Synopsis:
Monsters of Ohio is a heartfelt exploration of a tentacular solution to the struggles of the modern world from the New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain
In many ways Richland, Ohio is the same tiny, sleepy rural village it has been for the last 150 The same families, the same farms, the same heartland beliefs and traditions that have sustained it for generations. But right now times are especially hard, as social and economic forces inside and outside the community roil the surface of the once-placid town.
Richland, in other words, is primed to explode… just not the way that anyone anywhere could ever have expected. And when things do explode, well, that’s when things start getting really weird.
Daniel Garvey left Richland decades back, to find his own way in the world. But when he is called back to his hometown to tie up some loose ends, he finds more going on than he bargained for, and is caught up in a sequence of events that will bring this tiny farm village to the attention of the entire world… and, perhaps, spell its doom.
Review:
I’ll get to the science fiction aspects in a minute, but let me just discuss how utterly MIDWEST this book is. When you have a book titled Monsters of Ohio, written by a resident of that very state, I guess I expected some of the general stereotypical traits of the American Midwest. But, John Scalzi might have done more to showcase the highs and lows of living in a small Midwestern town than any collection of newspaper articles or segments on the local news.
I live in Southern Illinois — a few hours away from Scalzi’s fictional town of Richland, Ohio, but the similarities are numerous. First, a nearby county to me is named RIchland County, but even apart from the names the characters felt so real because I’ve met them. In my county, the business that started nearly 70 years ago and served as the backbone of the county had to close last year due to bankruptcy thanks to mismanagement and fraud from the higher-ups. I’ve seen my own town slowly dwindle over the decades and I’ve seen how the current politics of D.C. have affected the people that I’ve known and cared for. I know farmers who have lost limbs in farming accidents and linemen who have lost arms from electrocutions. To them — to the Midwesterners — you just pick yourself up and keep going. What choice do you have? At the end of the day, no matter what you look like, you’re still alive and jobs still need to get done.
Throughout Scalzi’s Monsters of Ohio, he really does showcase his love and admiration for the people of the Midwest. And allow me to showcase my love for this book right here: Scalzi nailed everything about Monsters of Ohio. I’ve never not enjoyed reading a John Scalzi novel, but the last few left me feeling like there was just a little something missing from them. They were good…just not great for me. I couldn’t really put my finger on what it really was, but when I was reading Monsters of Ohio, I found a John Scalzi unafraid to put his foot on the gas and keep it there, through the set-up, the execution, the humor, the horror, you name it. There was a beating heart throughout Monsters of Ohio, even as he revealed that heart to be inside the chest of a monster.
The first third or so of the book is a set-up that draws from the same DNA as a slow-burn horror work. When Scalzi first shows what the book is really all about, there is a lingering question of “will he really go all the way with this?”
Heck yes, he does.
But, while the horror aspects are there, Scalzi shows that even when literal, physical monsters are around, the true evil of the world often lies elsewhere. In stripping his characters of what they assume makes them human, Scalzi does something really impressive — he gives their humanity right back to them through their attitudes and actions.
This book isn’t for everyone. It is genuinely funny many times throughout and Scalzi puts his politics on his sleeve as he profiles the struggles of life in a small Midwestern town. It very much is in line with recent works like The Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villain, so if you read and enjoyed those, then Monsters of Ohio will most likely work for you, too. I really enjoyed it and will highly recommend it. It’s very accessible and will help many readers get into the horror and science fiction section of the book store.
So, back to my own Midwest town — that factory that closed last year? Well, another company did come in and save it to a certain extent. Some workers didn’t come back and it isn’t quite the same as it used to be, but people are thrilled it’s open at all. Ultimately the rest of the world may move on and the factory may stay closed for good, but for us in the Midwest, we’ll keep chugging along until that day comes. John Scalzi has seen these people and this attitude first-hand in his life in Southern Ohio and Monsters of Ohio shows that. More so than from a horror or sci-fi perspective, I’d recommend this book as a window into the soul of the average Midwesterner.
Thank you to Tor Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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