What if the monsters from the literature are real and living?

Edgar Brim has definitely too much vivid and livid dreams and fears to understand that the monsters might be alive. So when the mysterious death occurs and his professor asks for help, he is in. Together with Tiger, a young female thief trying to reach her aims in the man´s world wearing male clothing, professor Lear and his niece Lucy and nephew Jonathan, our "monsterbuster" group they try to find the killing evil.

This gothic YA plays with the beloved (if the monsters can be called that) horror characters from various novel and some of them play more or less important cameo role here. Also the gothic themes are here to give you some un/pleasant hair raising and cold touches on your skin.
But...while I understand and sometimes share the love to the literary giants of Victorian times, this novel stays within the comfortable mantinels. I would love more drama, more intelligent plots, more novelties so to say.

But still, I like Tiger´s character and she and Edgar make a nice couple.

Fingers crossed for the next volume in this series to be more catchy!

#ReviewMonday with KM Lockwood: The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim by Shane Peacock
Published by Tundra Books May 03, 2016
352 Pages in Hardcover (available as an e-book)

Read via NetGalley

Edgar Brim is a sensitive orphan who, exposed to horror stories from his father as a young child, is afraid of almost everything and suffers from nightly terrors. His stern new guardian, Mr. Thorne, sends the boy to a gloomy school in Scotland where his dark demons only seem to worsen and he is bullied and ridiculed for his fears. But years later, when sixteen-year-old Edgar finds a journal belonging to his novelist father, he becomes determined to confront his nightmares and the bullies who taunt him.

After the horrific death of a schoolmate, Edgar becomes involved with an eccentric society at the urging of a mysterious professor who believes that monsters from famous works of literature are real and whose mandate is to find and destroy these creatures. With the aid of a rag-tag crew of friends, the fear-addled teen sets about on his dark mission, one that begins in the cemetery on the bleak Scottish moors and ends in a spine-chilling climax on the stage of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in London with Henry Irving, the infamous and magnetic actor, and his manager, Bram Stoker, the author of the most frightening and sensational novel of the day, Dracula. Can Edgar Brim truly face his terror and conquer his fears?
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To get a feel for the gothic atmosphere of this YA tome, you might like to watch a trailer found here. It should give you a good idea of the kind of Victorian horror story mood Shane Peacock creates.

One of the best things about horror and ghost stories as genres is that they both cross age-ranges. You can read them when you’re ready – whatever age you might be. So The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim might just as well be read by an adult as a teen.

Whatever the age, the book will be enjoyed most by those who like plenty of detail, scene-setting and references to Victorian Britain. Characters from both literature and history make their appearance and in 352 pages, there’s plenty to get immersed in.

You might expect from the cover (designed by Jennifer Lum) it wouldn’t be for the squeamish – and you’d be right. There are gruesome and eerie moments a-plenty. Yet since it’s book one of a trilogy you do know at least one of the ‘good guys’ will survive – but how?

Read with the lights on to find out . . .

This book is a refreshing take on monster stories and teen romances. The characters are sympathetic and complex, and the pacing of the book makes it difficult to put down -- I had to see what happens next! My older students would enjoy this book.

When I started reading this I was really excited. Gorgeous cover, great blurb. I was expecting something along the lines of Supernatural or Van Helsing, but with younger characters and set in a different age. I wasn’t entirely disappointed but it didn’t meet my expectations either.
In the very first chapter the writing was atmospheric, dark and filled with a foreboding sense of mystery. It starts off with Edgar Brimm and 3 of his companions travelling to a school on the fog filled moors to confront a supernatural being that they suspect is causing trouble. In other words it started off brilliantly. Then the story shifted to Edgars past and continued to shift between past and present throughout. This threw me off at first because I’m an impatient sort and I just wanted to know more about what was going on. The author gets to that eventually and Edgars past is connected to his present problem in a slightly obscure way, which didn’t really add anything in my opinion and is tenuous at best.
Now the main problem with this book is the basis that there are very few supernatural creatures in the first place. If in this world a total of only three are believed to exist by the main characters then why all the drama. I was expecting a multitude of insidious creatures to exist for our heroes to overcome (though not all in the same book of course). Which brings me to my next point, which is the fact that these supernatural baddies look out for each other, even though they are technically all loners. Why would a vampire care if Grendel is killed exactly? Apart from which Grendel totally had it coming. The ending felt anti-climactic and predictable. Edgar’s whole ability of being sucked into a story wasn’t really well explored or explained. And his showdown at the theatre with the vampire came off cheesy more than anything else. A bit of a disappointment this. More of a 2.5 star read for me. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.