The Stray Reader

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Author:	A.J. Humphreys
Genre(s):	➡️ Paranormal Suspense ➡️ Paranormal Thriller
Series? Series Order: Series Title:	✅ Yes Book 1 Season of the Monster
Goodreads Rating:	⭐4.21 (19 ratings, 10 reviews)
Personal Rating:	⭐ 3 / 5 Overall

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🛑 Spoiler Warning 🛑

I might be recounting events, characters, and themes so THIS MIGHT BE FULL OF SPOILERS.

If you’d like to read a review with the spoilers hidden, kindly scroll to the bottom to read my spoiler-free review or head to my Goodreads post. You don’t need an account to read it. 🙂

🗒️ BLURB 🗒️

Ghini Freeman is a single mother who doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit. Even though it has been six months since her thirteen-year-old daughter disappeared during a class field trip, she continues to pour everything into finding her daughter.

But, when a detective notices that Ghini has a mysterious doppelgänger, things begin to spiral out of control. Could monsters be to blame for her daughter’s abduction? Ghini doesn’t want to believe it.

Unfortunately, such beliefs are starting to look like a luxury as more disappearances begin to occur around Ghini’s small mountain town.

You thought you knew about monsters, but you don’t know about the Queen of them all. She and her progeny are the originators of the entire monster mythos. And, they walk amongst us all in the daylight . . .

They are — The Vespids.

Source: Goodreads

🌟Review (3/5) 🌟

I found myself completely invested in the storyline as soon as the first chapter ended. It was really clever to build the world from Ghini’s perspective as a normal woman and then transition to Kari’s awakening as an unknown being. So just like that, eight pages in, and I am hooked.

Plot

The idea of monsters building their family by transforming humans isn’t necessarily new, but this is one of those times where the storytelling gives a well-known plot justice. The story beautifully develops by starting at two simple plot points: (a) Ghini pursuing a new lead to her missing daughter’s case; and (b) the Queen beginning her hive. Eventually, the plot gets thicker as these two connect and create more subplots. Bernie’s backstory about escaping the hive added a good layer of substance and terror. I liked that there was political turmoil inside the hive. My interest is genuinely piqued by the Queen’s internal struggle about starting her hive. Each plotline feels like it’s bubbling up into something good.

Alternating between the different characters’ points of view really helped drive the story in a well-paced manner. It’s almost always fun to follow one character’s movements, jump to another, and find their paths logically crossing.

There are some incidents in the story that I felt were a little weak. The whole scene where Ghini is researching in the library and someone drops a random number on her keyboard that leads her to this whole exposition of what creatures we’re dealing with felt anticlimactic. In fact, I didn’t even see the word vespid in that whole exposition. It was an interesting history lesson but felt forced.

Lastly, my biggest gripe of all about the plot is how the book frustratingly ends in a cliffhanger without anything being resolved. Look, I love reading series. I don’t mind cliffhangers either. But in my opinion and personal experience, a good book in a series still resolves a major plot point to give some sort of closure. Each book still has to go through the climb to the climax and come back down like how a television series resolves a plot point per episode but still has this season-long plot to resolve so you keep going. This book ended in what feels like the middle of the climb toward the novel’s climax and that really caught me off guard.

Characters

Overall, the story had a great variety of personalities. They were established well so they’re distinguishable enough but some are more impressionable than others. For example, Samuel and Detective Dak feel like they’re supposed to have some major participation in the story but they felt more like plot devices than real people to me. Ghini’s character was really interesting in the beginning but got swallowed by the plot as the chapters went by. However, Bernie, Kari, Mel, and Sierra are really interesting characters. The Queen herself feels like she’s hiding a really complex storyline.

Writing Style

I really like a lot of elements in this story’s writing style. First, it’s easy to understand so reading the book just makes me feel like I’m watching a movie in my head. The scenery and the characters move so seamlessly. Second, every chapter’s pacing felt just right. It establishes the point of view quickly and wraps up the scenes nicely. Lastly, the writing just feels so immersive. I had no trouble picturing what Black Hills was supposed to look like and it gave a great backdrop to this whole mystery. Plus, the Queen and Kari’s overwhelming feelings really flow out of the pages. Take this paragraph for example:

“Then there are her eyes. She isn’t sure Kari even realizes it, with each blink they flip. They swell into an elongated alien blanket of hazel, honeycombed in oblong black pupils. Then as if nothing had changed, a single blink shrinks the colorful tapestry, restoring the whites to her eyes, with only a single oily black orb at the center of a hazel ring.”

page 32

I think the author just really describes the character’s views so clearly and I love that. Here’s another paragraph that paints another scene so well:

“With silence consuming the room, Ghini notices the sun’s glare shimmering on thin wisps of peach fuzz peppering Bernie’s face.”

page 45

Recommendation

This is a captivating book with an interesting premise. If you’re in the mood to read about humanoid monsters with insect genes starting their nest in what feels like a typical secluded, small town in paranormal movies, then this will be an interesting read. It has a creeping build of mystery and suspense that’ll get you into the Halloween mood and kickstart your spooky reads. The story truly builds up. I would just suggest having the next book in the series ready as it feels incomplete on its own.

FAVORITE QUOTE(S)

“Apologize as soon as ya can, cuz you never want someone to leave this world not knowing two things. That you love them, and you sorry if you hurt them.”

— Samuel Clemens