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Kip's Monster
John “Oz” Osman is sure he’s got everything under control. His dad has ditched out on him in favour of a brand-new family abroad, and his teenage sister is bouncing off the walls with rage, but Oz is determined to cope: he’s dropped out of university and taken a boring, responsible job. He’s got it all covered. Doing everything his dad should’ve done.
He’s even let go of the love of his life. No room for Kip in Oz’s new grown-up world. Kip is charm and trouble in equal measure, with a good dash of substance abuse thrown in. He’s also ruining a brilliant career in biology by his obsession with cryptids – monsters, as Oz sees them – the yetis, lake beasts and giant squids no sane man would waste his time chasing around the world. Yes, Oz is better off without him.
But Oz has a grandmother who remembers how happy Oz used to be with Kip at his side. With his best interests at heart – and a few schemes of her own – Gran sets the pair up for a reunion.
Kip and Oz have loved each other since the day they first met – but sometimes love isn’t enough. When disaster strikes their second-chance relationship, Kip takes refuge at Camp Saorsa, a remote community of cryptid hunters near Scotland’s Loch Ness.
If there’s one thing Oz is not about to believe in, it’s the Loch Ness monster. He’s not sure he believes in anything anymore, and his happy life with Kip feels like a lost dream. Will the magic of a far-flung Scottish winter be enough to draw these two lonely souls back together, and what mysteries lurk in the depths of the ancient loch?
He’s even let go of the love of his life. No room for Kip in Oz’s new grown-up world. Kip is charm and trouble in equal measure, with a good dash of substance abuse thrown in. He’s also ruining a brilliant career in biology by his obsession with cryptids – monsters, as Oz sees them – the yetis, lake beasts and giant squids no sane man would waste his time chasing around the world. Yes, Oz is better off without him.
But Oz has a grandmother who remembers how happy Oz used to be with Kip at his side. With his best interests at heart – and a few schemes of her own – Gran sets the pair up for a reunion.
Kip and Oz have loved each other since the day they first met – but sometimes love isn’t enough. When disaster strikes their second-chance relationship, Kip takes refuge at Camp Saorsa, a remote community of cryptid hunters near Scotland’s Loch Ness.
If there’s one thing Oz is not about to believe in, it’s the Loch Ness monster. He’s not sure he believes in anything anymore, and his happy life with Kip feels like a lost dream. Will the magic of a far-flung Scottish winter be enough to draw these two lonely souls back together, and what mysteries lurk in the depths of the ancient loch?
231 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 21, 2018
11 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
About the author
Harper Fox
58 books1,176 followersHarper Fox is an M/M author with a mission. She’s produced six critically acclaimed novels in a year and is trying to dispel rumours that she has a clone/twin sister locked away in a study in her basement. In fact she simply continues working on what she loves best– creating worlds and stories for the huge cast of lovely gay men queuing up inside her head. She lives in rural Northumberland in northern England and does most of her writing at a pensioned-off kitchen table in her back garden, often with blanket and hot water bottle.
She lives with her SO Jane, who has somehow put up with her for a quarter of a century now, and three enigmatic cats, chief among whom is Lucy, who knows the secret of the universe but isn't letting on. When not writing, she either despairs or makes bread, specialities foccacia and her amazing seven-strand challah. If she has any other skills, she's yet to discover them.
She lives with her SO Jane, who has somehow put up with her for a quarter of a century now, and three enigmatic cats, chief among whom is Lucy, who knows the secret of the universe but isn't letting on. When not writing, she either despairs or makes bread, specialities foccacia and her amazing seven-strand challah. If she has any other skills, she's yet to discover them.
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December 22, 2019A strange tale combining a painfully realistic romance (one MC an addict, the other struggling with a broken family) with a fantastically mystical element. The two aren't exactly woven together so much as coexisting in a space that shouldn't contain them both but does, to the point it seems really quite reasonable for a ?deity to prescribe pharmaceuticals. Deeply weird but with a solid core based on the leaps of faith we have to take, the importance of kindness, and the possibility of wonder.
I adore the cover with its harkback to those old 70s editions. Brilliant.
I adore the cover with its harkback to those old 70s editions. Brilliant.
February 22, 2019
As usual with Harper Fox's books, Kip's Monster was a compelling and deeply-moving read.
