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    The Monsters in Your Neighborhood
    The Monsters in Your Neighborhood
    The Monsters in Your Neighborhood
    Ebook213 pages2 hours

    The Monsters in Your Neighborhood

    By Jesse Petersen

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    As one of Frankenstein’s Creatures, Natalie Gray knows that unique parts sometimes make up a great whole. Still, leading a diverse support group for monsters—now including Cthulhu!—isn’t an easy task. Especially not since the internet arrived.

    New York City embraces the different and the bizarre. Still, even for such a fun-loving city, the supernatural and monstrous might be a bit too much. It’s been six months since the members of “Club Monstrosity” overcame the most recent spate of anti-monster violence and they’ve reestablished their routine of meeting in a church basement once a week to (ugh!) talk about their feelings. Still, they also know a war against them is brewing.

    Natalie and Alec (the werewolf) have begun dating, and the mummies Kai and Rehu are tighter than a bug in a…well, bandage. But when modern means (YouTube, Twitter, bits and bytes) are used to chilp away at the solidarity of these ancient monsters, it’s up to Natalie to save the day. #MonstersInNewYork may be trending on Twitter, but this girl’s trending toward saving the day…somehow.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPocket Star
    Release dateJul 29, 2013
    ISBN9781476716190
    The Monsters in Your Neighborhood
    Author

    Jesse Petersen

    Jesse Petersen grew up a geek in love with Star Wars, video games (King’s Quest, anyone?), books of all kinds, and even the occasional RPG. Eventually she grew up, at least in body, but she still loves anything with whimsy, and her books reflect that. Whether it’s funny zombies or monsters in group therapy, you’ll find books that mix giggles with gore. You can find Jesse at her website JessePetersen.net, her Twitter @jessepet and on Facebook, where she talks about Weird Al, cats, and even her books.

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    Reviews for The Monsters in Your Neighborhood

    4/5

    11 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      My rating: 3.5 of 5 starsA copy of The Monsters In Your Neighborhood was provided to me by Pocket Star/Edelweiss for review purposes.The Monsters in Your Neighbor picks up right where Club Monstrosity left off with the monsters set to anticipate an attack from the Van Helsings after killing of one of their own. But things have been silent, eerily silent, and they haven't heard a peep from the Van Helsing's until each monster finally receives the message they've been waiting for: "War."Club Monstrosity possessed a highly entertaining and original idea that I was immediately keen to. A group of monsters that attend AA-type meetings together to discuss their concerns with functioning in a society that isn't aware of their existence? I love it. And I loved this installment even more than the first. The mystery has a lot of depth and twists and turns that managed to be quite surprising. New characters have also been added to the gang: we've got Patrick, a Cthulhu relegated to living in the sewers because of the impossibility of masking his appearance and Igor, Natalie's fathers old assistant who has a new Southern accent and after some modern-day plastic surgery has had his old hump removed. I was surprised to see how incorporated into the story both were, but they were entertaining additions. The ending left you anticipating more installments and I'm definitely on board for more Monster-drama, and really hoping more interesting Monsters get added to the gang! This is a humorous and entertaining mystery series with plenty of paranormal and plenty of fun classic horror movie references.
    • 4/5
      If you ever find yourself with some time on a lazy afternoon, in the mood for a book that's light, funny and just a little silly, I highly recommend the Monstrosity series by Jesse Petersen. They're super quick reads and are like pure fluffy cotton candy for the brain. Anyway, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.This one is actually a follow-up to Club Monstrosity, in which we were first introduced to the motley crew of monsters who meets twice a week in a church basement for their Monstofelldosis Anonymous support group. After the events of that first book, however, the topics of their meetings have understandably shifted from more touchy-feely subjects to war planning and preparations for their fight against the descendent of fiction's most famous monster hunter and his family, the Van Helsings.The old gang is back -- minus the few we lost in the first book, of course, but there are a couple new additions to the cast as well. Speaking of which, why, yes that is indeed Cthulhu you see on the right side of the cover. I admit my inner Lovecraftian horror fan danced a little jig in glee at the appearance of Patrick, even if the thought of an Old One cavorting with the likes of Natalie, Alec, Kai et al. is more than a bit surreal.This was a cute story, very funny, and quite similar in nature to the first book, except with more casual swearing than I think I remember. If you're in the mood for a "popcorn book" or something to lift your spirits or give yourself a break from the stress, this does the trick. It's told in a very good-humored, teasing way, and doesn't take itself too seriously.Thrusting the issue of social media into the lives of these characters, some of whom are hundreds if not thousands of years old, is also a nice touch. Dracula with an iPhone still cracks me up, though I think the image of Igor watching Sex and the City might give him a run for his money. Like I've said before in past reviews, it always fascinates me to see authors tackle re-tellings or satirical takes on fairy tales and classic literature, and putting a light spin on movie monsters ranks up there on my list of interesting ideas.
    • 5/5
      I recieved this book through NetGalley for review, and I have to say, although I am usually quite hesitant to read sequels, that I thoroughly enjoyed this second instalment and was impressed with the amount of development with regards to the characters and the plot.

