“When the world is burning, it’s easy to forget about ice ....”

My thanks to Canongate Books for an eARC via NetGalley of Katie Hale’s ‘My Name is Monster’ in exchange for an honest review.

This is Katie Hale’s debut novel though she is a published poet. Inspired by ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and ‘Frankenstein’, her narrator had been nicknamed Monster by her father as a child. She reflects - “I think it takes a monster to survive when nobody else can.”

Following nuclear war and an unspecified pandemic, Monster emerges from an artic vault in Svalbard that has kept her alive. She leaves and travels in a small boat to Scotland and there she begins her journey south in an empty world.

As she travels she reflects upon her life and the events that ended the world. Then one day after setting up home outside a city she finds a young girl hiding in the ruins, who seems feral. She gives her the name of Monster and changes her own name to Mother. (I wonder if that could be Mother Monster a la Lady Gaga?)

Halfway through the book the narrative voice switches to the younger Monster, who continues to chronicle their survival.

Hale’s use of language is exquisite and reflects her poetic roots. I found that this was more literary fiction given its meditation on survival and existential themes rather than the kind of action-focused thrillers usually associated with post apocalyptic novels. The practicalities of providing food and shelter as well as dealing with the passage of time were forefront.

There were a number of unanswered questions though this felt acceptable in the framework of this style of narrative. In some ways it provided for me a counterpoint to ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy, which explores the father-son relationship in a devastated land.

You know there are some books, they do not have a traditional plot and they are a bit tough to read, but when you close the last page you feel grateful for the experience you just had? My name is monster is one of those reads. The writing is breathtakingly beautiful. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world but not action packed at all. It's strong, powerful, heartbreaking and thought-provoking.
I loved the short chapters, I think it made the book easier to read somehow. The plot is simple, but it works. This is a story of Motherhood and womanhood, but I feel like this novel has a flavour that will change from person to person, depending on who is reading it.

I went into My Name is Monster blindly, not having read the blurb in a while and therefore only having a very vague awareness of what the book was about. As such, Katie Hale took me on a journey with her characters, letting me slowly discover the world she describes page by page. I think I'm going to have to do this more often because My Name is Monster absolutely captured me. Thanks to Canongate and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dystopian fiction has developed into a very ecological genre, to the point where they are now often apocalyptic in nature. A few years ago dystopian novels mostly showed the destruction of our way of life being caused by a corrupt elite or a right-wing political group, showing how our current society becomes a slippery slope that will lead to disaster. The recent dystopian novels I have read often refer to an ecological disaster, whether it is actively climate change leading to the destruction of our cities or other “minor” causes such as a plague or a virus against which we can’t defend ourselves. Now the future we're facing is a wasteland, more Mad Max than 1984. Each time I see a genre adjust itself to our current culture this way I am once again astounded by how important literature is in providing us with a mirror. We often see ourselves reflected in literature, both our good sides in the heroes and our bad sides in the villains. What makes these new ecological novels stand out is that there is no real villain, in the way we’re used to. There is no corrupt government to blame, no nationalist group, no crazed prophet. Instead there is just an awareness that, in our own simple way, we all contributed to this slow destruction. Reading these kind of novels can be uncomfortable, but it is also very important.

In My Name is Monster the Earth has been ravaged by the Sickness, a disease we never hear much about but see the consequences off. We join Monster as she arrives on the shores of Scotland. We don't know yet why or how she's there, nor where everyone else is. As she slowly makes her way to her parents' village where she grew up, to verify they truly are gone as well, we become more acquainted with her story and with what happened. We get to know something of her childhood, during which she got her nickname which has now become her only name and during which she always felt different. Not in a wilting wallflower kind of different, but as someone set apart by her interests and not too worried about being different. She makes rare connections with others but seems deeply uninterested in others, which becomes part of her survival instinct. That is, until she sets up shop in an abandoned farm and, during one of her daily forages in an abandoned city, finds a child, feral and seemingly without any memories. She names the child Monster and herself as Mother, defining the former as 'survivor' and the latter as 'creator'. While the first part of My Name is Monster follows Monster/Mother, the second part is devoted to the now teenaged Monster 2.0. We find out more about her vague memories of the pre-Sickness world, but mostly we explore her small world with her. We begin to see Mother through her eyes and My Name is Monster shows some achingly beautiful moments between the two. As the two women build their fragile relationship and home in this destroyed world, the novel meditates on such themes as motherhood, survival, power and silence. It is a lot, but Katie Hale manages to bring them all together into a truly stunning narrative.

