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Monster
It takes a survivor to know a madman.
When the police need to crawl inside the mind of a monster, they call Caroline.
As a child, Caroline was abducted along with her twin sister. For over a year, their captor forced them to play his sick games, using their hunger to test the lengths they’d go to survive.
Caroline escaped. Her sister didn’t.
Now a young woman gnawed by survivor’s guilt, Caroline’s horrific past has left her with a unique gift to understand the twisted motivations of serial killers. She couldn’t save her sister—but she can at least help the police keep other girls safe.
But there’s something different about her latest case.
Something familiar.
Teenage girls are being murdered, their organs removed. As the scope of horror widens, Caroline begins to experience blackouts of lost time and disturbing hallucinations that are leading her to one terrible, impossible conclusion.
Caroline is a keeper of secrets. She knows her captor can’t be responsible.
Yet a message is being sent…a buried echo resurfacing…a personal connection of a dark and dangerous appetite.
When the police need to crawl inside the mind of a monster, they call Caroline.
As a child, Caroline was abducted along with her twin sister. For over a year, their captor forced them to play his sick games, using their hunger to test the lengths they’d go to survive.
Caroline escaped. Her sister didn’t.
Now a young woman gnawed by survivor’s guilt, Caroline’s horrific past has left her with a unique gift to understand the twisted motivations of serial killers. She couldn’t save her sister—but she can at least help the police keep other girls safe.
But there’s something different about her latest case.
Something familiar.
Teenage girls are being murdered, their organs removed. As the scope of horror widens, Caroline begins to experience blackouts of lost time and disturbing hallucinations that are leading her to one terrible, impossible conclusion.
Caroline is a keeper of secrets. She knows her captor can’t be responsible.
Yet a message is being sent…a buried echo resurfacing…a personal connection of a dark and dangerous appetite.
364 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 12, 2019
About the author
S.E. Green
22 books447 followersS. E. Green is the award-winning and best-selling author of young adult and adult books. She grew up in Tennessee where she dreaded all things reading and writing. She didn’t even read her first book for enjoyment until she was twenty-five. After that, she was hooked! When she’s not writing, she's usually traveling or hanging out with a rogue armadillo that frequents her backyard.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 270 reviews
September 6, 2022
Carolina and her twin sister get kidnapped by a monster when they were children. Forced to starvation they were made to eat other children that were kidnapped or pieces of themselves. On the edge of death Carolina manages to escapes.
Taken in by her psychologist Victor, she has to learn to be human again. Carolina discovers she has a talent of a criminal profiler. She has the ability to see through a killers eyes.
Now there are a spree of murders that alarming echos of her own past. Girls are dying, dark secrets are coming to light, and Carolina has to come face to face with her own past.
I really loved this book. Great twists that kept you guessing. You really wanted Carolina to get a win after all the bullshit she went through!
Taken in by her psychologist Victor, she has to learn to be human again. Carolina discovers she has a talent of a criminal profiler. She has the ability to see through a killers eyes.
Now there are a spree of murders that alarming echos of her own past. Girls are dying, dark secrets are coming to light, and Carolina has to come face to face with her own past.
I really loved this book. Great twists that kept you guessing. You really wanted Carolina to get a win after all the bullshit she went through!
June 14, 2019
MONSTER: Thirteen years ago twin girls were abducted in woods and held captive. One escaped. A tremendously twisted noir thriller with deep psychological insights and issues, and a whole host of stunning revelations
December 14, 2019
Readers will know that one of the authors that I follow and ensure that I read all she releases is Shannon Greenland or when she writes the edgier novels as S.E Green. Monster starts off with two twins who are out playing by the train tracks when they are kidnapped and then held hostage for a year. During this time the girls are subjected to torture including cannibalism as organs are cut out and then feed to each other. Caroline managed to escape but Annabel wasn't strong enough and died. Now thirteen years later, there is a new case that involves cannibalism and is similar to the one she experienced and now all her old memories are flooding back including ones that she had repressed. What will happen though when she discovers that all she has experienced is not what it seems and that her kidnappers have been closer to her than she ever expected? Will this revelation break Caroline as they want once and for all or will it prove that she is still as strong as ever and nothing can keep her from finding the truth about what happened to her sister Annabel that fateful year they were held captive. Monster was an edgy and mind-twisted novel that had you thinking one thing and the next going, maybe I was wrong? It definitely is a novel that will keep you on your toes as you too as the reader will try and decipher what is fantasy and what is a reality.
