Mr. Monster (John Cleaver)

Dan Wells has done it again with Mr. Monster. It is a thrilling and chilling follow up to I Am Not a Serial Killer. It was shocking and full of surprises. It had many great plot twists and it kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole book. I highly recommend this book, as well as anything by Mr. Wells. He truly has a gift for the macabre and weird. John Cleaver is an interesting and original character in a world where those are hard to come by. Wells sells the voice of this teenage sociopath so well that you yourself start to wonder about your own sanity. SO GOOD! If you want something thrilling and full of action, look no further.

"..have no style."

I do still love this book and John Cleaver even though I felt the tone of this book is unlike the first one. It's still a great read with the dark humor and such a good add to the series as he establishes himself as the "demon killer" I believe he puts it. I bought this book last year so forgive me if I get some things wrong. Maybe I should reread it since I'm now waiting for the third book from the store.co.uk..

Anyway, it's a very engaging book, much like the first with the plot twists and the overall theme as we delve deeper into his mind as he still tries to balance his "monster" while not becoming a serial killer or "monster" himself. None of the events that happen in the book I saw coming and am very pleased with the overall turnout and ending of the book. I'm just hoping there is more and more demons for him to kill!

Overall I liked this book. A few parts get a little darker than I would like and I feel like the pacing could be better in both of the John Cleaver books I've read but it's enjoyable and a little twisted. Just like a novel about a sociopath hunting demons should be.

John Wayne Cleaver has a secret, kind of like Dexter: he's a sociopath with twisted, obsessive thoughts about how he can kill people. He's studied serial killers for most of his life and he's only sixteen. He even has dreams of performing an autopsy on the girl he likes. He's also the town hero. He recently saved his neighbor's life and stopped a serial killer from terrorizing Clayton County. Everyone knows what a brave boy he is. Only he knows the true story about the serial killer he stopped, who wasn't human.

John feels like he may just be getting a handle on things, with his specific rules that keep his obsessions and urges in check. He ignores one of his rules to ask out the girl of his dreams and she says yes. Everything is going just great until they find the body in the water. Then more are found and it looks like there might be another serial killer on the loose. John's mind starts working and calculating as he tries to work out how there could be another killer, and if it's like the last one. Meeting with the FBI agent in charge of the case, he goes over his experiences with the previous serial killer and then tries to help out with the new bodies. But something's not quite right about this guy from the FBI.

Wells continues with his interesting and unusual character, creating a new mystery to keep the reader hooked, and then taking the story to whole new levels with an unexpected twist. Mr. Monster is a good strong sequel to I am Not a Serial Killer, leaving fans wanting more from John Wayne Cleaver.

Originally written on October 29, 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

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Mr. Monster picks up shortly after the events of I am Not a Serial Killer. John Wayne Cleaver is still struggling with his sociopathic tendencies, brought to the fore in the last book when he squared off against a supernatural opponent, when a new killer comes to town. John has to call on his inner Mr. Monster to fight the new threat, but the real question is which is more dangerous, the new killer, or Mr. Monster?

I enjoyed the first one but I liked this one more. Dan Well's story was excellent, and makes you really care about the protagonist. Mr. Monster is darker than its predecessor, and there are a few scenes where you are find yourself cringing and saying "Oh, John, don't do THAT!" But then he goes and does it, and you're surprised to find that you care about the character's struggle even more.

I can't comment on the ending without giving any spoilers, but it ended on a note that set up the last book in the series perfectly, and it was simply awesome.

-Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International

Man, this book really messed with my head. there were times when i COULD NOT put it down, and other times when i dare not pick it up, lest John betray me anew. It grips your heart and your head, it makes you scream at the page in frustration and fist bump the air in victory! it was a slight turn from the first, but that was just to develop the characters and make you really question your faith in john. honestly, one of the most amazing books ive read in easily one of the most gripping series.

I didn't really love the second in the series. It felt a little anticlimactic to me. It might have just been me, but it just doesn't stand out. I've grown to really like Dan Wells so I may have to revisit this one.

I really wanted to like this book.

