Monsters

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 29 AUG 2016

Brimming with real and imagined monsters, Brennan (The Garden in Which I Walk) delivers striking meditations on memory, time, fragility, and strength. In the title story, a father visits his impaired daughter and her roommate, who resembles a giant field mouse. In "10 Birds," the narrator wakes to find the bedroom invaded by a bevy of doves. "Pete, Waste Lab Technician," centers on a fearless morgue custodian plagued by roving shadows and a group of chatty zombies with a penchant for theoretical physics. There is a compelling conflict that unifies these stories. As one of the many nameless narrators explains, "There'd been a time, I felt certain, that duplicated this time, but was not remembered." The narratives dwell in stark duality: the endless duplication of life, and the temporal condition of shared existence. The majority of the characters in this book speak of routine, predictable occurrences. But these tales some less than a page are not conventional; they're beautifully strange and often surreal. Brennan introduces fantastical elements that dramatically transform relatable characters and familiar settings into something new, like a family adopting a talking cat. Brennan's collection of compassionate and intelligent fiction is a showcase for a very skilled author.