John 'Oz' Osman and Joe Kipton - Kip for his friends - are two university students facing a rather daunting set of existential problems that go from the disappearance of Oz's father, who has decided to move to America to be with his new family, to Kip's seemingly-unshakeable addiction to alcohol and drugs.
Chasing after Kip, who has run off to a remote hippie commune on the shores of Loch Ness, Oz finds himself in the midst of a series of bizarre experiences and unusual characters and is forced to face his and Kip's weaknesses and strengths, both as separate individuals and as a loving but troubled couple.
Built like what might appear at first as a quirky and almost light-hearted family comedy - complete with Oz's meddling grandmother, terrible teenagers and far-fetched Facebook groups - the novel veers unexpectedly towards the analysis of several painful and complex questions, such as failure, addiction, abandonment, and mental health.
I was surprised by the book's change of gear that caught me almost unawares in the chapter where the readers find out the sad truth about Kip's family. From that point onwards, each chapter excavated a little deeper in the castle of lies that the characters tell each other to survive and that mirror everyone's attempt to build up a protective façade that can shield us from the monsters surrounding us or living in our heads.
Oz's desperate attachment to his image as a responsible and rational adult and Kip's heartbreaking chase after his own monsters - cryptids, addictions but also Oz's love - without ever seeming capable of reaching and conquering them, made their story very moving and relatable.
The cast of secondary characters, from Oz's and Kip's dysfunctional families to the dwellers of Camp Saorsa, provide the perfect foil for the main characters' inner analysis and development.
This was another beautifully-written and compelling novel from Harper Fox.
Highly recommended!
John 'Oz' Osman and Joe Kipton - Kip for his friends - are two university students facing a rather daunting set of existential problems that go from the disappearance of Oz's father, who has decided to move to America to be with his new family, to Kip's seemingly-unshakeable addiction to alcohol and drugs.
Chasing after Kip, who has run off to a remote hippie commune on the shores of Loch Ness, Oz finds himself in the midst of a series of bizarre experiences and unusual characters and is forced to face his and Kip's weaknesses and strengths, both as separate individuals and as a loving but troubled couple.
Built like what might appear at first as a quirky and almost light-hearted family comedy - complete with Oz's meddling grandmother, terrible teenagers and far-fetched Facebook groups - the novel veers unexpectedly towards the analysis of several painful and complex questions, such as failure, addiction, abandonment, and mental health.
I was surprised by the book's change of gear that caught me almost unawares in the chapter where the readers find out the sad truth about Kip's family. From that point onwards, each chapter excavated a little deeper in the castle of lies that the characters tell each other to survive and that mirror everyone's attempt to build up a protective façade that can shield us from the monsters surrounding us or living in our heads.
Oz's desperate attachment to his image as a responsible and rational adult and Kip's heartbreaking chase after his own monsters - cryptids, addictions but also Oz's love - without ever seeming capable of reaching and conquering them, made their story very moving and relatable.
The cast of secondary characters, from Oz's and Kip's dysfunctional families to the dwellers of Camp Saorsa, provide the perfect foil for the main characters' inner analysis and development.
This was another beautifully-written and compelling novel from Harper Fox.
Highly recommended!
February 27, 2019
Kip’s Monster
By Harper Fox
Foxtales Publications, December 2018
Five stars
This is a “little” book – a book of the heart and mind, not of action and the world. It is the perfect distillation of the romance genre into something entirely different; a close-up study of that moment when love is not enough to repair broken souls. Faith – the belief in goodness – is not enough, either. Wisdom, thought, and, oddly enough, science are the magic ingredients here. Madly, Fox gives us a couple of dashes of magic, too.
John Osman and Joe Kipton are former college boyfriends who split up because of Kip’s drinking and Oz’s disappearing father. It all looks pretty simple at first – addiction and abandonment, age-old causes of misery and failure. Then we have Oz’s angry adolescent sister, Juliet, and his sly octogenarian grandmother, only known as Gran. They are the catalysts in this chemical equation – it is really for them that Oz dumped Kip. It is, however, Gran who brings Kip back into their lives, as a birthday surprise. This sets off a whole new chain reaction that forms the narrative of the book.
Kip’s monster is, supposedly, none other than the Loch Ness Monster. A brilliant biology student, Kip is fascinated by the idea of cryptids – unseen creatures such as Big Foot and Nessie. Absence of Proof is Not the Proof of Absence. In the very start of the book, however, we see Jules trying to escape from Gran’s house, dressed in a dinosaur onesie. This is not just a bit of writing – Jules is clearly Kip’s monster, too. His addiction is also his monster.