Monster is the perfect read for all those YA fans who are interested in not only serial killers but the psychology behind it as well and the lengths people will go to cover their own tracks even to the point of making others think they are crazy.
April 29, 2019
I got a free copy of Monster in exchange for an honest review.
First of all, hot damn. I'm a huge fan of the Killer Instinct series, so I knew the quality of the work S.E Green writes. This book was fantastic. There was so much mystery around Caroline, the main character, and everything surrounding the new case she helps with. Caroline is such an interesting character, and I found myself desperately needing to know what was really happening, what had happened to her when she was taken with her sister. The ending didn't entirely blindside me, but when we find out who E is I was definitely shocked and unprepared. Absolutely well done, throwing in a twist like that, that I had no idea was coming. An absolutely fantastic read! If you're a fan of Dexter and Hannibal or similar stories, this book is definitely for you. Warning, though, there is explicit depictions of gore, cannibalism and torture etc. Don't read this if you're sensitive to those things.
First of all, hot damn. I'm a huge fan of the Killer Instinct series, so I knew the quality of the work S.E Green writes. This book was fantastic. There was so much mystery around Caroline, the main character, and everything surrounding the new case she helps with. Caroline is such an interesting character, and I found myself desperately needing to know what was really happening, what had happened to her when she was taken with her sister. The ending didn't entirely blindside me, but when we find out who E is I was definitely shocked and unprepared. Absolutely well done, throwing in a twist like that, that I had no idea was coming. An absolutely fantastic read! If you're a fan of Dexter and Hannibal or similar stories, this book is definitely for you. Warning, though, there is explicit depictions of gore, cannibalism and torture etc. Don't read this if you're sensitive to those things.
June 21, 2019
Eerie and twisted.
This was a murder mystery with a paranormal edge. When she was a child, Caroline and her twin were abducted and tortured. Years later, Caroline is called in to help with what appears to be a series of cannibalistic murders. Caroline is no ordinary survivor, her experience gave her a unique ability to connect to the murderer, so much so that she begins to suspect there’s darkness in herself. Darkness she never knew existed.
This was a great suspense novel that kept me guessing right up until the end. This books shows that the monster you don’t know is much easier to identify than the one that you do.
The narration perfectly matched the tone of the story.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This was a murder mystery with a paranormal edge. When she was a child, Caroline and her twin were abducted and tortured. Years later, Caroline is called in to help with what appears to be a series of cannibalistic murders. Caroline is no ordinary survivor, her experience gave her a unique ability to connect to the murderer, so much so that she begins to suspect there’s darkness in herself. Darkness she never knew existed.
This was a great suspense novel that kept me guessing right up until the end. This books shows that the monster you don’t know is much easier to identify than the one that you do.
The narration perfectly matched the tone of the story.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
June 2, 2019
This was just okay for me. Maybe because I didn't realize this was a series of books. It was just too busy for me. It was hard to tell when Caroline was hallucinating, was actually in the moment, dreaming....it was just too much confusion for me. Perhaps if I'd read the prior books it would have made more sense to me. It didn't interest me enough to want to read the others.
April 15, 2021
Oh my god I could not put this book down! S.E. Green's plot is unique with this enthralling psychological thriller, and Caroline's knack for getting into the head of a killer is fascinating. Definitely worth the read...if you don't mind staying up half the night!
September 16, 2023
This book is so so bad, I almost dnf’d so many times but I am no quitter. What a confusing and disgusting book. So glad I am done with that one. Kindle unlimited is where some of the worst books ever can be found.
January 30, 2024
A Grueling and Great Read!
