REVIEW: WE ARE MONSTERS by Brian Kirk

Don't come to this novel expecting only light-hearted horror [is that an oxymoron?]. WE ARE MONSTERS will inspire you to think, ponder, consider, and wonder. WE ARE MONSTERS is psychological horror, suspense, mystery, thriller. Brian Kirk pulls no punches. Clearly he has researched the spotty and often unpleasant, even ugly, history of mental health "treatment." His two opposing protagonists, Dr. Eli Alpert and Dr. Alex Drexler, are both highly-educated, intelligent, psychiatrists, with experience. But they are so divergent-how can they harmonize? Eli believes in respect, Alex in pharmacology. Indeed, Alex is working on a formula to affect a complete cure from mental disorder.

WE ARE MONSTERS poses a conundrum pondered for centuries by great minds: what constitutes insanity? Who is insane? Who is qualified to determine? What treatment can be effective, and at what cost to the patient? In the end, we all are monsters.

A horror based in a mental asylum that sounded right up my street.

This book was imaginative, unique and indeed quite a terrifying concept however it just wasn't for me. I didn't connect with the characters in any way. The plot took a drastic turn half way through and it all got a bit too crazy for my liking.

I really wanted to like this book. I really did, but...
The effect of splitting the book in half, the extreme personalities of everyone involved in the hospital, and frankly, the fact that I know the author's short stories and enjoyed them left me wanting more.
I didn't find that there was a huge problem with the split once I got my head around it, but I did feel that the break was possibly being used as a trope rather than something that was necessary - though, to be honest, by the time I got to the end, I sort of got it.
I'm sure some of it went over my head though.
Good quality writing and the characters were filled in - but as I said, everyone seemed to be at one end of an extreme or another, and while I understand the media portrays mental health that way, I did feel that some of the information within wasn't quite as...balanced as it could be, but, as a horror novel, that's also sort of expected.

Ok what else can I say other then the fact that this read started off really good! Then somewhere in the middle it started fizzling out for me. The characters where meh and I had a pretty hard time relating to them let alone liking them. Let’s put it this way. Would I recommend this book to a friend? Probably not. Is it worth maybe trying to see if one would like it sure. It wasn’t horrible but yet it wasn’t great!

Dr Alex Dexler is a psychiatrist working in an aging psychiatric hospital. However, he has developed a drug which he is sure can revolutionize the treatment of people with severe mental illness. If only he can refine it to provide long term relief.

This is a book of two halves – literally. The first half is a very standard style of novel based primarily in the mental institution of Sugar Hill. Eli is running the hospital primarily on humanitarian grounds. Alex sees this as old fashioned and wants to promote more medication and modern approaches. He is chomping at the bit to take control and move the hospital forward. This was a reasonable read, nothing special. The characters have some dimension although everyone, not just the patients, seem to be of quite extreme personality. Eli meditates to find relief from the demons of his past. Angela, the social worker, seems to be on a mission of self destruct. Alex is very focused on money, fame and getting his Father to be proud of him. None of the characters are particularly likeable. It wasn’t until the end of this section that the book started to pick up.

The second half of the book was practically unreadable. The characters are plunged into a reality which is inside the head of one of the patients, Crosby. To be honest I just lost track of the story and once I realised that I was only skimming the pages and not reading properly I gave up. I was also not impressed by the increasing use of very foul language. I did manage to hit 80% so did give the book a good go.

This was really not the book for me and I shall not be trying any more by this author.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

We Are Monsters takes place in a mental hospital run by an aging Eli and his increasingly antiquated methods of patient treatment. Eli chooses to focus on the healing of human connection instead of the more accepted path of perpetual reliance on over-medication that has become the industry standard. Meanwhile, Alex, another doctor at the Sugar Hills Asylum has been secretly working on and testing what he hopes to be a full cure for schizophrenia. Unfortunately, Alex’s cure runs out of funding before coming to fruition so he is forced to pursue his research via a darker route.

The first half of the book spends a lot of time expositing the lives of the two doctors and the choices that led them to be the people that they have become. The book also dives into the life of Angela, one of the other workers at the hospital, and gives varying amounts of time to numerous patients within the asylum. The primary and rather on-the-nose premise given away in the title is that everyone is a little crazy -- everyone is a monster.

This is unfortunately where the book falters the most. Nobly, the tale that Brian Kirt weaves throughout We Are Monsters is one that really hammers home the humanity of those suffering mental illness. Much attention is given to the mistreatment of those in our society suffering from these afflictions. Even more so the effort to bring empathy to the clinically insane among us is an honorable one. The story’s method of much of this message is to draw comparisons to everyday people who have had to find ways to overcome trauma and contrast how some of their survival tactics really aren’t so different than the patients in the asylum. The problem is that in this honorable quest, the book all but attributes the causation and nature of evil within humanity to mental illness than can be overcome through concentrated humanistic and mystic practices.

