A review by booksare42
Monster Movie! by Chuck Wendig

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

This review was originally posted on my blog https://booksare42.com/

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book through Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Monster Movie! is a fun middle-grade horror story about a monster movie that comes to life and starts biting people’s heads off. It has some great characters that were easy to root for and some great messages about bravery and following your dreams.

The premise of Monster Movie! was a lot of fun. One of the most popular kids at school managed to get his hands on the scariest horror movie ever created. He invites everyone in the grade over to his house to watch it while all of the parents are at the school for parent night. The movie ends up putting everyone in a trance, coming to life, and starts biting people’s heads off. It’s kind of creepy, but it’s also kind of fun. That being said, this probably isn’t the best introduction to middle-grade horror and might be better for kids who are already fans of the genre.

The main character in Monster Movie! is Ethan Pitowski. Ethan has anxiety and is afraid of everything. He has a habit of spiraling and thinking of the worst case scenarios. He doesn’t want to watch the movie, but his two best friends, Olivia and Harvey, pressure him into going. He’s late and it ends up being up to him to save the town from the monster that’s terrorizing the town.

Ethan is a great main character who is easy to root for. He loves his friends and tries so hard to be brave. While some of his fears were a bit on the extreme side, I think some of his fears could be very relatable, especially the fear of losing his friends. I enjoyed reading about him working through his fears and being brave.

I also loved the friendship between Ethan, Olivia, and Harvey. I enjoyed their different personalities and how they balanced each other out. I also loved that they had a code phrase to use when it was time to be serious.

I liked the messages about following your dreams and standing up for what you believe in in Monster Movie! There were a few points where this came up, but I especially liked how it applied to Ethan and his artwork. I also liked how Ethan’s artwork helped show Ethan’s growth throughout the story.

I didn’t love the pacing of Monster Movie! I thought the first half of the book was a bit slow and that the second half flew by. This made it a bit more difficult to become invested in the story, but once I got into it, it was hard to put down.

Monster Movie! does touch upon some heavier topics. There’s mentions of divorce, a few instances of bullying, and depictions of a parent bullying their child. Monster Movie! also has some scary and violent moments. The head eating monster isn’t gory, but it is disturbing. There are other scenes that were fairly intense and on the frightening side. I don’t think there was anything unusual for a horror story, but as I mentioned above, this might not be the best introduction to the genre for kids.