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We Are Monsters

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We Are Monsters
Author: Brian Kirk
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Page count: 336 pp
Release date: 23rd January 2020

TW:
Child abuse
Mental Illness
Bullying

Who is really the monster?
It’s a question often asked in horror. Just look at a Frankenstein, for starters.
In ‘We Are Monsters’, Kirk explores the complex realm of mental illness, psychiatry, and attitudes towards those suffering with mental health issues. It’s clear that there’s a message here about respect and humanity towards those just trying to get well.
Sugar Hill’s criminal forensics ward homes many psychiatric patients, including Crosby, the notorious ‘Apocalypse Killer’.
Dr. Eli Alpert, Medical Director at the institute insists the Apocalypse moniker is ignored and Crosby be treated like any other patient. His ethos is that they treat patients with the respect they would expect of themselves, and he’s concerned that Crosby’s primary physician Drexler, apparently doesn’t work that way. and he’s not wrong.
Alex Drexler, after losing a bid to Philax Pharmaceuticals is experimenting on his patients, those incarcerated for paranoid delusions. He has created his own treatment for mental illness and is determined to become successful and rich, at whatever cost.
Other characters include Angela, a social worker with Asian heritage, who we gradually learn more about, and Devon, a bully of a guard who likes to incite the patients.
Rajamadja is Eli’s historical spiritual leader, who helped him deal with strong emotions including grief and anger. Interweaving the narrative are snippets of Eli in his previous life with his wife, prior to her death, and scenes of trauma from his time in Vietnam, which occur through the book.
In fact, Kirk takes ample time to introduce each character, and to explore hidden issues within the treatment of mental illness; the stigma, the historical poor conditions for patients, and the strain on medical staff. We learn, for instance, of Eli’s Memories of Vietnam War and his PTSD, Alex’s secret pharmaceuticals and Jerry’s connection to Alex, as well as more about Angela’s past and that if the main psychosis patient, Crosby.
There’s so much going on here, and I was particularly impressed with Kirk’s apparent medical and psychological knowledge regarding treatments; both past and present. I’m not sure how much Kirk knew before starting this novel, but it’s clear that he’s done his research. I know enough about the area myself to say that it ‘feels real’.
Part of the horror in this novel, is the reality of the treatments used for mental illness; submersion therapy, electrocution therapy, the abuse often experienced by patients at the hands of staff and the system. It’s all in here.
Something Eli reflects on part way through the book, is the memory of meeting a student after a lecture on humane psychiatry and her observations about financial cost being more of a priority for some.
“the industry continued to push antipsychotics as the primary form of treatment.”
And that’s the crux of it. Money can be made from drugs. Which is what leads Alex towards his experiments.
It’s also apparent that everyone has their own issues, some worse than others, and mental illness can be defined in different ways.
This book reminds me a little of the old Dennis Quaid movie ‘Dreamscape’, in which psychics are used to enter people’s dreams to treat neurosis and nightmares. Plus, a particular Stephen King stormy which I won’t name, as it may lead to spoilers.
It has the wonderful quality of classic horror tropes mixed with modern sentiments towards mental health issues and is a complex book that also delivers on the fear front. Though it might seem, odd to say there’s bizzare humour here too.
The scene with ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ made me chuckle, whilst at the same time making me wonder if I was being inappropriate in finding the scene funny.
The book presents a unique debate on the treatment of mental illness - whilst I’m not sure I have faith in Eli, something he says certainly resonates with me;
“Policy is nothing more than an excuse to establish power and control. Power and control breed abuse. They trample compassion. They wilt the spirit.”
There are early hints that something supernatural might be happening, perhaps as a result of Drexler’s tests, but as part two ends, and we enter the third part and the finale, that’s when the proverbial hits the fan. The nightmares we see are visceral, surreal almost hallucinations seen through the eye of a madman.
When we see Angela’s particular fear, one I had already suspected - it all becomes very clear how we need to fight and rail against these fears.
This is terrific stuff; dark yet as mentioned, comical at times. Like when, in the midst of the finale, Bearman says “Wow, thanks for the topflight leadership, Captain Obvious.” Sarcasm 101 from that obnoxious guy.
It dies become apparent in that third part, that it’s mostly about guilt, actions and consequences; and Alex is particularly vulnerable to those feelings, more so than others.
This book is, pardon the pun, pretty mind-blowing. Between the switch in timelines and POV, to the horrific and personal ‘lucid dreaming’, you’re in for a helluva ride.
And a very satisfying, oddly heartwarming ending.
A truly unique and powerful book.