Additionally, the book takes a very hard tonal shift just over the halfway point is quite jarring. The second half of the book drastically attempts to kick things into high gear. Unfortunately, one this part of the tale began I really struggled to maintain the interest I had throughout the first half. Along with some odd tonal choices (some attempts at dark comedy), the metaphorical nature of the themes of the book become extremely literal and a bit heavy handed.

We Are Monsters ultimately concludes on a disappointing note. Its attempts at positive themes are muddied by its extreme positing on the nature of evil and the bluntness of its delivery. Its dramatic change in pace and tone dampening the build up of its interesting original premise.

Thanks to Netgalley, Flame Tree Press, and Brian Kirk in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book, the second half more than the first though the first is needed to set the stage. Alex is a Psychiatric Doctor working in an asylum and is being groomed to become the next Director of the hospital by his mentor and current director. However, unbeknown to Alex's mentor, their treatment methods differ greatly. Alex's mentor believes in holistic treatment with antipsychotic drugs used only when necessary where as Alex believes heavily in antipsychotics, to the point he may have secretly created an antipsychotic that can cure schizophrenia. Unfortunately, while the antipsychotic works fine animals, the formula needs to be adjusted to work on humans. Luckily Alex has a schizophrenic brother and a whole hospital full of patients to use as test subjects or perhaps just one criminally insane serial killer.

The book focuses more on questioning what is sanity? as we learn that, due to past traumas doctors are not quite sane themselves. Also explored is how people with mental disorders ought to be treated - holistically or with mind numbing drugs? As I previously said I prefer the second half of the book where we go down the rabbit hole of the mind of the insane or perhaps, a living Salvador Dali painting. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to explore these issues in a fictional way or for anyone who want to escape into madness for a few hours.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Flame Tree Press, for an advanced electronic readers copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I have been frustrated reading this book, but NOT because of the book; life (work, chores, etc.) got in the way of my reading time. Seriously, I need a job just reading. I (maybe) should have taken another path in life . . . but I digress! Seriously though, if time would have allowed, I think I would have read this one in one sitting - I just wanted to know . . . what happens next!?

On page one, I had the creepy crawly, heebie-jeebies regarding needles and the eyes and the brain. Having a BA in Psychology, I am not unfamiliar with the psychological practices of yore, but this was gripping nonetheless, and I physically shuddered. From page one of We Are Monsters, I was riveted. I became even more riveted when I realized that the needle scene outlined above was an up and coming treatment developed by Dr. Alex - it's modern, not of the past! YIKES!

This book was filled with turmoil: Dr. Alex's treatment methods vs. the preferred methods / styles of Dr. Eli, right vs. wrong, good vs. evil. I also think this book touched on something I have often wondered myself . . . what if someone ISN'T "crazy," and God does talk to them, but as a society, we dismiss them, labeling them as mentally defective?

My relationship with the characters was interesting. I typically know right off the bat which of the cast I like and which ones I do not, but in We Are Monsters, I found myself waffling - I like him; wait, I don't trust him; I loathe him; oh, he's just misunderstood; I like him again, but do I really?

Overall, We Are Monsters is worth the read, and I will seek out more of Kirk's works.

ETA (edited to add): I found a small number of errors, but they are nothing that interrupts the flow of reading or the plot.

Mental illness is something that scares most people. Being afflicted with schizophrenia is like being imprisoned by your own mind. Many mental patients complain that being schizophrenic is being forced sometimes to do and say things that you do not want to do or say. However, the compulsion is too strong to resist.

But what frightens us the most is that mental illness can strike anybody at any time. Nobody is immune to it. In We Are Monsters, Brian Kirk used that fear to masterfully create a story full of horrors. I was literally taken for a ride in the brain of a schizophrenic in this book. Dr. Alex Drexler is a psychiatrist working in Sugar Hill, a mental asylum with an extremely high rate of success. He is next in line to become the Chief Medical Director, when Dr. Eli Alpert, who currently holds the position, retires. He has created what he believes is the cure for schizophrenia. However, he has lost his funding to perform clinical trials. He begins treating it on the asylum’s patients instead. He tests it on the asylum’s most notorious criminal. This results in the patient’s mind being opened and this releases a flood of demons while creating a new, altered reality. They need to regain control of the hospital from the patient before it is too late.

I loved how well done the characters of this book were fleshed out. The author skillfully slipped in little backstories for them all and was able to fit each torture to them perfectly as a result. Dr. Alpert was my favorite character. He was the only one able to see that modern medicine is nothing without a touch of humanity. Two of the ghouls in the altered reality also added a nice touch of humor.

The plot moved at a good pace. From the beginning, I was pulled into the story. It was a unique way to look at mental illness and its treatment. What was scary for me was the fact that the medicine he used was opening minds that were already not doing well in the first place. It literally dragged everyone into one person’s insanity. The dialog between characters was well thought out and did not seem contrived at all.

