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Monsters
In this world so much like our own, monsters are not merely legends told around the vampires lurk in the night, werewolves run under the full moon, shapeshifters hide behind borrowed veneers, and magicians weave fantastic spells – for a price. They are living breathing citizens among the hustle and bustle of everyday life. In this world, sometimes the lines of what a true monster is get blurred; sometimes the true monsters are just everyday folk. A man plagued by his hatred manifesting as a murderous alter ego. A werewolf who just wants to live a life free from the fear that he may hurt someone. A vampire who has lived to see over half a millennium and lost his purpose. A reanimated corpse - an anomaly even in this diverse world - and the insane genius who created him. These are their the monsters, everyday people, and most of all, the true monsters hiding behind human faces.
- GenresFantasy
506 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2021
2 people want to read
About the author
Sarah J Dhue
16 books13 followersSarah J Dhue is a fiction author from Illinois and has been writing since she was in elementary school. In addition to books, she also writes poetry, short stories, and songs. She loves networking with other writers and artists of other media. Some of her other interests include: coffee, photography, graphic design, social media, animals, art, travel, music, and animation. Sarah currently resides with her family and cats in southern Illinois.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 21, 2024
'Monsters' by Sarah J Dhue offers a fresh take on the ghouls and creepers of Universal Picture's golden age that builds up to an epic conclusion that is fantastic, in more ways than one.
To those unfamiliar, the core cast of this novel includes Dr. Frankenstein and his dastardly creation, the Wolf Man, a lonely vampire (who's essentially our Dracula), with the timid Dr. Jekyll and the nefarious Mr. Hyde serving as the lead of our ensemble (though some may debate this).
Speaking as a lifelong cinema buff, who also has a taste for Gothic horror literature, I had a lot of fun with this story, despite reservations I felt early into my first read through.
For context, I'm not typically the biggest fan of reimaginings of classic Monster stories. To spare you my seminar on the subject of remakes vs interpretations, I went into this book afraid of being told the stories I already new set in a more modern time.
Instead, what I got from Dhue's writing was a love letter to these characters set in a world where it's made clear that despite their darkest urges, the true monsters hide in plain sight all around us. The bosses who abuse their power at work; the business owners and news outlets who exploit people. These are the real threats... and sometimes so are the main cast.
It's nothing new to fiction to depict the monster/bogeyman characters as misunderstood softies at heart, but it's my favorite detail about this book that when these supposed monsters cross one another's path, there is a patience, gentleness, and understanding only a few of our human characters in the story exhibit. This, for me, created a sense of familial bond I've not seen portrayed in stories involving such characters.
My elevator pitch for this book is, "It's 'Monster Squad' with melodrama". I've had the pleasure of sharing this witticism with the author personally, and I mean it as a compliment.
Of course, however, no book is without its flaws. In the Edition I currently own, I found what I believe to be a few typos, comma misplacements, and maybe one or two minor page formatting issues with the spacing.
Still though, these are normal and to be expected out of any first edition of a book. So, it didn't, by any means, ruin my read.
If I had any issue with the quality of the writing, the one note that comes to mind is in regard to how Dhue portrays romance in some spots of the book.
I'll be forthright, I love a romantic story. It's my opinion that at the crux of what makes Gothic Horror a genre we still celebrate today in 2024 is to satisfy both the reader, and perhaps the writer's, romantic desires.
Without giving anything away, there are parts of the book, mostly around the middle portion, where I felt a sense of repetition in how two characters would become romantically involved.
I found myself thinking that as soon as one character met and had a personal chat with another character, a chapter or so later there is romantic tension.
For me, it's a matter of my own personal taste and not a slight against the author. But it's where I found myself often wondering if I was reading a tragic romance novel, as opposed to the grotesque, monster movie suspense thriller I expected early into my read.
But those things aside, my takeaway was this...
We've all felt misunderstood at times, and we've all made decisions that hurt people we genuinely care for. It seems, today, that there is a lot of discussion around the prospects of marriage, parenthood, and trying to be one's 'best self' in today's fast-moving, digital age.
To me, this book uses the blood lust of the Wolf Man to raise the veil and discuss the violent urges that come with unresolved trauma.
Likewise, we visit a vampire, Carmichael, who's life of quiet desperation has numbed his empathy, giving the reader insight into the mind of a lost soul who longs for a purpose to live.