This drew me in from the start. Great characters, tense and well-paced. I highly recommend this one for those who like their reads brutal and twisty!
This drew me in from the start. Great characters, tense and well-paced. I highly recommend this one for those who like their reads brutal and twisty!
June 3, 2020
Creepy thriller
Thirteen years ago eight year old twins Annabelle and Caroline were abducted from their southeastern Tennessee home. They were held captive and tortured for a year, then one was able to escape. Now Caroline assists her foster father in criminal profiling though she still bears the scars from her ordeal. Now young women are going missing and the MO is strikingly similar to that of Caroline’s abductor. Is there a connection?
So, great premise, and if you’re looking for a cozy mystery walk on by this one. It really had the makings of a possible five star book but for the fact that nearly any reader is going to ID the bad guy and a few twists right away, there are some painful grammatical errors (like messing up to/too/two), and it’s a bit hard to swallow that Caroline is supposed to be a student but she doesn’t ever actually go to school and no one is going to let a 21 year old work murder cases when she doesn’t even have a bachelor’s degree, much less when she . But, even with flaws, an enjoyable read, good quarantine page turner and I’ll be looking for more from this author. Currently available on Kindle Unlimited.
Thirteen years ago eight year old twins Annabelle and Caroline were abducted from their southeastern Tennessee home. They were held captive and tortured for a year, then one was able to escape. Now Caroline assists her foster father in criminal profiling though she still bears the scars from her ordeal. Now young women are going missing and the MO is strikingly similar to that of Caroline’s abductor. Is there a connection?
So, great premise, and if you’re looking for a cozy mystery walk on by this one. It really had the makings of a possible five star book but for the fact that nearly any reader is going to ID the bad guy and a few twists right away, there are some painful grammatical errors (like messing up to/too/two), and it’s a bit hard to swallow that Caroline is supposed to be a student but she doesn’t ever actually go to school and no one is going to let a 21 year old work murder cases when she doesn’t even have a bachelor’s degree, much less when she . But, even with flaws, an enjoyable read, good quarantine page turner and I’ll be looking for more from this author. Currently available on Kindle Unlimited.
September 18, 2019
I thought this would be a great book, until I realized I was halfway through and I knew who did it.
SPOILER: free knew why she kept a certain snack.
I was waiting for a flashback describing what happened.
This was like sex with a condom. Not going to accomplish anything, and would be more fun if it lived up to expectations.
SPOILER: free knew why she kept a certain snack.
I was waiting for a flashback describing what happened.
This was like sex with a condom. Not going to accomplish anything, and would be more fun if it lived up to expectations.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2019
Entertaining but just okay. Took some work to finish this book.
February 8, 2024
Deja vu.
I’ve read this before years ago, but it was by Thomas Harris and it was the Hannibal Lector series.
Yes this book was easy to read because I felt like I’d read it all before. Or seen it in the films/tv series.
Even down to an almost direct quote from the tv series of ‘what are we eating?’ Frog ‘should have hopped faster’ except in the tv series it was rabbit (episode 4).
The psychiatrist, who’s actually the big bad manipulator who’s orchestrated everything around him and is obsessed with the main character (Hannibal/Vincent) who was orphaned as a child. Who’s a really good chef and eats people!
The consultant who has a specific technique for crime scenes, that hallucinates and sleepwalks who’s taken under the psychiatrists wing (Will/Caroline)
The father daughter duo, and the daughter is actually in on it (which is basically Garret Jacob Hobbs and Abigail - who Hannibal takes under his wing much like Vincent and Becka)
Their house full of evidence as using parts of people in everything and needing to honour the whole animal?! Oh and they eat people.
The next crime scene being the bodies being found under mushrooms (which is episode 2 of the tv series)
The profiler being set up for all the crimes the vomiting of the clump of hair (vs the ear).
The bracelets having evidence in them vs Wills fishing lures!
I couldn’t remember half of the characters because all I could think of was Jack Crawford, Abel Gideon, Frederick Chilton but just under different names.
I’ve read this before years ago, but it was by Thomas Harris and it was the Hannibal Lector series.