The blurb it is mentioned that the novel is inspired by Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein. In part I can see how both of these gave Katie Hale something to work off. Survival is key to Robinson Crusoe, to the extent that as a kid I believed it was a genuine 'how-to' guide, rather than a novel. In the eponymous novel Robinson Crusoe has to survive alone on an island, learning how to build, till the earth and keep animals. However, Robinson Crusoe is also a product of imperialism, a novel that smacks of old attitudes, which My Name is Monster is not. There is survival, but of a different kind. The novel has more in common with Frankenstein, in which the monster reveals itself to be deeply human and deeply scarred by the society it is thrust into. The two women central to My Name is Monster are, in many ways, scarred as well, both physically and mentally. The relationship they develop is new and scary to them both, yet they cling to each other fiercely. It is the human need for companionship and for hope that suffuses My Name is Monster and it leads to some truly beautiful moments.

I had never heard of Katie Hale before, but as I looked into her after reading My Name is Monster I found out she considered herself a poet first and foremost. (Reading through some of her poems I found that Go into the Woods spoke to me on the same level as My Name is Monster.) There is a magic to her descriptions which belie their simplicity. Whether it is Monster making her way across the Scottish wasteland or Monster 2.0 wondering at the silence atop a hill, there is a wildness that Hale captures through the simplicity of her prose. For some the pace of My Name is Monster might be too slow, but it is a contemplative novel that says a lot in few words. A lot is said in a silence and Hale embraces this in a world devoid of the rush of crowds. My Name is Monster, despite its apocalypse and occasional horror, is a delicate novel that does ask its readers to do some thinking and reckoning. What is it to be a monster? What does survival take? How desperate are we for a human connection? And how do we go on when all else seems to have gone? Hale doesn't claim to have all the answers, but in My Name is Monster she does show us a potential way.

My Name is Monster is a stunning novel, showing us an apocalypse that can, perhaps, bring us back to our humanity. For those who enjoyed novels like Station Eleven, I'd definitely recommend Hale's debut novel. Anyone looking for a quiet contemplation on love and survival, look no further than My Name is Monster.

From the off there is a dizzying sense of unease and unfamiliarity with My Name is Monster. I found myself reading and desperately trying to make this world fit within my own, grasping for something known to me – of course, that is the beauty of dystopian fiction. The taking of what we know and twisting it, makes for a quite frankly terrifying read, and I found myself asking ‘what if’ regularly.
As the recent past unfurls through Monster’s thoughts we learn more about how this world has come to be. It is an incredibly claustrophobic read and the internalised thoughts of Monster perfectly portray the feeling of isolation. It does however feel as if she has simply been an observer rather than an active participant, she feels somehow other; less than human. I found it hard to relate to this detachment. She is so focused on survival, there is no room for emotion. It seems however, through her memories we learn that this is just the way she has always been. She is a brave choice for a main character, as I am sure she will divide opinion.
For me, the novel really gripped me after the arrival of the child (who Monster names Monster, renaming herself as Mother) and her chapters breathe new life into the book. As a young child she sees things differently to Mother, she remembers flashes of what was, but this new world really is her time and place. As well as a generational shift, the introduction of her character also enables a fascinating look at what constitutes motherhood, which becomes a key theme. The interactions and developing relationship between Mother and Monster was a highlight for me.
From part two to the end I was hooked, there will elements which I found were a stretch in terms of believability, and I will be honest and say that I was initially disappointed by the ending. Upon reflection, it fits the book and the overall message and themes, and so perhaps my desire to reset this new world to something recognisable blocked its effectiveness?
Overall, My Name is Monster is a really interesting and disturbing read; wonderfully written and evokes a strong feeling of disorientation from beginning to end.

