I'll be honest, I generally don't pick up horror of any kind but despite knowing that Here There Are Monsters falls in the genre, I wanted to try it anyway. Unfortunately it didn't pan out and it wasn't because of the horror. 

Frankly, I didn't like either of the main characters, Skye and Deirdre. Neither sister really endeared herself to me as a reader and, combined with the timeline jumping and alternating chapters, I quickly lost interest in the book as a whole. They're both selfish and just plan unrelatable in the way they acted. I don't need to like a character but I do need to be invested in what they're doing in a character-driven story like this one. And I wasn't, and it meant Here There Are Monsters was a complete loss for me.

I think the book would have worked better if there had been less of a character focus and more on the atmosphere the story created. I'm imagining a mashup of And the Trees Crept In and Wink Poppy Midnight here that might have saved this read for me. The potential was there and I loved the creepy, eerie feel this story created. Even if the characters pulled me right out of that and made me want to throw my kindle across the room out of  frustration.

As for the writing, that aspect was solid and why I made it as far as I did (around the 56% mark before DNF-ing). I could see myself reading other books by this author, though perhaps not on the horror spectrum. My only issue with the writing came down more specifically to the story. The ending just wasn't satisfying. For all the build-up, it fell flat. 

While Here There Are Monsters certainly didn't work out for me, I think some readers will still enjoy it.

Here there are monsters is not what I expected and I mean this in a good way. This novel is suspenseful, creepy and intriguing.

Once you start reading you won't want to put it down. I loved every part. The story has a medium to fast pace that just picks up a quicker pace as the story gets deeper. There are a lot of twists and a good amount of mystery.

I honestly can only think of one thing that I didn't like about this novel. And that one thing is that I wanted more after I finished it. It left me with a book hangover feeling. It doesn't end on a cliffhanger but it makes you want more from this authors writing. And even this is not a bad thing.

I highly recommend this book if you want a dark, creepy young adult thriller. It also makes the perfect October read for those of us who like reading creepy books right before halloween.

“By wood, stone, water, and bone.”

That cover! 😍 It’s all kinds of creepy and intriguing. I’ve been look forward to reading this one for months.

Deidre has always lived in a world of fantasy, imagining elaborate kingdoms of queens, knights and monsters. Skye’s role as the Queen of Swords has always been to save Deidre but when they move to a new town that doesn’t know the sisters by reputation Skye sees a fresh start, a chance to have friends for once. Then Deidre disappears and Skye may have to pick up her sword once again.

I really enjoyed the introduction, with its promise of some weird and wonderful monsters. I liked getting to know Skye and trying to figure out Deidre, who we mostly get to know through her older sister. I’ve seen some reviews where Skye and Deidre cop a fair amount of disdain. While I can see where those readers are coming from, as a once upon a time teenage girl I can also see ‘Welcome to Adolescence’ written all over a lot of these sisters’ quirks. They can be mean, vindictive, antagonistic, manipulative, selfish and annoying at times.

I actually loved that Skye wasn’t all sunshine and sweetness. She isn’t a girl who’s obsessed with her appearance. She’ll never be head cheerleader. Instead her only claim to fame has been ‘freak by proxy’, the weird girl’s sister, protector and only friend. She’s a real girl with real problems.

“If she was going to disappear into her imaginary world and make herself a target all over again, it wasn’t like I could stop her.
But she wasn’t keeping me in there with her. Not anymore.”

Skye’s story explores family, friendships and secrets, and the lengths we will go to in order to protect them. The family dynamics make it seem inevitable that Deidre will follow where her monsters lead her. It also seems predetermined that although Skye should never have been cast in the role of her sister’s only protector that she would feel the pull of this during a time of crisis, no matter how much she wants to hold onto the new life she has forged for herself.

I loved the alternating chapters, which told me what was happening now and caught me up on the past, giving much needed context to the present. For a long time I expected Deidre’s behaviour to come with a mental health diagnosis, even if some of her monsters were real. While Deidre came across as weird I never found the creepiness I expected from this book.

I was eagerly anticipating the appearance of this book’s monsters from the first time I read the blurb, but I found them disappointing. There was such a build up to them and while I loved their form, their voices didn’t work for me. I did find out why that was but even then it didn’t sit right with me. Their motivation was barely explored and their history was only hinted at. The resolution to their story was a let down for me.

If I could review this book in two parts, I’d be giving ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for the pre monster part and ⭐️⭐️⭐️ after they arrive.

Content warnings include bullying.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

Thank you to SourceBooks and NetGalley for the ARC- will post to all links in my profile 7/27.

Here There are Monsters by Amelinda Berube started off as a very gripping story that just didn't follow through. I kept waiting for certain pieces to fall into place and they never did.

