This one fell just short of the mark for me. I t was a bit slow to get into and couldnt keeep my interest as I got distracted a lot by things that felt more exciting. In the end, I realized while it wasn't a bad story, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I feel like I'm losing my mind. Why is nobody talking about this white man writing the N word hard-R TWICE??? THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION !!!!

Anyway, aside from the racism, the writing itself was very poor. The action was not moving in the slightest. The plot didn't even feel important honestly.

I found the gratuitous sexual assault and violence against women to be for no purpose other than shock value which is always the sign of an unskilled writer. Happy for y'all who actually liked this though.

We meet Jane, a psychic government agent, at the beginning of the book hiring Caleb, a retired overweight soldier. They travel to their assignment and meet a cast of characters with their own troubles and trauma.
This book was an enjoyable and quick horror read. I did really like it but felt that the characters could have done with beefing out a bit, This book 1 of 4 and maybe that happens subsequently.
I also felt the demonic showdown was very underwhelming.
Didn’t realise there was a trigger warning for the abuse scene either which was quite an uncomfortable read.
All in all though I loved that the narrative was told over several timelines and found this an intriguing story.

This is the first book in a paranormal mystery series. You can definitely feel shades of Stranger Things among various horror flicks in the DNA of this story, but I found it to be original and interesting. Jane Elring is special, more special than anyone could have guessed, and she is someone you would want in your corner when facing down a demon.

I think it's an interesting start, and look forward to reading more.

I sadly couldn’t get into this one. I found the beginning confusing and all over the place, so I struggled to connect with the story. The writing was so good though and I wouldn’t rule out reading more from the author in the future.

I started this book and I wasn't able to get into it. I didn't finish but I think it was written well enough and would be good for people who like a specific genre. Maybe that's just not me. I didn't feel like I connected with Jane enough.

A Monster Escapes is a horror novel (maybe novella) about a woman who hunts monsters for a living. She is employed by the government to catch supernatural things. We soon learn her full story. When a small town is haunted by something, Jane goes to investigate.

This was a good book! The characters were all unique and interesting. I liked all of the back stories in here.

I think the horror was pretty good too. It was a dark entity and it was described vividly. I will say that some of the descriptions were a bit much for me. I didn’t like some of the gore.

This was a short book so it went quick. I thought the writing was good and kept me engaged.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a short horror novel. I would be aware that there is some dark and heavy stuff in here.

Thanks so much to netgalley and the author for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

DNF at 27%

I wanted to like this book. The concept was really good, and the first few chapters did hook me - I really was excited for where it was going to go. Unfortunately, it went really downhill really fast.

The writing style is fine. It's easy to read and isn't objectively bad, but it's not very advanced. I was being told a lot of stuff that didn't need to be spelled out for me, and I feel like the author just didn't include descriptive text about emotion. For a horror book, the emotion and suspense is so integral that to have a book without it just didn't feel scary.
We were introduced to upwards of 6 or 7 POVs and characters over the course of what I read, and I have no doubt that I didn't see the last of it. While in theory this is fine, it was a bit confusing, even with the author reminding us who everyone was and making it easy to understand. It just felt convoluted in places.

But what really made me DNF this book were the themes explored in it, and how openly and without meaning they were put into the story. A 14-year-old girl has been through hell and back, forced to sell her body just to find somewhere safe to hide and be loved, and the first thing our main character's bodyguard does is think about how much he wants to have sex with her but can't. Gross. Couple this with the fact that not even 2 chapters later, we read about a woman who is outcast from her family, lured away by a demon, then has "multiple orgasms" that produce 3 babies? Then, when those 3 babies grow up into young women, they have a family wide orgy? This all happened in maybe 15 pages. It wasn't enjoyable, and didn't feel like it had any place in this book.

The only horror storyline we saw was barely elaborated on, and didn't seem to matter in the point of the story I was in. It was just shock value, and disgusting imagery trying to get a rise out of the reader.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Fans of Supernatural rejoice, there's a new voice in the campy monster-hunting genre! Jane is a government agent who hunts down monsters stalking the States. Alongside Jane comes a colorful made for B movie late night TV cast of characters. Villains, heroes, and side characters are all campy in my opinion. I mean this in a very loving way, I love the campiness.

Jane herself is a bit of fresh air; this genre is usually dominated by big gruff-n-tough macho men, the likes of Sam and Dean Winchester, John Constantine, and Harry Blackstone. More could've been done to play with the preconceptions in the genre: Jane's no Buffy, but she's likeable enough. I'm not sure I like her enough to read the rest of her quartet, but I did like her.