This was a fun little book for what it is, but I often found myself comparing it to other books that presented similar themes. I might recommend this book to a child who likes the snarky narrator of the Series of Unfortunate Events books, or the found family of monsters in either Stitch Head or The Graveyard Book. I found that the ending a bit anticlimactic, as the MLM's decision seemed a little too nice and understanding, which didn't make sense to me. Some of the character designs, both in the illustrations and in personality, were quite fun (as an adult, I liked that Hamlet was a skull, but I don't know how many in the target audience for this book would get that reference).

<i>Theodora Hendrix and the Monstrous League of Monsters</i> is a Hotel Transylvania rip off, right? Cause it sure feels like a poorly executed rip off of Hotel Transylvania.

I am honestly surprised at how much I hated this book. It truly is a subpar amalgamation of the Hotel Transylvania films, including a variety of characters who are comparably similar. They all live together in a mansion which is also quite reasonably comparable to the hotel. And a little girl is raised largely by the monsters who all reside in this place.

The biggest differences lie in the use of the monster filled home—this one is a reform facility (which, frankly, I find kind of silly)—and the general conflict in the plot. In this case, the young girl isn’t any sort of monster, but rather a human child who was taken in by the monsters when she was abandoned at a graveyard. The biggest concern she presents is not a fear that she will leave, but instead a fear that some more important monsters will find out that they decided to raise her, a choice that is patently illegal in their world.

When mysterious letters arrive, threatening to reveal this secret and have the monsters all imprisoned unless they give the young human girl to the letter writer, suddenly a high stakes mystery must be solved. Though, naturally, these adult monsters have every intention of keeping this mystery from Theodora.

Regardless of the differences, though, I couldn’t stop comparing the stories. And even without the comparisons, it was very quickly clear that the writing was quite subpar. The plot was incredibly simplistic and far too much fell into the trap of deus ex machina. What’s worse, the foreshadowing was terrible and our characters spend the majority of the book either doing nothing or spending far too much time focused on a red herring.

Theodora’s story is definitely not one I’ll be continuing, though I imagine young kids who are really into monsters might find it entertaining.

I thought this was a fun read. Theodora was a character! I liked how much she loved her monster family and all the monsters in her life. She didn't really know any different and wants to protect this life she has.
The illustrations were a good addition to the story to really get a feel for the characters. But the descriptions of the monsters and their monster "land" do provide a good visual.
This is a good read for any elementary age kids who like monsters.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.