Yes this book was easy to read because I felt like I’d read it all before. Or seen it in the films/tv series.
Even down to an almost direct quote from the tv series of ‘what are we eating?’ Frog ‘should have hopped faster’ except in the tv series it was rabbit (episode 4).
The psychiatrist, who’s actually the big bad manipulator who’s orchestrated everything around him and is obsessed with the main character (Hannibal/Vincent) who was orphaned as a child. Who’s a really good chef and eats people!
The consultant who has a specific technique for crime scenes, that hallucinates and sleepwalks who’s taken under the psychiatrists wing (Will/Caroline)
The father daughter duo, and the daughter is actually in on it (which is basically Garret Jacob Hobbs and Abigail - who Hannibal takes under his wing much like Vincent and Becka)
Their house full of evidence as using parts of people in everything and needing to honour the whole animal?! Oh and they eat people.
The next crime scene being the bodies being found under mushrooms (which is episode 2 of the tv series)
The profiler being set up for all the crimes the vomiting of the clump of hair (vs the ear).
The bracelets having evidence in them vs Wills fishing lures!
I couldn’t remember half of the characters because all I could think of was Jack Crawford, Abel Gideon, Frederick Chilton but just under different names.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 27, 2021
This book felt longer than it was. It dragged in places. The plot was interesting and there were lots of twists. I had my suspicions about the name DeMurr, but that didn’t seem to be where the author went. LOL It would have fit. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a love for creepy and also has a strong stomach for gruesome things.
September 27, 2022
Two young girls are kidnapped, one escapes. Now years later, Caroline is a profiler and still adjusting to her life.
This was quite the psychological thriller. The author made Caroline such a likable character and some others horrible villains. You hate to put it down because you feel compelled to see where all this is leading. I will look for more books by Green.
This was quite the psychological thriller. The author made Caroline such a likable character and some others horrible villains. You hate to put it down because you feel compelled to see where all this is leading. I will look for more books by Green.
August 23, 2023
My third book by this author ( I previously read The Family and Third son, both wonderful reads!!) but this one was THE one!! A girls tragic past comes back to haunt her in such twisty ways. I had to take brain breaks to work it out in my own head. I could NOT put this down. A fast paced and easy read.
September 26, 2019
Ohhh this was so good! Very gory, but really quite exciting. Things happened that I guessed, but there’s a biggy at the end that I totally did not see coming. Definitely a thriller that kept my attention throughout.
February 26, 2023
Very good story😊
This story will definitely have you squirming in your seat!!. It is a very sad story and just goes to show how people will pray on your low defenses. S.E. is a fantastic storyteller and is a PHENOMENAL writer, she draws you into her stories.
This story will definitely have you squirming in your seat!!. It is a very sad story and just goes to show how people will pray on your low defenses. S.E. is a fantastic storyteller and is a PHENOMENAL writer, she draws you into her stories.
August 3, 2020
Fantastic, twisty read. You think it is going to be one thing, then possibly another, then question something else...keeps you guessing for a long while and unravels extravagantly for the finale.
November 22, 2020
Well written, but
Not my kind of book. The basic premise was unsettling, and the plot and events were just not realistic. Too much of a stretch for me.
Not my kind of book. The basic premise was unsettling, and the plot and events were just not realistic. Too much of a stretch for me.
September 21, 2022
SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!! OMG!
November 16, 2020
It jumped around alot and took some time to figure out the scenes. It felt like I've been reading it for weeks, but it had a good story line and once I hit 60% I couldn't put it down.
May 24, 2020
New author for me and a fabulous thriller start to finish!
Absolutely riveting reading! A psychological thriller that keeps you guessing almost to the end. But what an ending! This story has great well developed characters and is so vividly written it's like watching a movie in your head while reading! Can't wait to read the next book
Absolutely riveting reading! A psychological thriller that keeps you guessing almost to the end. But what an ending! This story has great well developed characters and is so vividly written it's like watching a movie in your head while reading! Can't wait to read the next book
June 30, 2022
Thrilling read. If you are a fan of Criminal Minds, this is a book for you. Told in past (memory) and present tense with some hallucinations type parts this book has you wondering what is really going on. When you piece it together and it’s revealed it is done with skill that has you like OMG!
