The Children on the Hill was a creepy, twisty, entertaining read. I liked how McMahon developed the characters and kept me guessing. The allusions to Frankenstein were subtle and enhanced the arc of the story without being overdone. I was intrigued from the beginning - this is a page turner!

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon is a beautifully written mystery horror. The story is told from multiple points of view. In 1978, we are introduced to a 13 year old girl named Violet and her younger brother Eric. The pair live with their grandmother, a well renowned psychiatrist Dr Helen Hildreth. She is raising the children after their parents were killed in a car accident. She homeschools the children and they are both very bright. Dr Hildreth is the director of the Hillside Inn in Vermont, which is a revolutionary treatment center for people with mental health problems. One day Dr Hildreth brings a young girl named Iris home and tells Violet and Eric to treat Iris like a sister in order to help her. The children happily comply and include Iris in their activities and allow her to join their Monster Club. The girls become very close and Violet vows that she will help her sister heal. .

In 2019, we are introduced to Lizzy Shelley, who survived the mystery of Hillside Inn. She is host of a successful podcast, Monsters Among Us. Lizzy is the perfect host because she knows monsters are real because one of them is her sister. Lizzy travels across North America searching for monsters, myths, and legends. She is also investigating a series of abductions of young girls who disappear shortly after encountering one of these mysteries. The latest investigation has her return to Vermont.

We also learn more about the Hillside Inn through excerpts from a book written bu a journalist in 1980 titled The Helping Hand of God- The True Story of the Hillside Inn.

I loved this story. I would not say that it was scary, but it definitely felt creepy. The mystery was not hard to solve, but even so, I enjoyed riding the roller coaster ride of this story even if the twists and turns weren’t a big surprise. I don’t want to spoil the book by giving further details, but I definitely recommend this book!

4.5 stars

This was such an intriguing story, and it really makes you question the true root of evil. Are monsters born with evil coursing their veins or are they created by the very people who claim to help them?

In 1978, Dr. Helen Hildreth was a psychiatrist who ran a renowned treatment center for the mentally ill. She also had two grandchildren (Violet and Eric) that she raised and homeschooled after their parents had died in a car crash. But one day, Gran brought home a quiet, skittish young girl named Iris who was too young to be treated at her facility.

While Violet was thrilled to have a “sister” and new playmate stay in their home, she was also determined to get to the bottom of who Iris really was and where she came from. However, the answers she uncovered were not quite what she was looking for, and they had lasting affects on the children well into adulthood.

Overall, I thought this was a fantastic mystery/thriller and found both the characters and story to be thoroughly engaging. The end of the story was what really caught me by surprise and I was so glad that I didn’t see it coming. Highly recommend this book!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4666985578

Title: The Children On The Hill
Author: Jennifer McMahon
Publication date: April 26, 2022

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Summary: This book is difficult for me to summarize because there were so many moving parts and pieces. Its one of those stories you just need to read!
I’ll leave it at saying: this is a book about monsters, the imagined ones and the real.

My thoughts: I really, really enjoyed this book for many reasons. First, I loved the different POV’s and how this author tied them all together to create such a spectacular story. Second, this book had so many moments where I was like “NO WAY!” Thrillers are the genre I read the most and having good twists is a must for me and there were a lot of things I did not see coming which I loved. Truly it was a roller coaster ride. I highly recommend this book, especially if you like a good thriller.

First, let me admit that I am a big Jennifer McMahon fan. I have a collection of her books on my bookshelf, and have reread quite a few.


This book lived up to my excitement for sure.

It's the past tale of Vi and her brother Eric, and their grandmother, and Iris, a young girl their grandmother brings home one day from her famous mental health treatment center. Vi and Eric are fixated on monsters, what they look like, where they are and how to defeat them. As Vi tries to draw Iris out of her shell, per her grandmother's instructions, she invites Iris to join her and Eric's Monster Club.

This is also the present tale of Lizzy Shelley, a monster hunter with a highly successful podcast. Lizzy travels around the United States, responding to local legends and sightings. But her real motivation is to find her sister, who she knows is a true monster.

The way the past and present combine and intersect is masterfully done, and McMahon does an amazing job of examining the concept of monster and what it truly means. This book shocked me time and time again, with expertly plotted twists. I highly recommend this read.

This is my second Jennifer McMahon, and my second DNF by this author as well. There is something about her writing that does not capture and hold my attention. I didn’t care about anything going on and wasn’t entertained enough to keep reading. Unfortunately I think I just don’t jive with this author and probably won’t be continuing on with her books.

This is a translation of my original review, which was made in Spanish on my Goodreads and which will be released on my website soon.

Score: 4.2 Stars

I heard about Jennifer McMahon for the first time at the end of 2021, in a recommendations video made by my friend La Vikinga Lectora. Later, her name appeared once again as Goodreads showed a couple of her books as recommendations based on my readings. In fact, I saw that her book "The Drowning Kind" was nominated for best horror book on the Goodreads Choice Awards 2021, confirming that this was an author that I had to read.

When researching about Jennifer's books, I was leaning towards choosing "The Winter People" as the book I should read first, since its description caught my attention almost instantly. However, one day I was on Netgalley and saw that the ARC for McMahon's new novel was available. I didn't hesitated, not even a second, to request. This was the sign I was waiting for to start with the author.

First of all I want to thank Gallery Books for approving my request to read and review The Children on the Hill and give me the opportunity to discover a new author.

The Children on the Hill is a story narrated in two timelines. The first one is in the 70s, where we will meet Dr. Helen Hildreth, who works in a psychiatric center in Vermont and lives with her grandchildren Violet and Eric in a house located on the grounds of this center. On the other hand, we will follow Lizzy Shelley in the year 2019, who is following in the footsteps of a monster that, apparently, is kidnapping girls in various towns in the United States.

At first glance it seems that the characters of both timelines have no connection with each other. However, Jennifer McMahon makes it clear to the reader that something happened in the 70s that changed the lives of Violet and Eric, forcing them to change their identity, and that Lizzie's path is closely related to those events that occurred in the past.

The Children on the Hill is an engaging story that kept me on the edge of my seat as I read each of its pages. Jennifer McMahon's narration is immersive, so the reader can easily feel part of the story and imagine the scenes as they are happening on the page.

The children's characters are wonderful. Eric is an animal lover and his room is a reflection of this. He is a boy who would give his life for another living being. On the other hand Violet is very intelligent and curious, she devours books as if they were was a piece of cake and is way ahead of her age. However, these siblings have something in common: they love monsters to the point that they created their own monster society and collect information to defeat them in case any of them cross their path.

In addition to being immersive, the narration has a dark tone that gives the novel the perfect setting. By telling us the story in two timelines, the author maintains the rhythm of the novel, avoiding moving too fast or sinning by a slow development. The revelations that Jennifer McMahon is releasing to us are vital so that the reader cannot detach himself from these pages and wants to know more about what happened in Vermont.

Another element, which I consider extremely important for this novel and that gave the final touch to this story, were the plot twists that the author has given us in the final stretch of this book. I was completely shocked by the revelations made by Jennifer McMahon, I couldn't believe what I was reading.

I want to read other books by this author. I will definitely start with The Winter People and am dying to read The Drowning Kind, books that have been nominated for Goodreads Choice Awards in the years of their respective publications.

This is one of my favorite books this year. Told in dual timelines the story follows two sisters who were raised by the head of a mental hospital. Sprinkled in with excerpts of a documentary written about the hospital, the author offers layers for us readers to peel back. In the past, the children call her Gran. She raised them to be thinkers and self sufficient yet also isolated them from their peers. The atmosphere of the book is eery and dark, with experiments and late night noises in the dark.
The present, monster hunter Lizzy Shelley travels the country seeking out local legends and ultimately believes she is closing in on her sister, the only real monster she truly believes in.
A true page turner that highlights group-insighted fear, unlawful experiments, abduction, and found family. The ending brought some surprising twists that were executed expertly. I highly recommend this one.

