Caroline Hardaker’s Composite Creatures is one of those beautifully delicious and quirky reads which is not quite what you expect it to be; the type of book where you must trust the author to take you where you will need to go … eventually. But first, you will experience a winding and often uncomfortable journey.
In this new novel, Hardaker creates a world where pollution has corrupted the air and the earth, where disease spreads quickly through human bodies; a world which, sadly, is not so difficult to imagine. Norah is a young woman who lost her mother years ago to such an illness. Now as an adult out on her own, and thanks to her meagre inheritance, she has solicited the help of the illusive Easton Grove. The public knows only what Easton Grove wants them to know about the healthcare they provide for the wealthy: that they have developed a means of supporting a long, healthy life despite the decaying world around them. They have even matched Norah with Arthur, a kind and successful young writer who seems to make a fantastic partner and may just be someone Norah can love one day.
Reflecting back on her life and choices, Norah tells her story as a way to make sense of what she has done over the years in the name of self-preservation. Through this narrative, Hardaker slowly opens layer after layer to the reader, sharing more and more about Norah’s unique partnership with Arthur, the life they have chosen to live together, and the furry little creature Easton Grove claims is the key to their longevity.
From the very start Hardaker’s writing will pull you in, creating an underlying sense of horror and dread as you flip page after page trying to figure out what in the hell is going on in this world. She is skilled at simultaneously pulling the reader forward with the narrative, yet also building a sense of discomfort and unease. And she paints such a clear picture of how this fading world both looks and feels. Bleak yet compelling, this novel takes an unexpected look at our mortality by examining what really makes a life worth living, by asking if a longer life really means a better life? And if so, at what cost?
More tender, complex, and introspective than perhaps the synopsis conveys, Composite Creatures is sure to be loved by fans of character-driven novels and eerily atmospheric tales. The reader will find themselves not so much pushing to reach the conclusion for the sake of finding out what happens, but rather simply going along for the ride, even as they may feel afraid to turn the page.
Composite Creatures is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of April 13th 2021. Many thanks to Angry Robot for providing me with an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
How close would you hold those you love, when the end comes?
In a society where self-preservation is as much an art as a science, Norah and Arthur are learning how to co-exist in their new little world. Though they hardly know each other, everything seems to be going perfectly – from the home they’re building together to the ring on Norah’s finger.
But survival in this world is a tricky thing, the air is thicker every day and illness creeps fast through the body. And the earth is becoming increasingly hostile to live in. Fortunately, Easton Grove is here for that in the form of a perfect little bundle to take home and harvest. You can live for as long as you keep it – or her – close.