This book was super interesting and I liked the world that Katie Hale created. The way she described this post-apocalyptic Britain was done really well and it created clear images and landscapes in my mind. Monster/Mother was an interesting character and she had some deep dimensions going on. The way she was written was showed how she came from before and how the hardships and destructions had affected her. The relationship between Monster/Mother and the Feral Girl was written well and it was well layered and carefully described. This is one book that played around with the idea of maternal and familial relationships in a dystopian environment really well.

Told entirely from a first person perspective it follows Monster as she journeys across country to find life, to find somewhere safe, somewhere she can belong in a world that is now devoid of all human life. Or so it seems until she comes across a young girl alone in a deserted city.

As Monster becomes Mother the young girl becomes Monster and the bond between the two begins. Having found a farm the two begin to rebuild a life that is self sufficient, living off the land, what they can grow and farm to survive adding to what they can find to scavenge from the city.

At times vague in detail it adds to Monsters seemingly incapacity for human relationships and her inner dialogues that are at times devoid of emotion. This is an unusual post apocalyptic end of the world novel, where there is only two lives through 99% of the book it explores the connections to each other, the world, the land and how we take for granted nearly everything we have in life and in each other.

Not the most action packed of novels this is a character driven story with a memorable protagonist in Monster, whom I am still unsure if I liked either Monsters! Brimming with atmosphere, it is one that you will read and remember what you have read long after the last page has been read.

Definitely a book that you need to read for yourselves as it is a hard book to review and I do think this book is like Marmite, you will either love it or hate it! And it so happens that I love Marmite 😀

A big thank you to the author Katie Hale, publishers Canongate and NetGalley for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest and independent review.

My Name is Monster by Katie Hale had an interesting premise and I read it just over a day.

After the Sickness and War have killed off most of the world’s population a girl named Monster emerges from the Arctic Vault which kept her alive. Believing she is alone in the world she travels from place to place scavenging to try to make an existence for herself.

Then one day Monster stumbles into a feral young girl and decides to help her. She doesn’t know if the young girl will remember that the word monster can be something to be scared of so she decides to call herself Mother, the most comforting word she can think of. She then decides to name the young girl Monster and to remake her in her own image. However, the young girl named Monster isn’t so sure she wants the same things as her creator.

Now, some comparisons have been made between this book and both Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein. I haven’t read the former and I don’t really get the comparison the latter. Having said that I don’t think the book needs to be likened to others as it works well just by being itself.

I love the dystopian genre and I think My Name is Monster is a pretty good example.

If I were being picky, I could say I wasn’t overly keen on the ending, I don’t know quite what I was expecting but it was definitely something a little more than I got. However, I would still reread this book and recommend it to others.

One thing I particularly liked about My Name is Monster is that it was obvious from the beginning that this was going to be a bleak book.

“I lived with the ice, on the ice, inside it – locked on the island as the rest of the world grew desperate with rage and disease. As the missiles fell and the cities were blasted by a thousand-degree heat.”

Monster or ‘Mother’ as she is known later in the book is quite a cold and dispassionate character. Some readers might find it hard to empathise with her because of this but as time goes on it is easy a bit easier to understand her motivations for her seemingly cold nature.

“Survival has a cost. It always had a cost, and the cost is being alone, cutting out friends and family like a cancerous growth and searing the wound behind them.”

A favourite part of mine in the initial stages of the book was the part where the reader learns how she came to have her rather unusual name in the first place:

“My father called me Monster. It was supposed to be ironic., I think – an affectionate joke.

As I got older, my mother tried to change it, but by then the name had solidified around me. It was a shame, she said for such a pretty child to have an ugly name.

As for me, I grew into my name and out of curls. I think it takes a monster to survive after nobody else can.”

One aspect of My Name is Monster that made it stand out slightly within the genre was the exploration of the concept of what it is to be a woman, the role a mother should play in a child’s life and also whether it is necessary to give birth to someone before you can call yourself ‘mother.’

“Sometimes I wonder if I can still call myself a woman even though I know longer bleed. Then I wonder if I ever thought of myself as a woman even when I did. Then I remember there are no women anyway, just as there are no men, so what does it matter?”

All in all I would be interested in reading something from this author again.

I have a definite thing for dystopian and post-apocalyptic books, especially if these feature a crumbled future society and survivalist themes. I found the structure of the very short chapters very satisfying to read, sort of like mini stories in every chapter, as I learned more and more about the eponymous “Monster” in the book. After a plague of some sort (or perhaps natural disaster) ravaged the land, causing all humans to die, Monster has somehow survived the inevitable. She is hard and cold and determined to survive whatever obstacle is thrown her way. Months, perhaps years are spent alone, wandering abandoned towns and looting whatever is necessary. When she comes upon a child – a human child – she sort of adopts the girl as her own. Now the child becomes Monster and she becomes Mother, raising her to be strong in this rather hopeless new world.
I found the prose beautiful in a perfectly simple way. The exact reason for humanity’s extinction remains vague and mostly unknown, though the destruction and dissemination of the planet is culpable and frightening. I am interested in seeing what else Hale will write.

I'm grateful to Canongate for a free advance e-copy of My Name is Monster via NetGalley.

In a ruined world, two hurt women try to find a way to live. The first is called - calls herself - "Monster". We never learn what other names she may have had. Monster was a scientist, working at the seed bank on the Arctic island of Svalbard. After a time of war and plague and the Last Fall, she makes her way south by boat, and reaches the coast of Scotland, which is where the book begins.

Monster starts to walk, avoiding towns - where the Sickness may still lurk - to find her home. Facing starvation, thirst, and packs of feral dogs, Monster visits her home, which seems to make little impression, and then eventually settles in a farmhouse near a city into which she forays for food and other necessities.

We gradually learn a great deal about Monster from her recollections - of her life as a child, her exasperated mother, her isolation at school and her job in repairing and rebuilding things. Monster thinks she doesn't care about other people and many of her memories of resting them - the girl who wanted to kiss her at school, the young woman who, Monster realised too late, had taken her on a date. There is also her reaction to her colleague on Svalbard, and the fact that, when her parents were dying of the Sickness, she ceased contact with them. But Monster isn't self-sufficient, happy at pushing everyone away. There is a history too all these relationships, which we only see hinted at, and we see especially that Monster was developing as a person in relation to other people - a development that has been stopped now that she is alone, and is very conscious of being alone - she wonders long she can endure like that. Three months, she recalls having been told - underscoring that while there has been a slide to war and disease this isn't a far future post-apocalyptic story, rather the axe has only just fallen: those feral dogs would have been someone's pets or working animals a year or two ago.

Hale's storytelling here is very gentle, very allusive, very powerful. We don't find out exactly why Monster is like she is. She makes it clear that she is in some sense odd (or that she has been made to feel that she is odd) but it seems like an oddness that only exists in relation to other people. Now everyone else is gone, there are only questions of survival, practical matters about food and infections and whether water is safe to drink. The rest is set aside.

But then things change and we meet - Monster meets - another woman, a girl perhaps at that point, finding her starving and feral. She passes on to her the name Monster, deciding instead to become "Mother". She pronounces herself the young girl's creator, and starts to try to civilize her, driving out all the "wildness". And, yes, with all this stress on who is the monster and who is the creator, there are hints of Frankenstein (as well as in the journey from the Arctic, of course).

It's the relationship between Monster and Mother - Monster and Monster - that is at the heart of this book, of course, and it's one which Hale takes her time over, exploring Monster/ Mother's viewpoint first, then switching to the younger Monster. It's a testament to how convincing, how thorough, this depiction is that when we move on to that second part, a real sense of Mother's personality, of her wants and needs, her presence, hangs over the text. It's not always a comforting or welcome presence - Hale makes it clear that, despite being the only two people left in the world (or at least, in their locality) these women are not always good for one another: while Mother's earlier life is often dim, we can see something of the same pattern emerge here as existed between her and her own mother. But it's a pattern that the other Monster won't be drawn into easily. She has her own secrets, memories from before her "creation", and has been through a different trauma in the dying days of the human race. Accepting, at first, what she is told, she inevitably begins to question.

That eventually leads to an action on Monster's part - I'm not going to say exactly what because of spoilers - which supremely strains her relationship with Mother. By the time this happens, both characters have become so real that the rift between them - while anticipated - is as anxiety-inducing and involving as when your best friends fall out. You have to find out what happened/ what's going to happen. Which leads me to one of this book's great joys - it is wonderfully, entrancingly readable, compulsive, a book whose pages simply fly by. At times things come up - coincidences, items of knowledge - that might perhaps seem unlikely - but Hale tells her story with such verve and life that these hardly detract at all.

