A very unique story with a mysterious, gothic feel. Starts off a bit slow, but pulls you in as things start to unravel. It begins in the 70s with Violet and Eric, 2 siblings that live with their grandmother after their parents die in a car crash. Their grandmother is a brilliant psychiatrist that runs Hill House, a well renown mental health facility in Vermont. One day Gran brings home a young girl, Iris (who doesn’t speak) to live with them. The children welcome her and quickly consider her a sister. They share their secret Monster Club with her and teach her all about monsters. As the children start to discover where Iris came from they discover just how real monsters are. The plot also alternates between two timelines, the 70’s and current day 2019 where the main characters are now adults. Overall the story has some great twists and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the ending. Very unexpected! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this title.

Monsters. They are us, and we are them. Gahhh this book. I am still wrapping my head around some parts. But overall it was an awesome, fun read. Definitely recommend to fans of Frankenstein, and anything spooky adventurous. I am giving it three stars, for now. I am still processing everything I’ve read.

Violet and her brother Eric live with their Gran, who runs a sort of asylum but with comfy furniture. When Gran brings home Iris, a new sister, Violet vows to figure out who Iris is and where she came from. The children are obsessed with monster hunting, and they don't take it well when they find out that one of them is a monster. Decades later, Lizzy (name changed to protect the plot) is a professional monster hunter, still out looking for the lost sister she created.

So, mystery wise: not much of a surprise. Everything (except the first horrible thing that Vi finds in Gran's office, holy fork) is pretty telegraphed, but not in a bad way? In a comfortable, "ah, this is coming and I'm good with that" kind of way. The journey itself is enjoyable, and I constantly wanted to know more about the characters. There's true horror in this, too (circling back to Gran's office). I loved the details about Lizzy having a podcast and a journalist writing about their childhoods. The constant references to Frankenstein could have felt heavy-handed, but they wrap around the story like, well, sisters. It fits.

Spoilers: the monsters in this book are purely metaphorical, thank the gods of psychological horror.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. This is a story that features dual timelines. It begins in the Vermont in the 1970s. This story follows a psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildrerh and her beloved grandchildren, Violet and Eric. One day Helen brings home a child. Iris is a child that is very different from Violet and Eric, She is all over the place and wild, however V and E are simply excited to have someone new to play with. After awhile Iris begins to come around. The three hang out together, going to movies, riding bikes, hunting monsters, etc. Skip ahead to 2019. Lizzy Shelly does a podcast on monsters and is about to travel to Vermont where there has a been monster sighting. I don't want to reveal more as to write a spoiler. This is pretty fast-paced and I do recommend it if you are a fan of thriller and/or mysteries.

This is the fifth book I’ve read by Jennifer McMahon. The other 4 were excellent and I truly enjoyed them. This one was just OK; it is by far not my favorite. Even though it does have a bit of a creepy factor but with the timeline changes I had to really pay attention to know where I was.
This one is about monsters. Other than monsters it deals with deceit and misconceptions of what you have been raised to believe about yourself. Not a bad one, and it did keep my attention all the way thru. I was just expecting the top caliber of storytelling the other books had.
I personally thank the publisher for the privilege to be offered this ARC from Gallery Books and NetGalley for my unbiased review – This one comes in with 4 stars.

While I did enjoy the story, I felt a bit let down by the ending. It just all seemed very anticlimactic. This was my third Jennifer McMahon book, and I’ve liked each I’ve read for different reasons; however, once I’m finished and reflect on each as a whole, I always feel let down in a way as if something was missing (perhaps that wow factor). Overall it was a good read, but it certainly wasn’t great.

What a book! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy. From moment one I could not put it down. Jennifer McMahon has a way of writing like no other. She pulls the reader in from the first paragraph and keeps you guessing until the very end. Her writing is quite descriptive and helps you really feel like you know the characters. I love how this book in some ways applied to real life. I cannot wait to read the rest of this author’s books!

Are monsters real and, if so, do they deserve understanding and compassion? This book addresses what it means to be a monster, how our pasts can warp the deepest parts of the human psyche, and whether our paths can be reversed. As children, Vi and her brother take in Iris, one of their grandmother’s recovering psychiatric patients. Together, the three of them try to find healing while on their search to understand evil. In the other timeline, the main characters have grown into adults and they have formed new identities; however, they continue to grapple with their traumas in questionable ways. It’s an emotionally ride as the reader uncovers secrets and twists from the past and present. The ending was not at all what I was expecting but it was incredibly satisfying. Jennifer McMahon has successfully created another haunting and thought-provoking thriller with horror elements. If you loved Frankenstein, you will love this modern twist on the classic. Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley!!

Oh my goodness! Jennifer McMahon's books just get creepier and creepier! This was absolutely fantastic! Are monsters real? You'll need to read this book to find out. Leave a dang light on!

WOW!! It has been years since a book has been able to surprise me so well. In reality, I could have guessed it, but I was so absorbed and wrapped up in these characters, I felt deliciously blindsided!

The Children on the Hill explores relational trauma and what a person chooses to do with that trauma. I loved everything about this book, from the character development, the plot, the pace, the conclusion. It really has been a long time since I've read a mystery that I so thoroughly enjoyed every aspect.

Don't mind me, just on my way to tell absolutely everyone I know to read this book!

