English Monsters by James Scudamore is a moving novel about the abuse faced by pupils at a boarding school and the lives that they lead after experiencing such trauma.

I found this to be a moving book. The author uses the title of a game invented by one of the characters to show that unexpected monsters can lurk anywhere. In the game invented by Simon, the monsters can hide in plain sight and then attack you unexpectedly.

Max is the main character. Separated from his parents who work abroad Max begins his formative years living in the countryside with his grandparents. He builds up a strong bond with his grandfather who is portrayed in a vivid way. His grandfather is a complex character but the bond is one of trust and love.

Max is sent to boarding school as is "traditional" with ex pat families. The boarding school harks back several decades in its "ethos." There is a master who inflicts savage punishments. There is also the more sympathetic Mr Crimble, who seems more benevolent.
The book moves between different periods in Max's life but he always returns to his formative time at that boarding school. Although music has provided an escape for him , he is never free of the past.

A lot has been written about boarding school "syndrome" but you could draw parallels with any other institutionalised abuse/ cult etc.

"the way systems co-opt people into doing the unthinkable, dulling them with routine, repeating the same strange terminology and beliefs until what becomes unthinkable is that the systems of man could be any other way"

What emerges is a story of institutionalised abuse. However the author is too skilled to make Max the direct "victim" /survivor. The narrative is more nuanced than that. The angle of the narrative is more oblique and all the richer for it.

The metaphor of the game is an appropriate one. Where is a safe place if any?

This was a little slow to immediately get into, but after the end of the second chapter, I was well and truly hooked. The writing is lucid and fluid and at some points impeccable. The depiction of the boarding school is so richly detailed, it is as though the place forms a part of my own memory.

I personally really enjoyed the back and forthness of it all, detailing how these memories live on in the protagonist’s adult life. And, to my surprise, this book just kept getting better and better. I didn't think the strength of the first half could continue, but I was proven wrong. I would recommend this book to anyone. Painful, disturbing, illuminating, hard-hitting.

I will be reading this one again.

A story about growing up, childhood friends, love and families alongside systemic child abuse in a boarding school. Whilst the abuse is horrifying it is told in a matter of fact way by the small boys who are experiencing it, so it isn't until they look back that they realise how wrong it all was.

The main character describes his loving relationship with his grandfather, the man who guided him through life and provided the support and stability when he was abandoned to the school by his parents. He also has some friends from the school, and as they mature their lives continue to be impacted by their time at school and the people that they met.

I enjoyed this book - it is a gentle narration of a life affected by the wrong doings of some people who were handed power over children.

English Monsters is a novel about a boarding school, abuse, and the effect it has on the friendships and lives of the students. Max's childhood is international travel mixed with running around his grandparents' farm, until at the age of ten he is sent to boarding school. The school is full of rules and violent punishment, but Max also ends up with a close group of friends for the few years he is there. As an adult, it turns out there was more going on at the school than he knew, and as the secrets are revealed, the friends make different choices.

This is a novel that very much offers what it says on the tin, from the blurb and title: abuse at a boarding school and the impact on a group of friends. The main focus is on Max, Simon whose mum works at the school, and Luke, whose brother is head boy and whose whole family become part of the novel. These friendships are the highlight of the book, particularly Max and Simon's friendship, which is the constant through each section of the narrative, though at times you almost want more of these relationships instead of focus on other background characters. The choice of Max as protagonist brings an interesting sense of distance and drift, as he is someone without purpose and who was unaware of things going on when he was a child, which makes him feel like the kind of not wholly reliable narrator often associated with stories looking back over academic experiences and friendship groups.

English Monsters is an understated novel that doesn't bring surprises, and which looks at abuse, what happens when victims tell their story, and the importance of friendship. There are elements that feel un- or under-explored as the narrative progresses, but the novel also suggests the complexity and ambiguity in the way different people deal with things.