I was recently given a free copy by the publisher to review The Monster Mob by Andrea Hertach. It tells the story of a group of kids, Alex, Charlie, Leanna and Pete who share a love of creative writing and form the “Monster Mob” to share their (creepy) stories with each other. The novel is structured around the kids’ stories and their attempt to find the storyworthy in real life. From my reading I would guess this is aimed at middle graders, particularly those who already have a love of reading and writing. I don’t think older readers would appreciate as much – the themes and concepts are kept pretty simple and there might be little to hold their attention. However, there are a fair number of classical literary references – to Poe, Shelley, Shakespeare and Dickens and the author makes these pretty explicit in order for younger readers to appreciate them. What I liked The Monster Mob is a very light, quick read and passes a pleasant couple of hours. The writing style was clear and engaging. I did enjoy the ending with Mr Hawthorn – I thought it was rather sweet. What I didn’t like This book is…
I was recently given a free copy by the publisher to review The Monster Mob by Andrea Hertach. It tells the story of a group of kids, Alex, Charlie, Leanna and Pete who share a love of creative writing and form the “Monster Mob” to share their (creepy) stories with each other. The novel is structured around the kids’ stories and their attempt to find the storyworthy in real life. From my reading I would guess this is aimed at middle graders, particularly those who already have a love of reading and writing. I don’t think older readers would appreciate as much – the themes and concepts are kept pretty simple and there might be little to hold their attention. However, there are a fair number of classical literary references – to Poe, Shelley, Shakespeare and Dickens and the author makes these pretty explicit in order for younger readers to appreciate them. What I liked The Monster Mob is a very light, quick read and passes a pleasant couple of hours. The writing style was clear and engaging. I did enjoy the ending with Mr Hawthorn – I thought it was rather sweet. What I didn’t like This book is…