I Am the Monster Under the Bed by Emily Zinnikas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
I Am the Monster Under the Bed is an Adult Horror novel following an MC named Willa. When she was a child, she had an invisible entity living under her bed. She would talked to it and about it, saying a lot of creepy things that had her parents frazzled.
Through past perspective chapters, the Reader learns a bit about that time in Willa’s life, and how those experiences shaped the adult she would become.
Another formative experience for Willa occurred when she was a Senior in high school. She went into the woods with six other teens and was the only one to walk out. That’s right, the other six died in the woods that night.
This incident devastated their small town of Rapture, Maine, and Willa took the brunt of the blame, becoming a social pariah in an instant. She was always considered strange, but that night catapulted her to a new level of infamy.
The case went unsolved, with most locals thinking Willa was responsible for the deaths. They considered her a killer. Willa left town and started a career as an artist under a different name. She’s tried hard not to look back.
In the present perspective, Willa is now 32-years old. She’s been successful in her pursuits as an artist, though she lives a reclusive life. After an expose exposes her as the sole survivor of the Rapture Mystery Slayings, it seems Willa’s wall of privacy has been shattered.
In the midst of all this, she receives a call from an old classmate that her beloved art teacher has passed away. This is a woman who changed her life, and Willa feels compelled to return to Rapture to pay her respects.
With a great amount of trepidation, Willa returns to the small town she thought she’d never see again. The reception is mediocre, at best, and hostile at worst.
The narrative shifts back and forth between past and present, filling out the whole picture of Willa’s life and the truth of the goings on in Rapture. I did like this. It’s a good story, but I’ve been torn on how to rate it.
My experience with the novel could best be described as unbalanced. There were moments Zinnikas had me completely dialed in and then others when I was slightly rolling my eyes. I was also confused at times, which I attribute more to the way the story was put together than to the actual plot, or characters.
I feel the audiobook production could have done more to make the past/present perspectives more distinctive from each other. It was tough in the audio to really feel grounded within the story, but yeah, it was still good.
I’m so torn. My heart says round up to 4-stars, but my head is saying 3.5-stars is a more realistic rating based on my experience. The concluding bits also dipped a wee bit into eye-roll territory, which is never a good thing.
Overall, I did love the concept of this story, as well as the building of tension. I also really enjoyed Willa as a main character and thought that she had a compelling backstory.
What let me down was the execution of the past/present perspectives as a whole, and the concluding action scenes. I am pleased with the experience for the most part though, and will pick up any future works by Zinnikas.
Thank you to the publisher, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. This is a great read for the Spooky Season!