The kids in school spread rumours of missing people, nests of bones and bodies appearing in the mountains. His sister refused to share what she knew, and his parents turned off the TV whenever he entered the room. Protecting him, they said.
Worse, the only person who shared anything at all with him, his beloved grandpa, disappeared without a goodbye. Mum and Dad said he was dead. But what about the exciting discovery Grandpa had been working on for his whole life?
Now 26, David lives alone and takes each day as it comes. When a strange package arrives on his doorstep, one with instructions not to leave the Earth, a new world is unfurled before David, one he’s been trying to suppress for years…
“A strange, haunting tale about loneliness, grief and the yearning for transformative experiences, with illustrations by Chris Riddell adding to the uncanny atmosphere.”
“Mothtown by Caroline Hardaker is a book which begs not be defined into one single category. Is this sci-fi, horror, coming of age, fantasy or mystery? Well, on the surface it weaves together all those genres, but underneath it is much more. Hardaker superbly immerses readers into a story that is both strange and haunting but also raw and incredibly tender. […] Layer after layer Hardaker builds a beautifully poignant and mournful tale of the bond between a grandson and his grandfather, of escaping worlds and journeys of transformation. Ultimately, Mothtown is a tale about discovering how to belong. Hardaker doesn’t write a book you simply read, she delivers a book you experience.“
“Caroline Hardaker’s Mothtown is haunting, atmospheric and wonderfully uncanny. It is a novel unlike any other, tiptoeing that fine line between obsession and the supernatural with great skill, leaving the reader feeling uneasy until the very end. This is her second literary horror novel with Angry Robot after 2021’s Composite Creatures, and Mothtown builds and grows on the strengths of her debut. […] I am sure that Mothtown is a story that will stick with me for a long time to come and personally.”
“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.
[…] 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.”
Caroline Hardaker Author 