The best intentions and the purest motives, based in true love, do not save the day. That requires a journey, literal and figurative, to find a monster. Fox imbues Kip and Oz’s quixotic adventure with her own brand of faith – mixing up notions of Christ and the Wiccan Horned Lord in such a way as to force us (ever so gently) to look at the way fact and faith work together to heal the pain of the human soul. It is by turns harrowing and hilarious.
As always, Fox uses her unmatchable skill as a writer to create a sense of place wherever we are in this book – whether it’s Gran’s cramped little house, or the larch-bordered beaches of Loch Ness. Nobody else in the contemporary literary world writes more beautifully than Harper Fox, and the beauty of her prose is critical to the success of her storytelling.
By Harper Fox
Foxtales Publications, December 2018
Five stars
This is a “little” book – a book of the heart and mind, not of action and the world. It is the perfect distillation of the romance genre into something entirely different; a close-up study of that moment when love is not enough to repair broken souls. Faith – the belief in goodness – is not enough, either. Wisdom, thought, and, oddly enough, science are the magic ingredients here. Madly, Fox gives us a couple of dashes of magic, too.
John Osman and Joe Kipton are former college boyfriends who split up because of Kip’s drinking and Oz’s disappearing father. It all looks pretty simple at first – addiction and abandonment, age-old causes of misery and failure. Then we have Oz’s angry adolescent sister, Juliet, and his sly octogenarian grandmother, only known as Gran. They are the catalysts in this chemical equation – it is really for them that Oz dumped Kip. It is, however, Gran who brings Kip back into their lives, as a birthday surprise. This sets off a whole new chain reaction that forms the narrative of the book.
Kip’s monster is, supposedly, none other than the Loch Ness Monster. A brilliant biology student, Kip is fascinated by the idea of cryptids – unseen creatures such as Big Foot and Nessie. Absence of Proof is Not the Proof of Absence. In the very start of the book, however, we see Jules trying to escape from Gran’s house, dressed in a dinosaur onesie. This is not just a bit of writing – Jules is clearly Kip’s monster, too. His addiction is also his monster.
The best intentions and the purest motives, based in true love, do not save the day. That requires a journey, literal and figurative, to find a monster. Fox imbues Kip and Oz’s quixotic adventure with her own brand of faith – mixing up notions of Christ and the Wiccan Horned Lord in such a way as to force us (ever so gently) to look at the way fact and faith work together to heal the pain of the human soul. It is by turns harrowing and hilarious.
As always, Fox uses her unmatchable skill as a writer to create a sense of place wherever we are in this book – whether it’s Gran’s cramped little house, or the larch-bordered beaches of Loch Ness. Nobody else in the contemporary literary world writes more beautifully than Harper Fox, and the beauty of her prose is critical to the success of her storytelling.
April 17, 2019
Despite the cover, this is another lovely Harper Fox romance with two damaged young men finding a second chance at a relationship. Oz and Kip were together and in love in college, before Oz's life fell apart. Things weren't perfect - Kip was prone to running off after cryptids – the yetis, Bigfoot, lake beasts, and giant squids - an obsession that Oz could only tolerate, not share. And Kip drank, a lot, though he was a happy drunk. But their love was the sweet heart of Oz's life.
Then Oz's father deserted him, his 12 year old sister, and their grandmother, just days after Oz's 21st birthday. In the shadow of that desertion, he discovered that the father was living a double life, and had taken off with their money. Oz dropped out. He cut strings to everything frivolous, everything irresponsible, everything that didn't bring in funds or give his sister a man in her life who knew what responsibility looked like. And one of the things he left was Kip.
His love for Kip was the opposite of responsibility. It was alcohol and crazy quests and ditching required work, and devices that seemed to disappear with Kip, not quite theft, but unauthorized borrowing. In Oz's new, cold, broke, responsible world, there was no place he could keep Kip.
But now a year later, he's turning 22, with a dull, steady job he hates, under a boss who doesn't value him, with no color in his life. And his Gran invites Kip to his birthday. And the spark between them has never died.
