Monster

Had this, say, stayed the course of its almost Dean Koontz like plot line, Monster may well have been a good thriller. Unfortunately, the author deemed it necessary to inject some ridiculous anti-evolution / pro-creationist garbage into the work, and to do so in a way that anyone who was awake during most of a junior high science class could have smacked down with ease.

Religion has inspired some great art, including great literature, and it can still do so today. Works that approach religion, or the divide between faith and science, like this book does, however, will never be among them.

I will admit to not knowing this author is a Christian writer. I don't have a problem with Christian fiction, even though my views differ. However, a few things about this book annoyed me to know end once I realized this is Christian horror/suspense.

A) Beck spends a lot of time moaning over "why would God create such creatures."

B) There are these weird "look, I'm a good Christian" scenes in the book.

C) "Maybe God took it" is a really lame cop out.

The book is much too long, much too melodramatic, and crammed full of characters that are more like litter than window dressing.

I really didn't know much about this book going in. I got a free copy and when I needed a book set in Idaho for a challenge, I decided to give it a go. It gets the 3 stars based entirely on the bigfoot cast of characters. The humans were awful. Reed was an immediate red flag. He didn't take Beck's feelings into consideration at all and figured 'it would be good for her'. The best thing for her would have been to kick him to the curb.

I saw this browsing my library’s new ebook offerings and thought it sounded good and scary. After downloading the book, I learned it fell into the "Christian fiction" genre. Not being too sure what that meant in practical terms, but nonetheless pretty sure I was not the target audience, I figured it ultimately didn’t matter as long as the book delivered. And it did prove a pretty decent, fast-paced read, though not the thrill-ride I’d hoped given a title like Monster and the rousing reviews.

To really get on board with this book, you must be willing to suspend both disbelief and even the most rudimentary understanding of [thematic spoiler] evolutionary theory. You must also be willing to believe 1) that people with Ph.D.'s in the show more biological sciences have a very crude understanding of evolutionary theory themselves (and lack the basic reasoning skills and intellectual rigor that would have allowed them to get into, much less graduate from, any doctoral program) and 2) that evolutionary theory is easily, maybe even regularly, disproved, but university faculty continue to dedicate their lives to a widespread fraud just to get the grant money.

Putting aside the [more specific spoilers ahead] deeply flawed science, you also have a character who interprets her problems as God picking on her. I suppose if someone normally attributes her blessings to God, she’s going to take it a little more personally when things start going badly. Her experiences do allow her to overcome a personal challenge, however, which implies maybe the whole ordeal was part of God’s plan after all. Which might be nice and uplifting, except you’re left wondering if that many people really had to suffer violent deaths just so she could lose her stutter.

Let’s just say you'll find plenty to talk about in this book, whether you’re the target audience for Christian fiction or just a MST3000 fan. show less

I reckon that the most interesting thing about this book is the exploration of what makes a monster.
The plot is fairly standard science goes wrong fare, and the characterisation reasonable, even if the cast list gets a bit unwieldly at times.
I don't think that the creationist / evolutionist sub text is going to convince anyone with an opinion to change their mind, and the science isn't explained strongly enough to be useful to anybody who is undecided.
Good vacation read, as long as you're not going to get too het up about the creationist stuff, in which case, give your blood pressure a break :-)

started out REALLY scary, then just got all non-scary. A good tale about bigfoot, a christian couple and mad scientist trying to prove evolution. I wanted more scary though. Very enjoyable though. Much more researched and thought out than The Oath and it really showed.

Frank Peretti is one of my favourite Christian fiction authors and I had no idea it’s been so long since his last book. When I spied “Monster” on the shelf of one of our local bookstores, I dropped the two other books I was planning to buy and snatched this up immediately. This book marks Peretti’s return after a 6 year hiatus and it’s good to see that he did something with his time away from us.

Reed Shelton, together with his timid and reluctant wife Beck embarks on a survival weekend trekking in the forest. They plan was to meet their friends the following day so they could hike together. On the first night, they are startled by unearthly wails before something emerges from the forest and starts pursuing them. Reed believes show more they were bears, but after the creature carries his wife off, he doesn’t know what to believe.

With the help of his friends Cap and Sing, and a much divided team from the small town, Reed returns to the forest to find Beck, or what’s left of her. It became clear that this was no bear. Half of the rescuers believe she’s been snatched by a Sasquatch, but when Cap goes back to his former place of employment to get some samples analysed, he discovers it may be something worse - something man-made.

Peretti touches on the issue of evolution and creationism here, but not to a degree where it’ll answer any questions or satisfy anyone with a serious interest in the subject. It’s also light on the religious overtones compared to his past work, but it’s still very much a novel that fans will enjoy.

(2005) show less