The Album of Dr. Monroe

By. Daryl Gregory

P. 176

Format: eArc

Rating: ***

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I received an e-arc from @Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

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I didn’t exactly know what I was getting myself into with The Album of Dr. Monroe. I saw the title and thought it would be interesting to read a retelling of H.G. Wells The Island of Dr. Monroe. I had never read anything else by Daryl Gregory.

Then I started reading. The novel itself is more of a novella at only 176 pages. Yet, it is a fully developed, abate weird story. Think of it as a cross between Daisy Jones and the Six and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The book is about a boy band. Except this band is full of hybrid animal humans. After a night of partying after their last night on tour they wake up to find that their manager has been killed. An FBI agent, a single mom of a soon to be famous singer of her own, is brought in to solve the case. 

The plot is a bit ludicrous, it isn’t much of a mystery, but it is well written. I went and researched what else Daryl Gregory has written and will pick up more of his work in the future. This one was an interesting escape from the same old repetitive story, but that doesn’t make it any less weird. Also. . .the ending. . . I didn’t quite care for it. It seemed out of character for the FBI agent.