Monster

Because of Halloween, I figured I would read something scary. I really do not regret reading this.

I have read Frank Peretti books throughout my life, and he never failed to present a good example of Christian authors who write appropriate books for youth as well as having something entertaining with more serious and adult themes for an older audience. Objectively, I really do not think that in the case for Monster, Peretti is trying to push any envelopes for a specific agenda behind the writing; for me, this was just a book where faith is an added factor, which is something I hope continues to grow with any author. This was a thing with authors writing LGBTQ+ works where most of the content was about the character and the only fact of them being a part of the LGBTQ+; there is more to a character than that, or religion, or any other details that are important, sure, but do not need to be 100% of the book. Mention the quality minimally if you must, but let your writing and descriptions of the characters play into and further the writing. End of rant. Sorry.

I liked that there was jumping from here to there and back again; it was like a video game where you have the main quest then you check over to the side quest. It was great how Peretti was able to effectively explain your how’s and why’s by doing so. I will admit I was under the expectation that Monster would be more on the more horror end of things, but once I got into the read it was hard to put down. You just reach a certain point where things pick up because of how often perspectives switch.

Monster follows a young couple, Beck and Reed, as they go camping where Beck is kidnapped by monsters in the forest. What stuck out most was Beck’s growth as a character: [Spoiler] she goes from someone who grew up with a stutter, so therefore she likes to stay indoors and not really interact with people, to someone who can handle being outdoors in the woods and overcomes her stutter.

I would say give this a go; there are some heartwarming moments in Monster as well as being on the race-against-time kind of scary side of things. At the same time, I feel like this was a one-and-done sort of book as well. If interested, you can find it here.

7/10