As boring as its title Z__Z... This book insisted upon itself. The word "monster" was dropped so frequently that it has now lost all meaning. The direct references to Frankenstein were not subtle, even campy: The lightning; the unintentional brute strength; the abducted girl who was the monster's friend all along...

I could not get lost in this book. The Nazi grandma with the private asylum and the basement chem lab. The 50 year old monster hunter. The teenage boy who keeps handicapped wild animals. The teenage girl whose homeschooling included dissection, surgery, anesthesiology... I could not suspend my disbelief for one second, all of this sounded too ridiculous, too fake. Nothing that was supposed to be scary or unsettling stuck, because nothing was /real/. This whole book was, maybe, an homage to cheesy, B horror movies. Maybe. But it had no ambience, nothing chilling or poignant or funny in its /craft/. It just plodded from plot point to plot point, teasing you with an upcoming big reveal....that was not big at all, I totally called it from the beginning.

And while, yes, eugenics in Vermont was a thing - a chilling, horrible, real life, THING - the book completely missed the opportunity to SAY anything about it! This book didn't focus on the racism at all, how "undesirables" who were sterilized were largely indigenous peoples, immigrants, or people with lower income! Something tremendous could have been said in this book about cultural erasure, or systemically reinforced wealth/class disparity, or about vilifying The Other in American history! BUUUUUT big old NOPE, this book stayed in campy B movie territory, instead of aiming for Oscar glory.

Laaaaaame!!!! So much disappointment!