This is so different from what I usually read and genres I'm using familiar with. I couldn't pinpoint this story if you paid me but I really enjoyed reading it. One of the most unique things I've read in a while.

Stars: 3 out of 5

This is a hard book to review. I'm not sure if I liked it or hated it, to tell the truth. The narrative is a jumbled mess with the concept of an unreliable narrator pushed to the limit. It did, however, leave an impression on me, and that's usually an indication that it's a good book even if it's not really a book for me.

Let's talk positives first, shall we? The prose is beautiful. The author knows her way with words and how to paint an immersive picture. It's beautiful and haunting at the same time. The descriptions worm into your mind and slowly seed a sense of malaise the longer you read the book. Things aren't quite right, you can feel it, but most of the time, you can't really put your finger on what's wrong. This is a psychological horror story, so there will be no jump scares and splatter gore, and it's exactly how I like my horror books.

However, this book is also a jumbled mess, which makes it confusing and frustrating, and you don't get all the answers by the end of it. The biggest issue I had was the split timeline. We get the Before chapters following the 10-year-old David dealing with the disappearance of his grandfather and then his slow descent into a full-blown psychotic break. But we also have the After chapters that follow David as he is trying to retrace his grandfather's steps and find the door he used to escape this world.

Problem is, at the beginning of the book, we don't know that the After chapters and the Before chapters are about the same person, and we have no emotional connection to the narrator. So I didn't really care about what happened to this strange person running from some pursuers in a very strange world. It was, as I already mentioned, confusing and even a bit irritating.

I liked the chapters with young David the best. I can relate to his struggle to accept that his grandfather is gone, especially since he was the only person who talked to the kid. I mean, the rest of his family sure didn't. I was a lot less invested in the older David, even though I could empathize with his slow unraveling. 

I think my biggest issue is that the After chapters are pretty much useless to the story. If I understood well, they were just hallucinations born from DAvid's broken mind during a dissociative state. There were no doors to other worlds, no strange liminal land called Mothtown. Or was there? There is no clear answer to that.

Also, if all of this was just in David's head during a mental breakdown, what of all the vanishing people? Is that real? Or is that also part of his delusion? There is never a resolution to that particular plotline. It just gradually disappears from the narrative. 

All in all, even though I loved the prose of this book, the story was way too confusing and jumbled for me to enjoy fully. I don't mind working for my answers, but I need to get at least some of them by the end of a book.

PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Caroline Hardaker’s Mothtown is a haunting and poetic exploration of memory, identity, and the fragile boundaries between reality and imagination. With its atmospheric prose and surrealist undercurrents, the novel draws readers into a world that feels both eerily familiar and unsettlingly strange.

The story centers on David, a man grappling with the profound loss of his wife, Beth, and the memories that seem to slip further from his grasp with each passing day. As David delves into the past, he discovers the existence of Mothtown, a dreamlike realm where lost memories reside, guarded by enigmatic creatures. This discovery sets him on a journey through grief, love, and the nature of time.

Hardaker’s world-building is subtle yet deeply evocative, painting a picture of Mothtown as a liminal space that mirrors the fragmented nature of human memory. The novel’s tone is melancholic and introspective, immersing the reader in an atmosphere that is as haunting as it is beautiful.

David is a compelling protagonist, his struggles with loss and memory rendered with emotional depth and authenticity. His quest to understand the nature of Mothtown—and his place within it—serves as a poignant metaphor for the human desire to hold onto what is fleeting.

The supporting characters, including the ghostly remnants of those who inhabit Mothtown, are richly drawn and serve to deepen the novel’s exploration of memory and meaning. Beth’s presence, though largely shaped by David’s recollections, feels vivid and integral to the story’s emotional resonance.

At its heart, Mothtown is a meditation on the nature of memory: how it shapes us, how it fades, and how we reconstruct it in the face of loss. The novel also touches on themes of grief, identity, and the fluidity of time, creating a narrative that is as intellectually engaging as it is emotionally stirring.