In order for a suspenseful thriller to work, especially one that bends in to fantasy, it must accomplish certain plot features. First, it must create reader buy-in to the center of magic. It must also allow the reader to suspend belief. I'm a huge fan of Marvel. I watch the Walking Dead. I have the ability to both buy into Magic, let go of the time traveling (because in the end it was a vehicle for the movie, not what the movie was about) in End Game, and a variety of comics. If anyone can suspend disbelief as a reader, I am one of them. However, Here There are Monsters wasn't able to get me to buy-in to the plot or suspend disbelief.

For one the magic system was not fully explained (truthfully I think this is something that is beginning to happen across many fantasy novels that feature magic across the YA spectrum- authors need to tighten it up). That is the wonder of mages and magic systems. It is a craft that shouldn't be lost.

I do like Deidre as a character. I really connected to her because as a teenager I went through that feeling of being very different from others. Although it was an isolated feeling, I never wanted to change just to be like everyone else, either. That is a tough place to be. When she suddenly goes missing, her sister Skye is the only person who can figure out the how and why. There for, she is the only one with the ability and belief that she can rescue Deidre.

In her efforts to rescue Deidre that the timeline begins shifting back and forth. This worked for a while as it explained why Skye is not able to save Deidre and how their relationship begins to fray. Once the relationship frays and Deidre is lost to everyone is when the story also ultimately is lost. The monsters and the grief of losing a child doesn't really work out. This both due to the lack of understanding the monsters and magic that take Deidre and the parents who aren't really flushed out. They are surface, side characters that you can't connect to at all.

This confusion of magic and the monsters also effects the end of the story. You don't know what ultimately happens to Deidre and Skye's character changes totally. The ending leaves with so many questions you would think there is a second book coming but this is a stand alone. It isn't an ending that leaves you with the type of questions that are open to interpretation, in my opinion, but instead are just confusing and unsatisfying.

Skye's family has moved. She is sixteen, and it's hard to move at that age, but she's taking the opportunity to reinvent herself and make new friends, instead of fantasy role-playing with her odd little sister, Deirdre. The two, who used to be close, are fast pulling apart when Deirdre disappears. Skye has to shoulder the mantle of protector - Queen of the Swords - that she so recently shed to save her sister from the monsters.

My Notes: The cover and description of this title had me very excited to read this book, but I had a hard time with it. I think the biggest issue is that I just didn't like Skye, so I didn't really care what happened to her. Additionally, It was hard for me to transition between the fantasy realm, and the realistic moving-and-meeting-new-friends-as-a-teenager part of things. I just couldn't get lost in this story, and I kept putting it down.

*Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this title, in exchange for an honest review.*

Here There Are Monsters is a spooky story about a girl who will do anything to protect her sister. This book definitely delivers on the creepy imagery and I thought the book was good overall, it just never really blew me away. I liked it, I just didn't love it. The cover does a great job of drawing me in because just seeing that creepy cover had a big impact on my interest in the book. I don't really know what was lacking for me with this book. I didn't hate reading this book at all, there was just something about it that didn't connect with me, it was just okay. There are spooky moments, the main character is unreliable as a narrator and the mystery was intriguing but it never reached a point of being amazing for me and I just didn't care about the characters as much as I wanted to.

When I started this book I was unsure about it. However, as the story progresses I found myself desperate to find out what was going to happen. I think for a YA horror story this book has exactly what you're looking for. There are many nuances to The Blair Witch Project, which I really appreciated. And yet the book still has a feeling of newness and follows a story that I don't think I've actually read. Here There Are Monsters kept me guessing until the very end, and left me reeling from what had actually happened. I will absolutely recommend this book to friends and family, and patrons that come into my library.

*I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All subsequent opinions are my own.

Here There Are Monsters by Amelinda Berube is a young adult horror novel that is marketed as Blair Witch meets Imaginary Girls. While the story might share some elements with the above mentioned works I think it would be more accurate to describe it as a supernatural thriller with dashes of horror thrown in.

The story follows two sisters: Skye who just wants to fit in and have friends. She has always felt responsible for her younger sister and that sense of obligation really drives her decisions and motivations throughout the story. Then there is imaginitive, reclusive Deidre who cares very little about what other people think and spends more time in worlds she imagines than in reality. When Diedre suddenly disappears one night Skye is left to pick up the pieces as her family falls apart. What's more, she can feel something ominous watching her from the woods.

Overall, its a slow burn with an eerie atmosphere and spine tingling scenes. While the supernatural elements felt a little heavy handed at times I loved Berube's writing style which was both engaging and immersive. I thought it was incredibly bold to end the story the way she did.

Overall I gave this book 4/5 stars. I would especially recommend it to people who has enjoyed Sawkill Girls, The Devouring Gray, and/or Stranger Things.

