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Lives of the Monster Dogs
Lives of the Monster Dogs
Author: Kirsten Bakis
Here is a first novel like no other:  a spellbinding tale that both creates its own fully realized world perspective and provides an incisive look at the way humans and animals resemble each other. — A group of elegant monster dogs in top hats, tails, and bustle skirts become instant celebrities when they come to New York in 2008.  Refu...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780374189877
ISBN-10: 0374189870
Publication Date: 2/1997
Pages: 291
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 27

3.4 stars, based on 27 ratings
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 5
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Lives of the Monster Dogs on + 46 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
A disappointment. Barkis had a good idea but it's not nearly as interesting as it should be. Three stars.
reviewed Lives of the Monster Dogs on + 81 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Here is a first novel like no other: a spellbinding tale that both creates its own fully realized world perspective and provides an incisive look at the ways that humans and animals resemble each other.

A group of elegand monster dogs in top hats, tails, and bustle skirts become instant celebrities when they come to New York in 2008. Refugees from a town whose residents had been utterly isolated for a hundred years, the dogs retain the nineteenth-century Germanic culture of the humans who created them. They are wealthy and glamorous and seem to lead charmed lives - but they find adjusting to the modern world difficult, and when a young woman, Cleo Pira, befriends them, she discovers that a strange, incurable illness threatens them all with extinction.

When the dogs construct their dream home, a fantastic castle on the Lower East Side, and barricade themselves inside, Cleo finds herself one of the few human witnesses to a mad, lavish party that may prove to be the final act in the drama of the lives of the monster dogs.
stubbytate avatar reviewed Lives of the Monster Dogs on
Helpful Score: 1
I'm going to try and start reading this book again. I found it difficult to identify with the characters and not a whole lot of suspense from the beginning to prompt me to read to the end.
homebrewed avatar reviewed Lives of the Monster Dogs on
Helpful Score: 1
Finally, a rating system that lets me rate this book as low as I want to: 1/2 star. This is the worst book that I have read in years.
reviewed Lives of the Monster Dogs on + 24 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Bakis creates an interesting Frankenstein-ian situation, where sentient bipedal dogs rebel against their creator and attempt to join modern American society. Lovely and bittersweet.
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reviewed Lives of the Monster Dogs on + 51 more book reviews
Interesting...not exactly what I thought it would be. By the time the book starts, all the interesting things have already happened. I would have preferred to see more of of Rankstadt and their exodus from there and have less of the main character.
buzzby avatar reviewed Lives of the Monster Dogs on + 6062 more book reviews
ISBN number listed as 0-374-18987-0, but that's the hardback version, this is the trade sized paperback version, published 1997.


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