Monsters We Have Made, Lindsay Starck
Monsters We Have Made, Lindsay Starck
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
Club: $10.00

Monsters We Have Made

Author: Lindsay Starck

Narrator: Patricia Santomasso

Unabridged: 8 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/26/2024

Synopsis

A poignant and evocative novel that explores the bounds of familial love, the high stakes of parenthood, and the tenuous divide between fiction and reality.

Thirteen years ago, Sylvia Gray's young daughter, Faye, attacked her babysitter in order to impress the Kingman, a monster she and her best friend had encountered on the Internet. When the now twenty-three-year-old Faye goes missing, leaving her toddler behind, Sylvia launches a search that propels her back into the past and back into the Kingman's orbit. With the help of her estranged husband and a sister she hasn't spoken to in years, Sylvia draws dangerously closer not only to Faye, but also to the truth about the monster that once inspired her. Will Sylvia be able to reach her daughter before history repeats itself? Or will it be Sylvia, this time, who loses her grip on reality and succumbs to the dark powers of this monstrous fiction?

Both literary and suspenseful, Monsters We Have Made confronts the terrors of parenthood and examines the boundaries of love. Most importantly, it reminds us of the power of stories to shape our lives.

About The Author

Lindsay Starck is a writer, editor, and professor based in Minneapolis. She studied at Yale, Notre Dame, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her first novel, Noah’s Wife, was published in 2016 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Her short prose has recently appeared in the New England Review, Ploughshares, the Bellevue Literary Review, The Cincinnati Review, and the Southern Review. Her academic articles have been published in Modern Fiction, The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies, and Adaptation. When she's not typing on her laptop (or taking pictures of it) she's traveling with her husband or training their dog, Cedar.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mikala on February 25, 2025

Wait, I just understood the title because, like the daughter made up the monster but the mom made the daughter who kind of ended up being a monster. Do I need to re-read this one? Slender Man -esque story. fairytale vibes. thoughtful writing and interesting characters with a new perspective on motherho......more

Goodreads review by Amy on April 07, 2025

What an interesting, multilayered look at myth vs reality, truth vs lies, motherhood vs individualism and all the levels in between. Also a fictionalized reminder of the Slenderman crimes... anyone remember that?? Writing style: ★★★★★ Plot/Pacing: ★★★ 1/2 Enjoyment: ★★★★ From the book... Ten years ago, S......more

Goodreads review by Cynthia on December 27, 2024

There are some novels, so rich in delectable prose, that I greedily gobble up. Monsters We Have Made was one of those books. Its lyrical rhythm was not the only stunning aspect. The way this story both pierced and filled my heart was impeccable. I was absolutely intoxicated, and the consequential ha......more

Goodreads review by Cassie on April 02, 2024

Of course it is easier to love someone good than it is to love someone bad. But most of the time, we don't get to choose. While clearly inspired by the real Slender Man stabbing, Monsters We Have Made is not a sensationalistic, salacious recounting of a violent crime committed in the name of an u......more

Goodreads review by Lin on February 27, 2024

Lindsay Starck lays bare every parent’s fear in her newest novel, MONSTERS WE HAVE MADE. When Sylvia Gray’s daughter, Faye, and her best friend attack their babysitter at the behest of the Kingman, a menacing internet figure who has a powerful influence over young people, they spend the rest of thei......more

Quotes

Winner of the 2025 Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award for Fiction
Finalist for the Minnesota Book Awards

"Lindsay Starck explores tragedies like the 2014 Slender Man stabbing, and in doing so, opens safe passage for readers to engage with the monsters of our collective imagination. . . . Through feats of characterization, creative forms, and mesmerizing language, the author moves the reader out of judgment and into empathy."
—North American Review

“Starck (Noah’s Wife) terrifies and captivates in this profound meditation on the power of stories that doubles as a twisty and possibly supernatural mystery. . . . Starck’s prose is by turns gorgeous and unsettling, creating a dreamlike tale that slides effortlessly between fantasy and reality as it interrogates such themes as forgiveness, generational trauma, and the responsibilities and burdens of motherhood. This is sure to resonate.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“For a parent, there is no greater fear than something happening to your child. In Monsters We Have Made Lindsay Starck jams a knife right into this nerve. She—truly—scared the hell out of this reader, as I breathlessly followed these characters through years of love and heartbreak, mystery and paranoia and paralyzing horror. Beware the Kingman—and beware Lindsay Starck, who swallows you whole with her masterful storytelling.”
— Benjamin Percy, author of The Ninth Metal

“A riveting journey into the bright and terrifying landscape between what is real and what is imagined. In Monsters We Have Made, Lindsay Starck conjures an exquisitely suspenseful story of a nightmare crime and a family’s hard-won love and forgiveness that can conquer even the most dangerous acts of the mind. Fast-paced and vivid, a book that will transport you to the edge of the familiar world and draw you back.”
— Ariel Djanikian, author of The Prospectors

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List