TW: harn to animals, animal death

Frankly, I'm surprised at how many people found this disappointing or boring ... I thought it was quite good! Definitely a dark horror tale, somewhat fantasy, more Ancient-Dark-Unbending-Things-Live-in-the-Woods. This isn't a fluff tale where everything gets put in a neat package, or things seem to work out and there's love, blah blah blah. It's decidedly NOT that, and I fully appreciate that in the YA universe, where things are syrupy and sappy and dramatic and cloyingly "For-the-Kids."

The creepiness was subtle, then unwavering - kind of "The Craft" in an ancient-dark-woods-fairy kind of way, if that makes any sense at all? People are hurt; people disappear; bad things are required, and are not forgiven. The imagery is fantastic. The writing put me in the woods, in the cold and the damp. I even felt a misty kind of air in those crunching, creaking woods.

The book doesn't really gallop or even trot along, so much as slither and slip beneath a leaf-covered ground. That's what this book is like. Dark and anciently so.

Rounding up to 3.5 stars.
This book was all kinds of weird... in a good way!
It captured my attention right from the get go when young Deirdre went missing. I was expecting a thriller, especially when the synopsis mentions the Blair Witch Project! But that’s not at all what I got from this. Instead I got some major Where the Wild Things are vibezzzz.
I couldn’t put this book down! It was just so strange! It shows how much family love is important even if your family is messed the heck up. And I mean, hey, I can relate. My family is dysfunctional as hell.
I recommend reading this for sure!

I'm not sure what to say about Here There Are Monsters, if we're being honest. It began strongly, and it kept me reading until a little less than halfway through, where I found myself struggling each time to pick it up. But I made it!!! And I'm not totally sorry I did; I'm just confused.
The story centers around Skye, a girl who has recently relocated with her family to a swamp parts unknown so they can all have a fresh start. Skye's sister, Deirdre, isn't exactly average--she's what a lot of the other kids call weird. But Deirdre doesn't want to change who she is to satisfy some norm; all she wants is to be friends with her sister forever. But then Deirdre disappears, and it becomes rapidly clear to Skye that she, via the fantasy games they played as children that Deirdre never grew out of, is the only one who can find and save her sister.
Here There Are Monsters starts out very strong. Skye is a fairly solid character in the beginning. She would do anything for her sister, at least until she realizes that Deirdre doesn't actually WANT to grow up. The use of a back and forth in time narrative allows us to watch the relationship between Skye and Deirdre begin to age and dissolve amidst the present day search for the missing sister. Their relationship was classically well crafted, and anyone with a sibling will easily be able to identify with Skye and her struggle to separate her identity from the one created by their relationship. The parent characters are static but well written; it's tough to lose a child, and that grief is well portrayed, albeit largely in the background.
Where the narrative all falls apart for me personally is when the magic heavily seeps in. I don't understand the monsters because we lack origin for them. What we are slightly led to believe as the monsters begin to emerge turns out not to be the case at all, and the ending left me with more questions than answers--but not in a good way. God's honest truth, I thought Skye was schizophrenic for most of the book and was actually the one who murdered her sister. And that would have been a great twist! Sorry for the spoiler, but that's not the case. I won't tell y'all how it does end, but suffice it to say, I'm less than satisfied. While the book itself was well written, we aren't given a proper foundation to understand the magic that is the end of the tale. I appreciate that Skye's need to protect Deirdre carries through nearly to the end of the book. But I don't like the person she becomes and the ending didn't sit right with me. The main rule of a good fantasy is that the reader is able to suspend their disbelief, and I was not. I'm not sure if this book was actually trying to be a fantasy or whether it wanted to be a contemporary in dark clothing, and I'm not sure the author knew either.
2.5 stars. Many points for mostly well written characters, with deductions for a confusing plot. If you like a contemporary with somewhat of a fantasy element, you might find this one at a higher rating, but be prepared to leave it with some level of confusion.
**I received Here There Are Monsters as an ARC from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Here There Are Monsters is scheduled for publication August 1st, 2019, by Sourcebooks Fire.

This book is beautifully written and full of imagination! The writer completely immerses us in the setting (it reminds me of the swampy woods behind my own house!) and introduces us to characters who are interesting and relatable. And she doesn’t skimp out on scenes that are sure to freak out future readers! This was an extremely enjoyable read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I requested this one because the creepy cover and synopsis sounded so interesting, unfortunately I just couldn’t get into this one.

Though it wasn’t for me, I still think the target audience may enjoy it so I’m giving it a 3star rating.

Much like Bérubé's first book The Dark Beneath the Ice there are some really interesting, very creepy moments! There's a lot of atmospheric moments here, and I loved the relationship between the sisters. I feel like pretty soon this author is going to knock it out of the park with something, there's a lot of really good stuff.

A remarkably atmospheric YA horror book! I didn't love the characters, but it promised creepy and delivered creepy, along with questions about who are the monsters the title talks about.

