A Monster Like Me

I had a hard time figuring out if the narrator was having difficulty separating fantasy from reality or if I was actually reading fantasy, and it really put me in the mindset of how the narrator experiences the world.

I felt like the references to Indigenous people were exotifying mystical-native stereotypes, and though it is not unusual for a white child to have those stereotypes, it's an author's responsibility to write it in such a way that it's clear they're telling readers “don't exotify and stereotype Native American peoples or their folk tales and religions like this.” Authorial commentary on this subject was absent and the only Native people were a man and woman who spoke vaguely of magical things, who the narrator concluded were a god in disguise and a ghost of a princess from a legend / folk tale. This really disrupted my enjoyment of the book.

The scene where the mom tears the monster book in half was heartbreaking and poignant, and the portrayal of bullying resonated with me as a person who's experienced being punished for fighting back against bullying because the bully embellished their story or lied in order to made it look like they were the real victim.