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Following the fate of a lone survivor, washed up on Scotland’s shores after a world-altering disaster, My Name is Monster is a novel told with a poet’s eye for detail, landscape and language. In part a response to Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein, Hale’s novel manages to incorporate and play with many of those novels’ themes – isolation, endurance, interdependence, responsibility - whilst remaining thoroughly its own, strange and wonderful, creature.
After the Sickness has killed off her parents, and the bombs have fallen on the last safe cities, Monster emerges from the Arctic vault which has kept her alive. When she washes up on the coast of Scotland, everyone she knows is dead, and she believes she is alone in an empty world.
Monster begins the long walk south, scavenging and learning the contours of this familiar land made new. Slowly, piece by piece, she begins to rebuild a life. Until, one day, she finds a girl: another survivor, feral, and ready to be taught all that Monster knows. But the lessons the girl learns are not always those Monster means to teach . . .
Inspired by Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein, My Name Is Monster is a novel about power, about the things that society leaves imprinted on us when the rules no longer apply, and about the strength and the danger of a mother's love.
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 9781786896353
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 456 g
Dimensions: 220 x 144 x 30 mm
Edition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
'A terrific piece of writing; tough and tender and insightful. Loved it.' - Joanne Harris
'A complex, accomplished debut. The prose dazzles while the themes of feminism, power and fertility sneak in for a gut-punch. It kept me gripped from the first page, and the characters continue to live and breathe in my imagination.' - Kirsty Logan, author of The Gracekeepers
'Katie Hale has written two fascinating, flawed and compelling characters and, with only two people and an empty world, has created a novel that is gripping, insightful and unique.' - Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered Days
'A riveting and disturbing novel, part twisted fairy tale and part dystopian nightmare, in which the primal human need to find meaning and love shines through the darkness of a ruined world.' - Mick Kitson, author of Sal
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“Haunting, sad, but hopeful”
This was an absolutely beautiful novel. Katie Hale is an incredible writer, and this had me engrossed from the beginning until the very last page.
This is about Monster, the last person surviving at the end of the...
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“A sweet story of survival”
Monster believes she is alone at the end of the world, but when scavenging a city she finds a small girl, her purpose in life shifts dramatically.
My Name is Monster is a refreshing take on the apocalyptic dystopian...
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“Even Monsters have Mothers”
A story of survival, and hope, despite a main character who seems to have no hope at all. Monster does not sugarcoat anything, and it is so refreshing. Despite being accustomed to, even happy with, a life of absolute... More
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