David's grandfather is gone. Did he die, or just disappear? Will David find him? Why are his parents hiding the truth?

What is going on?

I had trouble figuring it out, and I honestly didn't enjoy the journey. I'll chalk it up to this just not being the right book at the right time. Or, the right book for me.

Overall this was just a mess for me. Hard to follow, kind of rambling and weird.This book sadly, just did not work for me. I found the book to be too slow and too confusing to really ever get into what was happening to the characters. I took me a while longer to finish than what I’m normally used to as I just couldn’t find the drive to continue with the story.

I... don't really know what to make of this one. It was more like experiencing a nightmare than reading a novel, which I usually enjoy but it just felt like it didn't fully commit to the departure from typical novel plot/structure/etc. I felt genuinely unhappy and disturbed the entire time, but this was paired with frustration and confusion for about the last 25%, which kind of ruined the effect. I love an unreliable narrator, and the protagonist's gradual(ish) break from reality drew me in. I just wish the beginning of the novel hadn't framed it as more of a straightforward weird mystery that would eventually be solved.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want to read a psychological horror book with an unreliable narrator that is commentary on the impacts of familial grief and undiagnosed mental illness? Are you willing to be confused until the very end of the book?

Pre-reading:
This cover haunts me. An instant pickup. Did I read the blurb? No. Do I have any idea what this book is about? Not a clue. The cover inexplicably gives vampire to me, but it’s probably not about vampires.

Thick of it:
Oh, this book said you’re gonna be confused the whole time.

I smell an unreliable narrator and some mental health commentary coming down the pipeline.

God, I hope this book is not aliens. (We are safe.)

Aw, I have a border collie.

Is he like autistic or somethin? (Fo sho)

I’m assuming Emily is gonna go missing which is why he goes to Mothtown? (Wrong.)

It’s weirdly giving he’s in love with his sister and it’s giving me the ick.

How many times has this book used the word alien?

I would DNF. It’s too confusing and punishing.

Kurta

Cassock

I don’t like this book. It’s so punishing to the reader.

A Sam!

I like this chapter. Why isn’t this the whole book? It reminds me of a video game cut scene, but I don’t know what video game. Cyberpunk? Detroit Become Human? (Chapter 10.)

Oh god, he’s a bat boy lol. SJM, sit down.

Ocarina

It’s giving unreliable narrator in an insane asylum with orderlies. (Yupppp)

This book is incoherent

She’s not your manic pixie dream girl, you fucking incel.

I don’t know how this book fits in with trans commentary. It’s coming across a little icky. It’s almost making transness an online phenomenon.

Homeboy made a fur suit.

Detritus sin

Post-reading:
Y’all this book is a mess.

I get that it’s going for an unreliable narrator and mental health commentary, but it is incoherent and punishing to the reader. If you read this, you are asked to sit through almost 300 pages to figure out what’s going on, but it’s such an unoriginal plot that you’ll have a suspicion of what’s going on from the get-go, so the resolution isn’t even rewarding when you finally come to it. If you like Black Mirror or if you regularly consume this kind of psychological horror short story, chances are you’ve read this book, and you’ve already read a way better version.

Some of the commentary and conclusions that this book came to feel a bit ablest and transphobic. I doubt that that was the intention. The relationship with his sister comes off weirdly incestuous.

A lot of the horror details seem like they’re added just for shock value. Things are described as eerie and othered for no real reason other than building atmosphere. It’s not effective. The book can’t decide if it wants to scare you, or if it wants you to figure out what the narrator is actually seeing. It exaggerates the current mental health crisis into a dystopia, but then doesn’t really have anything to say about it. It felt like the big conclusion of the book was that talk therapy will set you free. That’s not true for everyone, and it’s irresponsible to push that message.

The book’s prose feels repetitive and monotonous. That might be the point so that it can emphasize the main character’s mindset, but it’s miserable to read.

There is one chapter in this book that I really enjoyed, and it felt like a video game cut scene. The book’s stylistic imagery was used effectively. It was very obvious what was happening and what was delusion. I think it benefited because there was actually dialogue for once, instead of endless internal monologuing. Which again, may have been a very pointed narrative element because the main character struggles with communication, but it’s a punishment to read.

