I had this book sitting on in my TBR pile forever. For whatever reason, the description didn't just grab my attention, so I put off reading it for a while. However, once I started reading it, I was fully engrossed. Brodeur creates this really intense family drama where the members of the family are just centimeters away from fully self-destructing. They are also simultaneously really hard to like yet empathetic. I'm so glad I read this book because it's so good, and I hope it gets more attention.


Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC of this book.

This is a layered family drama. Adam (the father) is an accomplished scientist approaching his 70th birthday and contemplating his own relevance - he's trying for one last breakthrough while suffering from bipolar disorder. Ken (the son) is a successful businessman and aspiring politician but not a good father, brother or son. Abby (the daughter) is an artist who has finally found a way to express herself and come to terms with her life and past through her art. Throw in some other interesting characters and this is a compelling story.

I liked this book but I felt it really never went anywhere conclusive. Bipolar disease is difficult to portray but I felt the author did a pretty good job of portraying the father's illness.

I loved the setting on Cape Cod. I had a hard time identifying with any of the characters.
I thought the relationship between Ken and Abby was just weird.
I liked the author’s non fiction book better.

A contemporary (2016) family drama. The Gardner family is not as ideal as it may appear. The patriarch of the family, Adam, is nearing his 70th birthday and isn't prepared retire peacefully. Of course this is exacerbated by his bipolar disorder, which has resurged after he stops taking his medication. Ken, the elder brother, is soon to run for political office, but his marriage to his wife Jenny is growing more and more rocky. Abby, the younger sister, is finally experiencing some success in her art career, while preparing for a huge change in her life which she has been keeping secret from everyone. Meanwhile, Steph, a new mother and police officer, discovers her connection to the Gardners, and has to decide what it will mean for her future. This family is full of secrets, and things come to a head in one wild summer.

The Gardner family is definitely dysfunctional. Each character is quite flawed. I connected most easily with Abby and Steph. I also enjoyed Adam's character, a crotchety old man struggling to accept his age. The portrayal of his bipolar disorder was well done, realistic and sypathetically written. I had little positive feelings toward Ken on the other hand. He was so often angry, and gave off creepy undertones. Every member of the family is hiding something, and some of the secrets are pretty dark... Overall, this was an engaging, slow paced family drama, and I did enjoy the read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Little Monsters written by Adrienne Brodeur was both a hit and miss for me. I went into this book blind, i'm not too sure if that was the best decision or not, but it didn't really work out in my favor. I like going into books blind and being surprised, but honestly, there was really nothing surprising about this one. I was waiting for that <b>"big moment"</b> to happen, but it never came. Originally I planned to rate this book two stars, but the cover was beautiful, the story was a bit heart breaking at times, and one of the main characters made me laugh a few times, so therefore, I decided to give this book a three star rating. I didn't really feel a connection to any of the characters, so maybe that's why it dragged? I love how the author told this story in alternating chapters between the characters because we got more insight into the characters lives. I always love a good book about a dysfunctional family, because they aren't perfect in anyway, Little Monsters definitely had the dysfunctional family vibes, but I just couldn't connect on a personal level with any of the characters. In Little Monsters, there were too many political references as this book was based during the 2016 election year, but I prefer to read to escape the real world, not reading to follow along with what's happening in the world.

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND AVID READER PRESS FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!!

Abby and Ken Gardner lost their mother when they were little babies and have been haunted by her presence ever since. Abby and Ken lost their mother right after she gave birth to Abby, so there's always been competition and resentment between Abby and Ken. Adam, their father is a brilliant oceanographer, who raised Abby and Ken as a single father. Adam has a bipolar disorder and likes to stop taking his medication from time to time, so Abby and Ken know what to expect when Adam has one of manic episodes. Abby and Ken have always a tight and very close relationship, but have since then been pushed apart due to past resentment. Abby and Ken have a very strained and complicated relationship. Abby is a talented visual artist who depends on Ken's goodwill, only in part because Ken owns the studio where Abby lives and works. Ken is a very successful businessman with very high political ambitions and a picture perfect family. In Adam's chapters, he made me laugh a time or two with his commentary which kept this book afloat, sort of. The Gardner family wasn't perfect in any way, each character harbored their own secrets. I'm going to keep this review short as there wasn't much I liked about this book. Don't let this review stop you from reading Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur, it just wasn't for me, but it might be for you, so please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book.

