"What a treat it is: funny, lively and convivial, constantly in argument with itself . . . Dederer's tone and willingness to be wrong and confused, along with her seductive, intimate style, bring the subject to new life . . . how rare and nourishing this sort of roaming thought is and what a joy to read. How moving, too, the underpinning adoration that allows the difficult questions to be asked. You are left wishing Dederer would apply her generous mind to every other niggling unfinished hang-up that haunts our culture" - Sunday Times

"Personal, open-hearted and intellectually playful" - The Times

"Witty and conversational . . . It's a book full of the nuance that the cancel culture debate so often lacks" - The Times

"Enthralling, challenging and downright unsettling . . . smart and provocative . . . Monsters is a vital book for our times, and it offers so much rich food for thought" - Independent

"Thrilling" - Observer

"A properly honest and passionate book that will help set this debate alive" - New Statesman

"Exhilarating" - Guardian

"

Excellent . . . Frank . . . A work of deep thought and self-scrutiny that honors the impossibility of the book's mission

"A hot and urgent monologue structured around a problem without a solution . . . The conclusion to this immersive and doubtlessly important book is both tentative and bold" - Times Literary Supplement

"Part memoir, part treatise, and all treat . . . nimble, witty . . . her exquisitely reasoned vindication of Lolita brought tears to my eyes . . . This is a book that looks boldly down the cliff of roiling waters below and jumps right in, splashes around playfully, isn't afraid to get wet. How refreshing" - New York Times

"Nuanced and exploratory . . . With verve and empathy, she asks if we can - if we should - separate the work from the biography" - Irish Independent

"Humming with originality, clarity and humour . . . The book's questions might be zeitgeisty, but it is far more satisfying than the circular arguments about cancel culture that abound in Twitter threads. It sketches a Venn diagram of creativity and depravity before plunging into its intersection - dangerous water, but one I emerged from reinvigorated . . ." - i News

"Dederer asks, with witty self-deprecation, how we should respond to art from artists guilty of morally squalid deeds . . . Instead of rushing to the barricades of ongoing culture wars, Dederer offers - and enacts - a way of thinking that acknowledges the ever growing diversity of intellectual and moral life" - Guardian

"Sane and nuanced - even refreshingly brave. This is no dry compendium of intellectual arguments about artistic meaning, but rather an emotional journey through audience experience told with engaging chattiness from an insider's perspective" - The Times

"An incredibly nuanced and human work" - Big Issue

"In this book you may not find the answer, but you will find heaps of wit and wisdom - on monsters, victims, hate, love, and the big grey area in between" - Spectator

"Clever and provocative" - Daily Telegraph

"A lively, personal exploration of how one might think about the art of those who do bad things . . . It's such a pleasure to stretch out in a big, nuanced conversation about a topic that can be so easily flattened into wrong and right, good and bad; it's a pleasure to be asked to think" - Vanity Fair

"Dederer's exploration offers up no easy answers, but the journey is never less than illuminating" - Guardian

"Monsters is a dazzling book . . . If you too love the work of Polanski - or Picasso, Hemingway, Allen, Davis, and so on - sticking with Dederer on her curlicued journey might be the best gift you can give yourself. The final chapter feels its way toward a conclusion that burns clean, though it hurts a little too" - Time

"Vital, exhilarating . . . Although Dederer has done her homework, her style is breezy and confessional . . . Monsters leaves us with Dederer's passionate commitment to the artists whose work most matters to her, and a framework to address these questions about the artists who matter most to us" - Washington Post

"An exciting read . . . I was shaken to my core" - Los Angeles Times

"Perceptive and engaging" - ArtReview

"Monsters is both a nimble exploration of fan culture and a spirited call to action" - GQ

"Conversational, clear and bold without being strident . . . Dederer showcases her critical acumen . . . In this age of moral policing, Ms. Dederer's instincts to approach such material with an open mind - and heart - are laudable" - Wall Street Journal

"Thoughtful" - The Times

"Punchy and sharp . . . Exploring her own relationship to art made by shitty men, the book moves beyond tedious cancel culture discourse to interrogate ethics, art and fandom with nuance and compassion" - i-D

"The book is tangled and fascinating, chasing down arguments and questions that can't always be easily resolved. Dederer's shrewd, vivid descriptions of movies and books suggest just how much they mean to her and how deeply any sacrifices on the altar of contemporary sexual ethics might cut" - Slate

"[Dederer] just keeps getting better and smarter . . . it's absolutely exhilarating to read the work of someone so willing to crumple up her own argument like a piece of paper, throw it away and start anew. She's constantly challenging her own assumptions, more than willing to find flaws in her own thinking" - San Francisco Chronicle

"The rare polemic that's full of greedy love for the good stuff in this world, Monsters is an expansion of Dederer's instant classic Paris Review essay from 2017, 'What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men.' With a larger canvas, she lets both her cast of monsters and our culpability grow, and manages to one-up herself over and over again. Cooly pensive on an overheated subject, Dederer writes powerfully about art's ability to move us, teach us, and entrap us" - Bustle

"She asks important questions . . . Subtle and adroit" - The Atlantic

"Dauntless, cannily reasoned and barn-burning . . . Monsters isn't just the book that art-loving feminists have been waiting for; it's the book that anyone determined to live an intentional life owes it to themselves to read" - Shelf-Awareness

"Nuanced and incisive . . . Dederer's candid appraisal of her own relationship with troubling artists and the lucidity with which she explores what it means to love their work open fresh ways of thinking about problematic artists. Contemplative and willing to tackle the hard questions head on, this pulls no punches" - Publishers Weekly

"Sharp and unflinching . . . In Monsters, Dederer produces an entirely original and self-aware contemplation on the psychological reverberations of living in a biographical age" - AnOther

"Bringing erudition, emotion, and a down-to-earth style to this pressing problem, Dederer presents her finest work to date" - Kirkus Reviews

"While Dederer sets out to write about the art of monsters, she ended up writing about what it means to be human" - Document Journal

"Monsters has crystalline intellectual force . . . Dederer has fashioned a book of depth and candor about what it is to be heartbroken by an artist whose work we also happen to love . . . So on point is Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma about the historical moment in which we currently find ourselves, you want to carry it around with you and whip it out at every bar or dinner party" - Avenue Magazine

"Smart" - People

"Spectacular . . . A work of pop-culture criticism that's fun to read, Monsters will for sure help us have deeper conversations around the perennial question of whether it's possible and OK to separate the work from the art and what it really means to be a fan. This is a book we plan to return to again and again - and to press on all our friends" - Apple.com

"Monsters is a good companion, working away at the problem from various perspectives, always explaining patiently what it is trying to do and keeping it interesting by participating more energetically than just steepling the fingers" - Strong Words

"Despite the heavy subject matter, Monsters is neither rant nor sermon. Dederer is not only an incisive researcher and writer, she's also conversational, approachable and funny . . . Monsters is a worthy addition to contemporary literary criticism, but more than that, it's a very enjoyable book about a thorny, elusive subject" - BookPage

"Profoundly cathartic. The book feels simultaneously like having the deepest, artiest conversation with the smartest people you know and like having an intense shit-talking session with your closest friends" - Alta