I loved the idea of this one. The present POV was super interesting, and I found myself wanting more of it. I didn't love the child POV and it was a large part of the story. The ending felt a bit flat, but I did enjoy the writing and would read more from this author in the future.

I love Jennifer McMahon because she creates the tone of the book so well. She’s great at making creepy/spooky type of books. I was just hoping there would have been a ghost element to it like her previous books.

What a great book for the fall season - creepy, atmospheric and a quirky enough plot to keep you guessing. Good character developments while bouncing between past and present. The Vermont setting (as I understand all of McMahon's books to have) was a treat. My first time reading Jennifer McMahon but definitely not the last.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

1978: At her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she’s home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.

Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.

Still, Violet is thrilled to have a new playmate. She and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they catalogue all kinds of monsters and dream up ways to defeat them. Before long, Iris begins to come out of her shell. She and Vi and Eric do everything together: ride their bicycles, go to the drive-in, meet at their clubhouse in secret to hunt monsters. Because, as Vi explains, monsters are everywhere.

Jennifer McMahon is an expert at weaving together historical and present day to invent the most thrilling and intriguing story. The Children on the Hill is one of the best books I have read this year. Highly recommend!

Very Readable!

If you’re in the mood for a mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat, you should qickly add The Children on the Hill to your reading. Though unlikely to be near the top of your favorite books of the year, McMahon does an above average job in writing a plot that will keep your hands rapidly turning the pages, in creating characters that will tap into all your emotions, and in portraying a sense of time and place that will make you feel that you are Right There as the story is unfolding.

Definitely worth your consideration !!

Ohmyghoulish did I love this story!! We spend a lot of time in Vi's head, so at times I questioned if that made it more of a YA novel, but if it was then it certainly didn't feel very YA and the I scolded myself for even having this conversation. Yeah, ahem. Vi is a very precocious girl with a love for monsters. So much so that she has created her own Monster Club, has kept an illustrated journal of anything monster - from facts to various types. I mean, how cute is THAT?!?!

There are a couple of timelines we go through, and one thing McMahon is genius at is getting that atmosphere suspensefully delicious. You're always going to want another bite. We get notes of experimentation, Frankenstein vibes, historical maliciousness and the power of the innocence of childhood. I dunno. It just really hit me right in the feels. Did I find this scary at all? No. But I did absolutely feel all the eerie vibes and wasn't expecting how it all ended up coming together.

My favorite McMahon so far. And no, I haven't read The Winter People yet, but it is burning a hold on my bookshelf.

There’s just something thrilling about a good monster story. It can pull us out of the monotony of our everyday lives and haunt us for days. But sometimes, as one woman finds in author Jennifer McMahon’s The Children on the Hill, the monsters among us aren’t always supernatural creatures.

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

Jennifer McMahon's newest release is inspired by Frankenstein, and I think it's one of her most compelling books to date. The Children on the Hill is set on two timelines: In 1978, siblings Vi and Eric live with their grandmother, renowned psychiatrist Helen Hildreth, on the sprawling grounds of her lauded treatment center. One day Helen brings home Iris, a mysterious girl Vi's own age, and Vi and Eric quickly introduce her to their world of monster hunting and uncovering secrets. But they aren't quite prepared for the dark secrets that await them in the treatment center's basement. Meanwhile, in 2019, monster podcaster Lizzy Shelley is travelling to Vermont, where she's recently learned of a missing girl -- the latest in a series of missing girls across the country, all of whom claimed to have an encounter with a creature of local legend right before they disappeared.

McMahon writes such textured, intriguing novels, and The Children on the Hill is no exception. Her writing is evocative and her plots are complex and addictive. She's a master at writing grown-up ghost stories, but The Children on the Hill is not quite that. It's eerie, to be sure, but the true horror here comes not from things that go bump in the night -- but instead from the realization that monsters are real, and that they can wear very human, very familiar faces. Through her vivid, complex characters, McMahon explores the effects of trauma, the magical mysteries of childhood, and, like Mary Shelley before her, the dangers of playing God.

The Children on the Hill is at once a coming-of-age story, a horror novel, and a cautionary tale. McMahon takes on well-worn themes with this novel, but does so in a way that is genre-bending and feels completely fresh. It's not my favorite of her books, but it's a solid entry to her bibliography and makes me excited to read whatever she dreams up next.

I pick up Jennifer McMahon's books with a bit of trepidation. I really didn't enjoy The Winter People, but The Drowning Kind was pretty brilliant. If I look at The Children on the Hill as the tie breaker, McMahon ends up a winner.

I love that she took inspiration from Frankenstein to start this story, and its (partial) setting in the 1970s makes it my jam. All in all, this is a wonderful choice for anyone looking for a spooky, but not entirely scary, book. Perfect for fall reading!

Thoughts: This book was EVERYTHING. The writing was intriguing and drew me in from the very first page. I loved both the past and present chapters, and couldn’t get enough of both storylines. The idea of the children’s monster club was so interesting and the home for the mentally ill was dark and ominous. Lizzy’s Monsters Among Us podcast was so unique and I loved that she had a tie to the crime she was investigating.

