The Science of Monsters

     Matt Kaplan's Medusa's Gaze and Vampire's Bite is a book exploring, quite literally, the science of monsters. Kaplan uses numerous sources, all of which are real, scientific research, to put together a novel that seems to touch on every monster humans have ever created. This book explains, to the best of Kaplan's ability, the origins of monsters ranging from Chimera to aliens. In my opinion, it is endlessly entertaining and interesting. Matt Kaplan found a perfect balance between scientific facts and his own, hilarious, sarcastic comments to inform readers yet entertain them at the same time. 
     Throughout the book, Kaplan investigates the relationship between these monsters and humans. As he inspects each monster he always explains how and why humans invented them and the reasons why they are or are not still frightening to the people of the modern day. For me, an extreme lover of science, the stories about the monsters and the reasons behind them were fascinating; I could barely put the book down. What is even better is the way Kaplan concluded the novel. Since it did not actually have a story line he had many options in how to conclude; luckily, he seemed to pick the best. Matt Kaplan explored one last monster: humans. He explained how, over the centuries, it seems as if humans have begun to take on the role of the real monsters until, finally, in the 2009 movie Avatar humans did, in fact, become the true monsters. This left me to ponder the role of humans today and, as any good scientist seems to want to do, left me with many, many questions. Medusa's Gaze and Vampire's Bite was a phenomenal, informative book that, in the end, left you with the question: who are the real monsters in the world?