This definitely won't be for everyone but fans of the post apocalyptic genre should pick it up. Told by Monster and the Monster she finds in Scotland when she returns from her hiding place, it's an unusual look at a world gone upside down. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An interesting read.

I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

this was a really enjoyable read, the characters were really well done and I thought the story was beautifully done.

I may come back to this one but I’ve tried it twice now and it’s not bad, it’s just too slow for me to get into right now. DNF, at least for now.

Original and compelling in equal measure. A highly recommended purchase for most public fiction collections.

This was a little gem of a book! Post apocalypse survivor, Monster, stumbles out of her vault into the world as it is post war and sickness to forge ahead. She discovers another human and takes her in calling her Monster, and herself Mother. What ensues is a relationship forged in a new world including ups, downs, struggles and survival. While I would have liked to hear more of the "how did we get here" parts of this story, I still found it satisfying and was pleased with the ending. A quick read!

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. Very captivating with amazing character development. Post apocalyptic told from two points of view. Both alone who eventually find each other but need two different things in life. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a pretty good read. A little too on the mark right now during a pandemic but still a good read. Sure some flaws here and there but the story kept me entranced and interested.

After war and the Sickness wipes out humanity, Monster evolves from a seed vault in the Arctic, where she hid when the missiles were headed her way. She makes her way back to her family's home in Scotland, knowing that they and everyone else, is dead. She scavenges for food and supplies and considers herself a survivor. She reflects on her life a little as she makes her way across the countryside and bombed out towns. She was always a bit of a loner, so she isn't too overcome with the loss of people. Then she finds a feral young girl and brings her back to where she's settled. Monster changes her own name to Mother and gives the girl the name Monster.

This book was cleaved into two halves. The first half is told from the perspective of the adult Monster and the second half is told from the young Monster that she takes under her wing. This book was dark yet fascinating. We are dropped into a post-apocalyptic world where we only see two people, the protagonists. Everything is destroyed or abandoned. Many homes and businesses were looted by the last survivors, before they too died. It had some flavors of The Road (Cormac McCarthy), which is one of my favorite books. The writing is powerful and I would even say isolating...since we are seeing things from the perspective of these two people who never encounter another human other than each other in their "current day". The direness yet monotony of their lives is made clear. Life centers around staying fed and warm. The elder Monster/Mother remembers life as it was , but is determined to be a survivor and faces the new way of life stoically. Meanwhile, the younger Monster only has snippets of memory from before she was found by Mother so is curious about how things were and yearns for more than their repetitive existence.

I highly recommend this one!

What to listen to while reading...
In the Air Tonight by Lucy Dacus
Exit Music by Radiohead
Game of Survival by Ruelle
A World Alone by Lorde
Beaten Down by Sharon Van Etten

This has been out a while, and lots of helpful ratings and reviews. I'll only add that I found it good, not great. It has a good premise and is a little uneven, but a good read overall.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

I truly enjoyed this book. The main character narrator is reminicent of the narrator from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The narrator explains this new world through her eyes, and through her mind. It is thoroughly engaging and I like reading a book with a strong female, neurologically divergent character. At times it reminded me of 28 days later in terms of landscape. The true treasure of this book is really watching this whole story unfurl from the narrators perspective.

I DNF this book at around 25%. I could not get into the fantasy, post-apocalyptic setting. Honestly, I chose this book based on the genre and cover, but this was a book I could not get into, but I am sure many people would enjoy it!

Thank you NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My rating: ★★★★


GREAT take on an apocalyptic world, great worldbuilding, couldn't keep it down. Katie Hale's skilled writing has transported me to this deserted landscape and I could vividly see every single detail, which honestly is such a big reason why I liked this one so much. It reminded me of a few sci-fi movies I've already seen, which I dig a lot.

The narrative and style were great, too, can't complain about that.

The only thing I didn't like was that I was interested in finding out who released the mysterious 'sickness' into the world, because I'm a curious reader, but it didn't hurt the rest of the book for me, which was great. Look forward to read more of Katie Hale soon.

#MyNameIsMonster
A unique and beautifully written novel that is hard to explain. A family created in a time where life has ended, but what does it mean for life as we know it to end? My Name is Monster shows the desire to hold onto societal standards while just being grateful to have something to nurture. Who we are and what make us up is a interesting theme from this novel. Must read.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this debut novel. Split into two halves, the book opens with Monster, the titular character, on the shores of Scotland in the wake of the destruction of the rest of humanity. Shielded in the Seed Vault, now she strikes out for a different kind of survival.

