A Cosmology of Monsters

Writing a novel is hard. Writing a first novel is presumably very hard. Shaun Hamill might have bitten off more than he could chew by trying to make a very complex novel out of his first go. The first 2-3 chapters are exellent, exciting and almost perfect, then the book falls off steeply. Noah is just not interesting or sympathetic like the first part of this novel's POV characters, and Hamill cannot yet write a romance that I care about. While this is nominally a horror, it's really a supernatural family drama. The ending is incredibly pasted on, and everything just kind of happens because the book is running out of space. Hamill does have promise, though, so I'll check out his other books... in a little while.

As is fairly common for me when reading a horror novel, I enjoyed the reading of the majority of this book and then it kinda fell apart for me at the end. Something about the big, final “battle” or whatever of the horror plot always just leaves me feeling....like I missed something? Or something more needs to happen?

Anyway, mostly quite enjoyable book about a boy who discovers his family has been generationally haunted by a particular monster.

A lot of the buzz around this one talks about HP Lovecraft, and to be honest, I think that's a little misleading. While it shares that sense of reality not being what we think, the horror here is as much intimate as it is cosmic, and the book is far better written and interested in character than anything that Providence misanthrope ever managed. It's certainly rooted in classic American horror, with nods to King, haunted house rides and Anne Rice as well as old Howard Phillips, but it sits aside from that world. It's a quiet, odd, melancholy, book, with something of the off kilter fairy tale quality of Jonathan Carroll. It's not a brutal gorefest, and you could have an argument about if there's even a villain, but in the end, it's a book that got under my skin, and I think it'll linger there.

I feel so spoiled having read a book this complex, well written, and downright mesmerizing.

Moving, extraordinarily readable play on horror/weird tropes. Multi decade family story with monsters, murders, inter dimensional travel, and backyard haunted houses. Hamill is one to keep an eye on.

This book is wonderful. There is such a crispness to the writing and depth to the threads of story woven in this magical, monstrous dark tale. A literary gem that just happens to be creepy and fun and filled with heart, too. I enjoyed this immensely and I am still marveling at the ways that Hamill was able to tease out not only the significance in the small moments but the sweetness that often is lurking beneath surface horrors. I loved it.