monster

by Brynn Chapman

MONSTER. The word evokes images of fairy tales and horror. But once, in 1850 Philadelphia, it was actually the term commonly used in physician’s case notes for the victims of fire.

Conflagrations were common in this period—clothing, especially women’s lace, was highly flammable. Once the flesh was destroyed, there was no cure. These unfortunate souls lived out their lives as MONSTERS, secluded away by family. Once burned flesh gives way to contractures, disfigurements to rival even Bram Stoker’s imagination were born. And the hearts of the people inside the shell perished.

Lorelei is one such MONSTER. Born to a wealthy family, disfigured by fire, she fake’s her own death, leaving the world she knows behind—because in her mind…freedom, even if it is a workhouse, is preferable than the life of a shut-in, a burden on her family's name.

!850’s Philadelphia is an epi-center of medicine. Rival medical schools search in desperation for bodies—cadavers to teach the art and science of anatomy to their medical students. Corpses become so rare, a new profession evolves. Resurrection Men, or body snatchers, dig up the graves of the newly decreased for high pay.

Rory Henry is one of the Resurrection Men. A Scots-Irish Immigrant, he has fought his way off the streets, and into medical school by whatever means necessary. He is not above digging up corpses—he cuts them by day, and searches them out by night.

These two lives intersect in an explosion of personality-Rory is designated as Lorelei’s surgeon. Entrusted with performing the new operation called, The Mutter Flap. Once he sees her face, will the unrequited love die, or ignite?

People are disappearing. Someone has discovered that murder is far more lucrative than grave robbing. And many of the bodies are from Lorelei’s workhouse. Will she be next?

270 pages, Paperback

Published March 20, 2023

About the author

Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, Brynn Chapman is the daughter of two teachers. Her writing reflects her passions: science, history and love—not necessarily in that order. In real life, the geek gene runs strong in her family, as does the Asperger’s syndrome. Her writing reflects her experience as a pediatric therapist and her interactions with society’s downtrodden. In fiction, she’s a strong believer in underdogs and happily-ever-afters. If her ancestry tree is true, she is a descendent of the House of Stuart.



Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brynnchapman...

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monster is a historical fiction, horror mystery novel by author Brynn Chapman. I am a big fan of Brynn's novels, so I was super excited to dive into Monster. This book gave me total Stalking jack the Ripper vibes, and I think it is a great pick for someone looking for a gritty and dark novel along those lines. It was a quick read and it was great because it was so different than the other books I have been reading at the moment. Monster is set in Philadelphia in 1850. Here the word monster is used to describe someone who has some sort of physical disfigurement, and parks of this story were really dark, so make sure you check out any of the trigger warnings and themes. 

In Monster we meet our main character, Lorelei. Lorelei was in fire when she was younger and she now hides away from the world because of the disfigurement the fire caused her. Lorelei was a fantastic character! Very complex, well developed and totally intriguing. I was sucked into her world so easily and so completely. Brynn Chapman always writes stories with compelling characters and really interesting worlds. The gritty setting, the use of cadavers and the murders all felt very Stalking Jack the Ripper to me, which I loved. I think this book is perfect for fans of that series. 

Lorelei eventually connects with Rory, who will be her surgeon, and who is termed a "resurrection man" in the novel. I loved the romance that was sprinkled throughout and I was really invested in the mystery plot line of the story. I won't spoil anything on that front, but it was really well done, and was probably my favorite element of the story. Overall, this was a really good book. I would recommend it to readers looking for dark, gritty atmospheric reads. 

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

3.5 stars

I thought this was a standalone novel, but the ending is very open and concludes with a "to be continued," so I'll be on the lookout for a sequel. In reality, I think this book could have been wrapped up in one, but I liked both Rory (28) and Lorelei (likely mid-20s) and would be interested in reading more about them. Their relationship has a bit of insta-love, but it didn't really bother me because they seemed inevitable anyway. It was all very sweet and tender, and I loved how gentle Rory was with all of Lorelei's insecurities and scars, both physical and emotional.

