THE MONSTER OF ELENDHAVEN BY JENNIFER GIESBRECHT: BOOK REVIEW

A VICIOUS MURDERER TEAMS UP WITH A MAGICIAN
AND THE RESULT IS A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT

​There has been considerable buzz for Jennifer Giesbrecht’s debut novel The Monster of Elendhaven which crosses the boundaries of dark fantasy with a serial killer drama and almost love story. I was not too sure what to make of it and ultimately did not feel it deserved the plaudits lauded upon its shoulders. Although it has a gorgeous cover, this 159-page hardback, was a short read for the price and failed to deliver in the quality over quantity stakes. However, The Monster of Elenhaven, has had some excellent reviews elsewhere, so if dark tale does pique your interest, be sure to check other opinions out.
 
Joe Hill notes on the front cover: “A black tide of perversity, violence, and lush writing. I loved it.” I’m not going to argue with the nuts and bolts of Hill’s statement as The Monster of Elendhoven has some beautiful prose which Hill refers to as “lush writing”. Mmmmmmm, in fact, when you get past the style the substance was almost non-existent with a half-baked story. If you are looking for a great example of style over substance, then this novel fits the bill and is ultimately let down by a weak plot where very little seemed to happen. If you were to ask me to break-down what happened in the 159-pages I would struggle to pinpoint more than a few key events beyond some colourful murder scenes.
 
The story is set in the city of Elendhaven, which is vividly described and gave the impression that the setting was the Middle Ages period, but there were no exact points of reference. I’m guessing ‘Elendhaven’ is a fictional locational, but the names and other hints gave it an almost Germanic or northern European feel. If I had enjoyed the story more, I would have appreciated the vagueness of the setting and location more and would have attempted to read between the lines, but as the plot was thin, the vivid plague ravaged setting seemed slightly redundant, which was a shame as Elendhaven was a very cool location.
 
There are only a few characters featured in the story and all are incredibly unlikable. Having someone to root for is not an absolute requirement for a good story, but it certainly helps. This tale is the exact opposite, the choices being a sadistic serial killer and a pompous magician who is too used to getting his own way. The magic in The Monster of Elendhoven could have been so much more, instead, it played an under-developed part in proceedings and I would have liked to have read more about why it was outlawed and magicians were in hiding and being hunted. It recalled Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer which had a similarly disturbed central character, but in contrast that book was a layered, complex and challenging journey into the mind of a serial killer. 
 

​The plot is a simple one: a serial killer, who may or not be human, stalks another man he realises is a magician. With his own evil agenda, he threatens to kill him and soon becomes his bodyguard as an alternative to murdering him. With echoes of Frankenstein, Johann (the monster) asks the magician (Florian) to help him discover what he truly is and why he is, seemingly, invincible. How many men can slit their own throat and survive? None but Johann. Along the way they plot even greater evils, whilst they themselves are being hunted. There are also flashbacks to Florian’s childhood with his sister and some local politics thrown into the mix, fanning the story out slightly. It goes without saying that Florian kills many people, some of which are gleefully graphic. If it were not for these colourful and explicit deaths this novel might even have been aimed at the YA market. 
 
Both central characters lacked charisma and the story plodded into an unlikely and unbelievable romance which did not seem to fit with the tone of the rest of the plot. Although it had its moments and was intriguing in parts I did not think it was long enough and perhaps some of the storylines could have been developed more fully and that might have eliminated some of the bigger holes in the plot.

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