I'll Be the Monster

'With shades of Highsmith, I'll Be the Monster goes dark and then darker still as it follows a young couple on an ill-fated trip which forces them into a reckoning with their past. In taut, lyrical prose Gilbert forces the reader to the edge of the abyss, though shows glimmers of compassion in the horror below. I couldn’t look away' Harriet Tyce, author of Witch Trial

‘Gilbert’s narrative voice is cool and superbly controlled, overlaying a filter of nihilism on a twisted young couple’s glossy Turkish vacation. Reading this daring novel is like watching a cat toying with its prey before the kill – it is as if the elitist indolence of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History met the millennial malaise of Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico’ Aube Rey Lescure, author of River East, River West

'I'll be the Monster is a virtuoso debut. A gripping plot, brilliant dialogue, completely real characters and very, very funny. It's hard to know what more you could ask for' Aidan Cottrell-Boyce, author of The End of Nightwork

'The White Lotus meets My Sister, the Serial Killer: I’ll Be The Monster is a menacingly funny, daring debut that deserves a spot at the top of every 2026 TBR pile. With humour so biting and unease this sun soaked, this brilliantly vile pager turner cements Sean Gilbert as a bold new voice in literary fiction' Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb

‘Dazzling. Gilbert’s extraordinary prose will take an emphatic hold of you until the last page’ Julia Raeside, author of Don't Make me Laugh

‘Sexy, seductive and very, very dark, I’ll Be the Monster takes you deep into the company of people you don’t want to be with and yet cannot resist’ Andrew Cowan, author of Your Fault