Review: Pretty good
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 6, 2013
Monsters in your neighborhood is the 2nd book in Jesse Petersen's Monstrosity series. It follows the lives of several "monsters" from literary history as they find ways to function in daily life and avoid bringing unwanted attention to themselves. When I requested this book from Netgalley, I didn't realize it was the second in the series. That being said, at no point did I feel like I had to go back and read the first book in order to understand what was going on. There are enough clues throughout the book that make it so you won't be lost.Natalie is the daughter of Dr. Frankenstein. She runs a support group for other monsters which includes her boyfriend the werewolf, a vampire, a swamp lizard, a couple of mummies, and now a Cthulhu. They live in New York City and are all just trying to get by and live their lives. When an unknown monster shows up on the internet ripping apart an innocent human, things start to get dangerous. Between trying to find the monster, and trying to avoid the Van Helsings, these monsters are doing anything but staying safe and sound inside their homes. They are joined by Igor who has become a flamboyant, interior design loving character who offers a whole different kind of humor to the situation.Natalie is a very strong character. She is just trying to be a normal girl, scars and all. She wants a normal life with a normal boyfriend and wants to prove to herself more than anyone else, I think, that she is not a monster. She is a very take charge kind of character and I really liked that she was able to keep her cool throughout all of the craziness. There were actually 2 very strong female leads in this book, which is refreshing because you don't see that all of the time. Now that I think about it, Petersen's Married with Zombies has a very very strong female lead character as well.I liked this book. It was easy to read and to follow. It was a quick read for me and I picked it out because I really liked Petersen's other series, Living with the Dead. Petersen's writing is full of clever one liners and awful, but entertaining situations.I think pretty much anyone can enjoy this book. It is pretty much straight paranormal, not really much romance other than that this person is with that person  kind of thing. It's a cute book and I'm pretty sure I will go back and read the first in the series even though I think I know, at least to some degree, what happened at the end.