I picked up this book because it looked quite interesting and I'm glad I did as I ended up really enjoying it and finishing it in one evening. Highly recommend.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this one, I read it in one go but feel almost like I have missed something. It was creepy and unsettling but not enough to make those feelings really leap from the page. I felt like there was some disconnect between the words and my experience of it.
I haven't read anything quite like this, there was some interesting discussion about how much a book really belongs to the author once it is published, and how we are impacted by our creations.
I was hoping for a little more, especially as I love reading anything about Mary Shelley and Lord Byron.

A creepy book with ties to one of my favourite books: Frankenstein. Great for horror fans. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

This was a very strange book that seemed to be trying to be two things at once - half story, half literary commentary. It was an intriguing concept but it should have tried to be one or the other and not forcibly mash the two. It's a shame as I was looking forward to a shelley inspipred book!

I really enjoyed this short novel. It was intelligent, thought provoking and satisfyingly gothic in tone, setting and themes. It reflects on the nature of literary invention/creation with specific regard to the horror genre. The analysis of Frankenstein is interesting as is the idea of the book creating the author and created horrors becoming real. I particularly enjoyed the narrative voice of the MC - his descent into madness writ large in his phrasing and word choice. The way the initial creepiness grows into outright horror is nicely done and the ending is apt if a little obvious. Recommended.

I've been a fan of Marcus' writing for several years, in particular 'My Swordhand is Singing'. He has a way with words that is unlike anyone else. Sadly, the plot of this novel didn't connect with me. I requested it because it sounded intriguing, what with the mention of the origins of 'Frankenstein'. Yet the novel I was presented with just felt disappointing. I couldn't connect with the unnamed character and it felt like an amateur rewrite of 'A Christmas Carol'.

For someone who likes this type of intrigue then it would be perfect. Yet the lack of connection with the protagonist meant that I skimmed most of the book, no doubt missing several key details. I'm confident, however, that I will continue to adore Sedgwick's novels with which ever one I read next.

Thank you for providing a copy of this book for review however I was unable to open the file for this document unfortunately! Apologies.

There is so much I loved about this book. In many way, it reminded me of some of Satre's "fiction", in that it's a loosely collected narrative that exists more to share an author's philosophical thoughts. As an author and a creator, I absolutely loved the accountability that this narrative shares.

This story is a sort of gothic horror novel in the style of Frankenstein, with Mary Shelley and Victor Frankenstein actually being some of the story's main characters come to haunt one Marcus Sedgwick, the writer in an isolated cottage in the middle of nowhere.

As a fan of the history that led Mary Shelley to writing this classic, I was very interested in the premise, but the narrative in the end really didn't grab me as much as the analysis on creation and intent not being magic.

It's a short read, but a profound one, I believe. Should be listed under non-fiction, I feel, to give readers a more accurate idea of what they're about to get into.

Marcus Sedgewick's 'The Monsters We Deserve' is a very clever and unusual piece of fiction. Told using a first-person narrative, we follow the narrator's journey as they travel to the French Alps in order to write their next bestselling piece of fiction. We, the reader, are not told much about the narrator apart from a couple of snippets such as their distant relation to renowned author Aldous Huxley who wrote 'Brave New World'.

The narrative voice provides a colourful description of the surrounding area, the chalet in which they inhabit and the task they have been set. An arduous task if the ramblings and comments given to us the reader are anything to go by, in my opinion. I must say that the writing style is multi-layered and complex in the way this piece of fiction unfolds.

It seems to me that Sedgwick's narrator speaks to the reader almost as though a conversation was taking place, similar to the way a large number of bloggers and media influencers do today through vlogs and diary logs. What makes this style work is that the narrator's description of his surroundings and day to day activities are definitely biased. They're completely secluded with no one around to break up the monotony of mountain life. Yes, we are shown the small town with bars and life but we only travel there twice. Once, in the beginning, to set the stage, and again further on after an eight-day detachment from society.

From this, I infer that the narrator itself is not particularly reliable because the reader is being told what is happening rather than getting to truly experience the effects of the mountain air despite Sedgwick's skilful use of descriptive imagery.

This is emphasised through the tone which takes on many forms as the book unfolds. We get a sense of wonder and excitement as the narrator begins their journey which, leads on to frustration as they develop writer's block as well as anger, frustration, confusion and fear. Each of these is prevalent throughout as we are introduced to the many different themes Sedgwick includes.

