Grendel by John Gradener is an amazing book. I highly reccoment it but with the catch that you must read Beowulf first. Grendel is the monster that terrorizes the vikings in the epic story-poem Beowulf. This ancient poem is beautiful and full of vivid description but often hard to read, due to the translations and old words. However, it must be read in order to have the background to understand and fully appreciate Grendel.

Grendel gives a whole new prespective to the story. You are suddenly sympathizing not with the hero, but the monster. Gardner creates a strong character with whom you are able to sympathize with depsite his violent actions. At some points during reading them I even began to understand his reasoning. Gardner ties in many aspects including hyprocrisy and xenophobia, which is very similar to what Grendel faces. Everyone sees him as a monster and runs away in fear, but all he really wants is a friend. Gardner, along with many other ideas, constantly questions what it means to be human, and where the line is between human and monster. His character is fascinated by human, and of some human descent himself, but everyone calls him a monster. At times Grendel shows many human traits such as compassion that aren't necessarily obvious in some of the humans. Although he is violent and gruesome the Vikings are equally so. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has read Grendel, anyone who has every been lonely, and anyone who enjoys monsters, and the complexity of what makes us human.