A creature who named himself Johann steals and kills on the streets of a dark, northern city called Elendhaven. Johann can't be killed and has decided there's only one proper name for what he is: "monster." He stalks fragile-looking, isolated Florian, evaluating him as a victim, until he realizes the young man is a sorcerer. When Johann proposes a partnership that will grow into something at once disturbing and tender, they begin a campaign of revenge that could bring the city down around them.
In The Monster of Elendhaven, debut author Jennifer Giesbrecht has created a beautifully nightmarish blend of horror, dark fantasy and cruel romance. While Johann and Florian carry out their plan for vengeance and evade traveling hunters of sorcerers, readers slowly learn the full history of what drives Florian in his deep bond with Johann. The result is reminiscent of what Frankenstein might have been if the eponymous doctor had more sympathy for his creature and much less for the rest of the world. Elendhaven would be the sort of place a reader might expect Frankenstein's creation to take refuge--a dark, bleak city at the end of the world. Giesbrecht vividly depicts the setting in strong, sometimes lurid prose, all within a story that can be read in one evening.
This brief work transports readers into a haunting, gothic dreamworld in a fairy tale of the darkest sort, which one would never share with children. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library