Thursday, October 14, 2010

New Reads - The Monstrumologist

The Monstrumologist (The Monstrumologist, #1)The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Much more violent than I expected... Cringingly so. This one makes me wonder what YA genre is, exactly. I compare it to the style of The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti, which was marketed as adult, albeit not horror. I actually think teens might have a difficult time with the language in this book, but they probably deserve the challenge.

And cheers to the Printz committee for awarding this book an Honor. The story is not typical awards fare (and thank goodness for that!), but it definitely stands out for the authentic voice and beautifully written, and effectively nauseating, prose.



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2 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

This one has proved a bit of a challenge for my middle school students, but it creeped ME out but good. Keep language in mind when writing for middle grade-- there are a lot of struggling readers!

Dan Poblocki said...

I totally agree -- I almost thought this was more of an adult book... not for content, but just because the language was so difficult!