Till We Become Monsters by Amanda Headlee
Summary
Ever since he was little, Korin Perrin knew monsters were real – his grandmother told him so, after all. But when his grandmother dies, Korin, believing his brother to be a monster who killed her, attempts to kill him to bring his real brother back. After sixteen years of family discord following the attempt, Korin returns home for spring break and a chance to reconcile with his family. When their planned hunting trip goes wrong, the brothers will find out who the monster among them truly is.
Review
For one of my few forays into the horror genre, Till We Become Monsters was a book I don’t regret picking up. This book uses unreliable narrators perfectly. As it switches between points of view to show different characters’ understanding of the story’s events, the reader becomes less and less sure of whose narration they can trust until all of the pieces finally come together. The author does a fantastic job of dropping little hints for the reader to puzzle over. The frequency with which they contradict each other only makes the story’s conclusion that much more satisfying.
Something I enjoyed about this book is how my opinion of each character changed as the story progressed. As the author introduced new characters and revealed their versions of past events, I found myself cheering for or despising characters I never would have anticipated liking or disliking. Each character has very strong views on how things play out in this book. Their distinct voices make it easier to puzzle out this book’s true course of events. For readers who don’t mind gore and violence, this is certainly a book to check out.
Yours in love and literature,
Page
Content warning(s): swearing, graphic depictions of violence and gore, murder, injury, death, mental hospital/asylum, car accidents, animal death
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