Review to be posted on
Good reads/Amazon
www.theresaderwin.co.uk

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Flame Tree Press, gearing up for an epic 2020, is rereleasing Brian Kirk's debut novel in just a few days, and I've just turned the last page of this breathtaking experience.

The novel revolves around breakthroughs in the treatment of patients at the Sugar Hill Psychiatric Hospital. If this new treatment is a success, it will change the way we look at mental health and schizophrenia in particular. Like any good story dealing with these types of topics, there is a lot of focus around the ethics involved. I appreciated the many discussions about treating the patients as human beings, and administering various treatments and therapies with these ideas in mind.

The story takes us places towards the end that, in my decidedly non-expert opinion, are in the realms of fringe science. Quick aside, I love books, movies, etc. that deal with fringe science. A very fair portion of the second half of the book is Brian Kirk messing with your mind, performed in an expert way. Take this as a mild spoiler, but most of these parts deal with various levels of hallucinations. Kirk makes it weird, but never loses the reader, even this part carries on for nearly 100 pages. Not an easy task. 

The story is top shelf, but the characters are what really make it work. Dr. Eli Alpert and Dr. Alex Drexler are our main two characters. The two have different ways of looking at their jobs, and also very different motivations. It makes for some unique dynamics throughout, and ultimately is what makes We Are Monsters such a rewarding read. Kirk also does a wonderful job with Angela, a character that it seems we're set up to dislike, but proves to be a really strong addition to the story with compelling backstory.
I
really enjoyed We Are Monsters. It's a psychological thriller that's a bit different than anything else I've read recently. It's also propelled Mr. Kirk's Will Haunt You up my must-have list.



I received an e-book from the publisher for review consideration.

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I was leery going into this book because of the theme of dealing with mental illness as a source of horror. I'm a special education teacher and have had experience working with individuals with various mental illnesses. I'm always hesitant of anything that could make those with mental illnesses to seem less than human. I can tell you that my fears were unfounded. I thought that Brian Kirk handled the subject very well and treated the people that have these disorders with respect.

Sugar Hill Mental Hospital is a facility that houses and treats individuals with severe mental illness. The majority of the patients have the potential to be harmful to themselves or others. The head of Sugar Hill is Dr. Eli Alpert, and his second is Dr. Alex Drexler. These two men could not be more different, and I found myself wondering how realistic it was for them to work together for so long. Eli is a paragon of medical and professional ethics, and he believes that to treat the mental illness, you must first treat the patient as a person. Eli is my guy. Alex is all about them shiny gadgets and new medicine. Mental illness is just a puzzle to be unlocked, and it doesn't matter what makes the patients happy or comfortable; they are there to be cured, not coddled. Alex is, definitely, not my guy. Alex also has an interaction with a dog that makes him irredeemable to me. So, naturally, the main protagonist in this story is Alex. Alex is developing a miracle drug that will cure schizophrenia, and he is in the midst of clinical trials that are not going well. Alex, being the kind of guy that he is, decides just to go ahead and do some unregulated human tests. I won't go further than that with the plot to avoid spoilers.

A lot has been made of the jarring transition that takes place in the middle of this book. I didn't mind it, and I thought that the idea was interesting and handled well. My problem with the entire experience with this book is that it was just too long. There is a butt-ton of character work at the beginning of the book, perhaps too much. The action at the end of the book also felt repetitive at times. By the time I read the last page, I was happy to be finished, which is not the emotion I want when I finish a book. In the end, I liked the book for what it was. For me, at least, it was a good story but not a great story. I settled on a 3.5 rounded up to a four-star rating. Your mileage may differ but if this sounds like something you would enjoy, I recommend that you give it a go!

