Nothing bad ever happens in Bridlington, not under the watchful eye of police Captain Reilly and his model-citizen son, Caleb. No kids get hurt, ostracized, or killed, and those who dare say otherwise, like the town outcasts Paz Espino and Beetle Hoang, deserve to disappear themselves. At least, that’s what the town’s monster wants you to believe. It clouds the minds of townsfolk, and encourages them to drive away newcomers, turns a blind eye to the vulnerable, bullies those who don’t fit cookie-cutter, heteronormative ideals, and places the blame for all that is wrong with the town squarely on the shoulders of a little girl. 

After her friend dies at the hands of the monster, it is 11-year-old Paz and her lively gang of misfits who finally decide to rid Bridlington of its monster, not letting anything, not even death, stand in their way.

Told from the perspectives of multiple characters spanning across six years, Matteo L. Cerilli’s debut, Lockjaw, sinks its teeth into readers with a compelling horror mystery and refuses to let go. By inhabiting the minds of characters on both sides of law, readers are forced to confront the monster hiding within themselves, and evaluate their own ignorance and complicity in the face of social injustice. Circumstances at times feel hopeless, as characters deal with the difficult issues of transphobia, abuse, survivor trauma, and prejudice. Nonetheless, just like Paz and her friends, the novel charges defiantly forward, refusing to slow down until the undefeatable monster is finally defeated.

Cerilli’s powerful, confrontational voice refuses to let readers feign ignorance in the presence of oppression, but the novel’s real strength lies in its ability to show how blurred the lines between justice and cruelty can become. Characters we root for are, at times, brutal in their actions, and characters we loathe show glimmers of redemption. At its core, Lockjaw sees the world for the hostility it holds for queer and oppressed people, but it also sees the infinite strength and wisdom of children and their capacity to create meaningful change. When the monster thrives among the living who weaponize conformity and apathy, it’s up to some children with undead faces but the most human spirits to finally kill the monster in us all.