Hardaker’s prose is lyrical and evocative, weaving vivid imagery with moments of quiet introspection. Her ability to balance the surreal with the deeply personal gives the novel a dreamlike quality that lingers long after reading. The pacing is deliberate, allowing readers to fully immerse themselves in the story’s rich emotional and thematic layers.

While the novel’s introspective nature and surrealist elements are part of its charm, they may not appeal to readers seeking a fast-paced or straightforward narrative. Some sections feel intentionally ambiguous, which, while thematically fitting, may leave certain plot points open to interpretation.

Mothtown is a deeply moving and thought-provoking novel that blurs the line between reality and the fantastical. Caroline Hardaker crafts a story that is as much about the inner workings of the human heart as it is about the mysterious realm of Mothtown. For readers who enjoy lyrical prose, nuanced characters, and narratives that linger in the mind, this novel is a treasure.

Such an unusual story but is so beautifully written it makes it easy to look past it dark and bizarre bones.

Im really sorry but I DNF'd this one. I could not get into it, and the writing style was not for me. Thank you to the publisher for sending me a physical copy though! I have kept it for my personal collection and I can confirm that I will not be giving it away or selling it online.

A beautifully and haunting work of fiction that subverts many genres and was quite different than what i expected. Daring and fresh--exactly what is needed in the literary world.

Dnf @ 11%

The writing was too lyrical for my liking and I was not invested in any of the story. I didn’t like the characters and I was not looking forward to picking this up after I had started. It took me so long to get this far. It just was not for me.

This story begins with a young boy seeing his grandfather in the distance- but his grandfather is supposed to be dead. Later, when the book changes times, I lost interest.

DNF.

This book lost me. The best way I can explain it is as if I was on a different page. It was like I was a few pages behind what was actually happening and I couldn't keep up with it and what I was taking in didn't interest me. I guess it's just not my kind of book, as much as I'd hoped it would be.

Thank you Angry Robot & Caroline Hardaker for this read.

This book took me a while to get through. Despite having both the audiobook & ebook, I didn't find myself hooked.

The imagery was really great and I feel this was a very slow burn. It was strange and unqiue, I found the protagonist intriguing.

The plot and ending was different to what i expected and I did enjoy the unique ride this provided, despite being on the stranger side and slower side.

Mothtown is the second novel by British poet and author, Caroline Hardaker. David Porter is ten years old when he sees his grandfather, Frank for the last time. Dr Francis Porter is a researcher of multiverses working in the Superstring Theory and Dark Matter studies area of the University of York’s Department of Physics. He never returns from his annual mid-winter expedition in search of his doorway to salvation, and David’s father tells his family that Frank died in hospital. But that feels wrong to David.

David and Grandad shared a secret language of clicks and bumps and hums, as set our in their copies of the Verbatinea. And now, at Grandad’s house, the Key Verbatinea, Grandad’s yellow duffel bag and his favourite scratchy orange jumper with the brass sparrow button, are missing. David is certain that Grandad must still be out there somewhere, and the longer he’s absent, the more certain he is that his grandfather found his doorway.

People are already accustomed to people going missing, something dubbed The Modern Problem, The epidemic. The disappearing. The eloping. The exodus, and friends and family members become door-steppers, carrying photos and searching, posting “Have you seen…” bills everywhere. Are the piles of bones and feathers the remains of those gone? Those depressed souls who don’t make that exodus from their lives but feel misfit, are often gathered by smiling Blue Pilgrims, stashed in Blue Houses, neatly erasing the problem for authorities?

David’s family are uneasy about his focus on Frank’s work and his father seems determined to obstruct his search, but David knows that Hidden Worlds, the book Frank wrote, will lead him to the doorway. Because David knows he doesn’t belong in this world either.

We are told that a talented author will show rather than tell, but there’s not really enough of either here, and the disjointed feel is not just a product of the dual timeline narrative: characters seem to turn up haphazardly, things happen which seem like they ought to be significant to the plot, but connections are never made, and resolution is lacking.