This story was so creepy and I loved the dark and chilling tone the author uses. The pacing is perfect and she weaves together two perspectives to culminate in the perfect ending. I did think of one more twist that would have added to the story, but the ones that did happen were intriguing and worked so well. I loved this story for the build and the journey, and think it is written perfectly for a dark mystery lover. Even though the twist was predictable, the ending was not. 5-stars!

"There are as many ways to make one as there are monsters. But you must ask yourself: Who is the real monster? The creature being made, or the one creating it?"

When I first read Frankenstein at age twelve, I was understandably expecting a story about the horror of monsters. By the end, I was in tears and it was my first understanding of the concept of "man being the real evil." Jennifer McMahon's latest release, The Children on the Hill, is truly an inspired tributes to the work of Shelley.

1978: At her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she’s home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.

Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.

Still, Violet is thrilled to have a new playmate. She and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they catalogue all kinds of monsters and dream up ways to defeat them. Before long, Iris begins to come out of her shell. She and Vi and Eric do everything together: ride their bicycles, go to the drive-in, meet at their clubhouse in secret to hunt monsters. Because, as Vi explains, monsters are everywhere.

2019: Lizzy Shelley, the host of the popular podcast Monsters Among Us, is traveling to Vermont, where a young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. She’s determined to hunt it down, because Lizzy knows better than anyone that monsters are real—and one of them is her very own sister.

--

At times creepy, suspenseful, and surprisingly emotional, this story hooked me in right from the start. The story of two sisters, told across two timelines, and from more than three different perspectives flowed way more than I initially thought it would or could.

As an avid reader of thrillers and mysteries, it is very hard for me to not ruin the surprises for myself by continuously picking apart the story. But while I did have my theories fairly early on, that did in fact come true, I still truly loved the suspenseful and emotional buildup to the final twists - some that even I did not see coming.

This one will definitely reside in my top 20 releases of 2022.

4.276/5

This is the second novel I've read from McMahon and again she did not disappoint. The Winter People first attracted my attention and this novel lives up to the horrific excitement of the first.
It is a wonderful homage to Mary Shelley. Just give that some thought.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC.

The Children On the Hill by Jennifer McMahon is a monster tale set in Vermont and told through two different timelines, 1978 and 2019. We get to know the main characters as children in 1978 and then again as adults dealing with the fallout of the trauma they endured as children. There are also various monsters mentioned throughout the book that add to the spooky setting. Just when you think you've got the tory all figured out a big twist appears. Read and enjoy!

Holy smokes I loved this book! I enjoyed it from the first sentence until the last and flew thru it like a mad woman!

I have read at least one other book from this author and she is famous for her dual time line stories and is one author who can really make them work in her favor. I'm not able to pinpoint which I enjoyed the best however in this particular story because at different times they both had a different type appeal that drew me in and made me want to stay up into the night to finish the story.

Frankenstein has always been one of my favorite childhood monsters and I love what Jennifer did with it here amongst the three children. As bits begin to become apparent as to what has happened to Iris the story begins to open up and build and build until the twists start appearing and flooring me and once it was all said and done I could have kicked myself for my mistake in the reading that was so darn clever! Kudos to Jennifer for another fine tale!

I went into this book blind and truth be told, my expectations weren’t very high. The dual timeline and the chapters were a bit slow but the last portion of the book really delivered a punch. I didn’t anticipate any of the twists and I’m very satisfied with the ending.

Special thanks to Gallery Books and Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

This book is a great read . Two kids living on a hill with their grandmother who is the head of a mental hospital she runs down the hill. There is a creep Factor here when Grandma brings home another child, a girl and she's staying with them instead of in a room at the mental hospital. What is going on here anyway the story unfolds and I liked it better than I thought I would.. I would recommend this book to my friends. Three and a half up to four stars!

I usually really enjoy Jennifer McMahon’s work, The Children on the Hill just didn’t do it for me. I couldn’t get into the plot or the way it was written. I did finish it, but unfortunately it was only a 3/5 stars for me.

I received the advanced reader copy of THE CHILDREN ON THE HILL, thank you NetGalley. I started reading it a few months ago and couldn’t get into it. I put it down and finally went back to it. I am so glad I did.

I ended up really liking this one. I really liked the alternating timelines in this one and the setting in Vermont. I thought the premise of living on the grounds of a psychiatric institution was super interesting. I guessed where some of it was going, and that’s okay. I really liked the ending. I can’t wait to read this author again.

Are monsters real?

In 1978, Vi and her brother Eric are sure that the answer to this question is yes, and with their monster club, they're excited to find the monsters that go bump in the night. When their grandmother, a brilliant phychiatrist, brings home a little girl named Iris, Vi knows that she'll be able to teach Iris how to open up and help fight monsters with them... until the true monster shows itself, and it's nothing that Vi ever imagined.

In 2019, Lizzy Shelley is still on the hunt for monsters even through her brother Eric, now Charlie, is dead set on leaving that world behind. With her own podcast, Lizzy's goes to where the monsters take her, until one gets a little too close to home.

I absolutely loved both stories in this novel, and jumping back and forth was a really fun way to figured out what happened to Vi, Eric, and Iris back in the 70s. Everything seems so idyllic, but this is quickly shattered, and in 2019 Lizzy is still picking up the pieces of the fateful night everything burned to the ground.

What happened to the children on the hill? Only one way to find out.

I hope you aren't scared of the dark.