This was an incredible story and was very well done on Audio. There is a cast of voices with a different narrator for the characters who alternate each chapter.
We first hear from Adam, the crazy genius and patriarch of the family the story centers around.
Then we have Ken and Abigale, both have their issues, and are Adam's children. Also known as his little monsters.
Lastly, the story is also narrated by Steph, Adam's daughter he was unaware he conceived during a one night stand early in his marriage.
We also hear from Jenny, Ken's wife and Abigale's best friend from college.

The story centers around these characters and how they interact with each other as we approach Adam's birthday celebration. There are lost of family secrets and emotions in this story. I absolutely loved it and thought it was a fulfilling but more serious read. You will certainly enjoy!

It felt like nothing much happened in this book, which led to an unproductive feeling of anticipation in the reader. Overall, it was a fine story of a family, but I kept waiting for the Major Thing. Despite the alternating POVs, I found myself struggling to connect with the characters, which may explain me wishing for more for the plot. This would be a good read for literary fiction fans who enjoy character-driven works.

I tried reading this and listening to it because I adored Wild Game. It just didn’t do it for me. Unfortunately I got about halfway through before I just skimmed the rest. Maybe I’ll try it again later, could just be a matter of bad timing.

Families are complicated, and the Gardners are no different. Adam Gardner is a brilliant oceanographer approaching his 70th birthday, but he’s determined to make one last scientific breakthrough. What his family doesn’t know is that he’s stopped taking his bipolar medication in order to reach his goal. He knows this will infuriate his children, but their attention is elsewhere as they have problems of their own to deal with.

Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were young and were mostly raised by their father on Cape Cod. While they remain close, their relationship is strained. Ken has a picture perfect family, great success, and political ambitions, whereas Abby is a talented artist who depends on her brother’s generosity since he owns the studio where she lives and works.

They’re each harboring secrets which could ultimately add more strain on the family, and then to make matters worse, a woman name Steph in thrown into the middle of it all, but she doesn’t announce her connection to the family right away. Emotions run high as they approach Adam’s birthday, and when secrets are finally revealed, their family may never be the same again.

I enjoyed this story and the dysfunctional dynamic of the Gardners because it made them more relatable and approachable as characters. I also loved the setting, having visited Cape Cod several times, and I thought the author did a great job of bringing every scene to life before our very eyes. I have to admit, I wasn’t very fond of Ken, but I understood there were some deeper issues that made him the man he grew into. Overall, I recommend it, though it wasn’t the most dramatic or climactic story.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for providing a copy of this book to review.*

Ken and Abby, brother and sister, are motherless children of Adam. They grew up close but have drifted apart despite being in the same vicinity. Adam is starting to show signs of dementia as a major birthday approaches but Ken denies it. Entering the picture is a lost relative that complicates things for all members of the family. Set in Rhode Island or Maine - somewhere on the upper Atlantic Coast - it was a good novel full of good people making questionable choices.

After reading and loving Adrienne Brodeur's previous work - a memoir - I knew that I just had to read this novel. I am drawn to dark family stories about secrets and riffs and reconciliations. Just like in her memoir, Little Monsters has a very strong sense of place. The setting is so richly described and comes alive and becomes almost another character in the story. Some of the characters are despicable, but are they beyond redemption? What hope is there for this family? Is the past so strong that it's going to pull them all under? These are some of the questions that I contemplated as I read. The way Brodeur unfolds this story and the secrets of this family is masterful. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an eARC of this novel. I truly look forward to reading what Brodeur publishes next!

Patriarch Adam is turning 70. He wants just one more notable marine discover to secure his legacy. He decides to go off his medication for bi-polar in order to "think clearly". Meanwhile, his son Ken has political aspirations, and his daughter Abby is an artist. All of them are the most unlikable characters to read about.

I heard a lot of hype about this book and really enjoyed Brodeur's previous memoir, Wild Game, but I thought this family drama was a mess. The writing style was boring and overly wordy, the main mysteries behind all the unlikable characters' motivations were not even clearly revealed, and it just drug on. The ending was just a dying whimper.