This book has a time jump that makes no sense. We needed the details of the years in between, or we could’ve cut plenty of the scenes from his childhood.

The book just fundamentally didn’t work for me. It was too preoccupied with trying to be mysterious and edgy. If it wanted to be dystopian, I needed more clear-cut world-building. If it wanted to focus more on the family drama, I needed more dialogue. If it wanted to be horror, I needed something to actually scare me and give the book stakes. I’ve read this kind of story before, and this iteration had nothing meaningful to contribute to the conversation.

Who should read this:
Psychological horror fans who are okay with punishing books

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid-psychological horror, New England gothic, unreliable narrator. What this book wishes it was.
* We Spread by Iain Reid-psychological horror, dementia and Alzheimer’s commentary, unreliable narrator
* Foe by Iain Reid-sci-fi psychological horror, clones, unreliable narrator
* Shark Heart by Rebecca Habeck-magical realism, dementia and degenerative disease horror
* Our Wives Under the Sea-deep sea horror, grief and degenerative disease commentary
* Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth-unreliable narrator, campy, kooky, femme horror
* American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis-OG psychological horror and societal misogyny commentary

I struggled so much getting through this. When I first started reading I was impressed by the language, the writing style, because the descriptions were very beautiful. I also loved David's perspective as a child, especially the description of his relationship with his grandfather. Their relationship and interactions were just so well written, I could feel the warmth and love between them. I thought that generally, throughout the whole thing, the exploration on grief was well done. It was quite painful (in a good way) to see everyone handling (or not handling) the loss of a loved one. I also liked the illustrations scattered throughout the story, very beautiful. That is where my praises end, however.
I absolutely hated every time the story switched to the "AFTER" pov. The writing was still beautiful in itself, but nothing made any sense. I sometimes had to just skim and move on because I would get so frustrated with it. The BEFORE and AFTER chapters do "catch up" to each other, but not until we're around 80% through the book, and up until that point every single AFTER chapter was excruciating to get through. There is also a huge time-skip, where David goes from 10 or 11 years old to 26. We have no idea what really went on with him during all those years, but it clearly changed him. After the time-skip, the BEFORE chapters are way less enjoyable too. There was just too much going on, and so many things that are not explained. I am afraid that maybe I am just too dumb to get the symbolism or whatever, but that's how it is, I understood nothing. Towards the VERY END of the book, things started to pick up speed SO fast, but it didn't feel natural. It felt more like: I am about to hit my page-limit/deadline and I haven't written the ending yet.
I don't want to say that this is a bad book exactly, but it was not for me. Like I said, at first I really enjoyed the book, but the AFTER chapters + the huge time-skip disturbed the flow for me.

This is a unique and original story, but it is unfortunately not for me! I do not appreciate the writing, although others might love it.

Thank you NetGalley and Angry Robot for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Following a boy growing up who is haunted by the disappearance of his grandfather and the untold secrets of the town, David feels as if he is the only person who realises the truth behind what is happening. As the years go on, he begins to uncover these secrets. Packed full of addictive, bone-chilling mystery, this book is clever from start to finish.

I grew up with Chris Riddell and was overjoyed once I learned that this book contained his illustrations, which really brought the book to life.

This book was so good! It was intriguing and really drawed me in. I'll be reading more of this authors work.

David is growing up in a world where something is very badly wrong but everyone is protecting David from knowing what it is. People are going missing, bodies are showing up with wings, or bones in nests if you believe the rumours from the kids at school. David doesn’t really know because his parents turn off the news whenever he might get a handle on what is happening around him and his older sister just doesn’t seem interested in sharing.

I was intrigued by the blurb on ‘Mothtown’ - it’s dark and misty and perfect for the end of the year. We’re quickly introduced to our narrator and the book is split into ‘before’ and ‘after’ sections. In one, we follow a man running from something, towards somewhere - alone and hurt in a forest. In the other, we meet David and his family. His grandfather and he are close, and share a secret language. He’s also very clever, and researching something mysterious which David’s not allowed to know about as he’s too young. With his small family - mum, dad and sister, they live in a house on a street with mysteries. Flowers line the pavements and people come to visit, wearing black. Other people walk along the cul-de-sac carrying rucksacks, on a mission to who knows where.

