Ever since their family moved into the new house, things have gotten strange for Skye. Deirdre has always been a little… odd. Small for her age, fanciful, and an introvert, Deirdre is content to create her own fantasy world with Skye rather than interact with other children her age. When they aren’t out in the woods playing in the fantasy kingdoms, Deirdre is creating dioramas of the kingdoms with Skye cast as the Queen of Swords. But, Skye is tired of the isolation, the strange looks from the other students. She loves her sister and protects her but she feels that now is the time to leave the kingdoms behind.

But, one day Dierdre disappears. Skye feels responsible and weird things are starting to happen. Mutilated animal bodies, and sun bleached animal skulls are starting to appear in their yard. Weirder still are the piles of sticks and dirt that appeared in Skye’s bed. When she finds her discarded wooden sword among the piles, she must once again don her crown as the Queen of Swords to rescue her sister from the ancient creatures of stick and bone that have taken her.

"Here there are monsters" is told in first person by Skye. She weaves the narrative between past and present to effectively create the larger, vivid tapestry of Dierdre’s fantasy kingdoms and the stark reality. Skye’s guilt over her last hours with Deirdre are relatable. It is the burden of the older sibling to care and protect the younger.

Skye is chafing under her sister’s childish fantasies and she wants to grow up. She wants to join the bigger world and starts to make new friends, who look at her little sister like she’s a freak. She understandably feels torn between worlds.

The atmosphere of the house is suffocating as Skye’s mother blames her for not watching Dierdre on the day she disappeared. Skye’s frustration grows as her parents and the police refuse to let her assist in the search. The winter woods around their house becomes oppressive and dangerous as night falls. When the creatures of stick and bone appear, things take a fantastical turn from realistic family drama to a quest to rescue Dierdre from monsters.

"Here there are monsters" poses the question: When reality fractures and magic pours through the cracks, what would you do to save the one you love? Fantastical and dark, descend into the twisted kingdoms that lay on the border of childhood and adulthood. All fantasy must come to an end. Only the dead can dwell in the other world forever.

All I kept hearing was how dark and creepy this story was, but I picked it up and put it down multiple times before I could finish it. I couldn't connect with it, despite trying multiple times. This was really the start of my "I don't really connect with most YA anymore" awakening.

Man, this book was dark and creepy, and I had such a great time reading it! I loved this story about these sisters who don't get along, and everything that unfolds once they get to their new house in such a spooky location!

I did previously start reading this book, and got a decent chunk in. I only put it down because I had it confused with another that I had to read urgently. Which is too bad, because I was having a really great time, and I don't know why it took me so long to then pick it up again!

Skye and Deirdre have a strained relationship. They're sisters, they love each other, but Deirdre wants to spend more time with Skye, but Skye doesn't want to spend time with her weirdo sister. Then Deirdre disappears, and Skye takes it upon herself to find her and bring her home,

I wanted to know if Deirdre was actually in this world or if she was making it up. The uncertainty of what was going on, yeah, that kept the intrigue levels up and the pages flowing! It was a really great story that I really enjoyed reading!

Loved reading this book, and I'll be interested in what Amelinda Bérubé writes next!

Before anything, I need to shout out this gorgeous cover! I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, but found myself a bit confused as the story continued. I thought this was fine because a lot of horror confuses me, but I never became not confused.

Skye's character development throughout this book was outstanding. I found myself rooting for her the whole time. I wish Deidre was more present for the whole story, but I get that was the whole point of the book.

Overall, I liked the story itself (when I wasn't ridiculously confused). I thought the story was very unique. I would absolutely read something else by this author.

A solid 4 stars. Here There Are Monsters was a creepy/dark read. The book centers around teen sisters Deirdre and Skye. After moving across the country for a fresh start, the family settles in a house located in a remote neighborhood. Things seem to go well at first-Skye makes new friends at her school and Deirdre enjoys being outside, enjoying nature. However, Deirdre, considered the “weird kid” for most of her life, withdrawals from her family and starts spending most of her time outside in the swampy woods. Deidre spends her time in the forest by building creatures/monsters out of sticks and bones and creating an elaborate fantasy world. Deidre goes missing one night and no one can find her-even after extensive searches conducted by local police. Skye wakes up one night to something scratching at her window and realizes that maybe Deidre’s fantasy world is real after all. Skye is now on a mission to find and save her sister from whatever may be lurking in the woods!
Here There Are Monsters was an interesting and enjoyable book. Highly recommend to fans of YA and horror/dark books. Thank you NetGalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

16 year old Skye has always been he protector of her younger sister, Diedre. When they move to a new town, Skye seems to be having no problem fitting in, but Diedre is having a difficult time. when Diedre goes missing one day, Skye will stop at nothing to bring her back from the monsters lurking within the forest.

