“The Children on the Hill is so many things at once – a psychological thriller with a dark mystery at its core and plenty of horror elements….”
“It would be easy to spoil key plot elements – this book has some intricately plotted discoveries. So, the less you know, the better.”
– From 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered by Sadie Hartmann
Monsters are real. They’re all around us, whether we can see them or not.
There are two main types of monsters.
The first type know they’re monsters.
…
The second, more dangerous type may not even understand that they’re monsters.”
From “The Book of Monsters” by Violet Hildreth and Iris Whose Last Name We Don’t Know, Illustrations by Eric Hildreth, 1978
What Sadie said. Better to not know too much going into this book, still I’m supposed to be offering a review, so …
In 2019, Lizzie Shelley – there’s a hint there about the book’s themes – travels the country in her motorhome, looking for monsters. Her podcast, “The Book of Monsters,” had earned her a berth on the previous season of a TV show, Monsters Among Us, which is helping finance her independent searching. When she hears of a disappearance in Vermont, she knows she must go there. But that’s difficult for Lizzie. She hasn’t been in Vermont since she was a child, fleeing the events that originated her monster hunt.
In 1978, Iris Whose Last Name We Don’t Know is introduced to Violet (Vi) and Eric Hildreth by their Gran, Dr. Helen Hildreth, who runs the institution known as The Hillside Inn, and whose patients suffer from various mental illnesses. Iris has lost her parents and Dr. Hildreth has taken her in believing that Iris can overcome her trauma by associating with her grandchildren while the doctor keeps an eye on her.
Vi and Eric have begun a Book of Monsters, Vi writing the descriptions of the types of monsters they encounter, and Eric illustrating the book. Iris is invited into Vi and Eric’s searches, and slowly the three are drawn into a mystery about Hillside Inn. The core of the novel is the relationship between the girls and between them and Gran, raising issues of morality and trust and the damage often caused by good intentions.
A solid thriller and well-conceived, McMahon tells her tale mainly from Lizzie’s and Vi’s point of view, interspersing diary extracts and chapters of a later book covering the history of The Hillside Inn. McMahon does a fine job of merging the memories of Iris and Vi with their love of the movies Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and the pursuits of Lizzie, gradually pulling the puzzle pieces together to reveal the events that led her to the present day, and the truth behind the disappearance in Vermont.
THE CHILDREN ON THE HILL by Jennifer McMahon
Review by Randy Money