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I literally could not get pass a few chapters. Sorry, just not for me. Not into homophobia or animals being hurt. It was just too much. I realize the object was to immediately sock but this went too far for me.

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A little warning, Chapter One opens with homophobia and Chapter Two was the most torturous animal death I think I've ever had to read.
I usually have quite a strong resolve but the sudden and intensely descriptive demise of a pet like that was truly stomach curdling- I admit to scanning it as quickly as possible and giving myself a moment to recover!
Clearly this was going to be a VERY dark read.

I really enjoyed the varying perceptions of insanity held by both the doctors and some of the patients. 'Who determines who's sick and who's well?'
We Are Monsters is thought provoking in its approach to extreme mental illness, the frequent forays into psychology were extremely interesting and kept the balance of power and intelligence shifting between characters. Of course the horrors of enormous needles, electroshock therapy and submersion tanks are still at hand to ratchet up the pulse.

We Are Monsters is divided into segments, and Part Three is where the heat gets high. A sudden departure from reality told in four different POVs gives insight into each characters psyche through dark and disturbing hallucinations.
Their fear is palpable and claustrophobic, much as a nightmare that's impossible to wake up from.
I can't tell you that this sudden swerve made any sense, or even that it flowed nicely, but I will say it was fun.

I would've liked a little more description of characters and surroundings, there were moments I struggled to imagine. We Are Monsters can get heavy on the dialogue/ monologue; not necessarily a negative but personally I prefer an equal ratio of speech, action and description.

I was also disappointed to find the horror trope I spoke about last year.
Giant dick.
It's 2020. I'm more than tired of male authors using genitalia to incite fear or horror. Fear of rape is relevant of course, but always with the detailed descriptions of cock?
But let's not get side tracked, I've discussed this already in *POST*

Dr Alex Drexler was a tricky main character. 90% of the time I hated him, but now and then the smallest redeeming quality or moment of tenderness slipped in. I sympathised with Eli but simultaneously shouted at him to grow a backbone! As for Angela, ooh what a mess.
Crosby was a great antagonist, a psychopathic killer with a stereotypical history. His unwavering conviction in his delusion and the inability to reason with him made him a formidable threat. Unfortunately he just seems to drop out of the book!

The final quarter of We Are Monsters is bizarre, it seems to completely unravel. I finished the book wondering what the hell had happened. There were questions unanswered, storylines unfinished, it was just a sudden whirlwind of crazy that felt like two concepts smashed together.

Ultimately the atmosphere was good, the fear and revulsion was near constant but as a novel it needs fine tuning.

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We Are Monsters is Brian Kirk’s debut novel and what a debut it is. The walk of sanity is a knife-edge. One slip and you can tumble to your death via a savage tumbling that cracks you open. Coping mechanisms may not be healthy and realities shift. One day you are a fully functioning individual, the next you are embarking on a divine mission to rid the world of demonic evil. Is sanity truly sane? Why were people committed to insane asylums for teenage pregnancy, infidelity and mild depression…are the realms of diagnosing insanity moral/accurate? When the real apocalypse arrives and if it’s anything close to this, dig a hole and throw yourself in because that is your only chance at survival.

Brian Kirk tackles some real hard-hitting themes – mental health, radical research which has immoral connotations and psychiatric treatments. The book is primarily told in the perspectives of Alex (Psychiatrist), Eli (Chief Medical Director) and Alison (Social Worker). Dr Eli Alpert has built his stellar reputation at Sugar Hill Hospital for his humanistic approach to mental health treatment. He believes that compassion and drug free methods has a higher success and relapse rate rather than purely medicinal treatments. He has a dark and troubling past which comes back to haunt him.