I wanted to like this one but compared to other family dramas that have done messy families well, this one just didn't hold up.

Thank you to Ne

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur.

This is a story of a father, his two children, and a daughter he has yet to discover that he has. It's told through the perspective of multiple characters. It's so messy, dysfunctional, and also full of love and humor. While I did enjoy it, I didn't necessarily love it. I can't say exactly what I was missing, but my initial instinct is to say heart? It had great bones, but didn't have a lot of the emotional meat that I really like to hang on to in stories like this. But it's carefully crafted, and still very worth the read.

Any opportunity to read a family drama set in Cape Cod, I am reading it! This character-driven novel is about three members of the Gardner family, Adam an oceanographer approaching his seventieth birthday and starting to lose some of his faculties. He stopped taking his medication for his bipolar disorder because he felt that he was on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough. He raised both of his children alone, his wife died after giving birth to his daughter Abby. Growing up Ken, Adam’s older son and Abby had always been close and took care of each other, especially if their father was having one of his episodes and went missing for several days. The fourth main character in the story was Stephanie Murphy, who becomes aware that she is related to this interesting clan and tries to find a way to deal with the realization.

Initially, I had a really hard time getting into the story. What did help was that the point of view changed in each chapter between the four characters. So you got different perspectives on the story. I personally had a hard time relating to the male characters in the story; honestly, they all seemed to be overbearing chauvinistic men. But maybe that was the point. Another element worth noting is that the story takes place in 2016 and also touches on the US Presidential election and the possibility of having our first female President. It was not a central point in the plot, but it does come up in the storyline. After about 1/4 of the way through the book, I switch to the audiobook format which for me helped to move the story along. I was struggling to stay focused reading the e-book version, but I did enjoy the ensemble cast of narrators. I would recommend this book to readers that enjoy family drama stories that have a slow build, but surprising family secrets are eventually revealed.

This was a well-crafted tale of family dysfunction. Secrets, rivalry, mortality, mental illness…told from different perspectives, all building to a showdown.

Wild Game was a five star read for me so I was super excited to get my hand's on Adrienne Brodeur's latest effort, Little Monsters. I love a big family drama & even more so when it has a Cape Cod setting. The writing is too notch and I liked the characters and enjoyed seeing their journeys. I did think there was just so much going on at all times. It did keep me quickly flipping pages but also felt like a lot packed into one book. 3.5 stars. Thank you to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I pretty much always enjoy a family drama, and "Little Monsters," by Adrienne Brodeur was no exception. The book begins in the turbulent summer of 2016, as artist Abby and her brother Ken, a businessman with political aspirations, prepare for the 70th birthday celebration of their father, Adam, an oceanographer who brought them up in his remote home on Cape Cod after the death of their mother when they were children. I was drawn in and pulled along as the action hurtles toward what will obviously be a disastrous party, and I loved the description of what Abby's life is like as an artist, as well as the description of Adam's academic world and its relentless pace, which was very realistically portrayed. The "secret" that hangs over the book, however, was incredibly obvious--to the point that it seemed it must be intentionally so, but unfortunately, knowing what the big "reveal" is going to be had the effect of making the whole thing a bit anticlimactic. Even so, I felt like I didn't get the resolution I wanted, particularly because some of the characters needed a little more fleshing out with backstory to be really compelling and understandable. And the Steph storyline, which formed a large part of the plot, felt a bit random and never really gripped me. What did work for me, however--and in a big way--was the Cape Cod setting: the detailed depiction of a Cape Cod summer makes "Little Monsters" a great beach read, or the perfect novel to read in the middle of winter when you're missing the sun.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

This was the perfect summer novel for me! A family story with secrets, multiple narrator, east coast setting. I was absolutely enthralled. Lots of unlikeable characters, but in a way that keeps you reading. Definitely recommend this one!

Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were small and they have been haunted by her absence ever since. Their father, Adam is a brilliant oceanographer. The siblings have lots of conflict and are planning a surprise birthday for Adam. Abby loves her nieces and realizes she is pregnant. Life has many ups and downs. This book is smart, funny and beautifully written.