Thanks to @GalleryBooks and #NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Every once in a while you need a good creepy story about monsters - both real and imagined. With two smart/curious kids obsessed with monsters as protagonists and a possibly haunted mental institution as the setting, The Children on the Hill doesn't disappoint.

The story goes back and forth from the past (1970s) to the present with different narrators relaying different parts of the story. This really helps build the suspense/tension for the big "aha" moment which I completely didn't see coming.

Overall, a really enjoyable read about found family and resiliency.

1978: The Children on the Hill was a wonderful, creepy story. It starts with Violet and Eric, who are brother and sister, and their grandmother, Dr. Helen Hildreth, who is a well-known psychologist/surgeon who works with the mentally ill in a beautiful Vermont treatment center, The Hillside Inn. Violet and Eric’s parents died so Gran has taken them in. Violet and Eric love monster movies and created the Monster Club. They create a book and drew pictures of the monsters they make up.
One day, Gran brings home a scared girl from the treatment center, Iris. Gran is hoping Vi & Eric can help Iris feel like she is a part of the family. Iris doesn’t speak and doesn’t remember her past.
As time passes Iris really likes Vi, Eric and the life they live. She joins the Monster Club and feels like she now has a family and starts coming out of her shell. One day Vi decides to steal keys to look in Gran’s special room in the basement, B-West, to help Iris find out who she really is. What she discovers about ‘Patient S’ will change life forever.

This book as so many twists and turns. Page turner until the surprising end.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to give early review of ‘The Children on the Hill’ by Jennifer McMahon.

Wow, this is my favorite Jennifer McMahon and I'm a big Jennifer McMahon fan. I was a bit nervous this was going to be a retelling of Frankenstein, but it is definitely not that!! It's more of a lover letter to the genre that Mary Shelley so brilliantly paved the way for. I devoured this book. It scared me, it kept me guessing, and it was some really good story telling. I highly recommend The Children on the Hill!

This astonishingly fresh update on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had me up reading all night, so absorbed was I in the narrative and so intent on finding out what shocking plot twist was waiting for me next.

Violet Hildreth lives with her little brother Eric and their Gran on the grounds of an innovative – for 1978 anyway – treatment facility for patients with mental illness. Up in the picturesque Vermont countryside, Dr Helen Hildreth is famed in certain circles for her compassionate work at the property still known by its former name, the Hillside Inn. She balances her groundbreaking ministrations with raising and homeschooling her orphaned grandchildren.

Violet is thirteen years old the day Gran brings home a strange, skittish child to join their family. Iris has clearly undergone a trauma so unspeakable that it’s rendered her practically mute. Gran charges Violet and Eric with treating her like a sister, in hopes of helping to nurture her fragile psyche back to health. Violet is further tasked with reporting back on Iris to Gran, leading Violet to understand that Iris is likely one of Gran’s special patients.

The siblings quickly take Iris under their wing, and initiate her into their private Monster Club. The Hildreth children have always been fascinated with supernatural monsters such as vampires and werewolves, cataloging the different kinds they know about as well as ways to both identify and vanquish them. But when Eric spots what he believes is a real-life monster, their games quickly turn dangerous. As the secrets of Hillside Inn are brought to the surface, tragedy strikes, tearing the children apart from one another and changing their lives forever.

Forty years later, Lizzy Shelley is a semi-famous monster hunter, a reality TV show and podcast star who drives around the country chasing down stories of cryptids and related phenomena. Several years ago, however, she began to notice a disturbing pattern: teenage girls were going missing around the time of the full moon, after confiding in a loved one that they’d recently made contact with a local monster. Since then, she’s been painstakingly and quietly gathering information on the disappearances, even when no one else seems interested:

QUOTE
I didn’t go to the authorities. I was sure they’d look at what I had and say just what the local police always did: These girls were runaways.

And why would they listen to the crazy theories of a woman who hunted monsters for a living? Besides, once they found out who I really was and where I’d come from–well, that was a road I didn’t want to go down with law enforcement of any sort.