Dr Alex Drexler has constantly pissing against the wind. You really got to feel for the guy. He is at the top of his game, waiting in the wings for Eli to retire and capture the end goal of Chief Medical Director Position. Both Alex and Eli have different ethos. Alex having formulated a medicine that could potentially cure Schizophrenia. If only it wasn’t for that pesky issue of testing on humans without backing. His marriage, his career and his financial stability is riding upon this being regulated. The scenes with Dr Drexler testing his medicine gave me major anxiety. My eyes watered, my heart wanted to escape, and my stomach felt like it was on the super spin cycle.

Sugar Hill is seriously creepy. Chills down your spine, skulking along the corridors awaiting an axe murderer to end you. It restricts your breathing, engages your fight or flight response. Fear is an icy sweat. Fear is imagination losing all semblance of sanity. Fear is a broken psyche. This book gave me serious Gothika and Shutter Island feels. Brian Kirk is nerve-splittingly brilliant at examining the human condition. He has pulled back the layers of life to highlight how mental health is shoestring – pull too hard and it’ll break.

The second half of the book really goes into top gear. It’s on steroids. Just when you think that you know the remits of sanity, you are smacked across the face with a 2×4. It’s not the monsters that we should be fearful of…It’s insanity. It’s raw and excruciating, but at the end of it all it is indescribably human. It gains traction, it’s unique and terrifying.

Brian Kirk has created a true skin crawler. We Are Monsters has disguised itself as the most unapologetic trojan horse. If you enjoy deep, psyche breaking horror, this should hit the spot.

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Set in Sugar Hill hospital, a facility for the treatment of various mental illnesses,

Dr Alex Drexler is working on a cure for schizophrenia, by injecting a drug into the pineal gland, it seems to be working and just needs refining…..but funding is a problem.

So, when his boss Eli is deemed responsible for an employee murdering Alex’s brother and his treatment of patients is questioned and certainly questionable, immersion tanks for one.. The powers that be give Alex the job and they want him to use his ‘cure’ on patients, against all protocols…..he agrees!

Now, one of the patients is Crosby Nelson, known as the Apocalypse Killer who sees demons and so Alex decides to test his drug on him….all seems to go well and Crosby reacts well. But then all hell breaks out.

“Not all the voices we hear are imaginary”

Crosby’s inner demons have been released and they have brought darkness with them. Just what is real? And who are the ream monsters?

The back stories for each of the characters really helps build the picture, each of them have their own problems and a darkness in their lives…..a fine line of being a carer or a patient themselves….

A creepy supernatural horror with some truly menacing moments…..full of menace and crackles with atmospheric tension.

Thank you to The publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this for free. This is my honest, unbiased review.

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“It’s official. The Apocalypse has come to Sugar Hill.”

Alex, Eli and Angela work together in the forensics ward of Sugar Hill, which houses and treats the criminally insane. Angela is a social worker who is described by a friend as “Dr. Do Good by day and Little Miss Devil by night”. Alex Drexler is a psychiatrist whose views on treatment are diametrically opposed to those of his boss and mentor, Dr Eli Alpert, Sugar Hill’s Chief Medical Director. Eli’s approach is humanistic, with a focus on treating patients with dignity and respect. Meanwhile, Alex is in the process of trialling an experimental drug to cure schizophrenia.

“Why did the mind have the capacity to create delusions? To hallucinate? To perceive the unreal? And why, so often, did such altered states appear to the perceiver as the actual reality? A world more real than this one.”

When the funding for his trials is withdrawn, Alex winds up continuing his experiment. His latest subject is Sugar Hill’s newest patient, Crosby Nelson, the Apocalypse Killer. Because what could possibly go wrong when you use a mentally ill, traumatised serial killer as your guinea pig?!

More background information is provided about characters than I’m used to seeing in horror books. This took me out of the story initially although I could understand the relevance of this information later on. It’s not only the patients whose pasts haunt them and it’s not always obvious who should be a patient, especially when the workers’ own demons are revealed.

“Either she is insane, or I am. Or nobody is. Or we all are. Either way, who am I to say?”