June 30, 2019
If you don't know the amazingness that is S.E. Green then you are being left out of some amazing stories!! This is one of her adult titles and I have to say that I was engrossed from page one. This was one of those stories that you really want to see on the big screen. It has elements of Criminal Minds with the amazingness of CSI all rolled into one killer story. I loved the characters and totally loved the twists and turns. Green always has a way to surprise me with her stories. And this one was no less supersizing. It was dark and creepy! SO SO CREEPY!!
If you are looking for a new story to make you want to leave the lights on when you sleep check this one out!
If you are looking for a new story to make you want to leave the lights on when you sleep check this one out!
December 18, 2023
This was my first book from this author, but it won’t be my last! I read a lot of books like this, and while I did figure out several things early, the last plot twist I definitely didn't see coming! Interesting story done well.
November 26, 2019
Not original at all! Very Hannibal Lectorish. Poorly written knock off
July 8, 2019
The subject matter in this novel gets pretty dark and disturbing, so I'm not sure that I can say I found it enjoyable, exactly. What it did was keep me on the edge of my seat pretty much from cover to cover.
While Caroline is not a wholly reliable narrator as she, herself, is not always certain of which elements in her perception are reality, she is a compelling figure. The author shows her strengths and her vulnerabilities well. Furthermore, her confusion of her mental state humanizes her. I found her to be a fascinating character and I really liked the ambiguity in the objective reality within the story. I did feel that Caroline could have come across as more open to the readers - in some ways, she came across as closed-off and secretive to me. That is certainly logical for her in the connotation of her relationships, but as this is a first-person perspective, the reader is really a passenger in her own thoughts, so the distance seemed a bit unnatural to me.
Other characters in the novel are well fleshed-out, which can be tricky to accomplish in a first-person narrative. Caroline's disconnection (both from her feelings and from the people in her life) and keen observational skills serve to give her a more neutral-seeming perspective. There was one character that didn't feel especially cohesive - Caroline was clearly fooled throughout their interactions. This didn't ring true to me, as Caroline is able to parse her memory to uncover hints to other characters' intentions.
The timeline jumps around a bit between flashbacks (to Caroline's traumas and recovery) and her present. I thought this was handled well, and by virtue of this device, we are able to have some surprising twists revealed late in the novel. Certain elements among the twists were foreseeable, but there were enough surprises for this element to be refreshing. I did wish for more detail as it related to the motivations and histories of the older generation of characters - how they became who they were, how they formed the bonds that linked them, and so on. However, the taut pacing may have been negatively impacted by this. (Moreover, there are other books linked to this one, so more reveals may be in store).
There were a number of mistakes in this book: primarily words that don't exist (richening - should be enriching, etc), but also the misuse of words (elude and its forms should have been allude). This was very disappointing.
Overall, it was a very engaging, if disturbing read, and I intend to continue following this author's work.
While Caroline is not a wholly reliable narrator as she, herself, is not always certain of which elements in her perception are reality, she is a compelling figure. The author shows her strengths and her vulnerabilities well. Furthermore, her confusion of her mental state humanizes her. I found her to be a fascinating character and I really liked the ambiguity in the objective reality within the story. I did feel that Caroline could have come across as more open to the readers - in some ways, she came across as closed-off and secretive to me. That is certainly logical for her in the connotation of her relationships, but as this is a first-person perspective, the reader is really a passenger in her own thoughts, so the distance seemed a bit unnatural to me.
Other characters in the novel are well fleshed-out, which can be tricky to accomplish in a first-person narrative. Caroline's disconnection (both from her feelings and from the people in her life) and keen observational skills serve to give her a more neutral-seeming perspective. There was one character that didn't feel especially cohesive - Caroline was clearly fooled throughout their interactions. This didn't ring true to me, as Caroline is able to parse her memory to uncover hints to other characters' intentions.