I do wish that the book had a bit more detail on this build-up and the end of the world. Monster's memories reveal that in many ways, she grew into her unconventional name and so she's not always easy to connect with. When she crosses paths with a feral child, the book shifts again as Monster becomes Mother - to a girl that she dubs, Monster.

With clean and simply prose, this makes for a fast read. Part of it does seem a bit implausible, Still, it's an end-of-the-world dystopia story, which share many of these moments that don't always seem to add up. The Sickness and Wars mentioned, though, certainly make this a chilling read in 2021, though.

I am not sure if this is intended as a Young Adult book, but it sort of reads that way. And while it may not be a completely fresh re-imagining of the end of civilization, it still makes for an engaging read and one that I am sure will spark lively discussions amongst its readers. I enjoyed the second half more than the first - it felt a bit more original, though it too holds some rather hard to believe moments. Still, it's a solid debut and I am curious to see what Hale will write next!

The title and cover of this novel drew me in - I'll be honest. Thankfully, this novel did not disappoint, although I still struggle on how to categorize the genre.

My Name is Monster tells the story of Monster, a lone survivor of a world where every other living being is gone. In the chaos and confusion of such a setting, she comes across one other being who she names Monster, and renames herself Mother after this discovery. The symbolism is not lost here, for we see these two characters develop into their new names, and in the midst of the struggle to survive and make a new life, the two learn to support and care for each other.

The structure of this novel takes some time to get used to as instead of chapters, we get phases or segments of thought and action - but it's an appropriate set up given the novel and setting that has been created. The allusions to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein are unavoidable as well, and call into question what underlies humanity and love. While there are some unanswered questions in the plot, I overall enjoyed the novel and writing.

My Name Is Monster is an excellent premise that is well-done. The two characters are developed thoroughly, the writing is lyrical and poetic, and the setting is consistent throughout. That being said, I still felt like something was missing, though I'm not sure what that would be. I certainly liked it and will not shy away from reading other works by the author. It would have to be a very particular person for me to recommend this, however.

𝐈𝐟 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤.

Monster was already alone long before she emerged from the arctic vault, before bombs dropped, war and the sickness came and took all the living people. Loneliness was never her fear, in fact, all her life she preferred it, didn’t she? When she is spat out by the ocean on the coast of Scotland, all evidence confirms that she is truly the last survivor. She scavenges through what remains in the wreckage and ruins, visiting memories of her childhood, ruminating on what set her apart, the cold distance she kept between she and her parents, wondering still why others craved human touch, something she found repellant. Reading this book during covid made it that more illuminating, even when time crept along. Monster has always been an outlier, separated from life by more than just skin, unable to truly connect, to feel the same urgency of communion that comes naturally for most. How is it possible in this place, empty of human warmth, she will finally understand need and love beyond basic survival?

There is beautiful writing, particularly when she discovers a lone, unkempt, wild child and allows the girl to enter her world, teaching her the skills of survival. The way in which each perceives the world in the landscape of their own unique minds intelligently questions the meaning of existence. Our desires, needs, wants are never in tune, and we have so much to teach each other. Where to Monster the world is empty, for this girl it is full of life, from the bugs to the wild creatures that roam with hungry bellies. There is hope, there is a future and there is always the possibility of others. It doesn’t have to end with them, does it? How could Monster truly know what remains in every corner of the earth?

Even in this void, with Monster as her only mother, she questions the knowledge, pushes the limits, needs to think beyond what Monster tells her is fact. Even when people are all but erased except for them, there is so much possibility, a chance for rebirth, continuation. Monster seems so cold and disconnected until this child raises like a sun in the bleak future, and it is her thoughts that are a light in the darkness. Monster knows so much more than her, but not everything, the child learns there is so much that Monster doesn’t know, cannot seen, doesn’t feel.

An interesting book, and normally I avoid post apocalyptical novels, ones full of sickness, end of days- I think reality is hard enough and for a time there were so many on the shelf it was suffocating, but the beauty with which Katie Hale has the child expressing emotions was tender as a wound. “𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳.”

Monster is the rock, the hard place but she is also the wound. The child is the light, the hope, the pressing question and maybe an answer. It is a beautiful debut and I can’t wait to see what she thinks up for her next novel.

Published June 2019

Canongate

Post apocalyptic timeline, where a woman named Monster, appears to be the only survivor after war and a sickness. Monster struggles to find food, Monster struggles to find water. Monster struggles for shelter. Then one day, Monster finds a child. Monster changes her mind and now she is Mother and the child is Monster.

Uh, this was a weird one. It was too....vague. Some details are needed to move a story forward, or to add to the plot. This...this has very little of those items. In the end, I just didn't care.

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