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Monster, by HFJ Ballard
Project type
Literary fiction, curio fiction, magical realism, light fantasy, coming of age
Date
May 2024
Location
Utah
The boy begins life in an unusual way. With a face too flat and arms too long and not an ear to speak of, his first interactions with the other children make him wonder whether he is a monster. However, his understanding of the world and what it means to be a monster is turned upside down upon the discovery that everything that is anything is actually a monster.
Through a series of episodic tales including teaming up with a posse of lampposts to save his best friend from a kidnapper, stopping the town from shaking to pieces in the wake of a distraught mountain, and navigating the uncertainty of growing up, the boy struggles to find acceptance and to learn to walk the line between the world of monsters and the world of humans, sometimes neglecting the most important world inside himself.
Set in the real world with a drop of magic and coming in at 70,000 words in length, this voice-driven, partially episodic novel is intended for the same audience that loved Wonder by R. J. Palacio, Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne, or The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
Monster is a coming of age tale that reminds adults what it’s like to be a child and shows children why adults are so cranky all the time.
Contact: hfjballard@gmail.com
Available for Q/A: Yes