Moreover, Kip has turned over a new leaf. He's quit drinking. For a little while Oz thinks maybe he can have it all. But that new leaf isn't as clean as it sounds, and soon an accident reveals the mess under Kip's perfect surface. Kip vanishes, leaving Oz questioning everything, and worried to death about him. But to find him again will mean following the clues, and a trek to Loch Ness, maybe an open mind, a willingness to let wonder back in his heart, and a cast of unusual characters who might help him bridge the gap between his dull respectable life and the mystical, brilliant, high-flying, addictive personality, cryptid-chasing young man that he loves.
There is the type of low-key thread of magic in this story that winds through some others of Harper Fox's books, like Seven Summer Nights. The story is mostly grounded in a contemporary narrative, and the characters are very real young men. Their problems have their roots in ordinary life, and so do the solutions. And yet... and yet there are moments in the narrative where extraordinary things happen, where disbelief balances with belief, and there are more things in Oz's Earth than he has dreamed of.
The touch of the magical keeps this story hovering between realism and fantasy. For those who enjoy that brush of the magical in a contemporary-based story this one succeeds very well. And as usual with Fox, the writing is beautifully done, the characters are engaging (particularly Kip), and the descriptions evocative.
Then Oz's father deserted him, his 12 year old sister, and their grandmother, just days after Oz's 21st birthday. In the shadow of that desertion, he discovered that the father was living a double life, and had taken off with their money. Oz dropped out. He cut strings to everything frivolous, everything irresponsible, everything that didn't bring in funds or give his sister a man in her life who knew what responsibility looked like. And one of the things he left was Kip.
His love for Kip was the opposite of responsibility. It was alcohol and crazy quests and ditching required work, and devices that seemed to disappear with Kip, not quite theft, but unauthorized borrowing. In Oz's new, cold, broke, responsible world, there was no place he could keep Kip.
But now a year later, he's turning 22, with a dull, steady job he hates, under a boss who doesn't value him, with no color in his life. And his Gran invites Kip to his birthday. And the spark between them has never died.
Moreover, Kip has turned over a new leaf. He's quit drinking. For a little while Oz thinks maybe he can have it all. But that new leaf isn't as clean as it sounds, and soon an accident reveals the mess under Kip's perfect surface. Kip vanishes, leaving Oz questioning everything, and worried to death about him. But to find him again will mean following the clues, and a trek to Loch Ness, maybe an open mind, a willingness to let wonder back in his heart, and a cast of unusual characters who might help him bridge the gap between his dull respectable life and the mystical, brilliant, high-flying, addictive personality, cryptid-chasing young man that he loves.
There is the type of low-key thread of magic in this story that winds through some others of Harper Fox's books, like Seven Summer Nights. The story is mostly grounded in a contemporary narrative, and the characters are very real young men. Their problems have their roots in ordinary life, and so do the solutions. And yet... and yet there are moments in the narrative where extraordinary things happen, where disbelief balances with belief, and there are more things in Oz's Earth than he has dreamed of.
The touch of the magical keeps this story hovering between realism and fantasy. For those who enjoy that brush of the magical in a contemporary-based story this one succeeds very well. And as usual with Fox, the writing is beautifully done, the characters are engaging (particularly Kip), and the descriptions evocative.
June 20, 2021
4.something-or-other, rounded up.
Two dumb smart boys, some legendary creatures, a slight touch of magical realism. I say "boys", they're college age, 22, 23 somewhere in there. They definitely felt young, and too oblivious for their own good, but don't worry, gran's got things under control.
This is a bit of an odd book, both in structure and in characters, not your traditional romancy type thing, in my limited experience. It worked for me much much better than the other Harper Fox book I tried, Once Upon a Haunted Moor. I liked it quite a bit, but not really in a way that makes me want to run out and buy more of her books.
Love the cover.
Two dumb smart boys, some legendary creatures, a slight touch of magical realism. I say "boys", they're college age, 22, 23 somewhere in there. They definitely felt young, and too oblivious for their own good, but don't worry, gran's got things under control.
This is a bit of an odd book, both in structure and in characters, not your traditional romancy type thing, in my limited experience. It worked for me much much better than the other Harper Fox book I tried, Once Upon a Haunted Moor. I liked it quite a bit, but not really in a way that makes me want to run out and buy more of her books.
Love the cover.
December 24, 2018
Highly recommended. Don’t let the Loch Ness monster minor side story dissuade you. This is one of the best M/M romances dealing with substance use I’ve read. The characters are vivid, stakes are high and nothing is easily fixed purely thru love.