Dr. Jekyll in this book has one thing that he hates more than mobs and pitchforks, and that is Shapeshifters. His journey, like the others aforementioned, is about alienation, shame, remorse, and, above all, the courage it takes to love someone with complete vulnerability.
As for Dr. Frankenstein, I'll leave it up to you now, the reader, to discover what bizarre ideas the modern prometheus is cooking in his lab.
Give it a read, and enjoy the ride.
-Darick T.
To those unfamiliar, the core cast of this novel includes Dr. Frankenstein and his dastardly creation, the Wolf Man, a lonely vampire (who's essentially our Dracula), with the timid Dr. Jekyll and the nefarious Mr. Hyde serving as the lead of our ensemble (though some may debate this).
Speaking as a lifelong cinema buff, who also has a taste for Gothic horror literature, I had a lot of fun with this story, despite reservations I felt early into my first read through.
For context, I'm not typically the biggest fan of reimaginings of classic Monster stories. To spare you my seminar on the subject of remakes vs interpretations, I went into this book afraid of being told the stories I already new set in a more modern time.
Instead, what I got from Dhue's writing was a love letter to these characters set in a world where it's made clear that despite their darkest urges, the true monsters hide in plain sight all around us. The bosses who abuse their power at work; the business owners and news outlets who exploit people. These are the real threats... and sometimes so are the main cast.
It's nothing new to fiction to depict the monster/bogeyman characters as misunderstood softies at heart, but it's my favorite detail about this book that when these supposed monsters cross one another's path, there is a patience, gentleness, and understanding only a few of our human characters in the story exhibit. This, for me, created a sense of familial bond I've not seen portrayed in stories involving such characters.
My elevator pitch for this book is, "It's 'Monster Squad' with melodrama". I've had the pleasure of sharing this witticism with the author personally, and I mean it as a compliment.
Of course, however, no book is without its flaws. In the Edition I currently own, I found what I believe to be a few typos, comma misplacements, and maybe one or two minor page formatting issues with the spacing.
Still though, these are normal and to be expected out of any first edition of a book. So, it didn't, by any means, ruin my read.
If I had any issue with the quality of the writing, the one note that comes to mind is in regard to how Dhue portrays romance in some spots of the book.
I'll be forthright, I love a romantic story. It's my opinion that at the crux of what makes Gothic Horror a genre we still celebrate today in 2024 is to satisfy both the reader, and perhaps the writer's, romantic desires.
Without giving anything away, there are parts of the book, mostly around the middle portion, where I felt a sense of repetition in how two characters would become romantically involved.
I found myself thinking that as soon as one character met and had a personal chat with another character, a chapter or so later there is romantic tension.
For me, it's a matter of my own personal taste and not a slight against the author. But it's where I found myself often wondering if I was reading a tragic romance novel, as opposed to the grotesque, monster movie suspense thriller I expected early into my read.
But those things aside, my takeaway was this...
We've all felt misunderstood at times, and we've all made decisions that hurt people we genuinely care for. It seems, today, that there is a lot of discussion around the prospects of marriage, parenthood, and trying to be one's 'best self' in today's fast-moving, digital age.
To me, this book uses the blood lust of the Wolf Man to raise the veil and discuss the violent urges that come with unresolved trauma.
Likewise, we visit a vampire, Carmichael, who's life of quiet desperation has numbed his empathy, giving the reader insight into the mind of a lost soul who longs for a purpose to live.
Dr. Jekyll in this book has one thing that he hates more than mobs and pitchforks, and that is Shapeshifters. His journey, like the others aforementioned, is about alienation, shame, remorse, and, above all, the courage it takes to love someone with complete vulnerability.
As for Dr. Frankenstein, I'll leave it up to you now, the reader, to discover what bizarre ideas the modern prometheus is cooking in his lab.
Give it a read, and enjoy the ride.
-Darick T.
October 18, 2025
Disclosure: I am friends with the author. That stated, I enjoyed reading this interweaving reimagining of classic monster archetypes, with one particular bar scene coming across as exceptionally memorable. Dhue’s novel is incredibly readable, and even if some character names and dialogue occasionally pulled me out of the story, I quickly found myself pulled back in.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews