I'll Be the Monster

'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

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A homicidal couple embarks on a luxury holiday to save their marriage.

After years of secrets and self-restraint, they’ve reached breaking point. But three days into the trip, they run into Benny, an acquaintance from their Cambridge days. And Benny is desperate to reminisce about a time – and a person – they would rather forget.

Darkly funny and razor-sharp, I’ll Be The Monster follows a dangerous game of cat and mouse as it plays out under the stifling heat of the Mediterranean sun. From a major new talent in literary fiction, this gripping debut is a love story about the worst people you know – and of what happens when a change of heart occurs too late.

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PRAISE FOR I'LL BE THE MONSTER

'A clammy story of obsession that recalls American Psycho and The Talented Mr Ripley... Their crumbling relationship drives this absorbing debut: the perfect surface, the curdled underbelly, the desperation and disdain' James Smart, Guardian

'With shades of Highsmith, I'll Be the Monster goes dark and then darker still... 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

'From the moment I read the opening of I'll Be The Monster I was gripped. An ingenious premise, backed up with pitch-perfect dialogue, arresting scenes, and a caustic humour... one of our most promising emerging writers' Sophie Mackintosh, author of Cursed Bread

‘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 Secret History met the millennial malaise of Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico’ Aube Rey Lescure, author of River East, River West

Sean Gilbert studied English at The University of Cambridge before pursuing the Creative Writing Master's at UEA. His non-fiction has appeared in Time Out, Metro, Theatre Full Stop and The Holborn and his short fiction has appeared in Storgy, Short Fiction, and Litro. He lives in London.