May 13, 2019
Let me start with this; Harper Fox is one of my favorite authors, so far everything I have read has been a 5 STAR read. While I enjoyed much of this book I found the middle meandering and I began to loose interest. I just felt as if there were way too many directions the story was going in at times. Another issue for me I didn’t quite feel the intensity between Oz & Kip reading their backstory.
Fox’s writing as always is like no other, I was so taken by her writing of addiction along with the fall out and harm it has done. Her humor and wit. Overall enjoyed just not my favorite of her books.
Fox’s writing as always is like no other, I was so taken by her writing of addiction along with the fall out and harm it has done. Her humor and wit. Overall enjoyed just not my favorite of her books.
December 29, 2018
This was an odd little duck of a story with a bit of this, that, and the other thrown in. But then life is messy and this is Harper Fox so the writing is lovely.
August 6, 2022
sweet eerie silly little book
January 9, 2019
I loved everything about this book. Harper Fox's stories are always impressive with their exceedingly well-drawn characters, right down to the finest details. I also love how she deftly and subtly weaves the mundane together with the supernatural. This is a beautiful second-chance story with a hard-earned, very well deserved, very happy happy ending. Just gorgeous.
February 25, 2019
Oh, man, this one got me scared. There are very very many ways that an author can screw up a depiction of substance abuse, especially a complicated one, and the moment shook me right out of my comfort zone. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have kept reading if it hadn't been a Harper Fox novel. But I do love her books, and I trust her with good character development, so...
I was, in many ways, very charmed by the little community she built—not just Oz and Kip and Gran and Jules, but Herne and Zadi, and Holly, and Sam (& even later Paul), and the group of well-meaning, very stoned, half-mystical hippies who find belief in everything. I'm a sucker for mythology and religion meeting, and the "lord of misrule"/"saviour christ" pairing in Herne and Zadi was pretty fantastic in that regard—I want to know their entire story—how they met, how they loved, how they broke up and then found each other again. It's almost as though ... there were other stories that didn't get to be told in this novel—Herne and Zadi, and April and Letty, and Sam and Paul; all different relationships, familial or filial or romantic, and all interesting. Meanwhile, Oz and Kip were ... not boring, per se, but almost passive in their existing through the story. Sure, you got your poignant plot beats, and your inner conflict, and the beautiful experience they find at the end, but I wished badly for more emotion to be felt on their behalf.
There's a magical realism theme running through most of Fox's books that I enjoy very deeply, but in this case it felt almost ... well, expected, considering. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the in the way that you enjoy the satisfaction of knowing something is coming. That being said, the ending chapters might have benefited from some tighter editing. Fox seemed intent on tying up all of her loose ends, and each one took too long: some prudent montage action might have been better.
I'm being pretty picky here, but that's mainly because Harper Fox remains one of my first, and most favourite, m/m authors. I love her magical realism, her sense of style, her immediacy of setting and feeling. Kip's Monster was very sweet, and it's well-worth a read.
I was, in many ways, very charmed by the little community she built—not just Oz and Kip and Gran and Jules, but Herne and Zadi, and Holly, and Sam (& even later Paul), and the group of well-meaning, very stoned, half-mystical hippies who find belief in everything. I'm a sucker for mythology and religion meeting, and the "lord of misrule"/"saviour christ" pairing in Herne and Zadi was pretty fantastic in that regard—I want to know their entire story—how they met, how they loved, how they broke up and then found each other again. It's almost as though ... there were other stories that didn't get to be told in this novel—Herne and Zadi, and April and Letty, and Sam and Paul; all different relationships, familial or filial or romantic, and all interesting. Meanwhile, Oz and Kip were ... not boring, per se, but almost passive in their existing through the story. Sure, you got your poignant plot beats, and your inner conflict, and the beautiful experience they find at the end, but I wished badly for more emotion to be felt on their behalf.
There's a magical realism theme running through most of Fox's books that I enjoy very deeply, but in this case it felt almost ... well, expected, considering. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the in the way that you enjoy the satisfaction of knowing something is coming. That being said, the ending chapters might have benefited from some tighter editing. Fox seemed intent on tying up all of her loose ends, and each one took too long: some prudent montage action might have been better.
I'm being pretty picky here, but that's mainly because Harper Fox remains one of my first, and most favourite, m/m authors. I love her magical realism, her sense of style, her immediacy of setting and feeling. Kip's Monster was very sweet, and it's well-worth a read.
