Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Great book. I loved reading it. Very interesting and covers alot of information

DNF - wasn’t for me, sorry. I couldn’t get into it at all...the writing style was difficult and I just couldn’t follow it 🙁

This is without doubt a very strange book. It’s surreal and horrifying, with an excellent opening chapter. After that things go downhill a bit, and I soon found myself confused as to what was going on and what I was supposed to make of it. The author writes good prose, but I found the deluge of weird events bewildering and I’m afraid that spoiled my enjoyment of the book

Review for publication elsewhere.
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There's clearly a dark European fairy tale element to Brian Catling's Earwig, one even that may be indebted to a certain type of surreal East European cinema. There's a sense that classic tropes have been imaginatively reworked for our times, for a modern audience, with a hint of Kafka and dark heart of war colouring if not directly influencing the narrative. There may indeed be more to the work than it being a delightfully Gothic nightmare, but if there is it's not laid out in any obvious manner.

On the surface the situation described in Earwig at least fits a fairy-tale narrative pattern familiar to one extent or another from Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard; the story featuring a beautiful young girl who is held captive by an ugly cruel tyrant. Will a prince come and save her? Well, although one bold young blackmarket urchin Pedric recognises the situation as that of a "maiden imprisoned by an ogre", he's perhaps not the saviour you might be expecting.

Nor indeed is the situation entirely in keeping with familiar tropes, since the girl, Mia, is being held in grand house in Liège for an unusual reason, her saliva captured from her toothless mouth, put into rubber moulds to create frozen teeth. The purpose of this exercise isn't entirely clear, but Aalbert Scellinc has been employed to be her guardian for the last three years of her captivity. There's little contact between the man and the child, Aalbert - gifted with an ultra-sensitive hearing ability that can even detect shifts of mood that has earned him the nickname Earwig - preferring to listen in on the girl in her room.

For three years this arrangement has been without incident - Aalbert even finding time to let off steam drinking heavily at a sinister club called Au Metro - but one day Aalbert's employers contact him and tell him to prepare to bring the girl to Paris, and - along with a rather disturbing incident that subsequently takes place at Au Metro - it throws everything into turmoil.

Although there are some references to Aalbert's horrific experiences as a 'listener' during the way that add a further dark surreal character to the story, I don't think there's anything more to Earwig than it being a strange little fairy-tale, but like many fairy-tales it taps rather into dark corners of the human psyche - fear, guilt, innocence certainly all sentiments more palpable in the post-war years, not to mention a sense of body horror. That mood is pervasive throughout the short novel, made visible even in dark creatures like cats and swarms of fleas, in sinister nightclubs with Satanic visitors and in cities, cities here that particularly have an affinity with death in their histories.

What Earwig clearly does have however is some beautiful creative prose ("a tendril of vengeance had swollen into a tentacle of revenge") that is capable of capturing those undercurrents and putting them into poetic imagery and sinister figures. For such a short work, from an author (Catling is foremost known as a sculptor) responsible for the expansive Vorrh trilogy, there is nonetheless purposeful progression and extension out into other disturbing incidents, characters and places, not so much leading towards a typically fairy-tale ending as much as accumulating a catalogue of human horrors and fears.

Earwig, by Brian Catling, is a paranormal fantasy set in historical England, though the period is not confirmed in the book. The main character, Herr Aalbert Scellinc, has been enlisted to care for a young girl, Mia, who has an obsession with teeth. He also has an acute sense of hearing, which is described throughout the story as being a gift. This features in the story’s detailed description of Aalbert’s past and how he finds himself in the duty of Mia’s care.

The story goes on to describe a complex and somewhat disturbing relationship between Aalbert and Mia. At the beginning, he has no understanding or desire of the need for human contact, often treating Mia like a robot or a limp ragdoll. Catling makes a real attempt at highlighting their dysfunctionality as people and how, in many ways, this seems to bring them together. Later in the story, Mia comes to develop a strong attachment to Aalbert which borders on romantic. This implies a chronic lack of physical affection which, as the story highlights, Aalbert is unused to giving or receiving. He is characterised as an isolated, selfish man whose best interests do not extend from his own.

This is changed by the introduction of a cat, which is delivered to the house unannounced. It turns out to be the companionship that Mia has been craving, but Aalbert takes an immediate dislike to it and plots out ways of killing it. However, his attempt is unsuccessful and the cat continues to provide a source of warmth and comfort in Mia’s life until eventually, she is dispatched by Aalbert to a different source of care.

I found this book difficult to review. The plot is complex and engaging to begin with, but goes off into a lot of different directions and leaves the reader feeling a little confused. New characters are introduced abruptly and the story often goes into great detail on previous events, which sometimes became a little tiresome to read. I often found myself re-reading sections to check there was nothing I had missed.

However, the story did keep me reading until the end and there were some parts of the story I could really sympathise with, namely Mia and her dysfunctional relationship with human affection. It is highlighted at the end of the story when she is introduced to people who are to become responsible for her care and speak to Aalbert with an attitude of disdain.

In my opinion, I think the book needs to focus more on the central characters and lose some of the back story. It would make the story-telling much more effective and the plot easier to follow. This was a weird, interesting read and I would read it again purely to see if my own understanding of the story improved the second time around.

A weird, atmospheric and enthralling book that made me think of surrealism.
it's not a book I would define entertaining but I couldn't put it down as I was fascinated by the characters and the plot.
I liked the style of writing and i liked the character development.
It was a good reading experience.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This book holds many layers. It tells a story in symbolisms and with surrealistic elements. It is part general fiction, historical fiction as well as part of it might be nonfiction as well.

