A Blue Story
and it did freak me out somewhat.
Dust Bunnies: Undoubtedly my
favorite of all five these short stories. Are you afraid of spiders? You are?
Then you definitely don’t want to read this novella. But for those like me
whose fear of arachnids isn’t in the top five things that would instantly
guarantee a heart attack, Dust Bunnies
is an unexpectedly sweet story. I absolutely adored this story since I never
imagined it could be possible to love a cuddly, human-sized spider.
We Left at Night: I’ve read many
zombie apocalypse novels and novellas and am at that point where they’re all
starting to sound the same. Surprisingly, the author managed to write something
a little different to the usual zombie-theme, and at the same time keep me on
the edge of my seat and nervously chewing my nails while the characters in this
novella run for their lives. Out of all five stories, this was the only one in
which I found the characters to be fleshed out and I actually felt a connection
to them.
Overall,
I’d recommend this compilation of dark novellas to sensitive readers new to the
horror genre; readers who enjoy stories that prey on their fears, and those who
like to journey into the darkest parts of the mind. It is blood-, guts- and
gore-free and the author didn’t succumb to shock techniques to give this book a
voice. Five well-written novellas that are sure to keep you awake for a while
makes Girls & Monsters a great
read.
I
received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for
an honest, unbiased review.
READ more REVIEWS
Girls & Monsters by Anne Michaud has
19 reviews on Goodreads. Read it here.
ABOUT the AUTHOR
Anne Michaud is an author of many
talents, especially getting distracted by depressing music and dark things. She
likes to write and read everyday, and speak of herself in the third person.
Since her
Master’s degree in Screenwriting from the University of London, England, Anne
has written, directed and produced three short films, distributed by Ouat!
Media in Toronto, Canada. The lyric documentary Worth a Thousand Words (2006)
can be seen here.
And then,
after hundreds of hours spent on studying and making films, she changed her
mind and started writing short stories, novelettes and novels. Some have been
published, others will be soon enough.
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