MOTHTOWN by Caroline Hardaker – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Mothtown by Caroline Hardaker
Published by Angry Robot on November 14 2023
Genres: Adult
Pages: 300
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Caroline Hardaker’s latest explores the pain of transformation and the beauty of becoming one’s true self in this emotional tale of one man’s journey through mental illness and grief.

Mothtown is an unusual, dreamlike novel that follows a character named David through childhood and into adulthood as he tries to come to terms with the disappearance of his beloved grandfather. This is by no means a quick read, and it requires patience from the reader. But if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded by an emotional and sensitive look at mental illness wrapped in an intriguing mystery.

The story is told in two timelines. In “Before” we meet David as a ten year old boy whose life revolves around his beloved Grandad. When his Grandad dies suddenly, David is left with a crushing sadness and lots of questions about what really happened to him. In alternating chapters labeled “After” we see David coping as an adult. The opening chapter of the book throws the reader into a big mystery. David is on a seemingly dangerous journey to somewhere, but we don’t understand what he’s doing until later in the story. Little by little, the author reveals the details of David’s obsession: he believes his Grandad went through a door to another, better world, and David is determined to find him.

Hardaker slowly fills in the blanks as she alternates between the two time periods, dropping hints about David’s mental state. At first the story appears to be almost dystopian in nature. A condition called the Modern Problem is mentioned several times, and although the author doesn’t come out and say it, it seems to be a widespread malaise or depression that is affecting many people. There have also been lots of unexplained disappearances in David’s town, which plays into David’s belief that these people must be going somewhere, and he’s determined to find out where.

But it’s actually hard to pin down Mothtown’s genre, and even harder to figure out whether David simply has an overactive imagination, or whether the doors into other worlds that David is looking for actually exist. Hardaker smartly chooses to keep the details vague, prompting the reader to come to their own conclusions. And while this might frustrate some readers—and in fact I was frustrated myself at times, you can’t deny the wonderful relationship between David and his Grandad, a deep connection made more emotional because of the fact that Grandad seems to be the only person who really understands him. Certainly his parents and older sister Emily care for him, but David needs more that simple familial love—he needs the otherworldly mystery that his grandfather supplies, someone who validates his belief that there is a reason he doesn’t belong here, and that a door exists that will whisk him away to his true home someday. 

And while it makes sense for a boy of ten to create fanciful tales to explain his Grandad’s death, as David becomes an adult and figures out how to live on his own, his mental state seems to deteriorate more and more and his search for his grandfather takes on a more serious tone. We see through Emily’s eyes especially how worried his family is. Nearly twenty years have past since Grandad died, yet David refuses to give up his search for the truth.

The story is accompanied by lovely black and white illustrations which were unexpected but added even more emotion to the story. I was familiar with Caroline Hardaker’s writing style from reading her last book, Composite Creatures, so it was nice to revisit her beautiful prose, which lent an air of poignancy to this strange little story.

The ending could have gone many different ways, but I loved how Hardaker decided to resolve David’s story, with a glimmer of hope after many years of uncertainty and frustration. This is another thoughtful and utterly unique story from Caroline Hardaker, and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.