The Monstrumologist

This book is bad ass. The plot kicks off right away, diving into the big bad monster of this installment, headless, seven-foot-tall maneaters that have been referenced by Shakespeare and Heroditus. It's interesting, scary and disturbing as hell at times, though not always because of he monsters. I do love me some gore, and this has plenty of it, which due to the recommended age bracket caught me completely off guard at first, but I otherwise enjoyed.

The characters are real and endearing. Will Henry is a sweetheart, loyal and brave without being annoying about it, while the dear Doctor Pellinore Warthrop begs to be portrayed by some frenzied character actor. Their relationship is both uncomfortable at times and touching, very much characteristic of two very different people thrown together out of circumstance but with the same ultimate goal of just doing the right thing. The addition of John Kearns much later in the story, as both villain and savior, proves as an interesting constrast to Warthrop, and would've felt like a forcible attempt to make Pellinore look better in the reader's eyes if Kearns hadn't been so damn interesting himself.

And on top of it all, its beautifully written. Its incredibly refreshing to read such sophisticated writing when the story is written from the perspective of a young boy (even though he's telling the story as a much older man) and the content is what some would consider low brow. Its no grand mystery, just a bloody, action-packed story with a strong human element, and I am definitely reading the next two books.