January 9, 2019
A lovely second chance (third chance, actually) romance between ultra-responsible John "Oz" Osman and his vibrant alcoholic ex, Joe "Kip" Kipton. A glorious reunion between the two young men is cut short when the depth of Kip's addiction is revealed and he flees in shame, leaving Oz to track him down. That's where things take a mystical turn, as Kip is a hopeful believer in "cryptids" such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, and the refuge he finds is full of other colorful characters who are also hoping for a sighting. Oz arrives full of righteous anger, but he comes to realize that things aren't as black and white as he has always believed.
There's never any doubt in the story that Kip and Oz love each other - the question is whether they belong together. Fox brings up a lot of interesting dilemmas about whether substance use is a rational solution to life's pain, and how much unconventional behavior we are willing to accept in the ones we love. Ultimately the conclusion is fairly predictable and safe, but for a time there I thought Fox might take a more radical approach.
This is a contemporary romance with a touch of fantasy, including a fairy godmother who comes thisclose to being a Deus ex Machina plot device, but given the pain that Kip, and to a lesser extent Oz have endured, her figurative magic wand is actually a welcome relief.
Another strong novel by Harper Fox, and one that shouldn't be overlooked despite its end of December release.
There's never any doubt in the story that Kip and Oz love each other - the question is whether they belong together. Fox brings up a lot of interesting dilemmas about whether substance use is a rational solution to life's pain, and how much unconventional behavior we are willing to accept in the ones we love. Ultimately the conclusion is fairly predictable and safe, but for a time there I thought Fox might take a more radical approach.
This is a contemporary romance with a touch of fantasy, including a fairy godmother who comes thisclose to being a Deus ex Machina plot device, but given the pain that Kip, and to a lesser extent Oz have endured, her figurative magic wand is actually a welcome relief.
Another strong novel by Harper Fox, and one that shouldn't be overlooked despite its end of December release.
January 30, 2019
A sweet romance with a classic Harper Fox take on the Loch Ness monster. Oz is trying very hard to lead a responsible adult life, but gamely copes with a number of weird, possibly supernatural experiences at a hippie camp on the shores of Loch Ness while trying to help his ex-boyfriend Kip. Kip is kind and charming but struggling with addiction, and has also put his academic reputation in jeopardy searching for mythical beasts.
Harper Fox beautifully weaves the mundane and the fantastic together with a story about what it takes to love an addict, and getting sober, and living in the real world while still believing in the impossible. I was struck by a point Kip makes in a paper he’s writing, that the rate of cryptid sightings correlates with biodiversity; meaning that places with abundant natural space allow room for mythology to grow. That sums up a lot of what I love about Harper Fox’s writing – how meaningful it can be to leave space for folklore in a modern world.
The only thing that didn’t fully work for me in this was the way the end ties everything up so quickly and neatly, it just felt a bit rushed there. But overall it’s a lovely, hopeful story.
Harper Fox beautifully weaves the mundane and the fantastic together with a story about what it takes to love an addict, and getting sober, and living in the real world while still believing in the impossible. I was struck by a point Kip makes in a paper he’s writing, that the rate of cryptid sightings correlates with biodiversity; meaning that places with abundant natural space allow room for mythology to grow. That sums up a lot of what I love about Harper Fox’s writing – how meaningful it can be to leave space for folklore in a modern world.
The only thing that didn’t fully work for me in this was the way the end ties everything up so quickly and neatly, it just felt a bit rushed there. But overall it’s a lovely, hopeful story.
January 3, 2020
An unusual book but told in Harper Fox’s reliable style.
Rating wise it did yoyo up and down but overall, mesmerising really.
Kip does have monsters - the ones that drive him and the ones he is driven to find.
Oz is the down to earth guy, formed by his expectations of himself to support his family, but with monsters of his own.
I really enjoyed the lead up to Scotland - Jules, Gran in particular but even Letty and April.
I can imagine Camp Freedom - we have some local druid campsites with wood carvings - and they were a host of characters. Though some of the navel gazing here did contribute to the down swings.
I did like that Oz relaxed enough to embrace it in the end.
There is the otherworldliness - is it real as the camp seems to buy into or imagined like Oz believes. Who knows and probably one for each reader to decide personally.
The solution to Letty was well done, not sure it would happen so quick mind but was good story.
Enjoyed a lot and pretty much read in a couple of sittings.
Rating wise it did yoyo up and down but overall, mesmerising really.
