- Title:
- Lesser Known Monsters
- Author:
- Rory Michaelson
- Release:
- October 31, 2022
- Format:
- Audiobook
- Narrator:
- Rhys Jennings
- Series:
- None listed on Audible.
Lesser Known Monsters falls short for me. I wouldn’t call it a bad book, by any stretch of the imagination. It’s beautifully descriptive and the characters all feel like living, breathing human beings with personalities, wants, dreams, hopes, and desires. But that’s also where the largest issue lies.
I love this …. genre? of people and monsters duking it out in secret, while society is blissfully unaware. 2 of my favorite series of all time fall under this category, Supernatural and the Vampire Huntress Legend. Where those series shine and where Lesser Known Monsters falls short, is the monsters. They’re not interesting. They’re not memorable. I’ve listened to this book 1.5 times and I feel like I’ve been trailing 3 best friends as they go about their mostly mundane lives.
Lesser Known Monsters spends so much time on the characters, that the monsters mentioned in the title feel like an afterthought. Maybe they wouldn’t be lesser known if they got even a hint of the spotlight. It feels like this book is chapters 1 – 5 of a 20-chapter book. Maybe things pick up in the sequel, but I can’t recommend a book based on “well, maybe…..”.
It has its moments for sure. It has a romance, which doesn’t feel forced, like so many romance subplots in books, and movies especially, feel. I was genuinely invested in it and cared about the outcum. There’s a moment where one of the gay protagonists ends up in a closet, with somebody else trying to coax him out, which I find to be no end of fucking hilarious.
Though speaking of their sexualities and identities, that just brings up another issue. At the start, they beat you over the head with their sexualities and identities. It feels like the book is trying to flash neon signs to people who are bigoted to steer away. But it ends up feeling incredibly forced and downright annoying. It does eventually get better and is actually woven into the plot effectively.
This section will contain a plot spoiler. Skip it to see the narration segment below. At one point, another issue for me arises. A character is killed off. For all of 20 minutes, only for them to be brought back as if it never happened. It lessened any impact their “death” had, and cheapened the scene where they were attacked. It didn’t feel earned, it felt cheap. I think their revival would have been better off moved back to book 2, allowing the weight of the loss of a close friend to properly sink in for the characters. I was genuinely sad when the character was killed because I really liked them. As I said, they feel like real people, not walking, talking cardboard cutouts like so many characters in books. And when they were unceremoniously brought back, I just found myself reacting with disgust.
Finally, the last gem of this book is the audio narration. Narrators can make or break a book. Narration is an art. Narrating a book is VOICE ACTING and that they have to carry the entire cast and set the scene. Most narrators are lackluster and soulless at best. The narrator for Lesser Known Monsters brought life and personality to the characters. It was a joy to listen to this narration with such wonderfully human characters.