You read Shaun Hamill's debut as if it was written by Stephen King. Hamill's prose is interesting, realistic, exciting. I spent a few crazy days with the Turner family (Turner - what an amazing last name, what hints it contains!). I was wracking my brain, various theories were swirling around, and my eyes were popping out - all in the course of reading. What the hell has been happening in a small Texas town and who inhabits the head (body and soul?) of each of the Turners?..

"A Cosmology of Monsters" contains an incredible amount of everything: it is a love story, a strange case of teenage disappearances, a lovely and strange dysfunctional family and weird “horror houses” - a family obsession of the Turners! A couple of times I exclaimed - WTF!

There is an incredible amount of love and all types of love in the book - selfish, heart-breaking, sacrificial. Hamill loves his heroes and we, the readers, are infected with this love. The Turner family is beautiful and damned - or is it all a case of hereditary schizophrenia? Wouldn't that be a real curse!

There was a moment in the book, on page 291 of the American edition, when my breath caught in delight - what an ending! Sadly, it was not the end, the author considered it necessary to put everything in order and explain every little detail - which ruined the ending a bit (for me). But guys, this book truly deserves five stars (which I don't award), because this is a great book. Do you hear? THIS IS A GREAT BOOK!

PLEASE READ.

Unfortunately, I am unable to review this book as the formatting on the file makes it almost impossible to read. Sections of the book have sentences end mid way through, only to start again a few pages later, and in some places paragraphs seem to alternate between two different sections. As such I am out 20-25% into the book and the narrative begins to make no sense and I am unable to keep track of what is happening. If these are things that could be fixed I would love to be able to reread the book.