Told entirely from a first person perspective it follows Monster as she journeys across country to find life, to find somewhere safe, somewhere she can belong in a world that is now devoid of all human life. Or so it seems until she comes across a young girl alone in a deserted city.

As Monster becomes Mother the young girl becomes Monster and the bond between the two begins. Having found a farm the two begin to rebuild a life that is self sufficient, living off the land, what they can grow and farm to survive adding to what they can find to scavenge from the city.

At times vague in detail it adds to Monsters seemingly incapacity for human relationships and her inner dialogues that are at times devoid of emotion. This is an unusual post apocalyptic end of the world novel, where there is only two lives through 99% of the book it explores the connections to each other, the world, the land and how we take for granted nearly everything we have in life and in each other.

Not the most action packed of novels this is a character driven story with a memorable protagonist in Monster, whom I am still unsure if I liked either Monsters! Brimming with atmosphere, it is one that you will read and remember what you have read long after the last page has been read.

Definitely a book that you need to read for yourselves as it is a hard book to review and I do think this book is like Marmite, you will either love it or hate it! And it so happens that I love Marmite 😀

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/my-name-is-monster-by-katie-... ( )

This book reads like poetry - you try hard to make sense of it at first, to understand where it’s going, what it means - and then you finally just let it wash over you. And at that point you realize it is all so strangely beautiful, you just let it happen and it totally captures you and leads you into the sublime.

“Monster” is a woman “that never did fit into boxes” and her story, an apocalyptic tale, begins “deep and dark and empty” . Which at first, seemed like it might make for be difficult reading during these current Covid-filled days.

But stick with it , - this story unfolds like a beautiful flower and is ultimately about humanness and wanting, survival and survivors, creation and hope, - all mixed in with love, connection, and essentially the here-and-nowness of the world (any world) to be treasured in a timeless moment of silence.

It’s phenomenal.

5 “great big whopping I just loved it stars “

A very big thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, Canongate, and the author, Katie Hale, for an advance review copy of this book. All thoughts presented here are my own. ( )

3.5 stars

This review can also be found on my blog.

I can really appreciate the appeal behind this novel, even if it didn't do much for me personally. This is a quiet post-apocalyptic character study of two characters: Monster-turned-Mother and Monster (the second). The naming seems confusing, but it absolutely makes sense within the story and is quite easy to follow. The first half of the novel follows Monster (to-be-Mother) as she travels home following an apocalyptic war slash disease. The "Sickness" itself is more of a backstory and isn't much focused on itself, but some of the flashbacks did remind me of the current situation we're dealing with. Close to the halfway point, Monster comes across a young girl and decides to change her own name to Mother while referring to the girl as Monster.

I have not survived this long only to die on a shit-splattered beach in Scotland.

The concept is strange, but it works. The first half is a combination of flashbacks and present-day as Monster-to-be-Mother reflects on her life and deals with the struggles of surviving alone in a lonely, barren landscape. This is flipped in the second half as (the new) Monster bemoans the woes of her restrictive life and looks down upon Mother for her fear and dependency on their lifestyle. It was so frustrating for me to read Monster's perspective since she's the post-apocalyptic version of the spoiled brat. We learn in the first half of the novel the extensive trauma Mother has undergone and the pains she took to get where she is now. Monster follows this up by insisting she is braver than Mother and by continually placing herself in dangerous situations -- or trying to.

People always marvel at waterfalls, and nobody pays enough attention to the chasm underneath.

I think, though, this is part of the point of the novel. Because Mother tries to forget her trauma instead of processing it and teaching Monster about the true dangers of the world, she enables this way of behavior and thinking. Monster cannot learn from Mother's experiences if Mother does not share them. The problem is that it is just too difficult for me to read books where things could be solved by some simple communication. If Mother had just opened up, or given some kind of explanations to Monster, this all could have been averted. Regardless, it is fairly well-written and as I said, I can see the appeal.

Decisions made at night are tricksters, elusive and fickle, slippery as fish.

I do wish some things were explained further. I don't know if certain plot points just went over my head, or what. (The second) Monster's past was so confusing to me. I know it was difficult to spell things out more clearly since she did not have the language to communicate it, but I was... not really sure what had happened to her. I think one of the plot points of her past was weirdly far-fetched and didn't make any sense without explanation. Every time it came up, I was so confused!

[...]maybe healing really means making something different. Maybe getting better doesn’t mean going back to how it used to be, but moving forwards instead[...]

Overall, though, I'd say this is worth reading if it sounds like it suits you. Like I said, it is a character study so there isn't a TON of plot. It's not your typical post-apocalyptic read, so I'd go for this if you like something a little more literary.

content warnings: apocalyptic war; graphic depictions of wounds; death of a loved one.

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Told entirely from a first person perspective it follows Monster as she journeys across country to find life, to find somewhere safe, somewhere she can belong in a world that is now devoid of all human life. Or so it seems until she comes across a young girl alone in a deserted city.

As Monster becomes Mother the young girl becomes Monster and the bond between the two begins. Having found a farm the two begin to rebuild a life that is self sufficient, living off the land, what they can grow and farm to survive adding to what they can find to scavenge from the city.

At times vague in detail it adds to Monsters seemingly incapacity for human relationships and her inner dialogues that are at times devoid of emotion. This is an unusual post apocalyptic end of the world novel, where there is only two lives through 99% of the book it explores the connections to each other, the world, the land and how we take for granted nearly everything we have in life and in each other.

Not the most action packed of novels this is a character driven story with a memorable protagonist in Monster, whom I am still unsure if I liked either Monsters! Brimming with atmosphere, it is one that you will read and remember what you have read long after the last page has been read.

Definitely a book that you need to read for yourselves as it is a hard book to review and I do think this book is like Marmite, you will either love it or hate it! And it so happens that I love Marmite 😀

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/my-name-is-monster-by-katie-... ( )