Is David (definitely an unreliable narrator) turning into a bird? A moth? In the end, who knows, or cares! The misuse of personal pronouns grates, and parts read like a fever dream or the paranoid ramblings of a deluded person, becoming rather tiresome. This is a tale that might appeal to fans of dystopian sci-fi.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Angry Robot

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a little backlogged with my ARC’s but working hard to get caught up. This book really took me by surprise! Just when I thought it was headed in one direction, it completely veers off and goes a different way! Without giving too much away, this story is beautifully written and the characters are extremely complex, nothing is as it appears. I loved the setting of Mothtown and despite all the strange things going on, I’d love to visit if it was a real place! I’d recommend to anyone who likes mystery, science fiction, and suspense with a touch of horror!

DNF @30% - I’m sorry I just couldn’t get into this one. The way the story was being told felt very removed (?) I can’t think of a better way to describe it. The synopsis makes the plot seem so cool and intriguing but from what I read, it was pretty jumbled and uninteresting.

In all honesty, I restarted this book twice just to make sure I was giving it the fair shot it deserved, and I still was not enjoying it at all so I finally had to decide to set it down for good.

It's difficult to add to what others have said. Well-written, atmospheric, certainly an interesting book though I'm not as convinced as to whether the main story flows or for all the different writing, that it stands out. At least not for fives stars! Interesting and a little different particularly of interest for the more inventive, surreal at times prose, worth pursuing/perservering with.

I suspect my opinion of this book will change over time. And very possibly elements went over my head. It's a dark and twisting tale with gorgeous illustrations and a genuine sense of grimy melancholy that I found compelling. But I never managed to determine quite why I was there or what had happened. Which might, perhaps, be the point, or might be my own failing.

“Mothtown” is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel that will linger in readers’ minds long after they’ve turned the final page. Hardaker’s lyrical prose and imaginative storytelling make this novel a standout in this genre, and ensure that it will be remembered as a modern classic.

I was not a fan of this book at all. It was flat and boring. It wasn’t scary and it was predictable. Overall not good.

Mothtown is one of those books you read that starts out seemingly confusing and disjointed in the beginning, but over the course of the story slowly stiches itself together. It's a book about grief, loss, loneliness, and mental illness, we follow David Porter as he struggles with the death of his grandfather, trying to deal with his confusing feelings of betrayal, abandonment, grief, and anger. The story is told through a split timeline, one labeled "Before" and the other "After" both connected by David's belief that his grandfather did not die, but instead found a doorway to another world- a doorway that he thinks his grandfather left clues for him to find himself and follow him through. The story is all told through David's perspective who is in simple terms, a very unreliable narrator, this gives the book a strange, almost fever-dreamlike feeling that only intensifies as the story continues and David's convictions strengthen. For me the way I felt about the story fluctuated between sad and empathetic towards David, frustrated with the way the story was structured, and confused with the pacing at certain points of the book towards the end. I still had an overall enjoyable reading experience with this book and I'm grateful to netgalley and the publisher for giving me this e-arc in exchange for an honest review. If you're a fan of the "fever dream" qualities of books like I'm Thinking of Ending Things and Bunny (just that one feature, aside from that those three books are VERY different, they just all have that moment where you stare at a page for 5 minutes trying to figure out what you just read and if you're just staring at a blank page and hallucinating words instead or actually reading a real book) then you might enjoy Mothtown too. I'm giving it a 3 star rating mostly because I felt the beginning and middle were enjoyable but the ending fell a little bit flat, but it was an enjoyable read.

I wanted to love this, but it just fell a little flat for me. Overall, it was a good book, and i liked the premise, it just wasnt for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This really wasn't for me. I felt there was just too build up in the world of Mothtown and so the story ended up getting lost on me. Beautiful writing but, I just felt engulfed in it all a bit too much.