Description

‘Disturbingly compelling’ – Guardian

A blackly comic tale about two children you would never want to meet – from the film director of Saltburn and Promising Young Woman.

Set in the Cornish town of Fowey, all is not as idyllic as the beautiful seaside town might seem. The body of a young woman is discovered in the nets of a fishing boat. It is established that the woman was murdered. Most are shocked and horrified. But there is somebody who is not – a twelve-year-old girl. She is delighted; she loves murders. Soon she is questioning the inhabitants of the town in her own personal investigation. But it is a bit boring on her own.

Then Miles Giffard, a similarly odd twelve-year-old boy, arrives in Fowey with his mother, and they start investigating together. Oh, and also playing games that re-enact the murders. Just for fun, you understand…

A book about two twelve-year-olds that is definitely not for kids…

Publisher Review

Emerald Fennell combines sharp psychological insight with mordant humour to fashion a dark, contemporary fairy tale. * Daily Mail * ...a mash-up of Carrie and Bluebeard with a touch of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is smart, modern and fresh. This savagely and ultimately bleak tale is not for the faint of heart. * Financial Times * Monsters by Emerald Fennell (Hot Key Books, GBP7.99) is absolutely great. It's about two appalling children, a sinister seaside holiday and a spate of murders. It's gripping and astonishingly, gleefully dark. * The Spectator * Emerald Fennel's MONSTERS is a tremendous, destabilising work of fiction, infusing the mundane with eerie and unsettling darkness. It is written, moreover, in a remarkable tone of voice: Roald Dahl meets Muriel Spark. Astonishing. -- William Boyd * New Statesman * ..the two kids embark on a blissful summer of voyeurism, spying, and youthful sleuthing of the most appalling kind. They may not be the Secret Seven, but they are disturbingly compelling. -- Imogen Russell Williams * The Guardian * Emerald Fennel's MONSTERS will delight 12-plus fans of Edward Gorey, Lemony Snicket and Bret Easton Ellis; it is a hideously funny account by a cynical 13 year old girl of a series of murders in the Cornish town of Fowey. Sophisticated and suspenseful, it has a view of parents that adults would be wise to avoid reading. -- Amanda Craig * New Statesman * It's very difficult not to overuse the word disturbing to describe this book... Monsters is a challenging novel for teens that is a well-balanced combination of shocking, thought-provoking and gruesomely entertaining writing. * We Love This Book * A modern classic... Not for the faint-hearted, but lovers of pitch-black humour, unreliable narrators and unspeakable children will have a ball with Fennell's tale of an idyllic Cornish town, an inconvenient body, and two 12-year-olds unwholesomely obsessed with murder * Guardian *