The only character I really liked was Eli. I think I would have liked Crosby as well but I didn’t get much of a sense of who he was outside of his mental health and trauma histories. Fortunately it’s not necessary to love horror book characters. I enjoyed hoping Alex would get a taste of his own medicine and I couldn’t wait for a couple of other nasties to get their comeuppance.

At times it felt like a hallucinogen was wafting off the pages. I wasn’t always especially clear about what was really going on during the more trippy parts.

“He was now unsure which reality had been a dream and which one was real.”

If I’d encountered this sense of unease, not being able to easily discern reality, in another book I’d probably tell you it was a reason I didn’t like it. This book, though? It was like I was being given a glimpse into what life must be like all the time for some of the residents of Sugar Hill and it was scary to even contemplate living in their worlds.

While I’ve known a lot of people with various mental illnesses, my knowledge of schizophrenia and psychosis are limited to the DSM-5 and random articles and books I’ve read. Because of this I cannot comment on the accuracy of their depictions in this book but I didn’t come across anything that stood out to me as ‘there’s something wrong with this picture’ symptom wise.

Between the graphic violence (I almost DNF’ed this book when the dog died) and derogatory terms used for pretty much anyone you can think of, sometimes challenged but oftentimes not, this book isn’t going to be for everyone. If having anything uncomfortably close to your eyes makes you squeamish you may have trouble with some scenes.

Content warnings include addiction, alcoholism, child abuse, domestic violence, graphic death of a dog, homophobia, incest, mental health, mention of death by suicide, racism and sexual assault.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the opportunity to read this book.

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Rating: 8.5/10

We Are Monsters takes place at Sugar Hill mental asylum, where the clinically are housed and treated. The story is focused mostly around Dr. Alex Drexler, an up-and-coming psychiatrist who is working on a cure for schizophrenia. He is hoping to sell his new medication to a drug company and get rich. But when he gets stalled on the project his funding is pulled, and he continues to experiment with asylum patients off the books. Then Dr. Drexler goes too far and unlocks the demonic side of Sugar Hill. Now he and other members of the staff need to figure out what is going on and how to stop it if they are going to survive.

“The medicine makes you blind. Why don’t you cut out our eyes? Take them with you. Look through them and you’ll see what I see.”

It had been a little while since my last horror read, and I am glad I picked We Are Monsters to get my fix. This book did the trick. It has everything one could want in a horror story: ambitious doctors, a dark setting, blood and gore, and a whole lot of creepiness. I very much enjoyed reading it.

While the story on the surface is interesting, one of the best parts of the book is the way Brian Kirk weaves in and out of the past and the present. I am always a sucker for flashbacks, but for a book like We Are Monsters, in particular, this method writing is even more effective because of the way it sets the tone. As a reader, knowing the background of the characters and seeing where each one’s motive for their actions come from is really important because the most of the story take place in a psychiatric setting. Showing the flashbacks and history of the characters mimics the main plot as the doctors and nurses use the patients’ history when treating the patients at Sugar Hill; thus, flashing back to the previous actions and experiences of the staff is almost treating them as the patients to the reader. We experience the staff almost from the same eyes they are seeing their patients.

The story start a little slow, at first, but the author drops in enough interesting nuggets to keep the reader intrigued. Once the meat of the story picks up in the second half of the book it evolves into one that is too hard to put down. The narrative becomes so creepy and trippy such that as a reader I did not know what was real and what not. It kept me guessing at every turn, and because of that I did not want to stop reading. That is a true litmus test from me, and We Are Monsters passed with flying colors.

“They were sexless now. Their genitalia had been devoured by something other than a snake.”

I did think the dialogue was a little cheesy, at times, but for a book like this that is the hardest part to write and, honestly, the least important. I was also slightly surprised at the ending. It fell a little flat for me compared to the previous 150 pages, which is actually a compliment to the rest of the story. It took me on such a ride that I craved some kind of big bang at the end. I did not get my wish, but I am still happy with the book overall.