Kip does have monsters - the ones that drive him and the ones he is driven to find.
Oz is the down to earth guy, formed by his expectations of himself to support his family, but with monsters of his own.
I really enjoyed the lead up to Scotland - Jules, Gran in particular but even Letty and April.
I can imagine Camp Freedom - we have some local druid campsites with wood carvings - and they were a host of characters. Though some of the navel gazing here did contribute to the down swings.
I did like that Oz relaxed enough to embrace it in the end.
There is the otherworldliness - is it real as the camp seems to buy into or imagined like Oz believes. Who knows and probably one for each reader to decide personally.
The solution to Letty was well done, not sure it would happen so quick mind but was good story.
Enjoyed a lot and pretty much read in a couple of sittings.
January 2, 2019
An odd book! Harper Fox's writing is high quality, but she has a strange tendency to avoid full-on sex scenes now. This is very much a comic family drama about two young men going through rocky times, with some strange tropes about addiction that I'm not sure hold up (is Prozac really such a great thing to be pushing in 2018?). I'm missing the wildness that Fox's books used to have, although this novel does take its two main characters off to the wilds of Scotland (to a camp on the shores of Loch Ness!). There is a mysticism here, but sometimes the author makes choices that are mystifying. It feels more like a fable to me than anything, which isn't necessarily bad, but I wonder why she is sanitizing her romances so much. It has to be a conscious choice, with the brilliant writing coming to seem like a sort of distraction. I could have used less of the crazy teen sister's shenanigans and more of Kip and Oz actually connecting.
First book I finished in 2019...
First book I finished in 2019...
January 23, 2019
I wasn't quite sure about this through the first half...it was maybe too real in a depressing sort of way and I really couldn't tell where it was going, but I was quite pleased with the end, so it gets a bump up to five for leaving me happy rather than sad. :D
I think she dealt very well with all of Kip's (and Oz's) various issues. The title is really clever as hell; I'm impressed. The backdrop of it all is very interesting—the cover drawing is not just something cute and random! Ha.
Gran really irritated the crap out of me, but kind of in the way that any interfering family member does—and the more we get to know her, the more we realize how awesome she is.
Anyway, another good one from Harper Fox!
PS I'm marking this as "speculative," but it's speculative in that sort of vague way Harper has sometimes—nothing as obvious or overt as the Tyack and Frayne books. And you wonder and wonder, and aren't quite sure...
I think she dealt very well with all of Kip's (and Oz's) various issues. The title is really clever as hell; I'm impressed. The backdrop of it all is very interesting—the cover drawing is not just something cute and random! Ha.
Gran really irritated the crap out of me, but kind of in the way that any interfering family member does—and the more we get to know her, the more we realize how awesome she is.
Anyway, another good one from Harper Fox!
PS I'm marking this as "speculative," but it's speculative in that sort of vague way Harper has sometimes—nothing as obvious or overt as the Tyack and Frayne books. And you wonder and wonder, and aren't quite sure...
June 9, 2020
I’m a huge fan of the author, but I just couldn’t get on board with this book....
John Osman, Oz to his friends, has a dull 9-5 job, a troubled younger sister, and only memories of Joe Kipton (Kip), whose problems with substance abuse ended their relationship. But when Oz’s grandma engineers a reunion, he’s thrilled to see him again....until Kip takes off several days later. Desperate to find him, Oz tracks him to a kind of hippie encampment near Loch Ness, where enthusiasts gather to exchange information about Nessie, and other cryptids. As Oz and Kip navigate renewing their relationship, Oz discovers that there’s more than one way to see the world, and more than one way for Kip to find his way to sobriety.
Lots to unpack here: poor Oz trying to step up and fill the emptiness left by his father leaving. Kip, trying valiantly to fight off the burden of his illness and his cravings. Oz’s strangely prescient grandma...and all of the weird characters at Camp Saorsa, who experience and celebrate a world full of wonder and possibilities.
But...despite all the goodness, I just never felt connected to either Kip or Oz...so three stars.
John Osman, Oz to his friends, has a dull 9-5 job, a troubled younger sister, and only memories of Joe Kipton (Kip), whose problems with substance abuse ended their relationship. But when Oz’s grandma engineers a reunion, he’s thrilled to see him again....until Kip takes off several days later. Desperate to find him, Oz tracks him to a kind of hippie encampment near Loch Ness, where enthusiasts gather to exchange information about Nessie, and other cryptids. As Oz and Kip navigate renewing their relationship, Oz discovers that there’s more than one way to see the world, and more than one way for Kip to find his way to sobriety.
