Monster High [Hardcover]

Frankie Stein is not your average teenager. Aside from the fact that she's only 15 days old (having been created in a Fab Lab by her parents) she has bolts in her neck and a green tinge to her skin. As if life isn't already hard, right?
In an effort to fit into society, Frankie's parents send her off to `normie' school (for regular, normal teenagers) in an attempt to help her assimilate. But Salem, Oregon is a monster safe-haven, and Frankie soon finds fellow monster classmates, or RADs (Regular Attribute Disorder). There's Lagoona Blue, Draculaura, Deuce Gorgon, D.J./Jackson Hyde, Cleo(patra) and Claudine (CLAWdeen, get it?).

Lisi Harrison's novel is definitely aimed at the younger end of the teen market. `Monster High' is a bit of unabashed pop-culture fun for tweens. And to be honest, Harrison has done a really good job of appealing to this teeny bopper market.

The monster kids rock out to Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas. They have freaky fabulous wardrobes and say things like `that's VOLTAGE!' But if you read beyond the glossy sheen and bubblegum flavouring, `Monster High' actually has a lot to offer.

For one thing, Lisi Harrison has taken monster mythology and translated it to teen-speak while also writing subtext about fitting in. I know, that sounds like a lot of philosophizing about a book that has rhinestones on the cover, but give me a second...

I really liked the character of Frankie Stein. She looks different, she thinks differently to her peers and she desperately wants to fit in. But she never sacrifices who she is for how other's will see her. It's a hard lesson she has to learn, but Frankie has a great sense of self, bolts, green skin and all! I love the book's tagline; `Fitting in is out', it's a nice message to send to younger readers, and all the better for being written with monster-mashing teenagers:

"I'm telling you to hide so you'll be safe. But you can still feel proud of who you are," he explained, like it was really that simple. "Pride has to come from within you and stay with you, no matter what people say."
Huh?
Frankie crossed her arms and looked away.
"I built your brain and body. Strength and confidence have to come from you," Viktor explained, as if sensing her confusion.
"How do I get it?" Frankie asked.
"You had it the morning we took you to Mount Mood High," he reminded her. "Before you let those cheerleaders take it away."
"How do I get it back?" Frankie wondered aloud.
"It might take a while," he said, his squinty eyes peering over her shoulder to check on his guests. "But when you find it, hold on to it with all your might. And don't let anyone take it away, no matter how hard they try. Understand?"

I also liked the fact that throughout the book Lisi Harrison throws in a few curve-ball references, like the Six Million Dollar Man and Freddy Krueger. I'm sure these head-nods to the first manifestations of horror will be over a lot of tweens heads... but as an older reader I appreciated the `wink, wink'.

I can see that `Monster High' is the perfect middle-ground book for pre-teens who want to be a part of the `Twilight' craze, but whose parents aren't thrilled with the blood-sucking subtext. This is a nice gateway book, still with all the monster-antics promised in older YA fantasy (complete with teen crushes on cute boys) but without the eye-brow raising sexual euphemisms.

Yes, `Monster High' is a bit of teeny bopper fun. It's a light read, but don't discount the book for its tween-appeal. Harrison is actually writing big concepts, with cool characters and a great message; `fitting in is out', voltage!

*some spoilers included, nothing big though

This book was checked out from the library, which I'm glad I did instead of buying it. This book definitely begrudgingly gets a 3 out of 5 gnomes because one character of the two main characters is much more likable then the other. This book went from a 2 up to a 3 just because of the character Frankie Stein.

Melody and Frankie alternate chapters. Melody is human, had a nose job and recently moved from Beverly Hills to Oregon. Frankie is a monster, Frankenstein's granddaughter and has mint green skin.

I really wish that the book only had Frankie or the other monster's point of view the whole time. Melody makes it extremely hard to care about her. She feels sorry for herself a lot and has zero confidence. Melody's nickname used to be Smellody but then her plastic surgeon dad fixed her nose. The supposed reason for fixing her nose is well, ludicrous. I'm pretty sure that having asthma would not prevent you from singing but that is the reason she says she wants her nose fixed. Also have to wonder how getting a nose job would help you at all if you had asthma. She supposedly doesn't like being pretty because she's not sure people like her for her or just her new nose.

Another astonishingly weird choice is Melody's decision to become best friends with Bekka. Bekka has Melody sign a contract saying that she won't go after her boyfriend Brett and will beat up anyone that does. After hearing about and seeing the contract Melody actually signs it which really made me question her mental faculties. Bekka is followed around by Haylee who writes down everything Bekka does to turn it into a cell phone novel.

I like all the current entertainment examples that are a part of the book but it will end up dating it pretty fast. The word the monsters use for themselves is great, RAD or Regular Attribute Dodger. Even though the monsters hide who they are they all still seem to have more confidence then Melody.

There is a love interest or two. The whole Jackson/DJ Melody Frankie love square or triangle is well kind of icky. The whole thing can't end well unless polygamy is somehow the solution.

Melody is either fawning over or thinking about boys practically the whole time. Frankie does think about boys but the clear difference is that it's not all that she thinks about. I like that Frankie is actually proud of who she is and the fact that she's mint green. Frankie's adventures and friends are fun to read about. I like that she uses stage makeup to hide and that she sparks or shocks people accidentally. Frankie feels that RADS should not have to hide who they are but everybody else is used to hiding.

The ending is pretty good but does leave one with a lot of questions.

Overall I wish the book was more like the web site and that it was just about the monsters because you could take Melody out of the story and really not loose anything important. This is one instance where having two main characters alternate chapters doesn't work.

I found the "Monster High" web cartoons online to be quite cute, with vivid & distinct characters and a fun setting. When I heard about this book, I was excited to see this world explored in the depths that only prose can really reach.

Boy, was I disappointed.

Lisi Harrison apparently took her notes for an unpublished "Clique" novel and forced them into the Monster High concept. The fun, vivid characters from the web cartoons are replaced with flat characters who do everything possible to hide what makes them visually interesting, including whiteface (which is all sorts of wrong). The only new additions Harrison brings are more castaways from the "Clique", and we get our requisite love triangle, since any book series aimed at women MUST force in a romance by law. The love triangle is the only place where Harrison shows any sort of creativity, since it's a twist on Jekyll & Hyde, but other than that, she seems more concerned with dropping as many designer & brand names as possible than actually writing an interesting story. In the hands of a writer whose imagination isn't limited to whatever fashion rag she most recently read, this couldn've been a good book, but Harrison apparently can only write what she sees on Style Network, not actual characters.

Mattel gave Harrison a wonderful, imaginative world to work with, and she threw all that away for a whitewashed pretty-people festival, just like all of her own series. Why an author so devoid of any true imagination was given this series, let alone is popular, is beyond me. Avoid this if you have any respect for writing as a craft or even just for using your imagination beyond picturing yourself in the latest issue of "Seventeen".

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