I love stories of brightly-shining sociopaths, I'm a sucker for a good monster book, and the notion of Dexter Morgan Demon Hunter had a certain goony charm that felt perfect for summer reading. I gave the book a fair shot, honest, but I had to put it down at the half-way point.

This isn't really a book about a sociopath. First, John Wayne Cleaver doesn't act or behave with any of the markers that would define sociopathy. Yeah, yeah, he likes to burn stuff and fantasizes about hurting people, but he doesn't display the disconnect or the poor impulse control that usually characterises antisocial personality disorder. He cleaves samurai-like to a code of conduct similar to the way Dexter does (yes, there are going to be a lot of comparisons to Dexter, but Cleaver seems to be ripped whole-cloth from the Dexter books) but there isn't a coldness or a following-enforced-routines that would characterise the way a genuine APD sufferer would react to the situations Cleaver is placed in. He is, for all accounts, fairly normal.

Despite all this, I was still on-board. I don't need a pulp book to be a treatise on how APD works. But the deeper I read, the more I I realized that the language which Wells described Cleaver's relationship with his urges was undeniably sexual. He's burdened by desires to stab and penetrate people, he's fixated on a specific girl, and he describes himself around page 103 as a good person burdened by evil urges. Even the way he conceptualizes his pathology is telling: Mr. Monster is an "other", pure id, wanting nothing more than gratification of its desires. I lost interest in the book when he decides to take Brooke, the object of his fixation, out on a date. It felt like manufactured conflict. If you don't want to ignite your desires, turn her down. Don't make things worse.

I couldn't help but feel that Cleaver reacted to his desire to hurt people in pretty much the same way that a person raised to demonize sexuality would understand their sexual drives. I want people but wanting people is bad and sex is hurtful and predatory and dangerous. Switch John Wayne Cleaver out for any uptight religious kid and replace murder with premarital sex and you've got the same story.

Also, the Lauren/Curt storyline is skin-crawlingly uncomfortable.

I looked up Wells' biography and he's a graduate of religious school BYU and a contemporary of Brandon Sanderson. Serial killer stories are fun, but stories of unnecessary repression are hard for me to connect to. It's not a BAD book and Wells can definitely write, but I feel that the story comes from an unhealthy point of view.

The last 100 pages of this book are tense and unnerving, then horrifying. Hell in the lair of a monster. They give Silence of the Lambs a run for its money. The hero is ambiguous--both likable and repulsive, which adds to the uncertainty, tension, and horror. The prose is direct and crisp. A very good, fast read, if you can take it. I look forward to the next installment.

"Mr. Monster" by Dan Wells is even more disturbing than "I Am Not a Serial Killer". Mr. Monster picks up where Serial Killer leaves off, with John Wayne Cleaver finding himself more at odds with his other self which he calls "Mr. Monster". His dark side is explored in chilling detail. Note: do not read this before bedtime it is not a comfortable read. John has set up rules to live by which everybody should aspire to. The suspense comes when he has to decide whether or not to vioate those rules.

This is a very dark novel, not so much because of the graphic violence, but because of the glimps into the mind of a sociopathic teen. This book is about the demons that live within and among us, even if it is fiction it is not comfortable to have that mirror held up.

The only problem I had with the novel was the climax, it felt rushed. The story was building nicely up to that point and then suddenly it was over.

This is not a stand alone book get "Serial Killer" before reading this book. Overall, I enjoyed this book, I finished this in less than a day, you really won't want to put it down once you pick it up, except to turn on the lights.

Very worthwhile entry into the slowly growing psycho-hero genre.Fast moving, but intelligent, violent but not oppressively gory, Wells is clearly not a one hit wonder and I'm looking forward to keeping up with his work in the future.

I know a really good way to stop yourself from being a homicidal sadist--therapy, medication or self-commitment. I think I am tiring of these benighted souls who anguish over their dark urges but indulge them anyway.

This is one of the worst "Horror" books I have ever read. I have read several other books by Mr. Wells and was excited to read his latest. I actually didn't even read it, rather scanned it as it was so poorly written. There is so many things wrong with this book that at times I put it down and chuckled and how ludicrous the plot was. How do books like this get published? As mentioned, I have enjoyed other books by Mr. Wells, but this? A major disappointment. I'm throwing it away - that's how bad I think it is!