Girls & Monsters - Review

Girls & Monsters by Anne Michaud

Blurb

This dark but uplifting collection of five Young Adult novellas includes:

Death Song: Liz is in love with Joe, but the monster of the lake has other plans for them.

Black Dog: Scarlet is engaged in a struggle for her sanity, but according to the voice in her head, she may be too late.

A Blue Story: When Katherine's beloved dog goes missing, she fears her strange new neighbor might be involved.

Dust Bunnies: Christiane faces her childhood arachnophobia and ends up confronting even greater fears in this test of sisterhood.

We Left at Night: Brooke and her family must abandon their home and their lives to make it out of a disease-plagued town overrun by zombies.

Girls & Monsters is for everyone who has ever been brave enough to confront their childhood fears...and lived to tell about it.

My Review

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review. This is a collection of 5 short stories that deal in a way of things some of us grew up fearing. Each story has it's own twisted tale to make you cringe.

Death Song: Liz is in love with Joe, but the monster of the lake has other plans for them.

Liz left years ago and now has come back to town and knows she is still in love with Joe. The problem with coming back home is the monster in the lake is still around. The monster in fact is a mermaid who needs victims. When she can no longer get tourist she goes after the people in the town. She has Joe in her sights but Liz won't let him go and it is a fight for Joes life. This is a very good tale that will make you rethink mermaids. Liz and Joe are great characters. This is one of my favorite tales in this book. 

4 Stars

Black Dog: Scarlet is engaged in a struggle for her sanity, but according to the voice in her head, she may be too late.

Scarlet is being followed by a black dog but no one else can see it or hear. She thinks she is going crazy and doesn't know what to do. I really didn't like this story to much. I couldn't get into it and I really didn't like the main character Scarlet.It just wasn't for me. It is a dark tale and that is the only thing I really liked.

2 Stars

A Blue Story: When Katherine's beloved dog goes missing, she fears her strange new neighbor might be involved.

Katherine loves her dog and when he goes missing she just knows someone took it. Her suspicions lead her to her new neighbor. She is certain he is responsible for her missing pet and for other missing animals. What she does think doesn't prepare her for when she finds out the truth. I liked this tale. Katherine was easy to like and very believable. The tale may bother some as bad to say you hear a lot of this in the real world. I loved the ending of this one.

4 Stars

Dust Bunnies: Christiane faces her childhood arachnophobia and ends up confronting even greater fears in this test of sisterhood.

Christiane has always been afraid of spiders and when she has to confront one it horrifies her to learn she may not have even known a lot about her own family. Have to say this one freaked me out the most as I hate spiders. I don't care how big or small they are I don't like them. It is a good story that will make you see even horrible things can be lovable.

3 Stars

We Left at Night: Brooke and her family must abandon their home and their lives to make it out of a disease-plagued town overrun by zombies.

Brooke along with her family is trying to escape the zombies that have taken over her town. I love zombie stories and I really hated this one to end. It shows what it would like to go through a horrible night for a teen. I love the that spin. Most time you see zombie tales through the POV of adults this looking through a teens eyes. I really hope I hear more of this story sometime.

4 Stars

Each tale is charming in it's own way. Some more than others for me. I think if you like short stories you may enjoy this book. Overall I would give it a 3.

3 out of 5 Bats~Pam