Despite being rather squeamish about medical procedures, I found the Mutter Flap to be quite interesting and ended up reading some more about it outside of this book. Fascinating and life changing! Resurrection men were something I had previously encountered in Dana Schwartz's Anatomy duology. I really enjoy books that incorporate real subjects.

Aside from the medical and romantic aspects of Monster, it's also got a serial killer, which is the main aspect that leaves the ending open and carries the characters on to the next stage of their lives. I'm not sure it felt like the natural course for them to follow, but I suppose it makes sense considering the final note Rory received.

This book had the potential for 4 stars, but at this point, it's not quite there. I recognize that what I read was an uncorrected ARC, however, so I hope that the final published work went through some significant editing and polishing. In addition to grammar, punctuation, and usage, it struggles with consistency in details as well as overall readability. I enjoy dual perspective books so that I can see into the heads of both narrators; however, it needs to be clear whose head we're in at the time. Monster is written in the first person from both Rory and Lorelei's perspectives, but most of the time the narration switched between them without telling who was speaking. Usually this happened at a chapter or page break, though the final chapter switched between them without even that much separation--I'm not even sure exactly where Lorelei stopped speaking and Rory began, and I went over the passage a few times to make sure I hadn't assumed the initial narrator incorrectly. As I said, though, hopefully these issues were resolved prior to final publication.

How it ends: Rory asks Dr. Mutter if he would be willing to take Lorelei and Mary on as servants so they can escape the Reverend Miller and the match factory. Mutter and his wife, Mary, accept and begin to view Lorelei and Mary almost as daughters or nieces.

Reverend Miller blackmails Lorelei into posing as the Cailleach for him again by threatening to tell Rory about her past. She does it, and Rory figures out it's her, storming away from the cemetery. She goes to his flat, and he accepts and understands her explanation. They handfast, which is explained as an unofficial marriage of sorts; at the end of a year, they can choose to either go their separate ways or make it official. However, Rory promises that they will wait to consummate it because he recognizes she still has a lot of healing, physically and emotionally. He instructs her to notify the Reverend that she will no longer do those things for him and is now under Rory's protection.

Dr. Mutter is initially unhappy about their marriage because Rory, as a lowborn man, needs a wife of high societal standing in order to be accepted. However, he seems to get over it and move on, accepting the relationship and even setting aside money to give them to start their life together.

The Reverend ambushes Lorelei and tells her that Archibald Jones, her former fiancé and the man who raped her, is in town. He threatens to arrange a meeting between Jones and Rory, knowing Rory has had a tendency to brawl at times. The Reverend makes good on his promise, with Jones showing up at the cemetery while Rory is digging. Jones provokes Rory repeatedly regarding Lorelei, and Rory fights him, only to be dragged away by the police when Jones claims Rory attacked him out of nowhere. Mutter uses the money he had put away for Rory to bail him out.

Despite Rory's insistence that he loves her as she is, Lorelei decides to allow Mutter to operate on her scars. At the last minute, the surgery gets moved from the private to the public operating theater, which allows the medical school to charge admission and bring in much needed funds for its program. Rory notices Jones in the audience.

A few days later, Rory is heading towards the room where Lorelei is recovering and notices men in white coats he doesn't recognize. He follows one, who is going to Lorelei's room, and discovers it's Jones, who was carrying a bottle of Laudanum and a knife. Rory attacks him, and help is called to the room. Mutter and another doctor arrive. When Mutter finds out who Jones is (Rory had told him about what Jones did to Lorelei), he has the police arrest and take him away.

After a few weeks of healing, Lorelei meets with Rebecca (one of Rory's flatmates), who is still grieving the murder of her cousin Ezzy. The two of them decide to go in disguise to the whorehouse where Ezzy sought additional work, trying to get information. The madam claims not to have seen her. While they're there, the building is evacuated due to gunshots and fire. Lorelei sees who she believes is Spring Hill Jack, the serial killer, and the two women follow after him. They see him escape on a boat, and Rory finds them (why was he there, btw?). It appears the killer is headed toward Edinburgh.