“We’re all dead here. We’re caught in the in-between.”

We Are Monsters is a really good read if you are looking for a horror fix. Think Stranger Things set in a mental asylum. I recommend it for fans of the genre, and anyone looking for a book to take them on a psychiatric roller coaster ride.

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One hell of a story where the Apocalypse Killer comes to an asylum and will disturb the fine line between reality and madness. This book takes place at a mental institution with two doctors who have very different approaches on how to help their patients.

One of them believes in being kind and trying to help the patients by being more of a friend. The other wants to be famous and rich by developing a cure to schizophrenia. After his testing is no longer funded, Dr. Alex Drexler is desperate and starts to try this new drug on patients from the asylum.

A great exploration of different characters and madness. Who can determine who is mentally sick? Aren't we all a bit crazy? How delicate is the line between sanity and madness?

This book will take you to explore people's worst nightmares and bring back their worst memories.

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Dr. Alex Drexler is working on a miracle treatment. The psychiatrist believes that with enough time and resources, he can cure acute mental illness with the new drug he's developing, using a simple injection into the pineal gland. Very lobotomy-like. *shudders* Unfortunately, his latest test subject isn't showing the results he was looking for and his contact at the pharmaceutical company is pulling his funding. Fortunately, as a doctor at a mental health facility, he knows where he can find other guinea pigs for his experiments. However when he ups that dosage and uses it on a patient very close to him, the results are...odd.

The title is quite accurate - the characters ARE all monsters and thanks to the good doctor, they might be able to lay to rest their own demons.

I have an affinity of mental health hospitals, so this appealed to me. I feel like the story started off slowly, by ones the shit hit the fan, I ran through the rest of the book. This is the second book I've read by the author, and this one was much better.

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Whew its a while since i read a book that engrossed me so much my coffee went cold { i am a coffee fiend of epic proportions}. This is a brilliant debut novel which I didn’t realise till after i read it because it felt so polished and well written i thought it had to be one of a few by the author. In trying to help his patient and fill his bank account the doctor Alex Drexlar does unauthorised trials on his patients. Unfortunately for not only him but his patients the cure is not all it seems and things start to go gruesomely wrong. His mentor Dr Eli Alpert treats the patients in his care with compassion and care at odds with Alex and his ways. As the story unfolds we learn more of both men’s backstory and the reasons they do what they do with their patients.The horror that starts to unravel within the walls of Sugar Hill Asylum pushes both men to the very edge of their humanity. We may all harbour demons of one kind or another within us but when they break free as they do in the book its fatal.Flame Tree Press are fast becoming a go to publishing house for those wanting a great horror story and this one just adds yet another great book to their bookshelf. Well written, the right amount of horror and gore mixed with the psychological it delivers as a great read.

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Sugar Hill is gaining a new patient that is made famous by the media called “the apocalypse killer”. The patients at Sugar Hill suffer from schizophrenia but Dr. Drexler has been working in secret for the cure. Dr. Drexler trials his new medicine on their new famous patient in order to give the hospital from good PR but it doesn’t work the way he expects. I was in awe of the set up of this book, each break in the book left me wanting more. I also loved the example Brian Kirk made about “schizophrenia is just god playing DJ in your mind”. This book does has a lot of religious references and mentions rape so this could be a trigger for some. I gave this book a 5/5 🌟 review! .

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3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Dr. Eli Alpert works with the criminally insane patients at Sugar Hill Psychiatric Hospital. His protege, Dr. Alex Drexler thinks medication is the way forward in the treatment of the patients. He's been trialing a medication of his own creation. But the trials aren't going well. He gets a new group of patients to conduct his tests on. This time he alters the medication and as a result, he's opened up the patients minds more than he intened5to. He released new horrors in the hospital.