This took me SO LONG to read. I started in in November 2021... and just finished it now on April 3rd 2022. I just COULD NOT get into this story. I was initially drawn to this book because of the cover, it's absolutely stunning. But the story within is so boring. I felt like I was constantly waiting for literally anything to happen, but it never did. I also just didn't enjoy any of the characters, they were all dull and one-dimensional. I didn't care what happened to them in the slightest.

Wow, talk about scary. Here There Are Monsters is just that, a scary novel you might not want to read at night.

The story is about two sisters - Skye and Deirdre. Skye is fed up with her sister who is obsessed with the swamp behind their home. But when Deirdre disappears Skye will do anything to find her sister. Brilliantly written the story is not what I expected.

Just noticed I didn't do a review for this. I read this book in less than 4 hours and I truly enjoyed it. I actually find myself thinking about it randomly to this day(2 almost 3 years after). I always find myself thinking hey what was that book I read where the sister got lost in the woods but ended up in a fantasy world she made up? Such a dang good story. I'll have to remember to recommend this one when I recommend House of Hollow. Has the same creepy vibe and portal world situation.

I keep on thinking of this as Here Be Monsters because one of my wips (currently on pause) is titled similar. But that’s definitely where the similarity ends

The cover is absolutely stunning. I’m now more for illustrated people on covers but this model did a really good job in holding up an animal skull in the creepiest way ever (which sounds weird because I don’t think there’s a non-creepy way of doing it 😂).

I love reading books that scare me and this was definitely one of them! I think I said it before – Bérubé writes amazingly – those types of stories that you could easily see yourself rereading and still getting scared every time you read them! Like I want that type of story that I can pick up, not want to read it (because it’s scary), but I can’t seem to put it down. And I definitely got that with this book.

I think this book is just steeped with amazing aesthetics and a rich story and characters you want to root for. Of course, I’d want to go nowhere near whatever was happening in the woods, but I love all of it.


I really felt for Deidre. Sure, Skye as well, but Deidre way more. Skye just completely judged her sister – like, yes, she might be weird but she’s still your sister! You have to be there for her and pay attention to her – especially since she could definitely tell Skye wasn’t interested in her anymore and didn’t want to spend time with her anymore. And that really hurt Deidre, which is probably why she started the odd experiments – she wanted to be noticed, she wanted her parents and sister to pay attention to her and they weren’t!

Also like, her parents kept saying they needed to get help for her but they just dragged their feet in doing so? And also never tried to pay attention to their own daughter to try to see if they could help in some way? Sure, you could use the move as an excuse but at the same time… when you have kids, they’re pretty important. Especially if you know they might be affected by the move or something that would affect them – help them, figure something out!

The plot and the story are both stellar. I would want more of the paranormal and the creatures in it and probably less of Skye but that’s because I didn’t like Skye as much. But the plot coupled with the creepy creatures were definitely the highlight of the book. I loved when they showed up, their descriptions and how Skye felt around them.

Read this if you like stories with sisters in them, if you were the type of kid who liked creepy things. Or if your favourite type of stories are the ones with the quests (mine are).

Thank you for allowing me to review this title. Here There Are Monsters follows a sister has she searches for her missing sister. The story has a really neat premise, but can come across has jumbled and not well thought out. The characters could use more fleshing out as well. they seemed to only scratch the surface. Over all an interesting thriller.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection on preorder and will recommend it to students.

This is another one of the books that I was really wanting to like. I fell in love with this cover the moment I saw it.
From the excerpt I was expecting something creepy and maybe a little different. But it wasn't at all what I was expecting.
I didn't really get scared, I didn't even get a little creeped out.
I felt myself more bored than anything.
When I say it wasn't what I was expecting it definitely wasn't what I was expecting.



Good lord that cover is STUNNING. I wanted to read this book from the moment I saw it.



I feel like the story itself could have been so much more. Like I said up above, I was expecting something creepy and scary and weird.
But it got TOO weird, and I felt like nothing really happened through the whole book. I ended up being bored the whole time and just wanting to hurry up and finish so I could move on.
If I'm being honest this book wasn't even very memorable. I read this quite a while ago, but I'm pretty I didn't even remember the book a few days after I read it.
The big surprises weren't at all surprising, there was no big twist or anything, it was all very predictable.



