Rick Riordan, in his novel “The Lightning Thief,” states that “The real world is where the monsters are.” The monsters do not need to be extraterrestrial; Monsters can be found anywhere and everywhere. A person may become monsterized due to misunderstanding, social isolation, or extreme desire to be popular. In "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter," Tom Franklin exposes the real monsters of Chabot, Mississippi. It is not Larry Ott but rather Carl, Cecil, Silas and Wallace who are the real monsters of the novel. The story of the deception begins right at Larry's house. Larry's father, Carl, is neither a good husband nor a good father. He had an affair with their maid and a child with her. The discovery of the image of a "black woman with little Larry on her lap at the bottom of an old shoe box in Larry's house" (Franklin 100) reveals the mystery of that maid associated with Carl and Larry being Silas' half-brother. The fact that Larry was “whipped with a belt” (Franklin 51) demonstrates his ugliness towards his son. Furthermore, he is also responsible for Silas's deprivation of his father's love. Likewise, the other monster in the novel would be Cecil Walker. He was more of a monster than a stepfather to Cindy, because he was brutal and violent towards her. Once, at a New Year's Eve party, he throws a bottle rocket at her and it explodes against her back. He also never missed an opportunity to sexually abuse her, alone or in the presence of someone else, such as trying to pull her towel when she came out of the shower. “He always does this kind of shit,” he says. he had said. “Trying to see me without clothes, he came stumbling into the bathroom with his thing in his hand. He does it when he's drunk, acts like he doesn't remember when... middle of paper... gets books, guns wrong, and has a monstrous mask. After his date with Cindy, Larry, an ordinary boy from a lower-middle-class white family, is no longer ordinary; he is infamous around town as "Scary Larry" and is always the first to be suspected in cases of crime. In conclusion, what we see is not always the truth. It takes a lot of effort to recognize the "real" monster masked behind an innocent face. A criminal mind does not distinguish between right and wrong; does not respect any ties of blood or friendship. A whisper of suspicion screams louder than any words of praise in one's life. In the novel, the blind society that monsterized the innocent Larry also let the real monsters live without fear and dignity in the same city. Reference Franklin, Tom. Crooked letter, crooked letter. New York: William Morrow, 2010. Print.