The most prominent of these is Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. The reader is informed of the narrators burning hatred for this literary classic where they state that Mary Shelley's 'offences against creativity' are 'unforgivable'. Their reasoning for this passionate exclamation is down to Shelley's objectification of Victor Frankenstein's adopted sister Elizabeth; 'She appeared of a different stock. The four others were dark-eyed, hardy little vagrants; this child was thin and fair.' - the narrator not only claims Mary Shelley as being xenophobic but a complete and utter snob. I did find that the narrator's negativity about 'Frankenstein' is an attempt to not only get the reader on their side but also a bid to convince themselves that they are truly correct in their hatred.

The other theme is Horror. Though we don't experience any monsters in the form we are accustomed as readers. The sense of unsavoury characters lurking in the dark is very much highlighted when the narrator discovers breathing that is not his own - and from this, our mind immediately jumps to MONSTER. Which makes the reader and the narrator question just how alone they truly are. Sedgwick takes this theme of monster and turns into something grander through comparison to monsters of a natural form - volcanoes, famine, ice and human reaction. The influences behind Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' during her stay with Lord Byron in Geneva when Mount Tambora erupted plaguing the world in darkness from the ashes, leading to one woman believing the apocalypse was upon them.

The one thing that took me a while to get comfortable with was the chaptering. It has standard form but instead of numbers, it uses lettering which adds to the unconventional formatting. By the time I had got halfway through this book, I finally realised what each of the letters meant. They were out of place at all but simply spelt out the title THE MONSTERS WE DESERVE. This is a clever use of imagery by Sedgwick if ever there is one to disorientate the reader and make you feel just as trapped and confused as the narrator.

The most bizarre aspect of this story is when the narrator is visited by three ghosts. All this makes me think of is Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' - one of the most famous books to use this form of foreshadowing. In 'The Monsters We Deserve', this tool is not a quest set by the author used to reset a character's moral compass per se but, to question the narrator's reality and to bring the reader's focus back to what is a monster, and is time rigid?

Sedgwick also visits the possibility that monsters become real because we create them. That is what makes them horrific, terrifying creatures because once they've been made, we can never truly escape them. Their allure is all spun according to the narrator because "we are for-bidden to enter the dark rooms of the mind..." To me the darker recesses of the mind echoes the beginning of this novel where the narrator muses over the term abyss - causing the reader, especially on my reading of this book, to question if this is a physical place from being up in the French Alps, or foreshadowing what's yet to come during the narrator's "writing holiday".

Overall, this is a stunning piece of fiction and despite it being centred around one individual, it still manages to draw the attention of the reader. To see if the narrator will complete their task, or lose themselves to the madness. There's neither darkness nor light, simply grey and I think that's what makes this novel truly great. Sedgwick encourages imagination and creativity from not only his narrator but, from his audience unlike that of Mary Shelley to help bring not only his monsters to life but those of past literary greats.

A wonderfully creepy and tangled tale meditating on authorial responsibilities for monsters they create, the nature of monsters, and the nature of madness. The exploration of issues around Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was fascinating - really enjoyed it

This book is somewhat of an oddball: part essay, part horror story, part reflection about the writer’s craft and what bringing a story into the world involves.

The book the author-protagonist talks about is Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, but it’s also his own, his best-seller book, and the one about which he harbours the most doubts. It’s about disliking a story so much that you can’t help think about it; about the meaning of one’s writing, and how it completely escapes us from the moment it’s out in the world; about searching one’s soul and having to come to terms with our truths. Not an easy read, though it’s fairly short, and I admit I wasn’t entirely sold on it at first, but then it grew on me.

It’s also about monsters, of course, but not necessarily the kind we think at first.

Not my favourite book by Marcus Sedgwick, though, as parts of it are rather confusing and left me with a somewhat “off” feeling that I couldn’t place. Not to mention that if you’ve studied “Frankenstein” at least a little, most of the reflections outlined in it, as well as the “big reveal”, are kind of… super obvious?

2.5 stars. Interesting as a curiosity, I’d say.

Trigger Warnings: Talk of the death of a child, descent into madness??

<b>The book that made me want to actually read Frankenstein for myself.</b>

The Monsters we deserve shares an author's descent into madness, or his visit from a ghost and the characters that ghost created, or is it about a man doing some serious soul searching after living a lie, or is it just the author’s wild imagination spilling onto the page or is that all far too much credit being given to Marcus Sedgewick? Perhaps this is simply just the inner ramblings of an author musing on the meaning of someone else’s story, unfiltered and unedited?