So slow. So. Slow. This type of book that says it's supposed to be like Blair Witch should be a constant go go go and should have me on the edge of my seat, and instead I was bored.




I felt like the author didn't really know anything about mental illnesses or anything of the sort because it all seemed incredibly fake and forced. I've never read anything else by this author, but if any of her others are like this I'm going have to have to take a hard pass.

The MC is incredibly self absorbed. Her sister is missing but it's almost like she doesn't even care. And I understand that it can be exhausting having a sister like Deirdre. But still, it's your sister, have some compassion.
Then all the sudden she cares, but it all seems fake.
There was zero character growth like you'd hope for in a book like this. You would hope that she'd grow up and start caring but nope.
There was some good parts with a lot of description but for the most part this was another one of those that I couldn't at all picture what was happening in the book.

Meh. It was okay.

The narrator was great, she added a great voice to the book.




“Monsters were way more interesting to Deirdre than animals, even talking ones.”
― Amelinda Bérubé, Here There Are Monsters

This is a dark and creepy read. too much for me. I think it was a good book for this genre, but considering I don't delve too much into this ... I can't say I enjoyed it. there were twists and it kept you on your toes. Not super predictable which is always a good thing. But again, a bit too creepy for me.

This book wasn’t for me, but that’s okay! It felt predictable and was boring, but it might appeal to others who like books on the scarier side! The characters weren’t enjoyable to read about, and they were hard to relate to, even if I go back to my 16-year-old self.

It hurts me to DNF this one because I was really excited about it, but I was so confused the whole time. Skye is a terrible character and I did not want to be in her head any longer.

So I was looking for a creepy, keep the lights on, make my skin crawl book. This is it... this book made me so uncomfortable and scared. Really well written and exactly what I was looking for.

This was described as Blair Witch meets Imaginary Girls (which I haven't read and have no opinion on), but I don't really see the connection with Blair Witch. The first 2 parts of the story skips around between memories and present day, jumping around with no rhyme or reason, but overall giving snippets of story to fill in the relationship dynamic between the two sisters. I will say that I was kinda confused if this was supposed to be a horror story or a mystery about a little girl who possibly has some sort of mental disorder. I did not even suspect anything possible horror/supernatural until at least half way through the story.

Is it weird that the third half of the story reminded me of the movie The Labyrinth? There were monsters that taunted and tormented, their voices whispered through the trees and even showed up in person, but they seemed more Jim Henson puppet-like (but with killer instincts and weapons) and at times almost friendly and helpful. But then there was the gore of dead bodies and death, as well as the threats and intentions which escalated this into something different. I am so confused how I feel about everything, part of me is super intrigued and the other portion is super confused as to what the story really was.

I can say with complete certainty that this book was not at all what I expected. While reading it I was filled with intrigue, weirdness, horror, wonder and confusion- and if that was what the author was striving for she was spot on. I also can say with certainty that I have no idea how I feel about the book, whether I liked it or not, but it would certainly be one to have a discussion about. I will say that the ending was terrible, nothing really resolved and I felt like I was left hanging, that I needed a solid conclusion after a journey like that. Read at your own peril and feel free to contact me to discuss!

Gorgeous cover. Total mess inside. Here There Are Monsters sounded like it would be right up my alley. A dangerous and unhealthy relationship between sisters, things that go bump in the night. That's all I knew about it beforehand, but what else do you need to hook me? It was so promising! Sadly, the pacing, unlikable characters, lackluster atmosphere e.t.c. meant that it was a letdown for me.

I'll be honest, I came for that amazing cover! But I stayed for the amazing story. I really loved how intense and crazy that plot was. I never knew what to expect next, but I was never bored. The narration was something that was a bit hard for me to get into and I sometimes felt like I wasn't understanding everything that was going on, but i overall really liked the characters. Not because of their personalities necessarily, but more because they felt interesting and I wanted to know what would happen next. The book has really great pacing and this is definitely not something I would read with the lights off.

Wow, what a story! The mystical magicism in this one was palpable, which is a testament to the author's talent with her craft. The story of two sisters, one who needs to save the other from a sinister fate, is compelling enough - but add in some magical witchiness & suspense, and I'm ALL ON BOARD! I've recommended this one to two other people since reading, and both also really loved it - and we all read totally different things, so that's saying something! Love, love, love!