A truly creepy book. This was absolutely terrifying. It was such a fantastic sister story and I loved how complicated and tangled emotions were.

I requested this from Netgalley because the cover looked really cool and creepy, and I was so disappointed to just not be able to get into it.

Skye's sister Deirdre withdraws from everyone and becomes fixated on the woods, building sculptures out of sticks and bones (creepy, right? You can see why I was drawn to this book). The description says that Skye is tired of being the knight in shining armor, always rescuing her "insufferable" sister from danger, but I wasn't expecting to hear about how much Skye hates Deirdre so much.

I only made it a quarter of the way through before I had to give up. I was tired of hearing about how Skye hates having to look after her sister, and how awful Skye's parents are, especially since that "awfulness" was often demonstrated by parents expecting her to simply be responsible.

Overall, the part that I was able to muscle through was aggravating, not creepy, spooky.

This book is a roller coaster ride through dark monster filled woods and the human psyche! Bérubé has woven an intricate story in Here There Be Monsters.

The story hits the ground running when Skye is woken in the middle of the night to find out that her younger sister Deirdre is missing. Deirdre is more than just typical-little-sister-annoying: she’s been challenging her whole life. She is unruly, wild, doesn’t want to bathe or comb her hair and it happier outside up to her knees in mud than anywhere else. Skye, on the other hand, wants to be normal. They’ve just moved to a new town and Skye wants to start over… reinvent herself.

At first, Skye thinks that her sister is off somewhere in the woods and just wants attention but soon enough, she realizes there is a lot more going on. There is something in the woods… and it’s creeping up on Skye…much like her own past.

What I loved about this book is that the story isn’t just about the monsters we come up with in our imagination. The monsters in this story are very real and very dangerous. As Skye tries to play the game the monsters want her to…she has to come to terms with her own past and the possibility that she is also a monster.

I don’t want to give away the plot of the story. Bérubé does a wonderful job of unfurling the tale at just the right pace.

If you’re a fan of Young Adult horror then you should definitely pick up a copy of this book. The writing is dark and descriptive, the characters compelling and complex. The main character is sixteen years old but keep in mind this is a scare book and there is a fair amount of violence.

I’ve waited a week after reading this novel to decide to write a review because I wanted to wait and see if my feelings for this strange little book would remain the same or somehow change. Thing is, I walked into this book thinking that I was getting something like The Blair Witch Project (or at the very least some sort of witchcraft) since it was advertised that way, but instead what I got was a strange tale of childhood monsters and magical kingdoms that come to life in the woods and a missing girl case.

So I’m going to divide this review into two sections: Pros & Cons.

Pros:

I love the dark, atmospheric imagery woven throughout the whole story. It was mighty creepy and rocked in all its dark gothic glory.

The characters reacted to situations in realistic ways (meaning that the characters didn’t give the protagonist Skye a free pass when she shared a very dark secret about her past).

It kept me invested in the story and I really wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Cons:

It wasn’t until halfway through the book that we finally received confirmation that something supernatural was indeed happening.

All the characters were unlikeable, except for William. The protagonist Skye, not only was she unlikeable, but she was also manipulative and had a cruel streak that she justified endlessly and blamed a lot of her actions on her sister.

Dead pets and other animals.

The ending. While it was realistic, it seemed to just end leaving a lot of questions unanswered.

Overall, this was a unique story and I did enjoy it, but I don’t know if it’ll be something that a lot of people could get into unless you’re into dark tales and don’t mind the somewhat slow pacing.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Wow. This book really sucked me in. From the first page I felt myself relating to the sisters, Skye and Deirdre, and their relationships with each other and their family. Deirdre sometimes frustrated me, but I liked her and her wild imagination. I felt like with a good creative outlet she’d have been amazing novelist, director, or playwright, but her parents (especially her mother) were too wrapped up in themselves. I sympathized with Skye the most. Navigating social circles is hard enough without having to defend and care for a kid sister. And the way her mother flat out blamed her for her sister’s disappearance appalled me.
This book was so imaginative - not necessarily edge-of-my-seat nail-biter, but a major page turner. It flipped back and forth between Skye’s memories of her sister and the present day search efforts. The setting of this book was kind of vague. I knew they’d moved “across the country” but I found myself trying to pinpoint their exact location, which I actually really enjoyed cause it forced me to create visuals and patterns within my own head.
Very well-written and very interesting with beautifully integrated fantasy. The dialogue got to be a little much in part 3 - a lot of the story heavily relied on these teenage conversations, but that happens. I’d definitely recommend this book to all kinds of people. Anyone with a kid sister/brother. Anyone who has trouble making friends or fitting in. Anyone who’s into mysteries or family drama. Really, with the little touch of romance, this book was perfectly balance.