Literally Dead Book Club discussion

Monstrilio is written in 4 acts, each named after the character whose perspective we are reading from.

This discussion is for M. In my hardcover edition, this section ends the book and all spoilers are welcome below.

What did you learn in this final section?
What do you think was the intent of the author with this story?
What are your personal takeaways?
Did you leave with any questions?
What is your star rating?

He’s definitely a full person with thoughts and feelings. I like that he wants to be a good “person” yet can’t contain his urges. He loves his partner and family but then flees with his dad after an event. I like the way the story is unfolding.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Enjoyed this book very much. Thank you for recommending it because I don't think I would have picked this book up on my own. I've been thinking a LOT about the author's intent with this book and what each section of the book explores. I feel one of the major themes is how one deals with the things in life we cannot have, or aren't supposed to have, and the price we pay to exist in a world that limits us. We may find that the things we do to meet our desires works for a while, but ultimately we need to either change things or succumb to despair.

Magos wants her son back. She can't have him back. The price she must pay is to learn to live with and love Monstrilio/M/Em. Magos seems happy in her life and her performances. She seems at peace with M leaving. Magos represents someone who has found ways to meet her desires and live in the world.

Lena wants Magos. She can't have Magos as more than a friend. She has this unfulfilled desire in relation to bathing and the unresolved relationship with her mother/not getting love from her mother. She attempts to resolve this with prostitutes but it doesn't seem to be working any longer. Lena is unfulfilled desire and the toll it takes. She can't sleep and I feel things will get worse for her if she can't find a way to resolve this internal conflict.

Joseph wants love. While he has this somewhat with Peter, it isn't a full satisfying love because he isn't being completely truthful with Peter. He cannot be honest with him about M. He knows that Peter could not accept M and even imagines that Peter would turn M in. While they continue to pursue getting married, I don't think this will work out for them. Peter already feels that Joseph is keeping things from him and he is excluded from the Joseph-Magos-Lena-Uncle-M relationship.

M tried so hard to reject his desires and live with the humans he loves. Ultimately, he has to give up his family to be himself in the wilderness. I like how the story is open ended though. M has transformed many times. He could transform again and come back.

It's been a few days and I'm still thinking about Monstrilio.

I fully ugly cried at the end and am really sad it's over. I'm going to be thinking about this for days. What a wonderful selection for the book club, dare I say my favorite since I've joined.

M’s POV was my favorite! I wanted a whole book with his perspective. The beggining, with Magos, crushed my soul. The ending, with M, uncrushed it just to crush it again. 5 stars. Can’t wait for the live show.

I like that the final perspective is M’s since the entire story has been about how other people have been making decisions for him.

Now that the story is over, I can look back at the order of perspectives in the story and appreciate how it was organized:

M’s creation starts from Magos’ perspective, when he doesn’t have an obvious personality yet. M is not looking for just any creature—she’s looking for a Santiago replacement. This means she was never going to be open to meeting M as he is; as the reader looking through her lens, we would not have met him either.

M’s initial development and mutilation occurs during Lena’s perspective. As someone who has never felt loved or appreciated for who she is, she would be the perspective that would be most open to adjusting to M’s true nature. She would also be the one to best understand the horror of Magos’ decision to amputate his tail simply to force him to conform.

Joseph grieves Santiago but is aware that Santiago is dead and never coming back; that M is separate from Santiago. Because Magos doesn’t see M as his own person, she doesn’t consider that her performance will hurt/trigger M despite it being obvious to Joseph that it would. Joseph is the one that takes M away from the situation he was living in with Magos. Lena would not have been able to because he’s not his parent and Magos wouldn’t have thought about it.

Finally, from M’s own perspective we appreciate just how hard he has to try to suppress himself. The near constant hunger he feels. As this section of the book progresses, we get to see that he will never really fit into society. His hunger is too big.

My star rating was 5-stars

I also gave it a surprising 5 stars. I loved the ending. I love Nina K's review above, well said!

This book was an interesting concept overall, I thought the stakes felt very low considering what was going on throughout. The author didn't really convince me at any one time that Monstrilio was actually about to get caught, and instead there would be an isolated incident, and then it would just kind of...go away. This combined with some missed opportunities on themes knocked it down to a three star for me.

The most interesting part was definitely M's struggle between humanity and bestiality, and his journey toward finding agency in that. Given descriptions of him earlier in the book, I still found it hard to believe that people didn't notice anything off about him more often.

I was most excited to read about M's experience throughout this story. I learned M retained memories from both Santiago's existence as well as Mostrillo's. We also learned despite what his loved one's wanted, M identified more with Monstrillio and found himself acting on his hungry impulses and changing back to Monstrillio based on his arm tail coming back. By the end I think M was coming into a fourth, new identity based on the arm/tail coming back more claw like. I think M is constantly evolving and coming into his own even though he spent a majority of his life being what other people wanted him to be.

This book's obvious theme is grief but there is also a message of being in denial about a loved one's true identity. Throughout the different POV's we see character's motives and true selves that are often different from what the other characters think of them. We mainly see this with M who was literally made to fill a void in his mother's life. Later on, Joseph wants M to ignore his hunger in efforts to fit in and live a humane lifestyle. I think it says a lot about how disorienting grief can be but also how we put pressure on loved one's to fulfill certain voids in our lives and play rolls we assign them.

I really loved how this book ended and I'm glad M was able to take control of his own exitance by the end. Each POV was better than the last and I ended up giving this book a 4-star.

M finally succumbed to being wild. No amount will power could slake his thirst. M was always hungry. The book grappled with themes of grief, loss, parenthood, love, family. M was created and was wild. It's a twisted look on nature vs nurture. Overall a very nuanced book that could warrent a reread to catch all that I missed. 4 stars

I love it! 5/5. This was brilliant! Of course M was my absolute favorite section. The feelings, the change and self acceptance was beautifully written. I will be rereading this again to find things I hopefully didn’t miss the first journey through.

This was a 5 star for me! I think my favorite section was Lena's followed by Ms. I'll be thinking of this one for a while, I'm having a hard time putting into words what I loved so much about this. It was weird, but heartwarming and sad also? A great look on nature vs nurture as Tyler said above for sure.

It was fantastic. I need time to let it sink, but my immediate thought is 5 stars. I didn't love it at first but it just kept getting better. M's part is definitely my favourite. I don't think I have ever cried to a flesh eating scene and I don't think it will happen again in the future either.

All the different ways the character handled their grief and M's identity. Monstrilio's departure from the wild and his return to it. Everything was just done so well.

The final section was written differently than the rest of the book, which made it seem like M truly wrote it. Shorter sentences and no quotation marks were implemented. I think the intent was to show how people go through grief differently and at their own pace. The ending made sense to me. I’m curious to know how M gets on in the woods. I loved this book, somewhere in between 4 and 5 stars. Gotta think about it

Thank you for choosing this book. I probably would have never read it, and this has to be in my top-ten-all-time-fav books. I want to immediately re-read it. Broke my heart.