This book was an old school horror complete with ghosts, blood, and mayhem. It was quite nice to read a book which transported me back to the older days of horror stories.

Because of very disturbing themes throughout the book, as well as some very gory scenes, this book would be better suited to adults. It was quite creepy so if you are easily scared and cannot sleep well after watching or reading a horror, I suggest you avoid this story. Mental illness was the focus of this book as you may have already guessed so if you have any issues with that, you probably should not this book to your TBR (to be read) list. I enjoyed this book a lot.

Dr. Emil Alpert runs the Sugar Hill mental asylum with compassion and humanity, treating his patients with understanding rather than drugging them into catatonic submission.
However, his protégé, Dr. Alex Drexler views treatment of the mentally ill differently, secretly testing a new experimental drug that he believes can cure schizophrenia. Driven beyond his means and his better judgement, he seeks fame and fortune at any cost.
When the brutal murder of a former patient, seemingly by a member of the hospital staff sets in motion a series of errors that removes Dr. Alpert from his position, Drexler is given his chance to prove his drug works....by testing it on the asylum's newest and most infamous patient.....Crosby Nelson, the 'Apocalypse Killer'.
Allowing his ambitions to override his common sense, Drexler agrees.....and discovers his drug does something he never planned for...
Crosby Nelson's inner demons have broken loose in the halls of Sugar Hill, and no one is safe.

Because the demons that haunt the Apocalypse Killer are many, and they won't be denied.

An interesting novel that balances between a hard look at how society treats the mentally ill and a straight out horror thriller.

Really enjoyed this book!! Suspenseful, thrilling, frightening. Kept me reading late into the night; with the lights on. Great story!
Will recommend to others.

This book was so, sosososo, so good. Dr. Alex, who works at a mental institution, has come up with a cure-all for mental ailments, specifically schizophrenia in this story. He just injects it through the corner of the eye, right up into the pineal gland, and people that have been lost to episodes for years make seemingly miraculous recoveries. However, they're short lived and are having some kind of time-physics warp on the world around them, affecting people that don't even have diagnoses. The drug is so powerful, it's causing hallucinations (folie e duex type problems) in people that haven't even taken the drug. This book is richly written, vividly imagined, and honestly scary as hell. I loved every minute of it, and while I didn't fully understand the ending as it's written somewhat vaguely I still loved this story. There were moments that I didn't want to read it in the house by myself, times where I cried over the restorative episodes some of the characters had, and just all out thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Fantastic read.

Thank you Netgalley, Flame Tree Press and Brian Kirk for allowing me to read this advance copy in exchange for an honest review

Honestly, I didn't know what the heck to expect. I saw the words asylum and horror and stopped reading the synopsis from there. Well, first let me say I'm not a big fan of dystopian or any zombie kind of books/movies. Second let me say, this book just may have changed my mind!

The author took his time and developed the characters in a way that made you care about them. The patients are not always the one that have "issues" in an asylum. The very ones taking care of them my have much more serious things that are hidden away in their subconscious.

This book to me was more than just a horror or dystopian theme. It makes you think that not all monsters are make believe. We all have a little monster in us, it's just how we choose to live our lives and deal with those monsters that make us who we are.

Well done Mr. Kirk, you converted me :)

I really enjoyed this book! Thank you Netgalley! The cover and description is what drew me to this book, and I am so glad my request was granted to review it. This book is engrossing and complex with excellent character development. It will literally draw you in from the very first page. For me personally the in-depth characters, the story line itself, and the way it just draws you into world the author has created, is why I loved this book.
For some however it could be to much. This is definitely one of those books you will either hate or love. For me personally, this is one of the best books I have read this year. I will definitely be recommending it, and looking forward to more from this author in the future.

Finished this book in around 3-sittings - fast paced, well written and enjoyable. However, found the ending a little convoluted but this did not bring down the rest of the book - good times.

This is the second novel by Brian Kirk from Flame Tree Press I have struggled to finish, so I will not be reading him again. The story concerns experiments on patients on a mental hospital which take a seriously nasty turn for the worse after a doctor tries an experimental medicine upon his schizophrenic brother who is an out-patient in the hospital with horrific consequences. I found it clunky, uninspiring and full of characters I cared little about.

For the most part I enjoyed We Are Monsters. However, I felt like it was different than I expected. That's a me problem though so I suggest people read the blurb and other peoples reviews to determine if this is their type of book.

Psychological horror based with schizophrenia. I really liked how the author blended things in toward the end. I would have liked an explanation in how the treatment worked and to know what went on with face lift lady in schizophrenia land. Pretty good book though

Thank you netgalley for the ARC

I'm on the fence with this one. The premise sounded so good but it just wasn't executed very well. The first half felt very strong and I was glued to the pages, but it's like it plummeted off a cliff. I was definitely disappointed in this one.

God this was a really good horror novel, it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was scary because we really didn't have a good way of dealing with mental health for a while. I overall enjoyed reading this.