The Horror of Our Love - Ludo

Sad Monsters:
Growling on the Outside, Crying on the Inside

Author: Frank Lesser
Illustrator: Willie Real
Pages: 171
Review Copy Acquired from: Plume

This book consists of forty brief vignettes about various monsters, some of whom are, as the title implies, sad. Not every monster cries himself to sleep at night, though; some quite enjoy their lives of monstrosity. Most of them have romantic problems. It's not easy to be a monster on the prowl in the dating sense, what with also prowling in the nomming sense

It may interest you to know that the author, Frank Lesser, writes for The Colbert Report. This sets some pretty high standards for the book to follow. Thankfully, Sad Monsters was just what I hoped it would be. Puns and irony abound, along with some cute postmodernism (ain't that reevaluation of that monster and his secret pain just precious?).

You get a really wide range of monsters in here. Lesser definitely isn't sticking only to the most popular (zombies, werewolves, vampires). Some of my favorite vignettes were Godzilla wondering what the point of all the stomping is (also, did you know that Godzilla likes M*A*S*H as much as I do?), formerly people-munching diets going vegan or carb-free, peaceful zombies being chased by humans, unsuccessful monsters like Count Macula (who just might work at my office) and Igor's résumé. Pretty much each of the little stories will make you bust out laughing, snort, groan or teehee.

Reading Sad Monsters takes somewhere around an hour. This is an estimate, since I read multiple books at one time; suffice it to say that it is quite short. I feel like this is an excellent book to pull out to amuse your friends with or to buy quirky friends for Christmas (don't know what to get them but know they love Colbert style humor?). Plus, how cute is that monster on the cover!?!

"I'm a killer, cold and wrathful
Silent sleeper, I've been inside your bedroom
I've murdered half the town
left you love notes on their headstones
I'll fill the graveyards until I have you.
Moonlight walking, I smell your softness
carnivorous and lusting to track you down among the pines.
I want you stuffed into my mouth
hold you down and tear you open, live inside you -
love, I'd never hurt you.
But I'll grind against your bones until our marrows mix
I will eat you slowly..."