The Monster of Elendhaven, by Jennifer Giesbrecht

[rachelmanija]

Monster was the best, his favourite word. The first half was a kiss, the second a hiss.

In the gross and grimdark city of Elendhaven, where the sea is poisonous and even the drinking water is coal-black due to a magical apocalypse, a creepy nameless child gets abused, takes the name of Johann, and becomes a serial killer. Johann discovers that he has Wolverine-like healing powers and cannot be killed; he uses this power to continue randomly murdering people because he's a monster, an identity he cherishes.

Johann learns that a fragile and fancy accountant named Florian Leickenbloom is secretly a sorcerer, and demands that Florian employ him and find out what he is. Florian, mildly intrigued, takes Johann in and tells him he'll be a part of Florian's grand plan to get revenge on Elendhaven for killing his family.

The entire rest of the book is Johann flirting with Florian, Florian not really reciprocating, and the two of them murdering a lot of people. It's very lushly written, mostly descriptions of gross stuff because in this world everything is gross. Everything is also anticlimactic. There's a series of revelations that should be cool, but they all fall flat because by the time I realized they were supposed to be revelatory, they'd already been revealed in a more low-key way like thirty pages back. We learn more about what connects Johann and Florian, but that's also anticlimactic because it doesn't change anything about their relationship.

Spoilers!

Florian tells Johann fairly early on that Elendhaven as a whole killed his entire family, and he plans to get revenge by destroying it. Johann proceeds to spend the entire rest of the book pressing Florian about what he really wants and what his real plan is. But it turns out that Elendhaven as a whole killed his entire family, and he plans to get revenge by destroying it, so... huh? I don't understand why this was set up as a mystery when we already knew the answer.

The actual mystery (revealed at around the two-thirds mark) is that Florian used local magic to try to resurrect his sister, but got Johann instead. This is pretty cool, but, again, nothing really comes of it. It does explain why Johann and Florian are bound together, but nothing changes between them once Johann knows, so for me the reveal fell flat.

The climax occurs when a mage-finder kills Florian and is killed by Johann in turn. She was the only person of color in the entire book, and also the only significant living woman, so that was weird.

The dying Florian magically mind-wipes Johann, so he ends up with no memories but the will to carry out Florian's plans. So the end is back to the beginning; he's a murderer stalking the city with no idea of who he is. I don't know why Florian mind-wiped him, because Johann was a murderer at the start and a murderer in the middle and was never anything but a murderer, and would have undoubtedly carried on murdering after Florian's death whether he was mind-wiped or not.



Out of the many problems I had with this book, the one which really prevented me from enjoying it was that I didn't care about or enjoy reading about any of the characters. I love horror and noir, which are both genres in which the characters are often bad people, not intended to be likable, etc. So I absolutely don't have to like a character or have them be a good person to enjoy a story about them. Walter White, Annie Wilkes, and Norma Desmond are 100% terrible people, but they're magnetic and I can't get enough of them.

Johann and Florian are one-note and boring. Murder and sociopathy are not interesting by themselves. There are much better books about gay murderers. (Also, there's not even that much gayness! It's just one-sided flirting.)

Content notes: child sexual abuse, graphic gore, vomit, general grossness, edgelord vibes, weird race stuff.

In general, the book felt stylish but pointless. However, I read it because I'd seen multiple raves about it, so this may be a minority opinion.

Comments

[recessional]

This seems like a terrible missed opportunity. Alas.

[cyphomandra]

I didn’t like this one either for pretty much the same reasons - absolutely no interest in horrible people doing horrible things for horrible reasons (I think this is my sticking point here - Annie Wilkes is super compelling because you can understand exactly why she’s doing things!), even if the prose is good.

I think the author might be a Homestuck fan and that is a fandom I found totally impenetrable (although I do now like Tamsyn Muir’s original stuff, but it took a lot of initial grappling)

[rachelmanija]

Oh, interesting. I've bounced off Tamsyn Muir, which is too bad because they sound like the sort of thing I'd like.

The motivations of the characters in this book reminded me of the immortal X-Files line, "Son, you kill people because you're a homicidal maniac."