      Going into this book, you need to bear in mind that there is a lot of swearing and foul language, but personally, I think that it adds to the humour of the book, and also, in some scenes, it adds to the drama and emphasises the severity of the monsters’ situation.

      I, again, really loved the various monster characters in this novel, and especially the introduction of Pat, who is a really interesting creature.

      The plot wasn’t as mysterious as the first one but I still think that it was completely captivating and kept you guessing until the very end.

      I would thoroughly recommend this novel which is released 29th July 2013.
    • 3/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.Quick & Dirty: It’s the age old battle of monsters versus humans, but brand new technology gives provides unexpected leverage.Opening Sentence: If only the Blob hadn’t died, Natalie never would have been in this position.The Review:The Monsters in Your Neighborhood picks up six months after Club Monstrosity. Natalie and the other monsters have fallen back into their normal routines. She and Alec are nursing their budding relationship and the group has welcomed a new member to the group, a Cthulhu named Pat. They all know it’s the calm before the storm, the first hint? A video of a huge monster ripping the arm off some homeless man in Central Park goes viral on the internet and being as tech savvy as he is, Alec the werewolf is the first to find it. Because she works at the city morgue, Natalie is the one to confirm that this video is no prank. Her boss shows her the body of a hobo missing all of one arm. This video sets the whole group into motion, but one member seems a little off her game.Linda the swam dweller is usually a sobbing, whining mess at the first hint of bad news. She is easily the single most annoying character I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. Natalie fully expects the full waterworks when she and Alec give the group the information about this video but instead Linda is cool as a cucumber and ready to act. I found it super odd that no one really commented on this. The only one who reflects on the extreme personality shift is Alec who suddenly notices how pretty Linda could be if she didn’t have to wear her “human” make up all the time. It’s a little odd how he takes several minutes to reflect on the colors of her scales and the fierceness she’s been hiding from them all these years. Come to find out, the swamp dweller has a mysterious new boyfriend-another fact no one in this group decides to think too much on until it is entirely too late. As slow as the group is to pick up on Linda’s sudden and extreme character shift, they are super quick on the uptake when Alec goes missing and then shows up a little less than two days later with memory loss.Now between the video, the missing werewolf and the not so subtle sticky notes with the word WAR written above a VH signature, it’s not too terribly difficult to figure out that the Van Helsing family is up to something. That something is a evil and genius plot that brings this book into the 21st century. Rather than spur up mobs of angry villagers themselves, the Van Helsing family has started a Twitter feed with the hashtag #killthemonsters which starts gaining followers almost immediately after the video surfaces. By posting videos and pictures of Natalie and the others, the Van Helsing’s won’t have to lift a finger to fight, crazy followers will do it for them. That’s right. This war is now virtual.I thought the use of Twitter and YouTube in this novel were creative and amusing, but it really took something away for me. It is stressed repeatedly in the story, how much the Van Helsing’s hate the monsters. Every detail about this family features the looks of disgust and air of superiority the family feels over the monsters but for all that hate, for all that anger and built up years of aggression, all they are going to do is post some stuff on the internet? Really? Right before the battle they have plans and strategies and I got super psyched up for an intense fight, decades in the making. Peterson manages to get a fairly intense fight scene into the book and I really enjoyed reading it. It was what I had been looking forward to the entire time, but I was disappointed. The fight was short lived and ended in a way that left me feeling extremely let down.Peterson kept her characters familiar and the plot moved forward quickly. It was a good sequel and I felt that she left an opening for a trilogy, but if that’s the case I hope social media plays a smaller role.Notable Scene:“Why turn on us?” Natalie pressed, this time softer. He glared at her. “Jekyll was the only one who ever kept me from destroying you all in teh first palce. Do you think I wanted to go to that pathetic fucking group every week? To sit in that disguting basement and talk about feeelings and hear you whine about your little problems? If you had been monsters-real monstesr- it might have been one thing, but you all want to be human.” “And you want to kill humans,” Kai finished softly. He shrugged. “Most of the time. Especially since they killed my brother. Any of you could have prevented that. Any one of you could have saved him.” “How?” Natalie asked. “We were trying as hard as we could to figure out who was attacking us. If i had known, I would have done anything in the world to stop her even earlier.” “Ah, that’s right, yourl ittle investigation. Instead of just attacking the person who was following us.” Hyde shook his head in disgust. “So you hate me,” Natlie said. “Fine. But why go after Alec and Kai and Rehu, and why work with the Van Helsings?” “Because it’s easier to kill all those birds with one stone, my dear. The Van Helsings will be easy to take care of when I’m ready.” “Even with the Creature they control?” Natalie asked. He smiled. “You don’t think I have ways to alter that control? Other remotes, timers, a dozen other plans?” Hyde pushed to his feet and when Rehu moved on him he wagged his finger back and forth. “I wouldnt do that if I were you.” Slowly he pointed behind them. Natalie turned and gasped. Linda was standing in the entryway to the room with a basket containg a thic, ancient book and a small white controller in one hand, and a gun in the other. A gun trained on everyone and anyone in the room except Hyde.FTC Advisory: Pocket Star/Simon & Schuster provided me with a copy of The Monsters In Your Neighborhood. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

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    The Monsters in Your Neighborhood - Jesse Petersen

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