The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon
Review by Melissa B. (dragoneyes)
Vi, a 13 year old girl, lives a wonderful life with her brother, Eric, 9 years old, and her grandmother, Gram. Vi loves to explore and Eric loves to spend time with animals. Together they are the Monster Club. A union that they created to track and hunt monsters. They work on their monster hunting book in which Vi writes and Eric draws. Gram, spends her days at The Inn, a treatment center for the mentally ill. She is a famous psychiatrist who is known for her methods for treating her patients. When she is at home, she is a gin drinking grandmother who dotes on her grandchildren and also home-schools them.
One day, Gram brings home a young patient named Iris. She leaves Vi in charge of befriending her and keeping tabs to let grandmother know how she is doing. Iris starts of as mute but slowly starts to regain her voice. She also cannot remember anything from her past. As the girls hang out together they start to form a bond. This leaves Vi to feel the need to find out more information on Iris to help her understand who she is and where she is from. Turns out that some things are best hidden.
This book flips from 1978 when we get Vi’s story to 2019 when we get the story of Lizzie, a real life monster hunter who is headed to find out why girls are going missing. Together the story collides and craziness creeps in. Quite an interesting and different story. Loved the characters and really related to their childhoods. The ending wasn’t what I expected. While it was good, I was expecting more.
Tags: Book Reviews