I really enjoyed this book, and I would happily have read it if it had been twice as long. One of the high points of my read so far this year and I'd strongly recommend.

Sometimes the simplest premise and exquisite execution come together serendipitously and make for a totally absorbing thriller. My Name is Monster is one such powerhouse post-apocalyptic landscape in which humanity is dead. Gone. Extinct. Except for Monster. And Mother. We never quite know how it has come to this although reasons are alluded to throughout we are not given reliable or solid reasoning; I liked these mysterious parts of the book as my imagination ran away with itself and it was rather fun. Whilst Monster scavengers to survive she comes across a girl she names Monster, whilst changing her name to Mother, and foretelling the bond which will grow between the two of them.

The short, snappy chapter structure had something interesting happening in every one of them and helped to keep you turning the pages. I could relate to both Monster and Mother as Ms Hale has put a lot of detail into the personalities of these two girls, their feelings and their perceptions of the shattered world limply hanging around them. I could completely relate to their introverted natures and the enjoyment of being in one's own company. Both the aura surrounding the tale was chillingly atmospheric and the characters so, so enigmatic; this is what kept me up to find out what would happen to the pair.

If you are a reader who must have aspects spelt out to you in terms of what is going on with the plot then this may not be for you; this is because Ms Hale leaves a lot to the imagination. I always find it fascinating as no-one ever reads the same story due to everything being open to interpretation. It's really the story of Motherhood but not the usual innate relationship between mother and daughter but by two people who crave love, attention and tender moments in a world so devoid of love. A simple story about the enduring nature of companionship, respect and love and a touching and poignant debut. Many thanks to Canongate for an ARC.

The Sickness and the bombs have killed off the last of humanity, leaving only Monster, emerging from the arctic vault that kept her alive. Believing she is now alone in the world, Monster washes up on the coast of Scotland and begins the long journey back to her parent’s house. One day, she finds a girl. Naming the girl after herself and changing her own name to Mother, she tries to teach the girl everything she knows. But young Monster has her own desires that are very different to those of the Mother who made her, but didn’t create her.

The dynamic of this book – being a mother and young daughter in a post-apocalyptic landscape – bears some similarities to Cormack McCarthy’s The Road. It isn’t doing anything particularly new, but it is well-written and convincing enough to remain engaging throughout.

The back-story was extremely vague which I didn’t love. The causes of the apocalypse are only alluded to, in reference to the Sickness and the war, but the full story of what happened is never told. In some cases, this can add a level of intrigue or highlight that the point of the story is now not then, but in this case it felt more like the author just hadn’t really thought that much about that part of the story.

However, I did enjoy Monster’s story. Especially the first half, before she finds Monster Jr and becomes Mother. I found it difficult to empathise with either character. They both felt quite one dimensional, despite the quite obvious intention for them to be complex, but it was a good read nonetheless.

The book is split into two parts, the first narrated by Monster, the second is narrated by a young girl who Monster finds while she is scavenging for food and supplies in the city. Monster is a survivor; she has guts, no fear and extreme emotional resilience, which I couldn’t work out whether was due to nature or nurture. Katie Hale definitely drip-feeds that Monster has always been an outsider and hasn't fit into what the world around her deemed to be "normal". Struggling with social situations and cues, Monster prefers her own company and fixing things instead of sleepovers, parties and the like. We learn that Monster has been treated differently her whole life and this has gone on to have a huge impact on her ability to develop relationships. She has only ever really had one true friend and no real relationships to speak of and the name Monster was given to her by her parents.

In the opening chapter we meet Monster; washed up on a beach, patchy details of "the Sickness" and "the Last Fall" linger in her mind. Monster begins her journey to find shelter, food and potential survivors with just her inner thoughts to keep her company, we then begin to learn a bit more of Monster and the decisions and choices which led her to be where she is today.