As David grows up, his grandfather disappears in mysterious circumstances. Suddenly, and David doesn’t get to say goodbye - he’s convinced he’s not dead, but gone travelling. Trying to find that mysterious place where he’ll finally fit in. Where he’ll be home.
As we, as the readers, are reliant on David to tell us what’s going on, we can only know what we see through his eyes. He feels lonely, alone, out of place - especially without his grandad beside him. No-one understands him, his family think he’s weird and he never talks.

As the book progresses, we learn more about Mothtown, the doors to find it and what David can discover in his research. We also learn more about the modern problem - a kind of malaise affecting people across the city, perhaps the country and maybe even the world. The two are interlinked, in some way, and David finds himself drawn into both. His quest takes him to different places, such as strange houses with photos of missing people on the walls, forests and streams. He encounters different people too, describing them in a unique style which feels like a specific lens. He describes his sister in make up as ghoulish, frightening, which adds another layer of gentle horror.

There needs to be a trigger warning for part of the plot of this book, as there’re a few mentions of suicide attempts, of depression and some scenes in a mental health hospital.

“Mothtown” explores the line between mental and physical location in time and space. With David as narrator we can’t be sure that what is being described is what’s happening, is actually what’s happening. Alongside this, there’s some magical realism which lends another layer of horror - it’s not frightening, there’s no ‘bad guy’, but what David experiences is unsettling.

It’s no surprise that Hardaker has published a couple of poetry collections, and this is evident in the prose here. It’s lyrical and thoughtful, a deep excavation of the mind and the places it can take you if you don’t have the information you need to understand what’s happening. For me, this is a big part of the ‘message’, if there is one - ignorance is not bliss. It’s dangerous, it can make sad or scary things and illnesses mysterious and unknowable. It can lead someone away from help, towards loneliness and pain.

This is not an easy read, and it’s also not the story I thought it was going in - I don’t want to be too specific as I don’t want to spoil the narrative reveals - it’s a really insightful and quite beautiful novel. I’m looking forward to seeing what Caroline Hardaker does next.

Thanks to Angry Robot for the ARC and the opportunity to be on the Blog Tour!
˚

‘I used to think it strange that one place can be home to one person, but not to another. Grandad's office at the university was my cave.’
.
Putting Mothtown in just one category it would be unfair, its eerie writing style gives off a very unsettling feeling. Is it a horror, a mystery, a sci-fi or a daunting coming of age story? Or all of them?
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David doesn’t understand what’s happening - his parents keep him sheltered from the news, his sister refuses to tell him anything and when the one person who was always in his corner (his grandfather) is suddenly no longer around, his world changes irremediably. People keep disappearing and bodies are found in the most odd places, the darkness is there.
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'Ours was a village where the curtains never closed, but no one touched. '
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Thank you @angryrobots for the copy, I would definitely recommend this novel if you’re in the mood for a strange read that doesn’t disappoint.

*Mothtown is David's story, told through two time lines divided into Before and After; the death of his grandfather. Without warning, without goodbye, Grandpa is gone and the world around him starts to take on strange and unsettling shapes.

This is a surreal and unique horror fantasy that I found incredibly immersive. It’s core elements are mental health, generational trauma and grief. It’s dreamy and dystopian-like and falls into that “wtf did I just read” realm which is always a plus for me:)

It’s not every day that I can compare a new read to an old favourite — to me, this novel was very reminiscent of Stephen Kings Lisey’s Story (like Boo’ya Moon without the babyluv bits. IYKYK).

I found another ‘unputdownable’ read! A solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thanks to #netgalley @caroluna_writes_stuff @angryrobotbooks for the opportunity to be a part of the #mothtownblogtour

#mothtown #blogtour #arcreader #horrorfantasy #horrorreads #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #reader #vanlifereader

A great and eerie read ! I liked the steady creepiness of the story and the idea of another parallel

It's so weird that it's hard to review it. There's elements of different genres, there's echoes of other works and an excellent storytelling.
You have to read it if you want to know what this is story is
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

An incredibly draggy book that I spent more than two weeks reading, but I felt like I was going nowhere. Didn't enjoy it one bit.