That is not an interesting reason to kill people.

ETA: Okay, Florian did have a reasonable motivation. I just found him boring.

[sholio]

absolutely no interest in horrible people doing horrible things for horrible reasons (I think this is my sticking point here - Annie Wilkes is super compelling because you can understand exactly why she’s doing things!)

Actually, I think this might be a really useful insight into what makes some horrible characters compelling and others really not. When I think about awful characters who do terrible things but are fascinating, they usually do their terrible things for reasons that are sympathetic, relatable, or at the very least really interesting. "I do horrible things because I'm horrible" is literally the most boring possible version.

[rachelmanija]

I was thinking about whether it's possible to write an interesting "I do horrible things because I'm horrible" character, and Randall Flagg is sort of that. He's interesting because he has a fascinating personality, a murky background, attracts loyalty, and because he has a lot of archetypal Trickster characteristics, and it's really hard to write a boring Trickster.

ETA: A very different character but along similar lines: the Joker.

I can't think of any other examples offhand. Noir characters typically don't do horrible things because they're horrible, they do horrible things because they want something so desperately that they'll do anything to get it. In horror, the closer a character comes to "I do horrible things because I'm horrible," the more likely they are to have the very sympathetic motivation of being an outcast unable to fit in to normal society but wishing they could and lashing out in bitterness.

[sholio]

People doing awful things for relatable reasons is the engine that noir runs on! And a lot of horror as well.

I am definitely going to have to think about this some more.

[rachelmanija]

Another thing which occurs to me is that noir and horror are also often both about a loss of control, which is also very relatable. The classic noir plot involves someone making one terrible choice for relatable reasons, and then everything snowballs out of control from there; they have to keep making worse and worse decisions, because their options are becoming more and more limited. You start with wanting a suitcase of money, and you end with wanting to stay alive. Very relatable.

The motivation is horror is typically "stay alive" or "stay human." Again, relatable and sympathetic, even if the character is doing worse and worse things to achieve that goal: it's because the goal is so difficult and their options are so narrow.

Both of those are also the opposite of "I have a wide range of choices and what I choose to do is randomly murder people."

[magistrate]

...out of curiosity, have you read the Amberlough books by Lara Elena Donnelly? I read them a while ago and didn't really love them, but I also didn't bounce off of them, and had a hard time pinning down why for either side of the scale. They are very "someone making one terrible choice for relatable reasons, and then everything snowballs out of control from there" on both an intensely personal and a geopolitical scale. I also remember them being pretty lush in both writing and worldbuilding.

I feel like I might have really enjoyed the same characters in the same world with a different plot. But that might simply have been because a lot of the plot was depressing in the way that real-world political realities can be really depressing.

[rachelmanija]

I have not. I heard they were depressing in a RL type way.

[jesuswasbatman]

Tom Ripley.

Avoid the TERRIBLE HORRIBLE Anthony Mingella movie with Matt Damon as Ripley, in which he does horrible things because he's fucked up by being a closeted gay man, and tragically realises that he's gay at the same time as he realises that he will have to murder his One True Soulmate (a character who barely exists in the novel) and thereby permanently fuck his life up to avoid getting caught. Not only does book!Ripley not fuck up his life, he's probably not gay, but actually a pretty convincingly asexual character before the concept was really made concrete. And would be cynically amused at the mere idea of a One True Soulmate.

[mecurtin]

Did Tamsyn Muir start out in HS? That explains so much! including why I can't really get into the X the Ninth series--I gave up on HS when all the characters I liked were dead. But kismesis does explain a LOT about her novels.

[cyphomandra]

I think she actually started in FFVII writing Yuffie, but yes, Homestuck BNF - she’s pretty open about her fic and pen name.

[teenybuffalo]

Would you mind elaborating on why it's likely to be influenced by Homestuck? That might help me make up my mind whether to try it.

[cyphomandra]

I have never actually read Homestuck (canon or fanon) so it’s more just a vibe! I find it takes more work to engage with the characters and often the world building seems off-putting and unnecessarily stylised.

[teenybuffalo]

I know what you mean! That makes sense even if I can't quite picture it. Thanks!

[swan_tower]

That was a great line at the start of this post! And then . . . noooooooooope, no part of this is going to be interesting to me. Well, thank you for reading it so I don't have to.

[davidgillon]

The dying Florian magically mind-wipes Johann, so he ends up with no memories but the will to carry out Florian's plans. So the end is back to the beginning; he's a murderer stalking the city with no idea of who he is.

Weird. I mean, if you didn't just mind-wipe Johann, but threw him back to the start of the book then you would have this sort of incredibly grim Groundhog Day, but just mindwiping him doesn't seem to accomplish anything except possibly undermine Johann's ability and motive to carry out Florian's wishes.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, I felt the same. The writing was incredibly skilled, but the characters and the plot fell short. I'd be interested in what else the author writes, though.

[ashelterofpages]

So, I'd never read much on this book before now and having prodded this, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been worth giving it more than the time I already have.

As I was reading, I honestly thought of several ways in which I would *like* this story to be done and when I finished reading the whole post, I'm just kind of sad.

(Things that came up in the version of the story that I was hastily writing in the back of my brain as I read this post: Elendhaven grew some kind of sentience during the Magical Apocalypse, Johann may or may not be some kind of conduit for Elendhaven itself or at least be able to utilize information it gives him, Florian is actually letting Johann "help" because he knows that there's Something with Johann and Elendhaven that he might be able to use in order to meet his own goals, the mage-finder at the end is actually the poisoned sea herself, who's been watching and following the other two and is Done and is now here to fix the mess Florian almost kicked off because Elendhaven/Johann were not containing the issue as well as was needed. Johann and Florian almost die at the same time, except Florian is the one who lives because Elendhaven leaves Johann's body and goes for the sorcerer body instead but part of Johann's characteristics and memories go along for the ride as well.

Clearly the end is the mage-hunter/poisoned sea woman and the Florian/Johann/Elendhaven Cocktail Of Doom drive off into the sunset to see what other chaos they can either stop, start, or watch while eating stale popcorn.)

[rachelmanija]

Elendhaven grew some kind of sentience during the Magical Apocalypse, Johann may or may not be some kind of conduit for Elendhaven itself or at least be able to utilize information it gives him

Weirdly enough, both of these possibilities are hinted at, but nothing ever comes of it. Some people believe that the world is so shitty because things happen in cycles and this is the last and worst one, and another apocalypse is coming and will set off a new cycle that begins at a high point. Nothing ever comes of that either.

I prefer your version.

[starlady]

Granted I read this a few years ago but I really enjoyed it; I didn't think the protagonists were one-note or boring per se, but I do think I was in it as much for the atmosphere as for anything else. The characters' relationship reminded me of Hannigram, a strong plus, and also I was quite into the backstory of the city being inspired by Halifax and the Halifax Explosion.

[rachelmanija]

into the backstory of the city being inspired by Halifax and the Halifax Explosion.

I didn't know that! That's really interesting.

[sovay]

the backstory of the city being inspired by Halifax and the Halifax Explosion.

That is cool.

(Our Christmas tree arrived from Nova Scotia earlier this year and was ceremonially lit up last Thursday. I didn't attend this year, but heard an older woman from Halifax telling someone who didn't know the story about the tradition.)

[snickfic]

Wait, do they not canonically have sex? I very distinctly remember a fade to black clearly leading to sex. Did I just make that up???

In general I agree about being underwhelmed and feeling like nothing really mattered very much. It had vibes for days, though, and I did enjoy that.

[rachelmanija]

LOLOLOL, maybe I blinked and missed it or accidentally skipped a page or something!

[snickfic]

Either that or I have erroneously been reccing this as canon m/m for two or three years now. 😥 I DID read fic for it pretty soon after I read the book, but... D:

[rachelmanija]

I totally could have missed it! It definitely has canon m/m flirting.

[brownbetty]

I had a similar sorry of reaction of, "if I squint at it sideways, it kind of resembles a book I might like, but when I read it, it is not."

I read the whole book and felt that there were people in the book I might care about, but none of the ones the book thought were interesting