Name: The Monstrous Child
ISBN: 9780571330263

Francesca Simon

Meet Hel, an ordinary teenager, and goddess of the Underworld. Why is life so unfair? Hel tries to make the best of it, creating gleaming halls in her dark kingdom and welcoming the dead who she is forced to host for eternity. Until eternity itself is threatened.

The Monstrous Child

'Before you reject me, before you hate me, remember: I never asked to be Hel's queen.' But being a normal teenager wasn't an option either. Now she's stuck ruling the underworld. For eternity. She doesn't want your pity. But she does demand that you listen. It's only fair you hear her side of the story . . . It didn't have to be like this.

Eleanor Luhar

I finished this on Tuesday but have had some technical problems, which is why I'm posting it now. (Sorry.)

Apparently this is book #3 in the Mortal Gods series - but I read it believing it to be a standalone novel and really enjoyed it like that. It's another short, new YA book, which a pretty large font to fill up more space. I never used to like short books, but I've found some I've really enjoyed recently, including this one.

One of Loki's (monstrous) children is Hel, a girl with a perfectly normal human body... except her legs are dead. Like, full-on decaying dead. Still, she's a goddess, even if she's never treated as one.

Hel has learned to just deal with what she's got in life and carry on. But when she's kidnapped and taken to Asgard - the home of the gods - she finds an unexpected light of hope. His name is Baldr, and he's the only one who's ever treated her like she's normal. The only problem is that he's married.

And then, just to make matters worse, Hel is literally thrown into the underworld, sentenced to be the queen of Nifelheim for all of eternity. It's cold, smelly, and soon enough, full of dead people. She's alone, plotting her revenge on the gods, with no chance of escape - but at least it's hers. She can build her own fortress without anyone guiding her; she can order the dead around however she pleases. And she can have a high seat ready, beside hers, for when Baldr inevitably comes for her.

What she wasn't planning was a third seat...

Anyway, Hel has created Hel for the dead, the End of Days is drawing nearer, and dear old Dad has dropped by for a favour. All very... fun. 

I thought this was a really different kind of book. The narrative voice is really sarcastic and youthful, pretty funny too, as well as still sounding like a Norse goddess. She also sounded somewhat modern, too - which I suppose would be the case if you were immortal. Sometimes I found her to find a little too sarcastic and bitter, a little too chatty and "different". I don't know, it just didn't sound all that natural sometimes.

The whole Norse theme was refreshing - not some paranormal YA romance that you see everywhere - and really well told. Hel was a really interesting character, too; modern enough to relate to yet still believably a Norse goddess.

As I said, I read this without realising there were other books before it in the series. I didn't realise that at all while reading - I didn't feel like I was missing anything and still enjoyed it plenty. I'm going to say 3.5 to 4 stars for The Monstrous Child. I'll have to look out for the other books.

Grace O'Callaghan

This book is about Norse mythology and Hel, the Goddess of the Underworld as she tries to get revenge on the Gods of Asgard who sent her to the Underworld.
That sounds really interesting doesn’t it? I thought so too, but I was wrong.

Hel is one of the most insufferable characters I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading about. She was just so juvenile and petty and self pitying. She had basically zero character development and despite her being centuries old continued to act like a thirteen year old girl for the whole story.
She also ‘fell in love’ with a married god who gave no inclination that her felt the same way. I think they spoke about twice with each other in this whole book.

The plot was also just soooo slow. There really wasn’t a plot really. It was one big monologue of Hel feeling sorry for herself. I’ll admit there was some plot at the start, but that was only to get Hel to the Underworld where she spent the rest of the book moping and whining for centuries on end. It actually felt like I was listening to her for centuries.

I did actually quite enjoy the writing. It was sarcastic and descriptive but not dense. But it was mostly a monologue.
The world was the only bit that was interesting to me. We saw a bit of it but Hel just sat in her hall feeling sorry for herself and holding grudges. I understand that this is quite a short book, but some of the monologues could’ve been cut out and we could’ve explored some more of the Underworld.

In conclusion this was very boring and Hel was nothing but a petulant child. There are plenty of novels on all sorts of mythology so it’s not like this was the only option, I really wouldn’t recommend it.

Elizabeth Garza

This book got five stars from me for pure weirdness. It was insanely readable which I think added to some of the weirdness. I'm use to feeling like I'm having a conversation with my books in a literal sense. And the ending had me like, "uh, okay then." 

It was very funny though. But the humor had a angry teenager edge to it. So, I think it's good for someone who is in a gloomy period or state for two reasons. 1) it's gloomy to, so a reader can find some solidarity there. 2) it'll help take a person out of their gloom... oddly enough.

The Monstrous Child

Reviews

Highlights