We Are Monsters By Brian Kirk

‘We Are Monsters’ is the latest book by Brian Kirk.

Some doctors are sicker than their patients. When a troubled psychiatrist loses funding to perform clinical trials on an experimental cure for schizophrenia, he begins testing it on his asylum s criminally insane, triggering a series of side effects that opens the mind of his hospital s most dangerous patient, setting his inner demons free.

Reminiscent of an episode of an ‘American Horror Story’, this book set in a mental asylum is certainly not for the faint hearted. Vividly written with complex characters, this book battles with morals, mental illness and what happens when things go tragically bad.

Alex has always wanted his older brother Jerry to be better, to be the same brother that he grew up with and no longer trapped inside his head. So he creates a drug that hasn’t been approved and uses his brother as a guinea pig with sad results. Alex finds himself becoming the head of Sugar Hill Asylum and trying to prove worthy of his role as well as convince others that he has created the magical cure.

The story is seen through multiple narratives, staff from Sugar Hill as well as patients and between them all, it’s hard to find a reliable narrative within the story and seems that we are joining them all as they descend into chaos.

Unsettling and vivid from the first page, this book delves into the darkness of mental illness and conjures up imagery that literally took my breath away, from cannibalistic children to the demonic nuns, this book has a fear for everyone!

Nominated for a Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, ‘We Are Monsters’ is a dark and grisly story that shows the many sides of mental illness, the paranoia and the fear. Deeply disturbing and well written as well as thoroughly researched. This horror story makes the reader feel unease as well as on their toes as they try to figure out who the bad guy in the story really is.

You can buy ‘We Are Monsters’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.