Rory and his friends graduate and decide to go to Edinburgh to hunt down the killer. Part of Rory's motivation is to get Lorelei away from Philadelphia after two of the notes he received threaten Lorelei's life. One seemed in relation to the serial killer ("Your wife is next"), but the other one was in different handwriting, likely from Jones. It basically said that he knows everything about her and her family and would have her and keep her under glass.

Note: Some non-graphic descriptions of corpses and medical procedures, mentions of past rape.

[BunTheDestroyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

What i enjoyed about this book: the relationship. It was quick, but it was respectful and kind. I also loved Lorelei’s bond with Molly and the Mutters. The legend of the cailleach was also very interesting and i was happy to learn that Dr Mutter was the real dr who invented plastic surgery. The book was brief but i felt as though the reader got a good sense of most of the characters

Now on to the bad: my biggest issue with this book was all the grammatical errors - using apostrophes to denote plurals (wrong) and NOT using them for possessive, switching characters accidentally, by which I mean mixing up names, etc, or using bread instead of bred or mom instead of mum and general misspellings. I’m sure a good editor can clean those up very easily. But “recovering from a bender”…did people used to say that in the late 1800s?? Okay google says its from 1846 which i definitely would not have guessed so my mistake. Far too many italics for my liking but author’s choice.

I wish i had experienced more of lorelei’s life before her banishment. I didnt get a sense of her family at all. The book was so short it definitely couldve benefited from this. Then we could have seen the true sense of her betrayal with her dad choosing Jones and the abuse she suffered.

Rebecca’s character was only minorly fleshed out. We didnt see any of her struggles as the only female Black medical student at all, Rory was the only one who told us. But while i was reading i thought: When did Lorelei begin to like becca after she had one encounter with her and she was jealous the whole time?

Also no real sense of Philadelphia and Lorelei got rid of Annie real quick. Annie just disappeared.

So spring hill jack, i thought, was another name for jack the ripper and it’s not. But there’s someone in folklore called spring HEEL jack. I cant tell if the author is making a play on the legend by creating her own character after him or if she’s adding in the legend. Probably the former and that’s a nice plot addition.

How does the reverend know about lorelei’s past and how does she know who roxbury is??

All in all the book was entertaining and so was the happy ending. I’d read more but the author needs to write more, i think, so she can fill in those setting and character holes. I was VERY shocked to learn this was not her first book.

[Haley Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uh so what can I say about this truly macabre story… I’m equal parts unsettled and equal parts intrigued. The author tries so hard to wax poetic when it was unnecessary as well as made the writing feel clunky, simple imagery would’ve done perfectly well. I love despite her physical deformities our main male character is still intrigued by her and her beauty. The whole true beauty is deeper than skin aspect but as well as Rory’s weird affliction to want to help Lorelei so bad heal her wounds takes on a weird sexual aspect. What some in the disabled community (primarily the physically marred and amputee community) would call a devotee… Turns out it was true love and this was an amazing read. If you love a good mystery with some romance dashed in this might be an amazing read for you!!

[Skye Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Author Brynn Chapman!
I really liked this book! I gave it closer to 3.8 stars, but they don't have that type of rating here. I enjoyed the relationship and building of the romance. between Rory and Lorelei. It gave stalking Jack the Ripper vibes which I loved. It was surgical so it that is an issue for you just be careful. Overall a fun ride.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to netgalley for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit, especially the romantic relationship between Rory and Lorelei. Which is kind of crazy because I'm not really a huge romance person. but dare I say it was very cute. There was also an overall Jack the Ripper vibe which I was very about.

[Kirstyn (readwithkirstyn) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique story that was both gothic and macabre that will keep you hooked. The story and the chemistry between the characters was wonderful!