I found this to be a thought provoking read. There are some great characters (not that I'd like to meet any of them). Thenauthor has researched the history on how mental health has been treated over the years. I also liked his style in writing this book. 5he book starts off slowly but I'm glad I stuck with it. This is a dark read filled with tension and emotion. I quite enjoyed this book which is different to the type of book I normally read.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Flame Tree Press and the author Brian Kirk for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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A big thank you to Flame Tree Press, Brian Kirk, and the Night Worms folks for providing me with a copy of this book to review! I absolutely love the Night Worms Book Parties we do, and love so much of what Flame Tree is putting out these days.

The premise of this one pulled me in immediately, and I was really looking forward to reading it. I love spooky stories set in mental asylums, and the combination of one of my favorite horror tropes along with serial killers and what sounded like a scare-filled plot was right up my alley.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the payoff that I was hoping for. This is the second book by Kirk that I've read where I don't relate to or like any of the characters throughout - in fact, I actually tend to really DISLIKE the characters in his books I'm noticing, which for me, makes it a bit difficult to remain invested. I have no issues at all with Kirk's writing chops, but the characters themselves just don't really do much for me. When reading about characters I don't like, I expect something bad to happen - something that makes me hating them fun, if that makes sense? I didn't really get that here.

The book started off okay, but even before hitting 10 pages, I started questioning the necessity of some of the things happening in the plot. You can call me a baby or whatever, but I have 3 little dogs, and there are just some things I don't enjoy reading. /shrug

I enjoyed the central theme - that we're all monsters to varying degrees, that we all have the potential to hurt and damage the same way we've been hurt and damaged, and that we can choose instead to be kind, and to show forgiveness and love. The road to the message though, for me at least, felt a little jumbled and a bit too chaotic. There were elements to the story - bits of character history, for example - that were mentioned once and then never again. A lot of the middle of the book lost me, and I kept finding myself skimming through bits that didn't seem relevant to the story (and that ended up not being touched upon later).

I will say this sort of jumbled, fever dream-like quality to the story was also present in his other book that I've read, WILL HAUNT YOU. If the pacing and story in that one were things you were really into, this one should also be on your TBR for sure!

I think if this had been trimmed down a bit, I would have enjoyed it more. Brian Kirk is an excellent writer - his descriptions are vivid, the dialogue feels natural, the characters are well-developed and fleshed out. I'm going to look into some of his short fiction, as I'd love to see what he's able to do with a more limited word count.

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The creep factor is high with this book. Don't read this at night time unless you have every light on in your house and don't plan on sleeping any time soon. Really, don't read this book if you're alone in the house unless you want to jump at every creak and noise you hear. You've been warned. If you like goosebumps and being scared out of your skin pick up this amazingly creepy story. Happy reading!

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Two doctors butting heads at a mental institution.

Dr Eli prefers a drug-free approach. Dr. Alex prefers more....unconventional methods.

When the newest arrival, The Apocalypse Killer arrives to the institute, he is the perfect candidate to Dr Alex's testing. Or...will the cure open other part, more dangerous parts, of his brain.

