Monthly Read n’ Review: Frank Peretti’s “Monster”

This is the very first of an all-new regular monthly post, the Monthly Read n’ Review. Today, I decided to ignore all the other wonderful options and talk about the book that got me hooked on the horror genre: Frank Peretti’s Monster.

Book Summary: More terrifying than any nightmare, something has scathed a very real path through the Idaho hills, paving it in blood and echoing screams. It lives, it hunts, and it’s just getting started. This time, the monster is real.

Review: The book Monster takes a typical horror concept, a monster in the woods, and moves it in a completely different direction. I read it first when I was about thirteen, and most certainly underage for the kind of horror that is involved in the book. I was so horrified that I didn’t play in the woods near our house for weeks during and after reading it. I reread it again about a year ago and found that it was just as horrifying as the first time, if not more-so. The monster involved is so believable that the reader is forced to wonder if it doesn’t exist already.

While the identity of the monster isn’t unexpected by the time it is revealed, Peretti does a great job of terrifying the reader anyway. Through expert manipulation of point of view and a map tracking the monster’s path of blood, the author takes his readers on a ride of terror that’ll leave you wondering… what is in the woods?

Extra Notes: There is a good deal of moral questions about playing God in this story, and the Theory of Evolution plays a major role. For those who are heavily pro-Evolution and are unwilling to see any debate on the issue, you probably don’t want to read this book. Really. That’s the basics behind every one- to two-star review of this book that I have seen: “he made me questions my beliefs and I didn’t like it”. He is a young-Earth Christian, after all; I don’t know what people were expecting. But for those who are a little more open-minded and enjoy a good thriller/horror, you should give this book a try.