Secret crime fighting organizations, time in a psychiatric hospital, crazy clowns, super technology, and one hell of a life story…sounds like a top television show, right? Wrong. This is the premise of the sci-fi thriller Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff.
The entire story takes place in a psychiatric interview room. Jane Charlotte starts by telling the doctor that she’s there for killing the wrong person, but that she’s a part of a secret organization that fights evil. The name of the organization is unknown, but she’s part of the Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons, or code name “Bad Monkeys”.
Jane then goes on to tell the doctor about her life and how she got to be a part of the Bad Monkeys. She begins her story with her mother disowning Jane at the age of 14 for not taking care of her younger brother Phil. Then Jane talks about her first encounter with the evil fighting organization while trying to escape from a serial killer while in high school. Her story continues to her eventual initiation to the Bad Monkeys and the specific evil villains she kills.
Throughout the story we come back to the present tense in the interview room with the doctor. After every incident Jane discusses, the doctor checks the facts and questions the holes in her stories. Jane has an answer for everything, which the reader finds out makes her one great liar.
Her last assignment is to bring down the last person on Earth she thinks is evil. From here on, the reader is taken on a roller coaster of twists and turns to a thrilling ending which will make the reader question what they know about good and evil.
Bad Monkeys is page turning. It sucks you in until the very end. I would recommend this book for juniors and seniors due to the complex vocabulary, multiple metaphors, and constant referrals to Biblical stories. I can also see Bad Monkeys used in a creative writing class for surprise endings.
Bad Monkeys offers a great opportunity for a discussion on how we view people, and how we want to believe that no one is completely evil. Questioning morals and judgments forces us to reflect on what we know, what we think we know, and what really is.
2 comments:
This sounds really interesting to me. And the title and picture on the cover reminded me of the movie "12 Monkeys," which I love. Also, the questioning about evil reminded me of this English lesson I observed not too long ago where the class was having a socratic seminar about good and evil and if they thought people could be pure evil. It was tied to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which they had just read. Do you think these books could be connected at all or is that too much of a stretch? And if not, are there any other books you think could relate to this one?
This book sounds like my worst nightmare. But great review! I would be interested in hearing about more of the biblical tie-ins.
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