TITLE: Monster
SERIES: (Animal #2)
AUTHOR: Marni Mann
GENRE: Dark | Suspense
PUBLICATION: October 12th, 2017
*WARNING* Monster is an extremely dark novel. There are strong sexual themes, drug usage, physical and sexual abuse, and torture that could trigger and/or cause emotional suffering. You need to heed this warning because this author has gone that much darker in this book than Animal so be prepared. Some scenes are hard to read.
This review is going to be as vague as I can make it only because you need to go into this blind to enjoy it how it's mean't to be read.
MONSTER: Is BOOK#2 within the Animal Series and must be read in order.
Shank and his buddies (Beard, and Diego) were hired by people who wanted to murder their enemies in a successful underground prison, through torture, and then disposing of their bodies and ashes in the ocean. That was then but now Shank is on the wrong side of the bars and he's ready to tell you his story.
Shank had earned his name at the age of six when he'd taught himself how to make his own shanks. And that was te day when his given name Seth was no longer spoken, from this day forward he'd be known as Shank.
Shanks story which is revealed through a series of flashbacks surrounding his past and then jumps to present time to his incarceration in prison for twenty-five years.
As Monster progresses, all your questions in Animal are answered at a cunning pace, like pieces of a puzzle the author gives us pieces that we need to put together to make the bigger picture.
Nothing will prepare you for Shanks gruesome, sick twisted, tale, his need for blood, the taste of it, the feel of it, consumes him, he unleashes everything in minute detail. When the Kid writes to him asking him questions to learn more about his conception, if he’ll turn out like him etc Shank does not hold back, nothing in his replies back to the kid are sugar coated.
The Kid is after questions, he's wanting to know the background of his conception and always in the back of his mind is that one thought Am I just like my father 'I come from you, so does that mean I have another side, too?'
We're also introduced to a man who owns a thriving brothel called 'Serviced,' this man has a fascination with snakes to the point that his body is covered in them.
I grew up with them, had them as pets. My dad loved them. I guess you could say he felt comfortable around them. Over the years, I grew more attached to them. I learned all about their behaviour and studied them, so I started my own collection.
We're also introduced to a beaten up girl named Arin who this mystery man helps. Their story doesn't end here though, theirs is just getting started.
Just when I thought I’d figured out the story and all my pieces to the puzzle were where they should’ve been I was hit with another twist.
MY THOUGHTS: It's not until I reached the end that I was left floundering and wondering what the fuck had just happened, does it end in a cliffy, yes it sure does!! I went into this wanting all those questions cleared up from Animal but after finishing this book I'm left with even more questions especially about one particular character, who is she? what's her connection to these characters?
This was slow moving in the beginning so the author does a great job of slowly reeling you into a false sense of security because it's not until you reach about half way that she starts to pick the pace up and everything comes at you full throttle.
“Because I came from you, does that mean I’m capable of killing? That I’ll be addicted to blood? That I’ll get off on torturing people?”
The kid had questions.
I didn’t blame him.
He’d only heard one side, and it wasn’t mine.
“Why did you hate my mother?”
Now, that was a story worth telling.
But, to do that, I had to bring the kid back to the very beginning.
When the killing and the blood and the torture had all started.
When I was truly happy.
When I was first called a Monster.
Monster is a follow-up to Animal. Animal must be read first.
*WARNING*
Monster is an extremely dark novel. There are strong sexual themes, drug usage, physical and sexual abuse, and torture that could trigger and/or cause emotional suffering
