4 out of 4 stars
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The Monster is a modern-day thriller/horror story written and self-published by Josh Soule in January 2019. Featuring a nameless narrator, the story follows a male college student through what can only be explained as a significant series of bad luck. As someone who mainly stays to himself, the narrator has only a few close relationships with others, of which quickly become severed after an incident at a Halloween party where the narrator is blamed for an attack that he witnessed by who he refers to as "The Puppet Man". Although easily blamed as the assailant due to his hot-headed nature and extreme jealously concerning his recently ended relationship, it's exciting to witness the story unfolding from the protagonist's viewpoint.
With strained relationships with his ex-girlfriend, Kelly, his friend, Tony, and his mother, the narrator sees no one to turn to in an attempt to get away from the accusation. With no one to back his story, the narrator decides to flee rather than face consequences, which start to come in a fast sequence following what seems to be a chance of wrong time, wrong place. With "The Puppet Man" committing crimes regularly now and only the narrator left as the obvious assailant, time is running out for him to make a getaway before finding himself dead or in jail.
As far as character development goes, I wasn't able to feel much of a connection to the protagonist of the story. He seemed too willing to accept his assumed guilt and chose to flee rather than trying to explain what he saw in regards to the attacks by "The Puppet Man". The secondary characters, specifically Kelly and Tony, were not elaborated on as well as I typically like to see, but I did feel that this added to the mystery and was beneficial to this story.
As I experienced The Monster in the form of an audiobook, I'm unable to comment on the editing of the story, however, the narration was very well done and seemed to captivate the significance of dramatic scenes well. Although the story is a shorter read (or listen) at only 92 Kindle edition pages, the intensity level delivered was impeccable. The author does well with including adequate disturbing scenes, which seemed fitting for a thriller of this nature.
As a reader who avidly enjoys psychological thrillers and horror stories, I was particularly satisfied with the delivery of The Monster and am pleased to give a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. With no shortage of crime and occultism, The Monster is a read I would gladly recommend to any reader who enjoys the climactic build of a psychological thriller. This twisted thriller took me no time at all to become hooked in, which is something I specifically look for in a story in this genre.
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The Monster
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