Review: Monsters by Emerald Fennell

Published: September 2015

Pages: 340

Synopsis: “A blackly comic tale about two children you would never want to meet.

Set in the Cornish town of Fowey, all is not as idyllic as the beautiful seaside town might seem. The body of a young woman is discovered in the nets of a fishing boat. It is established that the woman was murdered. Most are shocked and horrified. But there is somebody who is not - a twelve-year-old girl. She is delighted; she loves murders. Soon she is questioning the inhabitants of the town in her own personal investigation. But it is a bit boring on her own. Then Miles Giffard, a similarly odd twelve-year-old boy, arrives in Fowey with his mother, and they start investigating together. Oh, and also playing games that re-enact the murders. Just for fun, you understand...

A book about two twelve-year-olds that is definitely not for kids.”

Rating: ****

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Monsters by Emerald Fennell featured on the Carnegie Award 2017 longlist, and having read everything by Emerald Fennell so far, I was quite excited.

Initially I found this very humorous and was spending my Saturday reading extracts out loud in the garden. Personally, I felt the humour detracted from the dark, quite menacing undertones of the story. I feel this is a very clever tool, especially when writing for young adults and children as it is a non-intimidating way of introducing them to darker themes such as the loss of your parents, and murder.

Monsters held my attention right up until the last few chapters where, I feel, everything started to come undone. The novel until that point had been very well written and structured but the final chapters lost something for me and I was disappointed.