So I investigated on my own. Crisscrossed the country, searching, hunting.
END QUOTE

Lizzy, you see, is convinced that the disappearances have to do with her own past at Hillside Inn, and that the person ultimately behind them all is her own long-missing sister. After tragedy thrust the institution into the national spotlight, all three children changed their names and did their best to obscure their connection to the place. But while Lizzy and her brother chose to live relatively normal lives, their sister disappeared into the dark, and seems now to be intent on taking other young girls with her. Can Lizzy track down the monster that her sister has become, and stop her before anyone else gets hurt?

Told from the perspectives of Lizzy, young Violet and the present-day Monster that emerged from the wreckage of Hillside Inn, The Children On The Hill is a compelling update on the themes and events of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel. Lizzie and the Monster are both inextricably entangled as they chase each other through an eerie American landscape at once modern and mythical. As with its source material, the Monster’s voice is as compelling as our supposed hero’s, even as she’s describing an act of predation:

QUOTE
I have weeds woven into my hair. I am covered in a dress of bones, sticks, cattail stalks, old fishing line and bobbers. I am my own wind chime, rattling as I run. I smell like the lake, like rot and ruin and damp forgotten things.

I can easily overtake this girl. But I let her stay ahead. I let her hold on to the fantasy of returning to her old life. I watch her silhouette bounding through the trees, flying, floating.

And just like that, I’m a kid again, chasing my sister, pretending to be some movie monster (I’m the Wolf Man, I’m Dracula, I’m the Phantom of the motherfucking Opera) but I was never fast enough to catch her.

But I’m going to catch this girl now.
END QUOTE

The cat and mouse game between Lizzie and the Monster ends in a startling confrontation as the truth behind everything that’s happened is revealed. Jennifer McMahon has written a terrifically twisty tale that keeps going even after you think you’ve figured everything out. It’s a wonderful, page-turning adaptation of the classic allegory to modern science and mores, and one of the more clever of this on-going canon. Recommended.

Hillside Inn was a private psychiatric institution in the 1970’s in New England. Dr. Helen Hildreth has been at the Inn for thirty years and the director for fifteen of those years. Besides her directorship, she’s also raising her two grandchildren, Vi and Eric. Vi and Eric believe in monsters, all types of monsters. Not only have they written a book about monsters, they also spend many hours hunting them. When Helen brings home a new girl who doesn’t speak, Helen asks them to befriend her and show her the ropes. Soon Vi thinks of Iris as her sister. When it’s brought to their attention that strange things might be happening in the basement of the Inn, Vi and Iris do some sleuthing. Finding documentation about experiments done on patients, they are particularly interested in Patient S, who is Patient S and why is she so special. One devastating night they find out the answer and their whole world comes crashing down.

In 2019, Lizzie Shelly has a popular podcast, has written blogs and has been on the show Monsters Among Us. She is a monster Hunter. When she discovers a link between local monster legends and girls that have gone missing, she’s soon on the trail. She’s sure she knows just who the real monster is, but will she be able to stop her before the next girl disappears?

Written in alternating chapters of life at the Inn in 1978, and the search for the monster in 2019, interspersed with chapters of The Book of Monsters (written by Vi, Eric and Iris), and a reporters in depth story ... The Helping Hand of God, The True Story of Hillside Inn, once again McMahon takes us on a creep filled journey, one that will have you on edge throughout and you’ll never see the ending coming!

This book opens with two main characters- Eric & Violet, the grandchildren of a well known female psychiatrist. The institution that she ran was located on the same property as her house. I am a psychiatric NP & love true crime/suspense- I thought this book would be right up my alley.

I almost stopped reading this book at 20%, but it started to finally get somewhat interesting. I felt some pressure to finish it because it was an advance released copy & I wanted to be able to give a full review.

I figured out the twist pretty early on & frankly it just wasn’t believable. I found myself eye rolling with subsequent twists & turns.