Katie Hale definitely drip-feeds that Monster has always been an outsider and hasn't fit into what the world around her deemed to be "normal". Struggling with social situations and queues, Monster prefers her own company and fixing things instead of sleepovers, parties and the like. We learn that Monster has been treated differently her whole life and this has gone on to have a huge impact on her ability to develop relationships. She has only ever really had one true friend and no real relationships to speak of and the name Monster was given to her by her parents.

In the opening chapter we meet Monster; washed up on a beach, patchy details of "the Sickness" and "the Last Fall" linger in her mind. Monster begins her journey to find shelter, food and potential survivors with just her inner thoughts to keep her company, we then begin to learn a bit more of Monster and the decisions and choices which led her to be where she is today.

As she is walking, she revisits her past in both her thoughts and the physical world, before settling at a farm house where she begins to make a life for herself, scavenging in the city, utilising the land around her and beginning to build somewhere she can call home.

It is around half way through the book where Monster encounters the girl; small, fragile, hiding in an abandoned shop, scared and hysterical. Monster makes a decision that goes against her nature and brings the girl back to the farmhouse.

From here on in the book is narrated by the girl. She has hazy flashbacks to her previous life, the soft woman and a bridge. She struggles to understand Monster and the way in which she behaves. Monster teaches her everything she knows about the land, growing food and scavenging, whilst wrestling with her natural instinct to abandon the girl and go out again alone. I enjoyed the change in Monster over this latter part of the book, I felt her soften but this is something that she didn't show outwardly to the girl. There was a real tenderness in Monster as the girl comes into her world. Her perspective shifts from solely thinking of herself to not being able to imagine the world without the girl.

The short chapters really pack a punch and the dual narrative added a further dynamic to the story. I really enjoyed how the girl saw the world, the vulnerability of her and how she tried to make sense of the situation. I also fell for Monster, I loved her character and her growth throughout the book.

I am a completest when it comes to every aspect of my life, so why should books be any different? I did have some questions which I would really like answered; I want to know more about Monster, I can guess what happened to the world but I would love a bit more detail about what led to this catastrophic event and also the girl - so many questions about her. That said, this didn't take away from my enjoyment and reading experience, I think it's a fantastic debut, a tender story about our protective instincts, loneliness and the need for human companionship, it's a book which I devoured and one which I highly recommend.

This post apocalyptic read is chilling and eerie. It tells the stories of Mother and Monster and a realistic way. I loved the setting, and felt on edge the whole time I was reading it - it gave me chills and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

The two different point of views were well written and I liked how different Mother and Monster were on the inside. Very little dialogue and alot of inner thoughts, the story was well written and I'm sure I'll be thinking about it for a while.

If you enjoy this type of book then I'd definitely recommend it.

A dystopian novel, relating to the aftermath of a destructive war and sickness that killed all but 2 members of the human population.

This is an excellent concept, and I was prepared for a rich tale of society’s fall into death. However, I feel I was left short of any true understanding as to why this story was created.

What started the war? What started the sickness? Was this biological warfare? What was the last fall? What happened to the safe spaces? There are so many unanswered questions that were pushed under the rug in order to ‘further’ characterise first Monster, but I feel as if it left me unaware as to why she ended up there in the first place.

The air of mystery throughout the entire plot would have been excellent if we would have been given an opportunity to understand more. But as the story went on, Mother and Monster were both as equally cryptic, to themselves and to us.

This book kept me engaged, but it was unfortunately rather repetitive with a very slight amount of character development. It had the potential to give so much more

A dark and twisty read that will haunt you long after you’ve finished. It’s well written, if not a little formulaic.

Adept and confident as it is, i did not engage with the speaker, isolated after the populace in this dystopian future world have all died from a sickness. Finally, she meets another female but they are both so eccentric , and any plotting so slow in unwinding, i just found it tedious. From other reviews I see I'm nearly alone!

We've all read the premise - an apocalyptic war, an ensuring sickness, a wiped out race. My Name is Monster's plot is no different - Monster, the only survivor in a new world that has been terrorised by sickness and war, begins to rebuild a life, until, one day, she finds a girl: feral, and ready to be taught all that Monster knows. - yet Hale has cleverly reworked old ideas into a compellingly contemporary novel which will leave you thinking long into the silence that follows the ending.

