With its depictions of demonic rites and illicit sexuality, The Monk ignited a firestorm of controversy. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote an impassioned but very mixed review of the novel; though he thought that some elements (such the characterization and plot) were genius, he found the novel to be uneven and disturbing. He concluded his review by declaring that The Monk is "a romance, which if a parent saw in the hands of a son or daughter, he might reasonably turn pale.”