A winning reality-bending, creepy story

⭑⭑⭑⭑  You know what it's like when you are start a book and have no idea where it will take you? A Cosmology of Monsters was like that for me. Intrigued by the description and the gorgeous cover I thought I would give it a go. Why not read something mildly creepy during lockdown? I love Halloween as much as the next guy plus it's a good chance for me to break away from WWII, my default lockdown genre. Win - win.

Oh! What a book. This novel held me transfixed by the other-worldliness of its gently menacing text. Reading it was just like walking through a house of horrors. You are perpetually on edge, looking out for scary creatures tucked in dark corners. The balance between anxiety and the potential for fear is in your throat. I was suspended in this feeling for the majority of the book. It was delicious having no clue what was around the corner. There was a moment when I applied the brakes because the twist was not creepy, as such, but unsettlingly inappropriate. But, moving beyond it and into the novel where it was explained made it a bit more palatable...a bit.

I am going nowhere near describing the plot. I shall just say that Noah won my heart. Both as a neglected 6 year old and throughout his teens and adulthood. An excellent character whose encounter with monsters was preordained as a brilliant idea for a novel. Loved it and the sense of escapism it instilled.