The Girl Who Loved Monsters
Writer: Insha Fitzpatrick
Artist: Ashley Robin Franklin
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 2026
The star of Insha Fitzpatrick and Ashley Robin Franklin’s middle grade graphic novel The Girl Who Loved Monsters, Charlotte Bisset, is a middle school student in the small coastal town of Devilfish Bay. After her mother died in a boating accident, Charlotte has lived peacefully with her father, a chef who posts videos to his channel on YouTube, and her dog Vincent, who has a habit of falling asleep on her bed as she reads classic horror fiction.
After a few years away, Charlotte’s childhood friend Molly has moved back to town with her older brother Griffin. While hiding out in the library to avoid an awkward reunion, Charlotte discovers a bestiary called Libre De Monstrum that appears to be bound in suppurated skin. The book isn’t listed in the school’s database, so the librarian allows Charlotte to take it home with her.
When Charlotte reads a spell from the book later that night, a gust of wind from a sudden storm blows the window open and knocks the power out, leaving Charlotte in darkness. The next morning, Charlotte’s usual homeroom teacher has been replaced by Whitney Fell, a glamorous woman with dazzling silver hair. Even stranger, Charlotte’s father seems to have instantly fallen head over heels in love with this woman. Unfortunately for Charlotte and her friends, Ms. Fell is a werewolf who has a sinister taste for more than romance.
The emotional core of The Girl Who Loved Monsters is Charlotte’s evolving relationship with her friend Molly, who moved away from Devilfish Bay after refusing to humor Charlotte’s outlandish claim that her mother was eaten by a sea monster. Both girls have become more mature since then, but it will still take time for Charlotte to recover from the pain caused by Molly’s aggressive dismissal of her tall tale.
This recovery is complicated by the fact that, having once lied about a family member being attacked by a monster, Charlotte now finds herself faced with the reality of her father being threatened by an actual werewolf. The title of The Girl Who Loved Monsters is a play on the fable of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” but both Charlotte and Molly are nuanced and well-realized characters who are capable of speaking their minds and negotiating their doubts. When serious differences of opinion arise, Molly’s brother Griffin steps in as a peacemaker and keeps the two friends focused on the task of defeating the werewolf.
Insha Fitzpatrick’s script does an excellent job of helping the reader see the validity of the concerns that might be experienced by younger teens in the book’s target demographic. Charlotte senses that something is wrong and wants to be believed, while Molly doesn’t fully understand her friend but wants to support her anyway. Werewolves might not exist in real life, but the tension between friends with different communication styles who are still learning to accept and trust one another definitely is.
The werewolf herself is an interesting figure. With her over-the-top dramatics, the shapeshifting Ms. Fell reminds me of the monster-of-the-week villains in Sailor Moon who manage to be both beautifully feminine and delightfully evil at the same time. Even as the reader roots for Charlotte and her friends to triumph over the werewolf, Ms. Fell is undeniably fun to watch as she enacts her villainous schemes. If the reader, like Charlotte, is the sort of person who loves monsters, the older female sexuality represented by Ms. Fell is a compelling target of both anxiety and admiration.
Ashley Robin Franklin’s distinctly stylized artwork is a perfect balance of spooky and cute, and their expressive line work deftly captures adolescent exuberance and the shifting boundaries of the supernatural. Though the dialogue between characters is relatively dense, Franklin’s visual storytelling keeps the narrative moving at a swift pace, while the colorful but muted palette effectively conveys the charged atmosphere of a story that takes place mostly at night and in a series of dark rooms. Along with their appealing and attractive character designs, Franklin’s comic art offers middle grade readers an inviting visual introduction to a variety of classic horror tropes.
The Girl Who Loved Monsters feels nostalgically reminiscent of the Goosebumps series of pulp horror novels for children that were popular in the 1990s. Many elements of this graphic novel’s story and art are extremely campy, and the combination of creepiness and humor creates a carnival-like sense of fun. Though the timeworn story of kids on bikes chasing down a monster may seem like a simple treat taken directly from a Halloween candy bucket, Franklin’s dynamic art and Fitzpatrick’s sensitive character writing elevate The Girl Who Loved Monsters to a thrilling and heartwarming horror adventure that young readers will eagerly devour.
The Girl Who Loved Monsters is available from Viking Books.
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