The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Monstrumology: the study of life forms generally malevolent to humans; the hunting of such creatures.

Apprentice monstrumologist Will Henry cannot escape his creeping dread each time there’s a midnight knock on the door of the home of Dr. Pellinore Warthrop.  Although no one in the town of New Jerusalem speaks of it, they all know the special area of study which consumes the doctor’s life, a study none of them would voluntarily undertake.  Unless, like Erasmus Gray, they happened upon an abomination like the one he found one night while engaged in the ghoulish task of graverobbing. 

There, curled around the dead body of a girl was a monster out of myth, which had died while sating it’s hunger for human flesh: an Anthropophagi.  It’s hideous, headless form housed two black eyes and a gaping mouth filled with teeth meant to rip open humans.  The doctor knows that where there is one Anthropophagi, there are many, so he enlists his assistant, orphan Will Henry, to aid him in ridding New Jerusalem of the menace brought to their doorstep.

Lovers of horror, the gruesome and the grotesque, this is the book for you.  Each Anthropophagi attack is described with grim realism down to the shattered skulls and dripping gore.  Will Henry’s observations made me cringe and want to turn away even as I couldn’t put this book down.  As the two become closer to finding out the origins of the Anthropophagi in New Jerusalem, the suspense grows as you find out just what brought the monsters to America’s shores.

But beyond the dread and death, it’s worth reading this book just for the fascinating  Warthrop and Will Henry.  Warthrop’s intensity and complete dedication to his work have an all too human cause, and Will Henry’s determination, doubts and turmoil helped make him a realistic young man thrust into a strange new world upon his parents’ death.  

I highly recommend this book.  Seriously, what are you waiting for???  The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey is now available at the library.

Katie