Maybe it’s all of those things.

This is a weird beast of a book. If you like your stories to make 100% sense, and be told in a linear format than perhaps this isn’t for you.

I’m still not sure if it’s for me either and I love both of those things.

We follow an author who has made his way to the French Alps to do a bit of self discovery and write a book with more meaning than the horror novels of his past.

But something is following him, a lie, another author, a monster and a child deserted by it’s parent.

The Monsters We Deserve is a confusing novel to say the least.
Through it, Sedgewick plays with genres like horror, mystery and the paranormal while also using it as a way to analyze a book 200 years it’s senior.

Despite all this confusion—and believe me when I say, this book holds confusion in spades—I still really enjoyed it??? I don’t know what it is but I am someone who will always have a soft spot for nonlinear books or books with a narrator who is slowly losing their grasp on reality.

It just always makes for a much more engaging story for me. It is more in step with the way I think so it's easier to read a book told that way.

Does that mean it’s a good book? For me, the jury is still out on that one, but that doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed the ride.

I’d also like to note that I haven’t read Frankenstein yet—yes I know, shame on me—so there is likely things I missed because of that!

An homage to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein on it’s 200th birthday, Marcus Sedgwick writes an atmospheric and beautiful novel essentially about writing. Frankenstein is one of my favourite books and reading an appreciation of it was wonderful.

You really have no idea how much I wanted to love this, how much I wanted to give this story a five star rating. This seemed to be EVERTHING that I love; The Gothic, Frankenstein, Horror, metaphors, hidden clues, and a big bunch of open ended sentences that leave you wanting and guessing more. In a nutshell I AM this book. My favourite class in University was The Gothic where we learned about the creepiness of twins, circuses, and of course a very thorough and deep analysis of Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I love the Gothic so much that when it came to my dissertation at University and when it came to my Creative Writing Portfolio for my Masters, I used the themes of the Gothic and revelled in them throughout.

Then, why did I rate this three stars?

The thing is, I wanted to love this story so much that I kind of led myself to believe that it was going to be something else, something different than it was. I’m not sure what I expected, I’m still trying to figure that out, but I know that I ended up feeling a bit empty at the end, that I wanted MORE. I love the fact that it was ambiguous and none of my questions were answered, I absolutely love it when a story never answers your questions and leaves it up to your own interpretation. However, I think it was the repetition of some phrases that took me away from the story, the fact that the narrator said that Frankenstein’s Monster has no name when he actually calls himself “Adam” in the book. “Call me thy Adam”. The story took a very long time to progress, and I loved the ending but I won’t say it here as it will be a spoiler. I got the sense that the story needed more interaction with other characters, needed something DRASTIC in order to move the story along.

Please, don’t think that I didn’t like this story - I did. And I want to thank NetGalley and Head of Zeus for sending me this copy. I did like this story, I just feel like it needed a bit more.

First of all, what a stunning cover! Secondly, I loved the unique plot - I think the story is a great tale of identity, and that is always something people ought to read about. Great choice! I'm happy to have loved it as I did!

It’s taken me ages to review this book, it’s been well over a month since I finished reading it, but I genuinely still can’t decide if I enjoyed this book or not!

I’m a big Frankenstein fan, and as a book that offered Mary Shelley’s classic as a core component, The Monsters We Deserve caught my eye. I’ll be honest, it didn’t really go the way I’d thought it would! The Monsters We Deserve follows an author who, whilst away at a remote cabin in the mountains close to the location where a young Mary Shelley wrote her literary classic, is trying to write his own horror novel. Here, he seems to be consumed by thoughts of Frankenstein and the relationship between an author and their creation, and who creates who.

I did think the writing and the descriptions were incredible, Marcus Sedgwick is clearly very talented and the atmosphere he created throughout the book was very immersive and stunning. It did definitely reflect the eerie feeling you also get whilst reading Frankenstein.

However, I’m still not entirely sure what I read. Maybe it all went over my head a bit? It seemed slightly pretentious and a little manic at times. I believe the format, as a result of it being almost like diary entries from the author himself, were supposed to reflect some kind of decline into madness maybe (again, I didn’t really get it so I could be wrong), but I found this made it quite hard to read, and actually it was quite rambly from the outset, it just got more so towards the end.

