Of Monsters and Madness

Of Monsters and Madness

by Jessica Verday

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A romantic, historical retelling of classic Gothic horror featuring Edgar Allan Poe and his character Annabel Lee, from a New York Times best-selling author.

Summoned to her father's home in 1820's Philadelphia, a girl finds herself in the midst of a rash of gruesome murders in which he might be implicated. She is torn romantically between her father's assistants-one kind and proper, one mysterious and brooding-who share a dark secret and may have more to do with the violent events than they're letting on.

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Expected publication date: September 9th, 2014

Received from: Liberty Bay Books

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Oh goodness, this was an interesting one for sure. I was really intrigued by the idea of a Poe inspired book and was very excited to get my hands on it. Naturally it was weird and twisted, Poe is weird and twisted, so it makes sense, but I don't know, this might have been a little too weird and twisted for me. 

The pacing of the plot I found to be awkward and poorly done. I had no idea what direction it was going in until I was only about 60 pages to the end. Then it went in a crazy wild card direction. It went Jekll and Hyde on me folks. Who would'a seen that coming? I sure didn't and that was a huge turn off for me. Not because it wasn't predictable, I don't like predictable, I like surprises, but I like practical and realistic surprises, which this was not. It was far far from it. That twist came from absolutely NO WHERE. The ending was almost worse if that's even possible. I have never been more confused when reading. It was going along one way then all of the sudden it was a new chapter and things were happening that I had no idea where happening and I was so SO lost.  Let's just say it was greatly flawed. 

The writing was acceptable, if a bit mundane. It didn't stand out in a good or a bad way. I suppose that is better than it being horrid. Right? 

I couldn't really love any of the characters. I didn't really connect with them. They didn't really have especially strong or vibrant personalities. They felt bland and two dimensional, they were just kind of there. They didn't really seem to grow or develop. Like the writing, they weren't bad, they just weren't anything special.

Last Thoughts: It was not my cup of tea. It was bland and the whole thing seemed kind of black and white in a way (lacking color and interesting things). It was strange and not in a good way and the plot kind of ruined the whole thing. Without characters that I really, really loved to redeem the book, it had nothing I could really enjoy. I give it about one and a half stars out of five. 

If you feel like it you can add it to Goodreads or buy it through Liberty Bay Books. Don't let my opinions stop you! You may like it!

Gif. Consensus: