Lizzy Shelley is a podcaster. Her podcast, Monsters Among Us, takes her across the country to hunt the monsters who haunt our dreams. The bigfoot sightings, the muddy tracks from an unknown creature, the strange fur, the stories of those who have seen something they can’t unsee. Lizzy talks to those people and records their stories. She walks where they walked. She goes out into the forest at night with her recording equipment, trying to hear what they heard, trying to see what they saw.
Her podcast picked up even more fans when she appeared on a television show, one of several monster hunters, allowing more attention to come to the cause. That’s good because monsters are real. She saw one as a child. She looked it right in the eye and survived. But she doesn’t talk about her own story. She only tells the stories of others.
As kids, siblings Vi and Eric lived with their grandmother. Gran was the director of the small mental hospital that was across the street from their house in Vermont. She believed in holistic healing, so it was a gentle place for broken souls. Vi and Eric were home schooled and didn’t know the local kids very well. They kept to themselves, in that house on the hill. They read books and wrote reports for Gran. Eric collected damaged animals, healing them and releasing them or caging and caring for those too weak to go back into the wild.
Vi and Eric had a secret. They had a club, the Monster Club. They collected stories about monsters, about the different types and how to protect yourself against them. Vi did the writing and Eric drew photos. Were wolves, vampires, chimera, even the invisible man were all included. Vi was a big fan of horror movies and writers like Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe.
And then one day, Gran brought home a new child. Her name was Iris, and she was small but close in age to Vi. Vi had always wanted a sister and took Iris under her wing. She taught her the rules and helped her get settled. She introduced Iris to the Monster Club. And Vi promised her that she would help Iris find out where she came from. She knew that Gran was keeping secrets from them, and she was determined to find out what they were.
That decision ended up destroying Gran, the hospital, and their family.
Now grown, Lizzy (she changed her name after what happened) is chasing monsters across the country. Everywhere except for Vermont, anyway. But then she finds out about a recent monster sighting. Rattling Jane, they call her. She comes up from the lake, covered in fish bones, and offers a wish to one lucky person. This time, it was to a teenage girl who went missing shortly afterward. Lizzy finds herself retuning to Vermont for the first time since she left. But she’s looking for a monster, and Lizzy is certain that the monster is in Vermont.
That monster is her sister. And Lizzy won’t let her get away this time.
Master storyteller Jennifer McMahon is back with The Children on the Hill. It’s yet another chilling thrill ride that will haunt your dreams. There are layers of secrets and twists that will turn everything you thought you knew on its head. Just when you think you’ve got it figure out, that you know what’s going to happen next, she pulls the rug out from under you and the whole story turns all over again.
I absolutely loved this book. I love the relationship that these kids develop with each other, and the podcasting storyline is just so much fun. And then there is that ending, which changed everything—almost everything—in the blink of an eye. The writing is fresh and beautiful, the story is complex and fascinating, and the characters are surprising and deep. What more could you ask for in a thriller with supernatural overtones, to help teach us about the real monsters that this world holds?
Egalleys for The Children on the Hill were provided by Gallery Books (Scout Press) through NetGalley, with many thanks.
