Monster in the Middle: a book review
Interesting start, DNF in the end
Another library lark, another interesting premise outlined on the dust cover, another interesting beginning, but then…The book purports to explain the backstory of Fly and Stela's love, starting with their respective parents. Exploring the antecedents of a love is an interesting premise, especially as both characters were POC, but this ultimately was a DNF for me. I had a lot of positive anticipation going in. The back stories, however, at least the ones I read, were rather repetitive and I had a hard time sympathizing with anyone. The book reminded me of James Baldwin’s “Go Tell it on the Mountain” in terms of describing the intergenerational histories and traumas as antecedent to the present moment. Where Baldwin’s book painted realistic backstories with relatable, sympathetic characters, Monster is short on back story and painted (for me) unrealistic characters who were hard to sympathize with. I realize mental illness is widely underdiagnosed, but how common is it to have two separate grandparents suffering from it? Whereas Baldwin’s characters struggled with systematic racism, poverty, and a myriad of choices which made the characters who they were, mental illness seemed to be the only “monster” from which precipitates Fly and Stela’s problems prior to their meeting. Indeed, if Fly’s father and Stela’s mother had just received proper mental health care, there would be nothing to distinguish them from anyone else based on the the story. While I found Fly’s experience of race interesting, his didn’t really seem to matter much in terms of how the characters developed. Sure Fly was one of the few Black kids at his high school, but he only turned within himself which he was already doing in hiding a porn habit. Race was subsumed by his raging hormones and, other than having an obsession for white girls, not really explored much. Indeed, his obsession had more to do with his father’s old white girlfriend and even then race is never really explored beyond physical characteristics and mechanics. Why was Fly’s father in love with his white girlfriend? What was he escaping from? Why did she agree to make a sex tape with him, from a very religious family whose parents were missionaries? How did she go from reading Proverbs to becoming one? When I started reading the section on Stela’s background, the similarities between her father and Fly’s were too much for me. They were basically the same guy! Handsome, charming, but with an essentially untreated mental illness. Is that all you’ve got? Yes Stela grew up in a co-ed orphanage, but she could have likewise been a white girl in the rural US who fell in love with her foster brother. Sadly, another “interesting premise, crumby execution” casualty.
Note: The review originally appeared in Goodreads.