‘I think I should try’
Monster Friends, Where Are You?
by Daniel Anctil (illustrated by Corentin Hunter)
Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2024
$21.95 / 9781988242569
Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic
*
An inquisitive—blue- and wide-eyed—boy with a treehouse home undertakes a quest in Monster Friends, Where Are You?
Day and night, he wanders forests and mountains, traverses caves and great expanses of the sea. He’s alone but doesn’t seem lonesome. Though the world is wild and teems with natural life, he’s not fearful. Even an abandoned house with boarded-up windows doesn’t faze him.
In real life, a kid the boy’s age might fret about nameless monsters-under a bed, in a closet, in the shadows. In Monster Friends, he’s seeking them out.
A book in the boy’s treehouse has informed him about creatures—things with huge wings, that are very old, that can breathe fire, that are “amazing.” He wonders why no one has seen them for such a long time and whether anybody has tried to find them recently and befriend them. He vows that he will.
He searches for a Sasquatch, imagining him as fun playmate. He travels far and wide for a dragon, a sea serpent, a ghost, a sprite, and a troll. And comes up empty-handed. A bit downtrodden, the boy returns to the treehouse, hopeful they exist but were maybe shy or scared or hiding.
The text tells one story—of a goal set and never realized, yes, but also of a series of wide-ranging adventures that are exhilarating nevertheless. The world is solitary for the boy, true, but also wondrous. Land or sea, decrepit shack or cavern, there are endless vistas to explore and no dangers along the way.
As rendered by Corentin Hunter, the pictures support that view. Colours are deep but saturated and jewel-bright. There’s lushness everywhere, from forest to sea. The outside world is captivating, an invitation to be outside, to explore, to wander without fear (or dire, Brothers Grimm-style consequences).
Better, and in contrast with the boy’s perception, the world the reader sees is actually quite animated. It’s alive with the very things he seeks.
Sprites watch him as he sleeps, a troll protects him from the rain, a ghost covers him with a blanket. A dragon has grinning eyes, a sea serpent an actual grin. A Sasquatch is capricious, a ghost kindhearted.
A panicky, literal-minded adult reader might discern a harmful message of monsters = good (or: monsters = always in your midst, beware), but Vancouver author Daniel Anctil (Fly Fly) has fashioned otherworldly animals that are less monsters than fairy tale beings, part of a magical population just beyond normal senses of perception.
Like the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (minus the “terrible teeth” and “terrible claws”), Anctil’s monsters take a benign interest in the boy; they care for him, watch out for his wellbeing.
Opposite of the nameless fears and anxieties real-life kids might project onto their own monsters under the bed, Monster Friends, Where Are You? suggests an unknown—in the form of an underworld of creatures—that might not be easily accessed but exists without a malevolent intent in its heart.
*
My Two-Faced Luck, the fifth novel by Salt Spring Islander Brett Josef Grubisic, published in 2021 with Now or Never Publishing, is reviewed here by Geoffrey Morrison. A previous novel, Oldness; or, the Last-Ditch Efforts of Marcus O (2018), was reviewed by Dustin Cole. [Editorial note: A BCR editor, Brett has reviewed books by Adam Welch, Andrea Bennett, Patrick Grace, Cole Nowicki, Tania De Rozario, John Metcalf (ed.), Brandon Reid, Beatrice Mosionier, Hazel Jane Plante, Sam Wiebe, Joseph Kakwinokanasum, Chelene Knight, Lyndsie Bourgon, Gurjinder Basran, and Don LePan for BCR.]
*
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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