The timeline jumps around a bit between flashbacks (to Caroline's traumas and recovery) and her present. I thought this was handled well, and by virtue of this device, we are able to have some surprising twists revealed late in the novel. Certain elements among the twists were foreseeable, but there were enough surprises for this element to be refreshing. I did wish for more detail as it related to the motivations and histories of the older generation of characters - how they became who they were, how they formed the bonds that linked them, and so on. However, the taut pacing may have been negatively impacted by this. (Moreover, there are other books linked to this one, so more reveals may be in store).
There were a number of mistakes in this book: primarily words that don't exist (richening - should be enriching, etc), but also the misuse of words (elude and its forms should have been allude). This was very disappointing.
Overall, it was a very engaging, if disturbing read, and I intend to continue following this author's work.
December 27, 2019
Preface: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Monster is a unique book, between the subject matter - murder, cannibalism, and mental illness - and the style - first-person fraught with hallucinations and imagined events. It's well-written and compelling from the start, with lots of twists and turns to keep you going. The dialogue is well-crafted, especially the main psychologist's - his really shows off his educated and professionally aloof persona. The reveal at the end feels earned, and there are enough clues throughout for you to piece most things together on your own without feeling cheated.
The novel does have a few problems, though. The main character has an ability to empathize with serial killers, to the point where she can reconstruct their crimes. However, as the story goes along, this comes closer and closer to basically psychic visions that tell her exactly what happens - something another character even comments on. Even considering one of the factors that is revealed to be contributing to this, it still comes off as a bit too supernatural in what is a story otherwise grounded in reality.
Additionally, some clues are just a little too coincidental or leading. At a certain point, the story really wants you to draw one conclusion in particular, and the narrative really stacks the deck in its favor, only to reveal at the end that a lot of it was coincidence.
My last gripe is that there's a reveal of one character's fate/motivations at the end that feels really jarring/out of left field (not the big one, but one connected to it). Everything else we've seen of this character leads us to create a very different characterization in our minds, and at one point there's evidence of them meeting a tragic fate that feels fitting...only for all of that to go completely out the window with the reveal that they were secretly bad all along. Not only does it feel out of nowhere, but the character is immediately dealt with and there are no consequences to this reveal. It was just really unnecessary.
Other than that, this story was very dark, very fun little mystery/thriller. If cannibalism and hallucinations don't scare you off, you'll likely enjoy this book.
Monster is a unique book, between the subject matter - murder, cannibalism, and mental illness - and the style - first-person fraught with hallucinations and imagined events. It's well-written and compelling from the start, with lots of twists and turns to keep you going. The dialogue is well-crafted, especially the main psychologist's - his really shows off his educated and professionally aloof persona. The reveal at the end feels earned, and there are enough clues throughout for you to piece most things together on your own without feeling cheated.
The novel does have a few problems, though. The main character has an ability to empathize with serial killers, to the point where she can reconstruct their crimes. However, as the story goes along, this comes closer and closer to basically psychic visions that tell her exactly what happens - something another character even comments on. Even considering one of the factors that is revealed to be contributing to this, it still comes off as a bit too supernatural in what is a story otherwise grounded in reality.
Additionally, some clues are just a little too coincidental or leading. At a certain point, the story really wants you to draw one conclusion in particular, and the narrative really stacks the deck in its favor, only to reveal at the end that a lot of it was coincidence.
My last gripe is that there's a reveal of one character's fate/motivations at the end that feels really jarring/out of left field (not the big one, but one connected to it). Everything else we've seen of this character leads us to create a very different characterization in our minds, and at one point there's evidence of them meeting a tragic fate that feels fitting...only for all of that to go completely out the window with the reveal that they were secretly bad all along. Not only does it feel out of nowhere, but the character is immediately dealt with and there are no consequences to this reveal. It was just really unnecessary.
Other than that, this story was very dark, very fun little mystery/thriller. If cannibalism and hallucinations don't scare you off, you'll likely enjoy this book.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 270 reviews