The Children on the Hill is a chilling look at childhood abuse and the horrors that can be found within our recent past. McMahon has given us another terrifying tale with explosive twists and turns.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

Monsters! Every child knows monsters are real. Lurking in the shadows, under beds, within closets, along the edges of the woods. Monsters are everywhere and take every form. They can be born naturally, or monsters can be made. The Children on the Hill is a fascinating adaption to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Jennifer McMahon is a master when it comes to spine tingling, atmospheric reads. This book does not disappoint. The characters are astoundingly written, drawing you deeper into their minds and the story. The plot twists and turns as you dive deeper into the mystery. Leaving you dashing through the pages as fast as your eyes can devour the words. The book is told by multiple points of view, and two timelines, the 1978 and 2019.

Set nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont is the Hillside Inn. A new type of psychiatric facility that is run by renowned Doctor Helen Hildreth. She is an intelligent, take no nonsense woman. Who not only runs this facility, but she is also bringing up her two grandchildren Violet and Eric. Vi and Eric have the run of the grounds. Eric taking in every injured animal that he comes across, and Vi dreams about becoming a surgeon like her late father. In their spare time they have a monster club, with a secret getaway. All of this changes the day their gran brings home a girl who does not speak, wears a bright orange hat set upon her head, and is leery of everyone. Vi takes her under wing and gets her talking once again. Iris cannot remember her past, but Vi is determined to figure out how and why she ended up at the Inn.

I do not want to go into too much detail and ruin the book. Just know that it is fantastic, well written, unique, dark, terrifying, and you will have chills running down your spin. I highly recommend this book and I am giving it all the stars. Thank you to Jennifer McMahon, Gallery/Scout Press and NetGalley for sending me this dark, thrilling read.

5 stars! I really enjoyed this one!
The Children on the Hill might be my favorite Jennifer McMahon book to date!

The book goes between the past and present time.

In 1978, Vi and Eric are living in Vermont with their grandma, Dr. Helen Hildreth who oversees a treatment center for the mentally ill. Vi and Eric love their Gran and the life they have while living next to the treatment center.

While getting home schooling from their Gran, Vi and Eric feel like their life is pretty good. They have started a Monster Club and love anything that involves monsters from movies, books, to the superstation of it all.

One day, Gran brings home a silent and scared girl from the treatment center.
She wants Vi & Eric to help guide Iris into feeling normal and hopefully talk again.
Iris doesn’t know what to think or remember about her past life, but she really likes Vi, Eric and the life they live. She joins the Monster Club, feels like she's got a family and starts coming out of her shell.

Fast forward to present time, 2019.

Lizzy Shelley is traveling to Vermont to find a missing girl. A monster was sighted taking her away and everyone is worried about the other children in the area.
Lizzy is a host of a famous podcast about monsters and feels like she’s a bit of an expert. Not only does she investigate claims of monster sightings, she feels like her sister is a monster too.

The Children on the Hill has great plot twists, wonderful characters and an underlying plot that feels like Frankenstein could suddenly run out of the trees while screaming utter madness.

I really liked this one more then I thought I would. The plot and characters are fully developed and the ending was fantastic in my opinion.

Definitely pick this one up if you have a love of thrillers, supernatural themes and monsters that hide in the dark!

The creepiness and the eeriness alone will pull you in! The twists were a nice surprise. I would say this is a psychological thriller with a bit of mystery! I loved it.
Thank you NetGalley.

At first I wasn’t too crazy about the monster hunting aspect, but it definitely grew on me throughout the book. I thought the storyline was super interesting and kept me engaged throughout. I figured out one of the twists ahead of time & I was feeling proud of myself & then the author hit me with like three more twists I never saw coming!!

Overall, I really enjoyed this one & liked that I found myself thinking about it even after I stopped reading.

I absolutely loved this book! It's my 4th by McMahon and by far my favorite. Especially because it's a departure from her typical ghost story. I like how it rotated between the two time periods, as well as the monster book and another book. I eagerly kept flipping pages to find out what happened back in 1978. And just when I thought the ending was gonna be lame, it turned out to be awesome.
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I figured out the big twist at 73% (it's revealed at 84%) and couldn't believe it took me so long, but I'm slow. The one thing I didn't like is how she insinuated that Vi had romantic feelings toward Iris - that really didn't need to be added.