Book Review: WHERE MONSTERS LIE

Authoress: Polly Ho-Yen

Readers' rating: 3.5/5

Critics' rating: 4.2/5

Effie Waters is a young girl around 11 years, who grew up in Mivtown. She has a younger sister, Tommie who is a toddler and a next door neighbour Finn (a boy) who was born on the same day as she was born. It was just that Finn was a couple of hours older to her, but they looked like twins even they were from two different parents.

There is a legend that a girl twin will awake the monster in the loch. A young girl had lost her brother in the loch, and she had felt the slithery and cold touch of the monster. And she had evoked a curse. It was supposed to be a legend to keep children away from the loch.

The book begins with the disappearance of the narrator’s (Effie) rabbit. She is grieved. And then her mother also disappears. Following which slugs begins to come to her house. She has difficulty in managing her dad, Tommie and the house. So elders from the little town help her.

Effie finds the slugs to be a sign about the legend coming true. There is an old woman, Rosemary Tanner who is an ardent supporter of the legend, and the main antagonist of the story. Effie and Finn makes a raft and tries to solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance and the sudden unusual appearance of the slugs which have a particular attachment to Effie’s house and her mother’s articles. They find the truth of her mother’s disappearance when they go to Rosemary Tanner’s house and read her notebook.

As a critic, I would give it a good rating, for the way the little girl gradually unravels the mystery and the way she notices the subtle little hints are marvellously written. The writer has done justice to the characters fitting them to the gloomy scenes. The emotional side after Tori’s (Effie’s Mother) dissapearance as reflected by the principal characters has been beautifully penned.

As a general reader I won’t appreciate much the writer’s effort. The book is very slow and has a gloomy outlook. Frequent use of slugs, and too much slugs incidents makes most of the later chapters rather boring and sluggish. And finally there is not much twist in the story, and no monsters at all (or rather a good helping water creature)!