Book Review -- The Monstrumologist

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Title: The Monstrumologist
Author: Rick Yancey
Genre: YA, Victorian horror
Pages: Oversize paperback, 434
Published: 2009
Opening Lines: "The director of facilities was a small man with ruddy cheeks and dark, deep-set eyes, his prominent forehead framed by an explosion of cottony white hair, thinning as it marched toward the back of his head, cowlicks rising from the mass like waves moving toward the slightly pink island of his bald spot."

"Will Henry is the orphan apprentice of a doctor with an unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. When a midnight visitor brings them the body of a young girl entwined with the corpse of an Anthropophagus, it is the start of the most mysterious case of Will Henry's life. Anthropophagi are headless monsters whose razor-sharp teeth are in their stomachs -- and they are supposed to be extinct in this part of the world. Now Will and the monstrumologist are in a race against time to put a stop to the plague of monsters before they kill again."

~ Jacket copy

Thoughts: Due to a misunderstanding, I read the sequel, Curse of the Wendigo, before this book. I felt that the author did a good job explaining things and, therefore, didn't feel lost without reading The Monstrumologist.

This book introduces the audience to the orphan, Will Henry. After years of services to the monstrumologist, his father dies with his mother in a fire. Whether out of some feelings of loyalty to his previous apprentice or care for the boy, the doctor takes Will into his home and makes him his new apprentice saying, "His services are indispensable to me." Because of his own issues with his father, his dedication to his trade, and extreme secretive nature, the doctor is very closed off from Will. The child is forced to grow up fast and face situations that are not deemed satisfactory for a child to encounter. Throughout the book, Will Henry struggles with these situations, his reactions to them, and the doctor's distance.

I felt that this book was a good introduction to the characters. In some ways, I understand Will Henry and the doctor better; however, I still feel as though I didn't lose anything reading the sequel first. In comparison, this book was much harder to get into. Knowing how much I enjoyed the sequel, I really pushed myself into the story. It was interesting and engaging, but it lacked something that the later book has. Some of this, of course, could be due to the fact that it is an introduction.

I would recommend this book. It was a good read. However, there is a lot of detail and it can be gruesome at many points. The descriptions of Verner in the sanitarium, the Anthropophagi encounters, etc. are very vivid and graphic. However, it makes everything feel real. Also, it makes the reader far more sympathetic to Will Henry and his unusual position.

Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
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