I don’t feel you need to have read Frankenstein to enjoy this book, it might definitely help with a little context though. I’ve definitely been left thinking about it and I feel like this review is a bit all over the place because it was genuinely such a strange little book and it’s left me with mixed feelings!

I know that I shouldn't but I definitely judge books by their covers and this one instantly intrigued me; additionally, it sounded perfect for the month of October. I'm not quite sure how to explain this book as it is fairly unusual in it's timeline and structure but in essence we follow tormented author as he isolates himself in order to write; however, the ghost of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein haunts him.

I don't like to know too much about the book I go into beforehand and that was the case with this one - I had no idea that it was related to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, her life and her writing process so that's something to take into account before picking this up. The day I finished the YA version of Frankenstein as an audiobook was the same day I started this book, without knowing the two are connected and I think the audiobook was a perfect choice to listen to before this book.

The Monsters We Deserve is written in a stream of consciousness style which I'm not a fan of at all and I found it to be too abstract for my personal reading tastes. As with most books, they say more about the author than was intended and that's definitely the case with this as I presumed the writer within the book as Marcus Sedgwick which I found a little self-aggrandising, if I'm honest. I wasn't a fan of his blunt critiques of one of the most influential and famous books ever (I'm not denying it has some flaws though)! While I LOVED the eerie elements and some of the sentences throughout the book really resonated with me, overall I was left feeling a little 'meh', sadly.

This is an unusual book. It took me a while to get into, but the writing style is intriguing and quite poetic - the author plays with words, their meanings and sounds, to create a sense of unease. The narrator has taken himself to a remote cabin in the mountains to finish writing his book, but is preoccupied by his obsessive hatred for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. As his isolation intensifies, the sense of unease grows, and gradually we realise the narrator is being haunted by more than his own conscience.

It’s quite a short book but packs a punch. Good for a spooky winter’s evening.

Book Review
Title: The Monsters We Deserve
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Genre: YA/Horror
Rating: *****
Review: So, I didn’t know anything about the Monsters We Deserve when I requested it, but Marcus Sedgwick is a well-known author. However, the synopsis (below) doesn’t give much away:
The Villa Diodati, on the shore of Lake Geneva, 1816: the Year without Summer. As Byron, Polidori, and Mr and Mrs Shelley shelter from the unexpected weather, old ghost stories are read, and new ghost stories imagined. Born by the twin brains of the Shelley’s is Frankenstein, one of the most influential tales of horror of all time.
In a remote mountain house, high in the French Alps, an author broods on Shelley's creation. Reality and perception merge fuelled by poisoned thoughts. Humankind makes monsters; but who really creates who? This is a book about reason, the imagination, and the creative act of reading and writing. Marcus Sedgwick's ghostly, menacing novel celebrates the legacy of Mary Shelley's literary debut in its bicentenary year.
So, we follow the perspective of a nameless, genderless author musing on Mary Shelley’s Frankstein as the author attempts to find the inspiration for their next novel but failing miserably. As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the author finds inspiration but not in the way you would except as this author loathes Shelley’s greatest work and doesn’t mince words about telling us so. You know what, despite the fact this is just one author’s musing on a book they love to hate I was really enjoying this novel. There are some darker almost supernatural elements hidden in the story, but it really allows you to delve deep into the psyche of an author and how they view their own work as well as the works of others.
As the author continues trying to write a new story, we see them tainted with a crippling sense of paranoia especially at night and it just adds something extra to the creepy atmosphere of the novel. As we cross into the second half of the novel, strange and mysterious things start happening to the author and the author is beginning to believe more and more that the monsters we create are real but writes it off as paranoia.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, something happens that totally blew my mind and it turns out the author wasn’t paranoid at all, there are actually supernatural things happening at this old cabin but what appears before the author is no beastie or ghoul but something the author holds a deep affection and a deep hatred for.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we know what is coming but haven’t got a clue as to when or how. The ending of the novel has to author come to terms with the truth and meet their fate in a way that is shocking and stunning all at once. If all Marcus Sedgewick’s writing is like this I will definitely be reading them in the future.

This was such an interesting read. It was a discussion with Mary Shelley and her character's in Frankenstein. I found it really odd but an interesting kind of odd. It was such a short read and it packed a hell of a punch. The style of writing was lyrical and unusual and it has to one of the most distinctive books i've read so far this year.