Reading Monster Movie was an absolute delight. It is funny, creepy, and sweet; an enjoyable book for readers of all ages. There's strong friendship, a cursed video tape, time travel (maybe??), and a lot of laughs. 

Ethan Pitowski is a VERY anxious kid so when the whole 6th grade class is invited to the rich kid's house to watch "the scariest movie ever" he doesn't want to go. But his best friends Harley and Olivia force him to get outside of his comfort zone and join the class. By the time Ethan arrives, everyone is quite literally hypnotized by the TV. Then, the monster appears. 

The book is broken up into 3 parts and each one almost reads like a different book -- it all comes together in the end but it did feel like a slightly different experience each time. What I mean is, each part opens up a new area of the plot. There's before the monster, the show down in the movie theater, and then the battle inside the monster. 


I loved these characters, especially our main three (Ethan, Harley and Olivia). 
I also listened to most of this on audiobook and the narrator hit it out of the park. 


For a book written for (mostly) 10 year olds, I think I’m over analyzing the story. If I was a younger reader I’d probably say “cool! This book is a lot of fun” but instead I’m trying to figure out how/why things happened.

I understand Ethan jumped into Screenhead to save everyone but where did he go?! How did Robby get stuck in that time loop? If that wasn’t Robby’s dad, was it just a manifestation of the curse? Where did the curse come from? And how did they even break it? If Robby’s movie wasn’t ever actually made then how did it become known to be the scariest movie ever?

Two things reading this as an adult. 
1. I really hope the middle school was named after THE incomparable Geena Davis.
2. The movie in the book being the scariest ever reminded me of the theater audience reactions to Terrifier a few years ago