This book is.....a lot. Mental health, as a whole, is severely misunderstood. While I like the general idea of this book, the human experimentation part bothered me. There is an incredible amount of detail, adding to the story and 'real' nature of this book. Still, it wasn't the worst book I've ever read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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Big thanks to Flametree Press for not only letting me check this one out through Netgalley, but also rereleasing this book.
‘We Are Monsters’ is my second book from Kirk I’ve read after ‘Will Haunt You.’ ‘Will Haunt You’ was one of my favourite reads of 2019 and so I went in with high expectations for this one – especially as it had been previously named a Bram Stoker Nominee for Best First Novel.
I have to say, overall this was an ok read, but a lot of it just didn’t click or flow.
We are introduced to Sugar Hill Asylum, under the direction of Eli. His vice-director Alex Drexler is hot on his heels to succeed him. We also are introduced to Angela, one of the psychologists working at the facility.
The main narrative of this story is that Alex has developed a compound that will help patients with schizophrenia and other mental disorders return to normal. Something he then attempts to use on his brother Jerry.
We also get introduced to Crosby, a violent offender who has been transferred to Sugar Hill for evaluation and treatment.
Crosby plays a big role in the unravelling of the story, but for the most part is a very minor character, one who completely disappears around the 75% mark.
I really wanted to love this one, but a few things kept glaring out at me.
In the beginning, Alex speeds home, only to strike and kill the family dog. His wife is upset, but we don’t hear too much about it as she’s pushed aside quickly.
Then after something horrific happens to Jerry’s character, witnessed by Alex’s wife, we don’t hear about her again. She’s essentially written out, only to be alluded to in passing during an episode Alex has near the end.
I also didn’t enjoy the character of Angela. At first I believed she was going to be portrayed as a strong presence, but then within a few chapters was turned into an unhinged lady who likes to drink and have one night stands. The first time we read about this, it appears as though she’s drugged and then as they begin to have sex, she fades out of consciousness, only to wake up sprawled out and abandoned in the alley by the bar. I just didn’t find much of a reason for this to even happen, even after we find out her back story later on.
The ending, while in the context of the book works, really didn’t hammer anything home for me. I’m not sure if this was going to be part of a bigger world or a series of books, but the ending just happens and felt a bit flat.
Kirk can write, there’s no denying that, but as for the story within this one, it just felt more like pieces cobbled together to make a full length read.
Overall, I wanted to love this book so badly, especially with how fantastic ‘Will Haunt You’ was, but for me this just missed the mark. I can see why so many folk enjoy it, but as for this reader, it was decent.
This review will feature on Kendall Reviews.

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We are Monsters, by Brian Kirk is the latest flametree release. This one a reprint of Debut previously published through the now defunct Samhain. If you haven’t read it, it’s time to fix that.

The Apocalypse Killer, recently deemed unfit to stand trial by way of insanity has been sent to Sugar Hill Psychiatric hospital for treatment. Dr. Alan Drexler is developing a cutting edge drug that help cure schizophrenia. Things look to be going Drexler’s way, but there are unforeseen side effects.

I was blown away by how much I enjoyed We are Monsters. I mentioned this to people while I was reading it, and I’ll say it here in this review. This book doesn’t read like an authors debut. It’s well thought out. Kirk spends a good portion of the book building his characters and the world they live in. This causes to make the first half read a bit slow, but I’m ok with that. You can’t complain about books with under-developed characters but complain when an author takes the time to actually develop his book.

As I said before, the characters are well done. As for the rest of the book? Once the ball gets rolling it really picks up steam. It would have been very easy for this book to go off the rails, and it does but just enough to make it a good kind of crazy. Kirk never loses control of his story, he gives it room to go nuts without ruining what he built in the first half.

I’m being a bit vague here, and that’s by design. I want to stay as spoiler free as possible. Fans of psychological horror MUST read this book.

The whole time I was reading this I would think to myself, this is what a horror movie written by Christopher Nolan would be like. I mean that in the best way possible. BUY THIS BOOK.

4.5 stars

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First off, thank you to Netgalley, Flame Tree Press and the author, Brian Kirk, for the advanced copy of We Are Monsters.

This was my first introduction to Brian Kirk and I can safely say I will be reading more of his work. Right from the start I enjoyed the writers style, I thought it flowed really well and I found myself invested and immersed within the story.

I loved the setting of this novel. The story took place mostly within Sugar Hill Mental Asylum. Alex, a physician there, is testing out an experimental drug but despite his efforts, loses funding for it. When he starts using that drug on one of the most dangerous patients in the facility, a series of side effects are triggered and it opens the patient’s mind, setting his inner demons free.

What I found was done really well was the character development. I felt connected with them; their thoughts, their fears and I felt like I had a sense of who they really were. Their backstories felt like a sneak peak through the keyhole into their minds.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this book but then, I admit, it lost me a bit. I became somewhat confused with all the back and forth between the characters experiences and It felt a bit drawn out. The ending I thought was OK. Although I didn’t love this book, I still feel like the author has more to show us and I will be keeping an eye out for more of his work in the future.

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