In his debut novel, A Cosmology of Monsters, author Shaun Hamill serves up a uniquely weird and wonderful reading experience. Noah Turner is the youngest of three children in a family plagued by monsters of both the real and fantastical variety. Noah narrates his family’s story, a tale spanning decades, which starts with his parents falling in love and ends when he is a grown adult. The novel follows the very real highs and lows that any family may face over the years – for example, financial struggles and business success, the pure joy of a new child being born, and the dark reality of terminal illness. However, the Turner family also lives in a world that is nearly hallucinatory, phantasmagoric at times. A world where monsters exist, interacting with each family member in a slightly different way and causing them to alternate between being terrified, puzzled, and comforted by the presence of a beast.
Blending horror, fantasy, and literary fiction, Hamill draws the reader into the world of the Turner family with ease. The title of the novel itself gives a nod to the framework and structure of the story. Perhaps the most germane definition of the term “cosmology” is “the scientific study of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe.” Hamill quite evidently follows this path, as his story is a journey through the origin and evolution of the Turner family that ultimately comes to a close by tying up loose ends in order to clarify the family’s fate. Divided into seven parts, each part of this book is thoughtfully structured, often skipping ahead in time some years from the previous part in order to move the family’s journey forward. Each part also ends with a separate narrative section, denoted by a change in font. These sections begin quite mysteriously, however through the course of the novel build upon themselves to reveal their function and meaning to the reader.
Such a description of the structure may sound vague, as it is difficult to provide additional detail without spoiling some of the many unique aspects of this novel. A Cosmology of Monsters twists and turns in unexpected ways, providing bits of information throughout which the reader is responsible for collecting, assessing, and synthesizing. The reader is certain to be surprised countless times by the revelations and connections Hamill makes throughout the book. The second half of the novel in particular really picks up speed, gripping the reader and inducing a frenzied turning of pages in order to get to the crux of who these monsters are and what they want with the Turners.
The writing is simply haunting, the story full of heart. Hamill strikes upon meaningful themes throughout the book including the complexities of sacrifice, the strengths and flaws inherent in familial bonds, how fear is created in our lives, and what various shapes a monster may take. I highly recommend this novel for fans of Paul Tremblay and Stephen King. Much in the vein of these two celebrated horror writers, Hamill has built a rich world full of complex characters and he successfully delivers in showing how the horrors of real life can be just as terrifying as any monster.
A Cosmology of Monsters is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of September 17th 2019. My sincere thanks to Pantheon Books for the gifted copy of this book to review.
Shaun Hamill is a lifelong fan of horror fiction. He received a BA from the University of Texas at Arlington and a MFA from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His debut novel, A Cosmology of Monsters, has received praise from the likes of literary powerhouses Stephen King and Carmen Maria Machado. His writing has also been published in Carve and Spilt Infinitive.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
“If John Irving ever wrote a horror novel, it would be something like this. I loved it.” –Stephen King
Noah Turner see monsters.
His father saw them–and built a shrine to them with The Wandering Dark, an immersive horror experience that the whole family operates.
His practical mother has caught glimpses of terrors but refuses to believe–too focused on keeping the family from falling apart.
And his eldest sister, the dramatic and vulnerable Sydney, won’t admit to seeing anything but the beckoning glow of the spotlight . . . until it swallows her up.
Noah Turner sees monsters. But, unlike his family, Noah chooses to let them in…
