A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

I would like to thank Lydia from Titan for a copy of this novel in exchange for fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price – £8.99 paperback £4.68 Kindle ebook

Noah Turner's family are haunted by monsters that are all too real, strange creatures that visit them all: His bookish mother Margaret; Lovecraft-obsessed father Harry; eldest sister Sydney, born for the spotlight; the brilliant but awkward Eunice, a gifted writer and storyteller - the Turners each face their demons alone.

When his terminally-ill father becomes obsessed with the construction of an elaborate haunted house - the Wandering Dark - the family grant his last wish, creating themselves a legacy, and a new family business in their grief. But families don't talk about the important things, and they try to shield baby Noah from horrors, both staged and real.

As the family falls apart, fighting demons of poverty, loss and sickness, the real monsters grow ever closer. Unbeknownst to them, Noah is being visited by a wolfish beast with glowing orange eyes. Noah is not the first of the Turners to meet the monster, but he is the first to let it into his room...

Why do we love horror? The adrenaline rush of fear, the idea of staring back at the dark and possibly that the fantastical takes you away from the horrors of everyday life to better understand it. My uncle got me into the idea of enjoying being scared with Hammer. Universal and at a young age weirdly Dawn of the Dead which made an impression and then I discovered reading! Horror changes while growing up what scares me now is very different to what got me as a kid…ok giant spiders always will… but fear is malleable and changing. In Shaun Hamill’s bittersweet novel A Cosmology of Monsters we wander through a family’s creation and eventual break-up over forty years where something has got their scent. An intriguing novel but one that I think repeats some of classic horror’s mistakes.

In the late sixties struggling impoverished middle-class student Margaret works in a bookstore and meets Harry Turner a poor guy working through a burger bar and obsessed with horror. The two click and after a memorable date in a less than scary haunted house attraction that suddenly got unusually scary the two fall in love. The newly married couple had two twins Sydney and Eunice and then before tragedy strikes for the first-time young Noah is born. Noah then relates to us the history of the family as its remaining members are compelled to build their own haunted house ride known the Wandering Dark but there are other things in the world that feels this family needs close attention. Noah starts to piece together a mystery that has been going on for decades and finds a decision with a high cost may be required if he wants to save the ones he loves.

I really loved the first half of this novel. The narration of how Noah’s parents met is a wonderful piece of character work focused on Margaret finding herself attracted to this kid who she knows she shouldn’t date is just a lovely heartfelt bit of writing and despite that tenderness Hamill throws in a darkening shade as we find out the family is about to be reduced unexpectedly. We see circa ten-year jumps and watch the family’s fortunes wax and wane. Hamill creates in Sydney and Eunice two fascinating characters. Sydney rebelling about her mother’s authority figure feels a character who is about to explode while the bookish and quiet Eunice is working out her sexuality that Hamill reminds us in 90’s Texas could lead to a very dangerous situation if it became well known. Eunice is a complex character with mental health issues and yet a very kind focus on her younger brother was an emotional draw to the story.

This pays dividends when we see the forces that are surrounding the family. There is an air of something forever watching and playing with the Turners for unexpected reasons. Hamill throws Noah into this strange situation when he meets something monstrous yet compelling and that relationship then drives the final stages of the book. This is less horror in terms of blood and gore but psychological – watching characters under pressure, a sense of no escape and eerie scenes in a different place that seems to know too much. Hamill has a great ear for atmosphere and building tension. I also liked that horror here is not supernatural and in one memorable scene we see a disturbing religious group use their own horror rooms to scare teens into the ways of the Lord reminding us that some horrors are very down to earth.

But I do have a major issue with the novel and that is because with Margaret, Sydney and in particular Eunice we get three great very different female characters that the novel I felt abandoned in favour of Noah’s own arc and I didn’t feel that situation was earned. These women all have their own struggles to face and in particular Eunice’s battles I would have loved to see the women given more agency but despite Hamill’s very respectful and loving description of the characters he leaves it to Noah to get involved in the resolution. While in horror I appreciate there is not always going to be a happy ending but I was less than pleased with a attempted suicide scene for Eunice which I unfortunately felt was falling dangerously into a bury your gays scenario. My frustration is that Hamill in this book shows they are an accomplished author who clearly can write believable and varied female characters but ended up pulling the focus onto the young hormonal teen Noah who I found the least interesting of the family. To explore how Margaret saw her family or perhaps events from Eunice’s perspective I feel would have been a much better choice.

Overall, this is a fine novel but falls into the trap that much older horror novels have of women being used to serve a man’s arc. Once that point is reached, I found the nostalgia fell away into a very predictable finale (but with one memorable reveal). The story makes great reference to Lovecraft and I wish Hamill had challenged older horror for its myopic approach to women a little more than done here and made them more active in the story. I will be intrigued with what Hamill delivers in the future but this I felt became more a re-tread of an already well-trodden path in the end.