GeekDad: ‘The Boy Who Made Monsters:’ A Book Review

Jenny Pearson’s The Boy Who Made Monsters is an examination of grief and trauma in children, wrapped in a touching imaginative caper that invokes the Loch Ness monster. 

What Is The Boy Who Made Monsters?

It’s a middle-grade fiction book set in Scotland, featuring two children whose parents are missing at sea, presumed dead. They have been adopted by their uncle, a man they barely know. 

The younger brother, Benji Mcloughlin, sees himself as a visionary. He can find the potential in everything. Upon arriving at his uncle’s holiday cottages by the side of “Lochy Loch,” he immediately sees a monster. 

When it transpires his new home is at risk due to his uncle’s debts, Benji decides that the best way to bring visitors to the loch and his uncle’s business is to prove that the monster exists. With his new friends, a local girl called Murdy and a dog called Mr Dog, Benji embarks on a journey that will help him come to terms with everything he has lost.

Why Read The Boy Who Made Monsters?

The Boy Who Made Monsters aims to walk a thin line. Wanting to deliver an entertaining and funny story, whilst also recounting a tale about grief and children coming to terms with the loss of their parents. Jenny Pearson pulls it off, pretty much without fault. 

On the one hand, Benji’s efforts, as he aims to build a monster, are hilarious. As you can imagine with a huge body of cold water, just sitting there, Benji falls in it quite a bit. Each iteration of his monster build takes him a step closer to a revelation about his feelings about the loss of his parents.

Benji is convinced from the outset that he isn’t suffering. His older brother, Stanley on the other hand, is not doing so well. Much of the novel rests on the relationship between Benji and Stanley. What builds up as Stanley inexorably gets drawn into Benji’s game is a touching portrait of brotherly love. We can see that Benji is not as fine as he thinks he is, and more, despite what Benji might be telling us, it is Stanley who is further down the path of coming to terms with their new situation. 

As the novel reaches its conclusion, Pearson gently tears away the plaster of Benji’s grief and, finally, he can begin to heal. As I said, all this is done whilst delivering a funny entertaining read that isn’t too heavy or upsetting for its intended middle-grade audience. The characterful illustrations from Katie Kier fit the novel’s escapades perfectly and soften the edges of what is a difficult subject to bring to the page.  

Inevitably, this is not as hilarious as many of the “school-children have hi-jinks” novels that are out there, but whereas they are often read today, forget tomorrow, The Boy Who Made Monsters has an emotional heft that means it will linger in the memory. Thanks to its deeper themes, it stands tall in a cluttered field. It’s a great book that deftly handles a difficult subject. 

If you would like to pick up a copy of The Boy Who Made Monsters here, in the UK. (Affiliate Link). The book (as far as I can tell) is currently unavailable in the US without ordering directly from the UK. 

If you enjoyed this review,check out my other book reviews, here. 

I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.

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