Ghost Ships and Mash-Ups: Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

Humans have found their way into space and travel has become as commonplace as taking a drive cross country (albeit far more expensive). The Demeter is a spaceship and all she wants is to get her passengers to their destination safely. However, every time she awakens, she finds her crew and passengers dead or under threat. With the help of Dr. Steward, the medical AI, she tries to discover why she has become a ghost ship. With a cast of characters that spans the Monster universe, Demeter and Dr. Steward work to discover who kicked off these horrible murders and keep their charges alive. 

Welcome to Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove. 

The Demeter, the Cursed Ship, taking back her life was not on my 2025 Reading Bingo Card

In case it wasn’t obvious, this book takes Bram Stoker’s Dracula and mashes it with the movie “The Monster Squad” (minus the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and with a touch of HP Lovecraft). It’s a story about found family and how appearances might be deceiving - quite literally in some cases. It also talks about the lengths some companies will go through to not lose money (which shouldn’t come as a surprise). Dr. Steward is the slightly less murderous version of G.L.A.D.O.S. with a medical degree.

Growing up, “The Monster Squad” was one of my favorite movies and the parallels between this book and that movie are numerous. One aspect is the fact that the kids were ignored by the adults until it was too late to do anything. Demeter and Dr. Steward filed multiple reports that were likely never read because they are AIs. It isn’t helped by the fact that others attempted to cover up what happened (and that some of the legends about vampires held true). 

I loved the way this book read. The changing viewpoints based on the expanding group of characters, the introduction of Truelove’s version of classic monsters, and the way the story twists and becomes more horrific the more you looked at it, made it such an enthralling read. Not only that, but in a lot of ways, it shows that the greatest threat is humanity and the way they keep blinders on to things outside of their experience. A lot of people knew that the Demeter was an older, obsolete AI/spaceship model, but simply fudged the paperwork to get her back in the air, leaving her open to all kinds of potential vulnerabilities. The cruelty came from those people and from other, much newer ships (which makes sense when you think that AI can “learn” from experience, which includes their passengers). 

I recommend this book if you are a fan of Murderbot and you like new takes on older stories. 

So remember, when you have reached the outskirts of knowable space and there is a creak behind you where no one is supposed to be, I shall be there, whispering a new recommendation in your ear, should you need it.