Book Review - The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 Synopsis: A genre-defying new novel, inspired by Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein, which brilliantly explores the eerie mysteries of childhood and the evils perpetrated by the monsters among us.

1978: at her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she's home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.

Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.

Still, Violet is thrilled to have a new playmate. She and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they catalogue all kinds of monsters and dream up ways to defeat them. Before long, Iris begins to come out of her shell. She and Vi and Eric do everything together: ride their bicycles, go to the drive-in, meet at their clubhouse in secret to hunt monsters. Because, as Vi explains, monsters are everywhere.

2019: Lizzy Shelley, the host of the popular podcast Monsters Among Us, is traveling to Vermont, where a young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. She’s determined to hunt it down, because Lizzy knows better than anyone that monsters are real—and one of them is her very own sister.

My Thoughts: Holy smokes I loved this book! I enjoyed it from the first sentence until the last and flew thru it like a mad woman!

I have read at least one other book from this author and she is famous for her dual time line stories and is one author who can really make them work in her favor. I'm not able to pinpoint which I enjoyed the best however in this particular story because at different times they both had a different type appeal that drew me in and made me want to stay up into the night to finish the story.

Frankenstein has always been one of my favorite childhood monsters and I love what Jennifer did with it here amongst the three children. As bits begin to become apparent as to what has happened to Iris the story begins to open up and build and build until the twists start appearing and flooring me and once it was all said and done I could have kicked myself for my mistake in the reading that was so darn clever! Kudos to Jennifer for another fine tale!

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