Mothtown by Caroline Hardaker 📖 Book Review

Warning: Potential Spoilers Ahead!

Hi guys!

One of my early Christmas presents this year was an Amazon Fire tablet! We got it in the mail the week of Thanksgiving, as we were watching Season 2 of Arcane, and from the moment it came I’ve been attached to it. We downloaded the Kindle app onto it almost immediately. It was nice to finally have an ereader again after years of fighting with my outdated Nook.

And when I say outdated, I mean outdated. I couldn’t even access the Barnes and Noble store on it anymore.

But anyway, after my tablet arrived and we got Kindle set up on it, the first book I bought was Mothtown. I read about it on Wikipedia not that long ago and it sounded exactly like something I would like! I was so excited to sit down and read it!

But you didn’t come here to hear me talk about my Kindle or my antique Nook that no longer works, you came here for the review of Mothtown by Caroline Hardaker! So let’s skip the recipe-post level preamble and get right into it!

“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 center 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.”

— Angry Robot

The Review

I didn’t know what I expected when I first got the book. A review I saw on Wikipedia about it said that it was like The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka mixed with Lisey’s Story by Stephen King, and since I love both Stephen King and Kafka I figured I couldn’t go wrong. But I wondered, what would a modern day Metamorphosis look like? And what would it look like mixed with Stephen King elements?

The answer, dear reader, is Mothtown.

Mothtown is a wild, totally unhinged story in all the best ways. It’s hard sometimes to do the kind of huge twist that we find in Mothtown, but Hardaker does it in such a way that I was genuinely surprised. I know I put a warning at the top of this post telling you that there would be spoilers, but I already feel bad enough telling you that much!

In my Thesis class, we’re learning about something called Deep POV. Basically, Deep POV is telling the story so deeply within the experience of the POV character that the narrator doesn't even seem to be present. Mothtown is a masterclass in how to use Deep POV correctly. We are so deep in David’s head that we really, truly see the world the way he sees it. It doesn’t feel like we’re reading a book, but instead experiencing the consciousness of this confused man as he grows up in a world that feels unstable and terrifying.

Really, my only issue with it is that there were a few glaring typos, but they were so few and far between that it didn’t detract that much. Really, it’s just an example of how even when a book is run through a professional editor some typos just find a way to survive.

Overall, my review for the book is ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ! Especially if you’re a fan of horror and weird fiction, like John Dies at the End but without the comedy.

I hope you guys liked my review of Mothtown! If you’ve read it let me know! and if you haven’t but are thinking about it, let me know that too! I really did love this book a lot and am so glad it was the first book I got on my new tablet / ereader !

See you guys in the next one!