ABOUT
Sunday Times - South Africa
“A work of powerful imagination and profound
insight”
The Rumpus
“The Monster’s Daughter blends a rousing
plot with deep, multifaceted characters,
and it constantly pushes for deeper meaning
beyond the surface. Pretorius aims high,
and the results will likely have you thinking
about the lingering traumas of the past, the
toxic effects of marginalization, and the cost
of moral and immoral actions long after you
set down the book.”
Crime Review
“... this wonderful book, at the same
time a breakneck thriller and a clever literary
exploration of the turbulent history of South
Africa, with characters that are complex,
engaging and utterly authentic and its totally
unpredictable plot will astonish you – and
bring you to close to tears.”
Fully Booked
“It is barely credible that this is a debut
novel. The writing is spectacularly good;
compassionate, evocative of time and
place and, above all, totally credible.”
The Book Whisperer
“At one point I gasped out loud with a twist
I did not see coming. Pretorius has a knack
for pacing and knows just how to drop the
right clues when, an amazing feat for a debut
novelist. It was incredibly researched.”
Crime Segments
“I've been a bit disappointed with the so-
called summer blockbusters that have
come out this year from the big
publishing houses. I've been waiting for
someone to get beyond same-old, same-
old, and well, here it is. I can honestly
say that The Monster's Daughter is an
original. It begins in a normal enough
way for a crime novel, with the discovery
of a dead body, but trust me, there is
nothing at all normal about this book.
And that's a good thing.”
Bewitched Bookworms
“Michelle Pretorius does an excellent job
portraying the hopelessness, the anger,
and the tension that Apartheid has had
on South African citizens for decades... I
truly couldn’t put this book down once
the story really got going”
Helen’s Book Blog
“I am sucker for a good mystery. This
novel definitely has that. There are so
many different mysterious storylines
that converge near the end. Well done!”
“Michelle Pretorius is a funny,
surprising and fearless writer.
The Monster’s Daughter is at once
a historical thriller that reckons
seriously with South African
politics, an imaginative piece
of speculative fiction, and a
stereotype-busting roller-coaster
ride of a novel. I loved it.”
—Audrey Niffenegger, author
of The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Times (UK)
“Pretorius is a writer of great promise, and her
descriptions of the Boer War, in particular, are
spellbinding.”
Library Journal
“Pretorius has written an impressive and well-
executed debut novel, toeing the line between
mystery, suspense, and sf. Readers who enjoy such
international crime fiction authors as Stieg Larsson
or Louise Penny will find this title a chilling read.”
Book Noir
“...a fantastic read and it had me on the edge of my
seat a few times. Throughout the book I got angry, I
got excited and I got nervous and worried everything
that a great book should be, you end up living inside
the book right until the very end.”
Nudge-Book
“Alet Berg is a substantial character; a
resourceful and likeable policewoman with a
history and a crime to solve against all the odds…
the quality of writing suggests that
Ms. Pretorious is a name to keep an eye on.”
SJ2B House of Books
"A hugely ambitious multi genre, part speculative,
part historical political fiction, all encompassed into
a murder mystery thriller, this debut is a credit to the
author and one I highly recommend."
Kritters Ramblings
“After reading, I discovered this was a debut and it
took my breath away! I loved that this author came
out of the gate with a great piece of work and art and
it usually takes a few books for me to become a fan of
an author - not this time, I am a fan!”
Booker Talk
“This is a novel that deals with complex moral
questions but it doesn’t do so at the expense of
characterisation. The individuals who people its
pages are not mere ciphers spouting predictable
positions, they are flesh and blood who laugh and
love in the most difficult circumstances.”
Nose in a Book
“I loved this debut novel and look forward
to what Michelle Pretorius does next.”
Michelle Pretorius
Born and raised in South Africa, Michelle received a B.A. at the
University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. She has lived in
London, New York, and the Midwest and holds an MFA in
Fiction Writing. She is currently a doctoral candidate in
Creative Writing at Ohio University.
Her writing has appeared in LitHub, The Copperfield Review,
Arcturus, and others. Her first novel, The Monster’s Daughter,
published by Melville House and Audible, is an American
Booksellers Association Debut Voices pick, and was awarded a
2017 FAW Literary Prize.
The Monster’s Daughter
A Novel
“Somewhere
on
the
South
African
veld,
1901:
At
the
height
of
the
Boer
War,
a
doctor
at
a
British
concentration
camp
conducts
a
series
of
grim
experiments
on Boer prisoners. His work ends in chaos, but two children survive: a boy named Benjamin, and a girl named Tessa …
One
hundred
years
later,
a
disgraced
young
police
constable
is
reassigned
to
the
sleepy
South
African
town
of
Unie,
where
she
makes
a
terrifying
discovery:
the
body
of
a
woman,
burned
beyond
recognition.
The
crime
soon
leads
her
into
her
country's
violent
past—a
past
that
includes
her
father,
a
high-ranking
police official under the apartheid regime, and the children left behind in that long ago concentration camp.
Michelle
Pretorius’s
epic
debut
weaves
present
and
past
together
into
a
hugely
suspenseful,
masterfully
plotted
thriller
that
calls
to
mind
Lauren
Beukes’s
The Shining Girls and Tana French’s The Secret Place. With an explosive conclusion, it marks the emergence of a thrilling new writer.”
PRAISE
Reviews
The Monster’s Daughter is available from Melville House and Audible. The paperback edition releases July 2017.
Liz Loves Books
“The Monster’s Daughter is a brilliantly
evocative novel that mashes up historical,
crime and speculative fiction into a gloriously
addictive and epic read, set in South Africa
and with some dark themes right at the
heart of it… Higly Recommended.”
Acrimereadersblog
"This was a superb novel. The writing was incredibly
evocative and upsetting at times... Sometimes it is good
to read something out of your usual type and
The Monster’s Daughter was definitely
one of those times."
Jaffareadstoo
“Combining dark historical fiction with a chilling
modern day murder mystery is an inspired idea which,
in The Monster’s Daughter, comes together in a
shattering conclusion.”