Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Interesting premise, poor execution.
Monster Hunter International is the first book in the Larry Correia’s urban fantasy series about gun-loving monster hunters. It follows Owen “Z” Pitts, who is recruited by Monster Hunters International after killing his werewolf boss with his bare hands.
Owen then undergoes training and soon finds himself in the middle of the ancient battle between good and evil, as he and his fellow Hunters try to stop the Cursed One from using an evil relic to “destroy time”.
At nearly 500 pages, Correia could have rightly cut this book in half, and you wouldn’t miss a thing as he dedicates most of the plot to pointless descriptions of the various weapons and ammo, when he isn’t info dumping things repeatedly.
To make matters worse, the scenes drag on well beyond where they should end and become so redundant that by the end of the book, every scene feels the same. And you’re forced to slog through 20-plus-page chapters full of wall-of-text paragraphs.
And if that weren’t bad enough, all the characters have the personality and depth of cardboard. But the worst offender is Owen who, despite being “big, ugly, and ordinary” is revealed to be a master fighter, gunsmith, marksmen, and a master at any weapon he picks up, and at one point he’s asked to teach a class because he’s so good with guns. And did I mention he ends up with the hottest woman ever, who he falls in with at first sight?
Just no.
I could forgive all that had this book been interesting, but it was predictable to a fault that by the end I was skipping paragraphs to finish it.
Honestly, the only reason I didn’t give this one star is because the premise seemed interesting, but it quickly became apparent that Correia was more interested in waxing poetic about guns and pushing his political views than telling a good story.
This book reads like something a 12-year-old boy obsessed with guns, horror movies, and sex would write and is very amateurish, even by debut novel and self-published book standards.
Also, don’t read this book if you’re Black or brown, as Owen and his love interest Julie have an infuriating conversation about “how not racist” they are. This leads to Julie saying how the South isn’t racist anymore, how the Confederates weren’t really racist, and how the real racists are the Yankee Liberals and politicians in DC.
Did I mention this conversation takes place at Julie’s ancestral home, a former plantation, complete with slave quarters? Just no.
To summarize, this book started out okay, but took a nosedive fast and got worse.
I have no desire to read any other books in this series and don’t recommend you read it unless you have a strong liver and want to take a shot every time someone mentions guns/weapons/ammo.
I give Monster Hunters International 2.0 out of 5.0 stars.