Lots to unpack here: poor Oz trying to step up and fill the emptiness left by his father leaving. Kip, trying valiantly to fight off the burden of his illness and his cravings. Oz’s strangely prescient grandma...and all of the weird characters at Camp Saorsa, who experience and celebrate a world full of wonder and possibilities.
But...despite all the goodness, I just never felt connected to either Kip or Oz...so three stars.
December 22, 2018
Despite the date of it's release this is not a festive story.
It's a story of two young men given a second chance when family and a web of lies got between them.
Though the monster of the story isn't those that Kip hunts, but rather the monster of addiction and mental health
The story is very well written and engaging with just a hint of the supernatural
(Though, if you believe that big cats do really live freely in the remote parts of England is it really supernatural?)
It's a story of two young men given a second chance when family and a web of lies got between them.
Though the monster of the story isn't those that Kip hunts, but rather the monster of addiction and mental health
The story is very well written and engaging with just a hint of the supernatural
(Though, if you believe that big cats do really live freely in the remote parts of England is it really supernatural?)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2019
Where real life and the mystical meet
I love Harper Fox for her ability to tuck in the mystical with everyday life. In Kip's Monster it starts out subtle as Oz slowly opens his mind to possibility. The mysticism grows while Kip and Oz find their own way back to a new reality. The juxtaposition is wonderfully done. The writing is beautiful, as is Ms. Fox's way. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It left me feeling hopeful, which in these times is a gift for which I am grateful.
I love Harper Fox for her ability to tuck in the mystical with everyday life. In Kip's Monster it starts out subtle as Oz slowly opens his mind to possibility. The mysticism grows while Kip and Oz find their own way back to a new reality. The juxtaposition is wonderfully done. The writing is beautiful, as is Ms. Fox's way. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It left me feeling hopeful, which in these times is a gift for which I am grateful.
October 29, 2019
It took me awhile to warm up to our point-of-view character, but it happened in the great tumble of events that leave me smiling here at the end, and so I tell you that yes, you ought to read this one. There's a lot here regarding loss and addiction, the roles we play, and how lost we can get if we fail to see what's really happening. It's a lovely story. The bits of magic just highlight the very real problems and solutions. Yes, read this one.
April 1, 2019
Hovering somewhere between 2.5 - 3 stars. Probably closer to 2.5, if I’m honest. The characters had a lot of potential but the meandering plot kind of killed my enjoyment. The beginning and ending were solid, but the middle lagged in a major way.
October 27, 2020
Kind of a strange story, not what I was expecting, but then I guess I'm learning that hers aren't the usual. Very interesting, very rich, very real-feeling. And love that cover - think I will be picking this up in print.
January 16, 2019
A delight
The complications of two lives unfold in this delightful and moving tale for those times when you need to know everything is going to turn out fine in the end.
The complications of two lives unfold in this delightful and moving tale for those times when you need to know everything is going to turn out fine in the end.
July 24, 2019
Great as usual
Harper Fox never disappoints. This is a wonderful story and flawless writing. You will love Oz and Kip and their story.
Harper Fox never disappoints. This is a wonderful story and flawless writing. You will love Oz and Kip and their story.
August 22, 2019
this is the first Harper Fox book that didn't wow me... i was a little bored to be honest and skimmed the last bit of it..
March 18, 2020
An interesting look at addiction, but idk my experience with it was far from this and I couldn't stop thinking about it.
May 25, 2020
4+ Stars!
October 21, 2019
Not my normal torr of book trips but I found it oddly compelling.
December 8, 2020
Big Harper Fox here, and she doesn't disappoint in this 2018 novel. A love story between two young men, estranged at first, but connected and pulled toward each other in ways that surprise them. One, the good boy, the other, the charming one--yet both boys are far more complicated and thus far more real. To make matters all the more interesting, Kip is obsessed with cryptids--"monsters as John "Oz" Osman sees them--the yetis, lake beasts, and giant squids" (back cover), that lot. Yes, "Kip and Oz have loved each other since the day they met"--but is love enough? What about their complicated families, and yes, Nessie?
Good stuff.
I read a paperback. No idea what it comes up as a Kindle edition.
Good stuff.
I read a paperback. No idea what it comes up as a Kindle edition.
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