Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: The Incredible Real Life Monster Man
AUTHOR: L.B. La Vigne
PUBLISHER: Deep Desires Press
LENGTH: 194 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 19, 2019
BLURB:
Monsters are real, and everyone knows it. When Mikey, an employee at the US Department of Fish and Wildlife, is assigned to rescue an abused creature at Samuel’s Carnival Extravaganza, he feels drawn to the sympathetic thing. But, rescuing and nursing the creature back to health has some…unforeseen consequences. Not only can Renin talk, but he has the same urges and needs as a human—urges and needs now set on his savior, Mikey. Ones which Mikey can’t say he doesn’t reciprocate.
As a creature used to high levels of socialization, keeping him in isolation with little stimulation could be doing him more harm than good. For the second time, Mikey must break Renin out of captivity, bringing him home for…safe keeping.
While ending up in Mikey’s home is one of the best things to happen to Renin, multiple forces threaten to tear them apart. Mikey’s boyfriend, for one, isn’t accepting of the creature making itself comfortable in Mikey’s bed. The government is desperate to get their creature back, and will stop at nothing to have him. And then, there’s what’s hidden in the woods—watching, waiting, ready to strike at Renin at the first opportunity. With everything seemingly against them, Mikey may not be able to hold on to his creature for very long.
REVIEW:
Sometimes my propensity to not fully read blurbs pays off…and sometimes it really doesn’t. This time, sad to say, is the latter.
This is not going to be a very long review. I could list every little thing about this story that I didn’t like, but almost every single one falls under the header of “stuff that turned out to be way creepier than I thought it would.” And to be honest, I kinda just want to put this book in my rearview and not look back.
So, this story. Yeah. It started off good. The stuff that happens in the Carnival was probably the best part for me. Mikey was interesting, the goals were clear, and not once did I have to ask myself “does this count as bestiality?” Which, always a plus in my book. Mikey, for his job at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, is undercover at the carnival to suss out if the rumors about the “monster” being used (and abused) in one of the side-shows are real. And they are. The “monster”–who we later find out is named Renin–is some kind of hybrid of a man and a bird. I never was quite able to picture what he looked like. Some amalgamation of feathers, a human face, and claws. It was not described all that well. Mikey sets out to rescue Renin, with the help of one of the other carnival workers. Once they get Renin out, though, things start to get…weird.
And not a little rapey.
I’ve got two major problems with this story. And they are sort of tied together.
The first is that from the get-go I was unsure how self-aware Renin was. It turns out that he can talk, but the way he acts (especially when he is in Mikey’s custody) is a bit too animalish for my tastes. To be frank, it gave off too much of a bestiality vibe. Unlike books with shifters in them, this one leaned too far towards “he’s an animal” for me. Which brings up so many consent issues. Does Renin have the capacity to consent? Does he know what consent is? Judging by his actions towards Mikey while in government custody (he basically rapes the dude) I am not sure he does.
And that leads me to my second issue. Even if Renin had the capacity to consent, he sure as hell is not in a place mentally to do so. And so when Mikey decides to engage (purposefully) in sexual acts with him while Renin is, at the very best, his ward–if not outright captive–then I’m not sure what exactly I am supposed to say other than WHAT THE FUCK?!
That is not even counting the cheating going on. Because in the grand scheme of things that is like 9th on my list of problems with this story.
I just…this book kinda creeped me out. I don’t know what else to say about it. The plot is practically pointless to me because there wasn’t a second after Mikey and Renin got out of the carnival that I didn’t have “ugh, this is kinda fucking weird…wait, tell me he isn’t going to…oh, oh god…well….that happened…why? why did that happen???” playing in the background of my mind.
It did not make for an enjoyable reading experience.
RATING: 
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