Whilst Hale's writing is beautifully executed, the story itself was generally kept very vague and elusive - a lot of questions were left unanswered and the ending left to the readers own imagination, however personally I found this a clever structural device and ultimately fitting to the context.

When I read that My Name is Monster was inspired by the epic novel Frankenstein (one of my favourite novels of all time) I couldn't wait to read it, and this inspiration clearly shines through. Hale intelligently, yet subtly, explores issues surrounding power, the things that society leaves imprinted on us when the rules no longer apply, and about the strength and the danger of a mother’s love.

Told through two different and dynamic narratives - Mother (the original Monster) who survives and adapts to the post-apocalyptic world, and Monster - a blank sheet, created, taught and grown in this new world - Hale's captivation of the two very different female voices is masterfully done. Like Victor Frankenstein creating his monster, Hale too, explores the contrasting results that language, ownership, morality, and the obsessions that follow, between the relationship between Mother and Monster.

Whilst this probably won't enjoy readers looking for a fast-paced, thrilling read, Hale has undoubtedly written a lyrically intriguing and refreshingly new viewpoint to this overcrowded genre, and offered something timely and unique.

Post apocalyptic(ish) story about strength and a mother’s love.

Post apocalyptic Britain. War and ‘the sickness’ have killed everyone. Everyone that is apart from one woman, a woman called Monster. Scavenging from derelict buildings and burnt out cities, Monster survives in a desolate farmhouse with only her wits and will to survive. But now she has found another survivor and Monster becomes Mother.

This really is a character driven book which is understandable with only two characters. For a book to be carried by two characters and no supporting cast they have to be memorable. Unfortunately they are not. There is just not enough depth or emotion for them to be interesting or likeable.

Monster shuns human contact. She is solitary, resilient and strong. The perfect candidate for surviving the end of the world. Her discovery of another survivor and her evolution from Monster into Mother could have added the depth desperately needed to the character however this just falls flat.

The backstory of Monster’s life before ‘the sickness’ and why she is the way she is attempts to add empathy but i just found it made her more her more unlikable. The world building is quite limp and I had hoped there would be an explanation for the sickness and the war but frustratingly this was sparse.

I do like post apocalyptic fiction and was disappointed that this didn’t work. It just didn’t add anything to the genre.
The author did manage to carry me through to the end as the writing is good and i liked the way that they conveyed the bleakness and a foreboding atmosphere.

It’s just that not much happened.

Thanks to NetGalley for a ARC, in return for an honest review..

Monster is the only one left following an apocalyptic war and the ensuing sickness. Left by herself she’s free to explore the world as she pleases, until she finds a child, a new Monster, to nurture her loneliness and teach her the ways to survive this new world.

The descriptions of the present world are good, although there’s no real ‘newness’ about it. We’ve read this story before, in a number of post apocalyptic Britain’s. However, this is well written, and the pace, although it ebbs and flows to a certain degree, held my attention long enough to keep me coming back. There’s no denying the author can write, and write very well.

Monster as a character is very enigmatic and she’s purposely left vague with regards to her past. Although this intentionally made her seem emotionless, forced to accept her life for what it is and take a more practical route, I found for the most part that this worked as a hindrance rather than endear me to her. She’s without any real depth, and this lack of emotion just pointless without a complete backstory to support her decisions. The snippets we do see aren’t enough.

The world building is also extremely vague, never explains how it became how it is, which at times left me frustrated and confused. A little world backstory can go a long way to explain and support a character’s actions. Additionally, a lack of supporting characters also meant I was forced to only look at Monster's actions as there were presented to me, and I found them very one dimensional. I just don’t think she’s a strong enough character to carry the story. I don’t have to like a character to enjoy what I read, but I do need them to make ‘sense’ to me. I want to know why they behave the way they do, not be told how they behave.

The child she meets also follows a similar vein unfortunately. There’s a sense of reinvention around the new Monster, as though she’s being shaped into a new person who’s fully equipped to survive, but again she lacks any real warmth and intellectual depth.

A frustrating read that left me with more questions than answers, and an emotionally lacking lead.

An interest and thought provoking read, not always easy at times and quite often thought provoking. The characters are well written and while not always likeable the book keeps you hooked and involved. A great read for something a bit darker and to make you think.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest review