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SGJ wrote I Was A Teenage Slasher while he was supposed to be writing a different book. So it has no right to be this good. Like his other books, the characters jump out of the pages. It's a well executed concept, it's funny and it's sad.

I really enjoyed the first half or so for the interesting backdrop of the Cultural Revolution as told by a Chinese author and the lively dialogue and general good humour. Later on, however, so much of it is recounted rather than played out through the characters which was disappointing and felt like lazy storytelling. I wasn't super interested in the long departures into physics, but that's down to taste more than anything. I'd still recommend this, though.

Well that didn't take long

A friend recommended this more than once

Oh dang, there I go giving another book five stars. But this was so good! Even when part way through I realised this could pass as magical realism, and I don't like magical realism!

Monstrilio weirdly reminds me most of a Paul Auster family drama, despite all the blood, guts, fur and fangs. Every character is so well realised yet I didn't notice when this happened. The structure, where each act is told through a different character, kept the story fresh and continually building. I was expecting a different ending, I'll leave it at that to avoid spoilers. I just really loved this. I've run out of books again.

Ok I was wrong when I made that comment...

I need to finish this over the weekend or I suspect I'm going to be ugly-crying on my commute next week