What
inspired me to write this: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Oddly enough, I didn’t really dislike this book, and will read the sequel. Despite this, poor
author is at his first book, and wanted to put so many – good! – ideas in it
that it ended as a jumble, and many, many of the pieces just don’t fit. Especially one...
Now, it started as a somewhat historical mystery (I liked
it), then we had an unlikable protagonist (you call your best friend’s mother a
whore, then he doesn’t talk to you, and you’re
offended?!), went on with time-travel (enjoyment began to drop), magical
powers, insensate decisions, then a monster
showed up...
And I was supposed to be creeped out? When I see a monster
fighting the good guys, which include a girl shooting fireballs from her hands,
an invisible guy that bleeds red when wounded, a cute blondie who has a mouth
with sharp fangs on the back of her head, and the list could go on (right, because
these are not creepy at all)...
Bonus points for the monster NOT being a poorly disguised
allegory of Nazis (part of the story is set in WW2, and the actual Nazis who
show up are so marginal and dumb they’re not even worth mentioning).
Now we come to what I was talking about: what fits into
your story, this time about creatures. Will maybe add more, now on to various
monstrosities.
In fantasy, whether
it’s some guy going on an epic quest or just the setting, having orcs, dragons,
slimes, you name it, attack the characters usually fits. In high fantasy, it especially does. Even if your monsters
are made up. Like A Song of Ice and Fire,
there are some new creatures that fit into the world like puzzle pieces. The Inheritance Cycle isn’t at the top of
the list, but Urgals and Ra’zac are good monsters in that universe. I left out
Tolkien because he’s mainly the basis; now don’t tell me the Nazgul and the
trolls should be left out; they’re good in the setting.
Also, some of these monsters are creepy enough to provide just the right amount of excitement and apprehension for the characters.
Also, some of these monsters are creepy enough to provide just the right amount of excitement and apprehension for the characters.
Now, if you want to make up a monster, feel free to do
it. It’s okay even if it’s a rip-off of some Tolkien creature with some extra
features added, it’s still a basic fantasy monster, your characters can fight
it. Or even turn the trope around, these monsters could not be hostile! But now
I went off-topic, sorry.
Nazgul attacking Frodo? It is scary, and though you’re positive Frodo won’t die (not then and
there, at least), it’s not like you close the book due to boredom. Durza
fighting Eragon? It is an epic fight
between your clichéd fantasy protagonist and the main villain of the first
book. The setting isn’t anything new, but the fight is there, it’s needed, the
Shade is a good adversary...
There are some problems if the monster in question looks
like something you could see only if high on LSD, even worse if it turns out to
be real, score goes lower if it’s in
an otherwise almost normal world...
Now, should I be creeped out and bite my nails when I see
a guy up against some groaning creaure with
empty eyes, skin full of dark blotches and claws on its hands which uses its five long tongues to walk around and
grab on things? In a supposedly almost-realistic setting?! (Not to mention
it survives having a house collapse
on top of it, but gets killed by a shearer!) And then affirming that an existing serial killer was such a
monster in human form?! Give me a break... at least don’t pretend your
hallucination is real! Why the hell
did you have to put that in, when the whole story is set in a non-existant
place?!
If I saw such an abomination in real life, I’d check the
side-effects of the berry jam I ate for breakfast.
When I saw it in the book, I went “oh come on” and kept
on munching on my snack as if nothing had happened.
I am also postive something like that would have caused
massive eye-rolling even in a high fantasy setting.
Back to the book, do I advise you to read it? If you like
old photographs and some thin mystery, yes. They’re the best part of the book –
sadly, there was a jumble of a story written around them.
And now please excuse me, I gotta go off write my
perfectly realistic story set in 21st century Helsinki where a 3-metre-tall
person with bat wings and eyes hanging off his ears, not to mention the
transparent skin, is terrorizing those few who are able to see it in the
Christmas Market.
