Monster Story - McCarty Griffin

Title: Monster Story
Author: McCarty Griffin
Genre: Horror
Published: 2010
Formats: Ebook

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"Monster Story" by McCarty Griffin is a rather enjoyable horror suspense novel. This type of story is something I rarely pick up these days even though in my youth this genre was almost all I read. This novel like many I read in my youth was light and easy read which I felt really captured the feel of many made for TV early evening horror movies.

The story follows a young woman named Christy who has travelled back to her hillbilly hometown in West Virginia due to the death of her Grandmother. Unfortunately she has returned at the same time as vicious deaths start occurring in the woods and the police force can't be sure if it is some wild animal or even a savage serial killer. Christy and her friends soon find themselves caught up in the danger and must find a way to face this terror that is now stalking them.

I found that the story moved at a reasonable pace although in the earlier stages I felt that it did sometimes meander a little bit between different scenes without any obvious connections. The story was full of light hearted drama, suspense and at times a little bit of humour that helped really lighten the entire story beyond being a dark and savage horror tale. I particularly loved the back woods hillbilly style that the author has captured and used to bring out some of the humour in the story.

However, this book is still a horror story at its core and therefore there is violence and horror involved. However, whilst there are some graphic descriptions that some people may dislike, I felt that the author handled it all very well. There is no gore porn here and every detail utilised seems to have its place and reasoning for being there.

What I particularly liked though were the main characters, Christy and her group of friends are a superb eclectic mix of people who's wonderful and varied interactions as the suspense and danger drives them together were one of the main reasons I struggled at times to put the book down. The only issue I had was that there were also so many characters within the novel beyond the main core group. It could get a little bit confusing trying to remember who everyone was and some of them were used so little that they came across a little flat and at times seemed a little bit surplus to requirements.

Overall, I found this to be a fun and light read with some rather engrossing moments of horror, drama and suspense. I think that if you are the type of person that enjoys made for TV horror films full of thrilling build ups, interesting eclectic groups of characters and a little bit of humour then I suspect you will love this novel.