Caroline Hardaker’s second novel, like the first, presents a challenging read. It asks the reader to keep critical faculties, human sympathy, and a healthy degree of scientific skepticism onboard as the story unfolds. It’s been described as a cross between horror and mainstream, but I don’t think it’s horror in the usual sense, any more than Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is. It might better be described as a psychological mystery. Whether the fantasy/science-fictional/surreal elements truly exist in Hardaker’s world or whether they are creations in the mind of the main character is, ultimately, a judgment call for the reader to make.

The story alternates between “After,” in which the adult protagonist races desperately through a sinister wilderness, and “Before,” looking back to his childhood. The “Before” section opens on an apparently dystopic world in which people go missing and floral tributes appear on all-too-many doorsteps and street corners. This is the first part of the mystery: What is going on? Are people really vanishing? If so, where are they going? If not, where are their bodies?

Although his parents try hard to protect him and his sister, ten-year-old David believes something more is going on. When his beloved grandfather--a Professor of Superstring Theory and Dark Matter Studies--disappears and his parents insist the old man is dead, David refuses to believe them. He becomes convinced that his grandfather has found a door into another world, a place he truly belongs. And David is determined to find such a world for himself.

David faces many difficulties in the ordinary world. He’s barely verbal, doesn’t pick up on social cues or interact with others, and seems oblivious to the feelings of others. His mother’s increasingly anxious about the “disappearances,” and despite this, David takes off on his own to visit the cemetary where his grandfather is buried. As a mother myself, I was furious at his lack of sensivity. Fortunately, Hardaker’s skill kept me reading long enough to ask the question, “What is going on with this kid?”

David is more than an unreliable narrator, although he is that, too, and herein lies the second part of the mystery. What, indeed, is going on with him? Can we trust anything he says about himself, the world, other characters, his grandfather—anything?

Can we read between and behind the lines to discover the real story?

==SPOILER ALERT==

About the time I was incensed with David’s insensitivity, I started noticing clues in his behavior, thoughts, and perceptions. At first, these clues were subtle and David didn’t seem all that different from any other shy, introverted child “on the spectrum.” Combining this with the half-truths and outright lies parents often tell their children under the pretext of “protecting them,” and the question of whether people are truly disappearing becomes even fuzzier. Early in the book, there’s a news report of the discovery of the bodies of twelve people who were reported missing, found on a mountainside with “unidentifiable scientific apparatus,” suggesting they were on the hunt for a “door,” and more references later. David’s “mudmen,” whom he believes to be on the brink of disappearance, could just as easily be ordinary strangers, disaffected and depressed by the “Modern Problem.” His grandfather’s seminal work, Hidden Worlds, which David takes as a roadmap, has been dismissed by his scientific colleagues as nonsense. As I went on, I began to question whether what David reported was indeed what was objectively true.

There’s a time jump to David as a young adult in his mid-20s. At first, it seems he is functioning better. He has a job and a girlfriend, even if he’s broken ties with his family, including the sister he once adored. But as new clues emerged, I came to question that picture. He watches his girlfriend in the shop across the street but never speaks to her, even about his desire to “go home.” I noticed instances of paranoid ideation, social isolation, and dissociation. Then, as David comes under the sway of an outright cult and decompensates progressively, malnutrition, self-harm, stealing, obssessive/compulsive behavior, and outright delusions became more and more prominent. For example, it turns out that not only is the girl not his girlfriend, but she’s taken out a restraining order against him. He walks away from his job, becomes progressively weaker as he starves, and lives in utter squalor, in a “coccoon” he’s constructed from materials stolen and scrounged, cemented together with his own blood. In the end, there was no doubt in my my mind what was going on. I was glad that his family does an intervention to get him into treatment and that there are hints he is at last willing to start talking.

I found the conclusion not only highly satisfying but filled with hope.

