The Monster Who Wasn't
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A brilliantly rich and strange fantasy adventure that will make us all believe in monsters – be they good, bad or somewhere in between.
It is a well-known fact that fairies are born from a baby's first laugh. What is not as well documented is how monsters come into being …
This is the story of a creature who is both strange and unique. When he hatches down in the vast underground lair where monsters dwell, he looks just like a human boy – much to the disgust of everyone watching. Even the grumpy gargoyles who adopt him and nickname him 'Imp' only want him to steal chocolate for them from the nearby shops. He's a child with feet in both worlds, and he doesn't know where he fits.
But little does Imp realise that Thunderguts, king of the ogres, has a great and dangerous destiny in mind for him, and he'll stop at nothing to see it come to pass …
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Shelley's highly imaginative, immersive debut, Monsterkind is born from a human's last sigh. When dying patriarch Samuel Kavanagh meets his newborn granddaughter, Beatrice, he sighs and she laughs, spawning a half-monster, half-fairy imp who looks discomfitingly like a human preteen. Deep in The Hole, where ogre king Thunderguts reigns over trolls, brownies, banshees, and the like with a stone fist, he and his loyal crone have monumental plans for the newly hatched imp boy. But before they can snag him, gargoyles Wheedle, Bladder, and Spigot take the child "upstairs" to the world's surface where other monsters cannot stand direct sunlight. Cared for by the gargoyle pack and an angel, the unnamed boy has an eventful first few days. When he coincidentally meets the Kavanagh family in a chocolate shop, a shocking resemblance convinces them he has the soul of dead relatives. Naming the boy Samuel and inviting him into their home, the Kavanaghs believe they're due for a happily ever after but in Shelley's cluttered fantastical world, danger threatens Sam and his newfound family. Allusions to Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" and considerations about what makes a monster round out this engaging if packed series starter. Ages 8 12.
