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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

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.

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

Honestly this is an absolute banger of a book and maybe my favourite horror novel. It's tense, scary, multifaceted, funny, shocking and entertaining. I haven't actually seen the movie before, quite an omission on my part but I'm really glad I read this book first - I didn't see the ending coming.

That didn't take long