FICTION

Monsters Among Us

by Monica Rodden
Crown. Oct. 2020. 400p. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780593125861.
COPY ISBN
Gr 9 Up–When Catherine wakes up in a strange dorm room, she knows something terrible has happened. She doesn’t remember being sexually assaulted, and she definitely doesn’t want to talk about it. She returns home from college and reignites her friendship with Henry, the boy next door. When a beloved neighbor child is killed, Catherine’s focus shifts to solving the murder, but she isn’t sure who she can trust. Rodden’s website calls this novel “a modern retelling of Wuthering Heights,” and the author inserts heavy-handed references to Dante’s Inferno. While these literary allusions are not fully realized, this is a suspenseful story featuring compelling characters. Catherine and Henry are both white.
VERDICT A dark novel featuring a horrific sexual assault and a child murder that falls short of its literary ambitions, but holds readers’ attention until the end. Recommended as an additional purchase.
Reviewed by ­Carly Wiggins Searcy, McNeese State Univ., LA , Oct 01, 2020

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