Thank you to Angry Robot and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a hard book to explain and it just feels like an acid trip. There is a lot of changing settings as we go through the book. David's grandpa is a professor at a university, people think they are birds, people are going missing. There is just a whole lot going on. We follow David's descent into madness and you struggle to understand what is real and what is in his mind.

“David is growing up in a world where something is very badly wrong but everyone is protecting David from knowing what it is. People are going missing, bodies are showing up with wings, or bones in nests if you believe the rumours from the kids at school. David doesn’t really know because his parents turn off the news whenever he might get a handle on what is happening around him and his older sister just doesn’t seem interested in sharing.

Most importantly for David the centre of his world – his grandfather – is gone. His parents say he is dead but why is his grandfather’s backpack and jumper missing from the house? Alongside this we have a man abandoned in a hostile landscape and trying out run nature itself to get back home with some information.”

This book was so magical and weird in the best way possible. The author, @caroluna_writes_stuff, describes it as genre bending and that’s exactly what it is. It’s a mix of horror, speculative fiction, sci-fi and fantasy. David is an amazing unreliable narrator and has you second guessing everything until the very end. The world he lives in is wild; people disappearing, finding doors to different worlds and blue pilgrims. I literally could not put this book down. If you are looking for something that is not the norm, I highly suggest this book

A huge thank you to the author @caroluna_writes_stuff, @netgalley for the eARC and @angryrobotbooks for my physical copy

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Angry Robot. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror, Adult Fantasy, Weird Fiction
Scare Factor: Low—this is more a book of body dysmorphia and uneasiness
Language: Lots of f-bombs (that automatically drops my rating because the frequency lessens the impact)

MOTHTOWN is a niche book, and the right demographic are going to love it! I was intrigued through the entire thing. Sections move back and forth through BEFORE & AFTER. This helped me to feel like it had a structure and was going somewhere.

Honestly, this one is ponderous. The prose is fairly stark, which works because following the changes David experiences takes a lot of imagination. The entire time, I was asking myself: *What is happening? Am I missing the point?* And I was saying: *I think I get it. Maybe I don't.* I finally wrote my question: *Can you outrun nature?* This seems pivotal—what are we running to or from, and is it possible to change who we are?

This is one where I want a book club discussion to see what others got out of it by the end. Themes that struck me: family, feeling separate, needing acceptance, othering, humanity.

I recommend this book.

Happy reading!

Who knew that grief and loneliness could be so beautiful?! Hardaker takes immense sadness and makes it lyrical in Mothtown.

I have to admit that I requested this one based on the cover. My brain said “Mothtown - Moths - Mothman” and I was hooked. There were definitely moths involved but this wasn’t the book I expected.

It took me a minute to get into this book because it’s not strictly plot driven. Mothtown feels like waking up from a dream and grasping at the little memories from it while you lay in bed scrunching your eyes up.

There was horror for sure, and the way the characters spoke of it was so nonchalant that it made me do a double and triple read at certain parts. I couldn’t even tell you the amount of times I said “wait - huh?!”

This one was scary in the way that it showed the world slowly slipping away into madness. Check this one out if you like horror, moths, beautiful writing, alternate dimensions, and basically solving puzzles as you read.

**Thank you to Angry Robot Books and Carolina Hardaker for the physical ARC and including me on this tour, and to NetGalley for the eARC!**

"Grandpa seemed to think a lot of things that made him feel things."
Mothtown came out yesterday, and this is such a strange novel it's hard to dissect what it's about, and even harder to pin my feelings down. David lives in a world where people disappear into a pile of skin and bones. No one knows what happens, but he wants to find out. His grandpa had theories, but once he disappears David is left weightless.
What follows is a movement in and out of David's world. He is unreliable and his family thinks he's going mad, but everything makes sense to him. 
The imagery is beautiful, the twists and turns David makes is fascinating, and the book leaves you questioning. It's my favorite type of genre sci-fi, melding nature into a mystery. But this book also felt long in parts and sometimes it felt like it couldn't find it's footing. Overall, if you're looking for weird, natural sci Fi with an unreliable narrator, check this one out!!!