Book review - The Monster Hypothesis

Title: The Monster Hypothesis
Author: Romily Bernard
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Spirit's Key by Edith Cohn
                      The Disappearance of Emily H by Barrie Summy
Rating:

more than meets the eye

Summary (provided by publisher):  Welcome to Bohring-home to 453 people, 2,053 alligators, and one monster curse.
Correction: home to 454 people, now that Kick Winter is living in the swamp Hollows with her Grandma Missouri, the town (fake) psychic. Bohring is anything but boring for Kick who has already blown a hole through the kitchen floor, befriended a chicken-eating gator, and discovered that the town's hundred-year curse is upon them.
It's the Bohring curse and all the kids are about to become monsters-or so the legend goes. People are worried-except for Kick. She knows there's a scientific explanation for everything, especially curses and monsters. But Kick is the new kid in school and she's determined to make a name for herself . . . by pretending to be psychic.
According to her calculations: one teeny-tiny life + (fake) psychic skills = popularity. But when kids start disappearing and glowing creatures start showing up, Kick's theory quickly evaporates in a puff of foul-smelling swamp gas. Can Kick use her (real) science smarts to prove the curse is a hoax? Or is it just-maybe-sort of-somehow possible the curse is here?
Author Romily Bernard weaves a fast-paced middle-grade mystery filled with humor and scientific intrigue, set in a perfectly eerie Southern town.

My opinion: I like the interpretation of a curse as the power of suggestion over a group of people. Our inclination towards belief influencing our perceptions and interpretation. We see that in the large scale in this book with the town curse. The people believe in it so they are inclined to attribute strange happenings as being related to the curse. Its an excuse for wild or weird behavior. Mass hysteria aided by malfeasance. We also see it in the small scale with Kick and her school relationships. She refuses to see the truth about who values and accepts here.There's an emotional complexity that belies the simplicity of the plot. While the mystery's resolution is a bit lacking in evidence, the heart of the story is strong.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley