The Complete Monster Exchange Program

Review by: AJ Murphy on March 24, 2013 :
while I didn't love the book, it was somewhat enjoyable. as a collection of short stories, it is worth reading...

Review by: Anais Zavala on March 24, 2013 :
I really wanted to love this book. Maybe I would have ten years ago when it was more relatable. It had a lot of things I didn't expect. I wasn't bothered by the amount sex. It was typical for a teenager targeted book, crass but not erotica and I understand that. Overall, I thought this book needed to be longer. It needed more details. I found myself wanting to learn more about some of the characters and for some I just wasn't invested enough to really care about their "stuggles".

Review by: dlg dlg on March 8, 2013 :
Well things have come a long way since Tom Brown's school days.While our English and History teachers may have accepted us reading Enid Blyton and Jean Plaidy respectively, it might be difficult for parents and teachers to approve of these books,but that would be short sighted, overlooking introducing girls and boys in particular to topics that matter to them, using a wide range of vocabulary and a psychedelic range of characters with accompanying illustrations. This series of stories have good crosslinkings between them despite different authors. However this did result in diversity in writing, with Bigfoot gets noticed being my least favourite story.
Some typos that would need attention at locations. 334 pair/854 versus/949 snugly/1787 Rod for Cleats/3076 thatshe /4283 Bart for Brett

Review by: Tabby on March 7, 2013 :
An interesting comedy compilation of high school monster misfits. All of the short stories included in this collection are decent, although some outshine the others.

LT Member Giveaways
[author:Terri Bogard|5781886]
[book:The Monster Exchange Program (the complete series) eBook version|15844572]

Review by: norma peruzzotti on Dec. 26, 2012 :
At the beguining of the reading I was feeling some discomfort because of the characters and the enviroment of them.
But as I peroused deeply in the book I begun to enjoy the acrid taste of its irony and the slashing critic of the establishment that really exists in our High schools nowadays.The characters are well depicted, clearly showing the big ammount of feelings playing, the diversity and the fighting attitude which are a trade mark of teen age people.
i do not like much some crude expressions and facts but I understand that nowadays, pitifully,are common language and situations for our youth(and also to not so young people).
Interesting and strong gritic of our time.I enjoyed it

Review by: Byron Troutman II on Dec. 26, 2012 :
Def for a young tween audiance I found the entire thing to be a huge waste of my time.The entire book jumped around between different charcters and tried to tie them all together without much sucess.

Sorry Terri but you wanted an honest review not just a kiss up this was a def. try again

Review by: Lee Ashford on Dec. 25, 2012 :
I reviewed this book some months ago, but neglected to post a review here on Smashwords. So here I go!

This is an anthology of short, vaguely connected stories about a high school which has a "Monster Exchange Program" in lieu of a "Foreign Exchange Student Program". All the monsters are mostly benign, and well liked by the "normal" students. Each story in this collection is about a specific monster interacting in some manner typical of an average stereo-typical high school student. Most of the stories include several laugh out loud circumstances, while being patently absurd at the same time.

I really enjoyed this collection. The more of it I read, the more I liked it. The style of humor takes a little getting used to, probably because as 'grown-ups' we no longer participate in, or even stumble across situations like these, and we have to get over being adults before we can let down our hair and admit that we find humor in such puerile stunts.

I actually downloaded these stories individually, as they were available for free. The first one I read didn't really strike me as particularly funny, but it was enough to get me to download another, and another, etc. Each reading struck me as being funnier than its preceding story, but I honestly think that was a reflection of my own mental slide to more puerile days. Once they were assembled as a complete book, several additional, previously unavailable tales were included, making it necessary for me to download the collection.

This book should be enjoyed by just about everybody who doesn't take himself too seriously. That's a real shame, too, because the people who take themselves too seriously are really the people who SHOULD read it, and lighten up a bit!

I give this the full five stars, for originality, and for daring to go where "normal" adults would fear to tread. Plus, it was really funny.

Review by: M K on Dec. 24, 2012 : (no rating)
The following review is based on the ebook edition of "The Complete Monster Exchange Program" from a librarything.com giveaway.
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The Complete Monster Exchange program is a comedic anthology of interconnected stories centering around human and "monster" (read: anything vaguely sentient that isn't human) students in a high school with a "monster exchange program." For the most part, the book is hilarious, creative and laughably ridiculous, but there were also times when I found it so outrageous that I had to force myself to keep reading.

I loved the concept and much of the ludicrous humor (it's really a shame that you don't see this kind of funny in most books), but it really was too outrageous at times, and I wasn't particularly keen on the abundance of sex-related dialogue.

I would probably recommend this book to readers in their late teens (16+) who think it might be fun to share a school with a bunch of monsters (I certainly do!) and are interested in a farcical twist on typical high school stories.

Review by: Georgia on Dec. 18, 2012 :
Vampires are Perverts and Detention Will Rob You Of Your Mind

The Complete Monster Exchange Program by Terri Bogard is a collection of humorous stories about monsters in an average, human high school. There are sixteen tales in total, ranging from two serial killers debating which one of them should have the rights to a popular teen spot, the lament of the invisible boy or Bigfoot desperately wanting people to notice him, these stories are quirky and full of comedic moments. Terri Bogard seems to especially enjoy turning our views on their sides. An example would be with a witches' mother, whose worried her daughter doesn't dress enough like a "whore of Satan" and that she'll be uncorrupted at a normal high school. Something we can all relate to, right?

There are a lot of sexual references in pretty much every one of these stories, so if that's not for you I'm giving due warning. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I got a little laugh out of the creative names for characters, such as Johnny Heartthrob and Darla Sweetheart- the generic prom king and queen couple, Cleats Longshot as the quarterback or Snaps Viewfinder- the captain of the yearbook committee.

Some of the stories intertwine, while still being consistent and it's fun to see how some of the characters from previous stories turn out in later ones or are viewed by other people. Each tale has its own cover illustration (courtesy of Andi Bogard) and a few stories are written by guest writers (including one by Andi Bogard himself).

This collection is funny, has some interesting alternate takes on reality and goes out of its way to be so stereotypically "high school" that you can't help but enjoy it. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh, likes "slice of life" stories or supernatural/paranormal tales. There are some interesting takes on urban legends that are not to be missed.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This is not a sponsored review. All opinions are 100%my own.

Review by: Bob Pombrio on Dec. 9, 2012 : (no rating)
Very enjoyable.