It is the story of Aalbert Scellinc or Earwig and Mia who get set up in a moment of stasis in a third floor apartment in Liege. And then one drop falls down into their stagnant pond of routine and a story unfolds that touches Aalbert, Earwig and Mia as well as quite a few other people during the course of this 16o pages novella.

This is a book, at least in my perception about our emotional bodies and the hurts they take by traumatisation or by actual physical disfigurement and how healing or at least a new balance might be found.

It raises questions of who actually draws the strings in any ones life. It also touches down on questions of the definition of good and evil and what is good or evil if you are not master in your own home?

This book made me try to figure out things as it did not present me with many immediate answers. It made me chuckle at times and the train journey, that one I loved the most.

First, I was disappointed with its ending. Until I realised the reason why I was disappointed, and how many strong links, likings and dislikings I had formed to the characters within the story over the journey of this book, and then I started to consider how the author built this characters, and I am in awe with the mastery of words he has. The book, as mentioned is only 16o pages long. And it is packed full with many moments that draw you into interaction, try to make you think, but also leave you to your own conclusions. And that is something I have seldom come across in recent readings.

Meanwhile I suspect that the conclusion is possibly even more fitting than I currently can make out.

I appreciate very much to have been gifted with an eARC of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. And although this book is not for everybody, I am sure it will find the readers that need to find it, and thank you, Brian Catling, for writing this book that makes me think for myself and also amongst many other things makes me dwell on one book for a little bit longer than consumer oriented reading tastes currently allow for. This is a book to be savoured and to be read more than one time. Most definitely.

This is an oddly bizarre short novella by Brian Catling with its chilling undertones of horror, primarily set in Liege, with a train journey to Paris. Herr Aalbert Scellinc is responsible for the care of his strange charge, the young drooling girl Mia, whose teeth of ice need replacing after they melt. There is only the two of them in the apartment, humming with the sounds of a newly acquired more powerful refrigerator. He feels the frustrations and torment of his hypocritical, if diligent, subservience that has him launching multilingual loud swearing sessions. Aalbert is named the eponymous Earwig for his extraordinarily astute hearing that was instrumental in keeping him alive during WW2. He acquired his current role after answering a recruitment advert that was less than clear what the job was precisely.

To get some respite from his duties, he sedates Mia to visit the Au Metro bar to drink and be amongst others. On one such visit he meets a stranger who knows all about him and his past that leaves him unsettled and disturbed. Is it the devil? Certainly what follows seems to have been engineered by him, as Earwig seriously assaults Celeste and runs away. He experiences further agitation and apprehension at being commanded to accompany Mia on a train to Paris, Mia who has never ventured out of the apartment and clings to him. The arrival of a cat that forms a close bond with Mia is a weird and threatening presence. Where did it come from? This is for those readers who enjoy off kilter, understated dark fantastical horror. Many thanks to Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC.

I received a free copy from Netgalley to review, here is the blurb

"Earwig got his nickname from his grandfather.

At the start of this story he is employed to look after a strange little girl in a flat in Liege. He spies on her, listens to her by holding a glass up to the wall.

But he never touches her except when, as part of his duties, he is required to is to make teeth of ice and insert them in her gums.

Earwig takes a rare day off, which he spends drinking by himself in Au Metro, a seedy bar full of drunks, dancers and eccentrics. It is St Martin's day and in the evening as crowds parade through the street carrying lanterns through the snow, he is drawn reluctantly into a conversation with a sinister stranger called Tyre. As a result Earwig accidentally maims a waitress with a broken bottle. He understands that on some level Tyre meant this to happen.

Shortly afterwards a black cat is delivered to the flat, unasked for. The girl forms an immediate bond with it, but Earwig identifies it as the enemy.

Travelling across country by train, transporting the girl and her black cat, Earwig is increasingly caught up in a web of unfortunate and increasingly violent coincidences."

After reading the blurb I was quite excited to read this book even though it seemed a little weird and different to what I would normally read. From the blurb I thought the main part of the book would be about the train ride and the unfortunate coincidences when in fact this is a very small part of the book. I did enjoy the book to start with and thought it showed great potential although I have to confess I didn't always understand what was going on. However, the ending was a bit of a let down and I felt even more confused. Overall if you like the weird and way out you will probably enjoy this book but don't expect it all to make sense at the end, and if you do please explain it to me! I did like the photos in the book by the way.

I have read books by this author previously and have found them intriguing and enjoyable, I found this book somewhat confusing and deflated by the end,

Aalbert has an acute talent for listening, earning him the nickname 'Earwig' at a young age. Now he is much older and working in Liege (Belgium) as a carer for a young girl with a mechanical jaw and teeth made from her own frozen saliva. Following an altercation involving a broken bottle at a bar in the city, and then the arrival of a feisty, toothless cat, Aalbert and Mia leave Liege and journey by train to Paris (with cat in tow), supposedly at the behest of Mia's guardians.

This book is all kinds of bizarre, strange and downright odd with some very peculiar characters, including a sinister individual Aalbert meets down the pub who may or may not in fact be the devil. I enjoy a book that breaks away from the norm as much as the next weirdo, but Aalbert's voyeurism and deviant behaviour, particularly in the first half of the book, overshadowed what was otherwise a very original, intriguing, and surreal story.

A somewhat unpleasant and unsavoury read at times, but I didn't actually dislike the overall book. It won't be for everyone but fans of the bizarre might enjoy, though perhaps 'enjoy' isn't quite the right word to use. 3.5 stars

I’m not sure how to go about reviewing this book. Weird sums it up. Intriguing yes, bewildering most definitely. It was lacking in momentum and it lacked structure. However I liked the main tortured character, the atmosphere that was conjured up and the yes the weirdness.