Donohue's latest may not be his best, but it offers another entertaining story in that literary supernatural vein that he's worked in so well for four novels now. Here the main element is an autistic boy who, as the title indicates, has taken to obsessively drawing monsters. At the same time his parents start seeing strange things, hearing strange noises, and learning about shipwrecks and the lost bodies of the drowned, who might possibly be roaming around as angry ghosts if you talk to the local priest's housekeeper about it (he really wishes you wouldn't though). Also tangled up in the increasing fright is his reluctant friend Nick, the son of his parents' best friends.

The story sort of ambles along for a good while, throwing out tidbits and going down avenues that may or may not have much relevance to anything in the end. The character of the boy Jack Peter is drawn well, though his parents seem like they could have used a bit more work (I know I just saw something really strange I can't explain, but you can't possibly have heard anything odd, honey, you nutty kook).

The ending is strange and twisty, and I can envision two reactions on the part of the reader: throwing up one's hands in exasperation, or thinking "ooh, very good!" I kinda did both. ( )

This book could have and should have been so much better. The story, and the setting were perfect, but the author managed to take these two positives and write a book that was boring. Horrible dialog, uninteresting characters, who don't behave like regular people, and the author feels the need to remind you how smart he is with his word choice. Reading the book I would have sworn it was 500 pages, not 273. It was that kind of boring. Oh and the big surprise ending didn't make up for the rest of the story and subplots that started and then went nowhere.
I could see this being made into a movie or a miniseries where with better writing and great atmosphere the story would be much better. ( )

CW: Sexual content ( )

3 stars is my liked-didn't-love rating. I liked the idea of this, and the author did a swell job of creating a spooky atmosphere and a slow ominous build to the big reveals. The twist at the end was great-I never saw it coming. But I didn't understand Jack Peter drawing monsters to scare Nick away when he was tired of keeping Nick alive.
I enjoyed the writing a lot at the beginning and less so as the build-up of similes started to jar me out of the story. For the most part, they were pretty cool similes-one of my favorites was "regal as a coiffed fox" to describe a Shiba Inu in a photograph. But that doesn't mean I thought everything needed to be ____________as a ___________, and I started to feel it was a bit thick, especially when the characters started talking in similes. A little girl saying her house had been "quiet as a church" just sounded abnormal to me.
I also thought he left some loose ends that could have been explored more , especially with Miss Tiramaku.
It was an interesting story, and I really liked the setting. I just wish the writing style hadn't been so distracting, and that I had a better sense of Jack Peter by the end of it.
( )

I just didn't enjoy this one. The characters are weird and seem somewhat one-sided. No one goes through any change, it seems. They're the same people with the same thoughts from beginning to end. There's a subplot with a priest and a Japanese housekeeper lady that I didn't understand. I don't know, the whole thing was just sort of lackluster. ( )