Jennifer McMahon, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
The reigning queen of New England ghost stories is back with a new one. This is the second book I've read recently that was inspired by/tied to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which I'll take as a sign that I need to read this classic ASAP. The story is a slow burn mystery that is told in a split timeline. One is at renowned treatment center in the Vermont countryside in 1978. The brilliant psychiatrist Dr. Helen Hildreth is famous for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. She balances her professional life with raising her grandchildren Violet and Eric. One day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family - Iris- who is silent, frightened, clearly damaged. She charges Violet with helping bring Iris out of her shell - treating her like a sister and showing her love to help her recover from her past trauma. Violet is curious about Iris's background - what happened to her, where did she come from? The other timeline features Lizzy Shelly, host of popular podcast Monsters Among Us, traveling back to Vermont in 2019. A young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. Lizzy is determined to hunt down the girl and the monster - she knows better than anyone that monsters are real.

I enjoyed reading this mystery and relished the slow burn - the heat is turned up one degree at a time as Lizzie investigates in the present and the mystery from the past of Iris's identify slowly unfolds. The ending was unexpected and surprising. I loved how the book played around with the ideas of right and wrong, good and evil, as well as delving a bit into the way that mental illness was treated and researched by the medical community in the past. The writing is excellent, chilling and intense. The story brought to my mind this famous quote from Stephen King, "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real, too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win."
Can't wait to see what comes next from Jennifer McMahon!

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

Eric and Violet live with their grandmother, famous psychiatrist, Dr.Helen Hildreth,in a home across the street from a large, progressive psychiatric facility. Is it a hospital providing therapy to patients or is it a research facility? Thirteen year old Violet aims to discover the answer to that. She becomes interested in finding out more about the institution after her grandmother brings home, Iris, a mute girl, supposedly from the facility across the street.

Violet takes Iris under her wing. She patiently helps her begin to speak, again.
She welcomes Iris into the Monster Club that Violet and brother, Eric have developed. Curiosity gets the best of Violet and she has questions that need answers.

The other part of the book deals with these children as adults. One sister is searching for the other. Is one sister a monster? What does that even mean, “Monster”? It has something to do with the disappearance of a number of girls over several years.

The story was interesting and the pace was good. My disappointment came with how it ended. It seemed abrupt and rushed. I guess I expected it to be more detailed and well developed. Perhaps it is the beginning of a series.

There's a handful of authors whose books I read without reading the synopsis. Jennifer McMahon is one of them. I jumped into this book with no clue what I was going to discover and I'm so glad I did. This book was unpredictable and full of twists, turns, and revelations that I never saw coming.

In the past, we see siblings Violet and Eric living with their grandmother, a psychiatrist revered for her work with the mentally ill at the nearby mental hospital. Violet and Eric lost their parents in a car crash when they were young but have thrived under their grandmother's care. One day Gran brings home a patient from the hospital, a child their age named Iris. Iris has a head full of scars and no memory of her past. Gran says she is to be kept a secret and won't answer questions about how she came to be at the hospital. Children aren't considered for treatment at this hospital. Violet and Eric embrace her as a sibling and invite her to join their "monster club." Violet and Eric keep a "book of monsters" and go on their own monster hunts. They promise Iris that they will figure out who she really is and where she came from.

In the present day, we learn that at some point a catastrophe befell the siblings. They have moved apart, changing identities. "Lizzy" now hosts a reality series that allows her to hunt monsters and urban legends while looking for missing girls. The person she is really seeking is her sister, a person she suspects has become a monster herself.

This book is a love letter to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It left such a strong impression on me and I don't think I would change a single word in it.

Interesting but not really my cup of tea. Well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. A psychiatrist who takes in children and mentally ill who has no where else to go. But is everything what it seems. And what is truly beneath the surface. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Who doesn’t believe in monsters growing up?! This book grabbed me from the first page. It reminded me of watching old scary movies growing up, looking for monsters under the bed or in the closet.
This book was a little twisted with a few surprises mixed in.
It was unputdownable, I loved it!
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

I’ve read more than one of Jennifer McMahon’s books and I must admit, I kinda found them to be 3-star bores. The kind of book I’d get from the library when I couldn’t find anything else. But this book proved me wrong in my judgment. McMahon can and has written a 5-star banger. The Children on the Hill was totally surprising - I did not expect this author to write something so unflashy. Her other books are mired in goth whining. This is straight ahead fun. Thanks for the ARC.

Excellent! There are truly no other words for how I felt about this book. I've always loved Jennifer's novels because they are not only well written but completely unique. I've been reading her for years and can't imagine that will ever stop! I highly recommend this one!

Overall very impressed with this title. The characters and plot were on point and really worked well to deliver a great story! Would recommend

What a creepy read! It was my first by the author but it sure won’t be my last. Wish I read it during Halloween time! Loved it.

The storyline of this book was great! It was interesting and kept me turning the pages. It was a slow burn suspense with some creepy parts in this book which were fantastic and well written. The ending was not as eventful and suspenseful as I was expecting it to be. As I was reading the ending, I kept thinking to myself, “That’s it?” The ending left me just a little disappointed as I was hoping for more. Overall, it was a good read though. 3.5 stars rounded to 4! McMahon fans will not be disappointed!

Thank you Net Galley and Galley books for the ARC in return for my honest review.