CL Hellisen’s The Shape of Monsters is a story of a pair of siblings, an inheritance, and old family debts in a world where magic is very much real, and our protagonists are very much on the back foot in regards to dealing with it.
In a world where magic is real, controlled by a few aristocratic families, but otherwise is much more like a modern 20th century secondary setting much like ours, a pair of siblings, long removed from the magic world for reasons that quickly become clear (more anon) are dragged back into it by a longstanding magical contract that inevitably will change both siblings, permanently.
This is the story of the (currently) Audible only drama THE SHAPE OF MONSTERS by CL Hellisen.
Our narrative centers on two siblings, the last of the Kercheval family.
Aleks is a bit of a reprobate and a layabout. He does a lot of drugs, isn’t terribly ambitious, is rather manipulative to those around him, and so at the beginning he is not a very likeable or sympathetic character (and sadly, does not get much better). The fact that he does not have magic despite being born into a very long line of magicians is something that is never lost on him. And he has been derided and looked down on for it.
By comparison, his younger sister Vaira starts off as an innocent and unaware of the events swirling around her. In a way, Aleks has been sheltering his sister, from afar, but at the same time, keeping her ignorant of what their family is and was. And, what she did herself. The backstory has Vaira, with uncontrolled magic, having killed much of their family and their primary estate when young, and, being kept away from magic and the magical world, her destructive nature can and could be held at bay.
The novel kicks into higher gear when they inherit the last remaining estate in their family. Their taking possession of Aubrey House makes the other Mage Houses aware of the pair (they were thought dead or lost for years) and so old contracts, agreements, bargains and maneuverings come to the fore. Vaira starts to learn magic. Aleks makes an accidental contact and bond with an extradimensional entity that should have gone to the magically potent Vaira. And Houses come calling, looking to bind Vaira into an old marriage contract still on the books.
Thus, the book is absolutely stuffed with interesting and immersive worldbuilding, well told and explicated. Having Aleks as someone who cannot do magic, but has a dim awareness of magic, and combine it with Vaira who has no knowledge of magic whatsoever, but definitely has a bond and talent for it, that allows for some easy sliding into the worldbuilding and backstory, and there is a lot of both for Aleks and Vaira to learn and process. The third part of this equation is the aforementioned Ilea, the extradimensional entity in question. Demon Prince might be another way to describe Ilea. Ilea’s knowledge of the extradimensional world and his side of magic help complete that explanation.
As far as the politics and intrigue that follows the Houses, we the reader are dumped in headfirst…but so are Aleks and Vaira. The schemes and plans of the Houses come by turns, quickly and suddenly, and slowly and patiently are revealed. The sense that Hellisen gives in the novel is that Aleks and Vaira are now players, pawns on a board, whose rules are largely unknown to them or even non-existent. They do get some help and aid (and for the reader, explanation) from Houses that would rather side with the fallen Kerchevals than their ascendant rivals.
All this is excellently written. Hellisen’s descriptions are immersive and engaging. Aubrey House is a gothic place and Hellisen takes full advantage of the setting. The pressure cooker of the siblings being pent up in the House once they take possession of it helps reinforce every line of description and dialogue. The dialogue and interplay, the conversations between siblings, are very well done and Aleks and Vaira play off of each other quite well indeed. Our points of view for the story alternate roughly between the pair, and the writing tunes very nicely into each of their points of view.
The story overall wavers between dark fantasy and inroads directly into the realm of horror. Given Aleks’ binding, as well as Vaira’s magical studies and where they lead, the tone of the drama, once the plot gets moving, moves permanently from secondary world urban fantasy to dark fantasy. That said, Hellisen’s work is shot through with mordant, often wry humor, especially from Aleks. This does leaven and lighten the mood and tone at points and primes the reader for the next dark twist and turn. This is not the happiest of stories, in fact, this is a story that suits the Halloween season quite nicely, which is when I listened to it¹.
The one major caution and red flag I can think of here to warn people is that this book, in addition to being dark fantasy and horror, is all shades of grey when it comes to the characters. Neither Aleks nor Vaira are particularly nice or good as the protagonists. Both in the reveal of backstory and in the present, the other members of the Mage Houses prove to be very self-interested, devious and scheming. In some ways, ironically, Ilea is the most honest and sympathetic of all the characters in the entire book. If you want a story where you want to root for someone unreservedly, this book is most definitely not your cup of tea. This is a dark world with dark people, top to bottom.
The audio production is high quality and top notch. British actor Omari Douglas provides the narration and does an immersive and very listenable performance that urged me to keep listening, or to keep returning to the audio book as often as I could. He’s an excellent pairing to Hellisen’s characters, descriptions and dialogue as discussed earlier. It seems he has not done much in audio narration before this; I do hope that Douglas will do more in the future. In the same vein; although darker than I normally read, I enjoyed Hellisen’s writing here, and look forward to seeing what they will come up with in the future, be it more audio drama or more standard novels and stories.
¹ It was admittedly strange to listen to this and to a very different October book, Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October, at basically the same time. They both work for the season, but in very different ways.
