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MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.75/5
Format: Advanced Reader Copy
I just want to say thank you to Luke for providing me with an advanced review copy, for an honest review.
This did not impact my rating, in any way.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
IN THE CENTER OF THE FOREST SITS A HOUSE OF LEAVES AND ASH. INSIDE THE HOUSE, HIS HEART AND LIES.
Inside the house called Sempiternity there is a lake, at the center of which an island sits. Upon the island, a spire of stone. Surrounding the spire, an orchard of dreams.
Beneath an apple tree sits faceless Self, who writes of sorry things. “What an awful place.
What a cruelty it is, being birthed of pain.”
But when a dog that should not be wanders into Sempiternity through a door that should not be, Self learns a terrible truth: Sempiternity is no longer safe, no longer theirs. Fictional failures come in search of proper ends, in search of slaughter quelled by Self’s prosaic hand.
In search of lies.
Thus, Self departs Sempiternity for the forest dark, for at its center is the ruined town of Own.
The place where the nightmare began.
MY REVIEW
The cover of Liminal Monster is a phenomenal, echoing the eerie allure of A Cup of Tea at the Mouth of Hell, though not a direct sequel as Tarzian put it “ it’s a sort of sequel but it takes place around it.” That loose connection delivers a shift from Cup’s whimsical spark to a haunting, soul-stirring dive into psychological shadows. This isn’t a tale for everyone, but as Tarzian peels back his own liminal monsters, it prods us readers to face our own—those quiet aches that linger like a song you can’t hear without breaking. For me, it’s like hearing “Hurt” by Johnny Cash (originally by Nine Inch Nails) and feeling my heart crack open for loved ones I’ve lost.
Tarzian’s prose is pure magic, flowing like a dark poem one second, then hitting you with a raw, gut-wrenching truth the next. It’s got this mythic, moody vibe, like Neil Gaiman’s Sandman mixed with Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic chill, layered with an eerie beauty that burns into your mind. Tarzian’s practically spilling his soul onto the page, using the godskin journal as a symbol for how writing lays your heart bare but also lets you wrestle your demons, sometimes with a twisted smirk. The way he blends real-life hurt with bizarre places like Rot or the apple orchard stuffed with bitter memories, it’s like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind spun into a whiskey-soaked fever dream born from sorrow and a touch of dark wit.
“The milk-white grin lingers in the darkness of my mind.”
But don’t let the darkness fool you, just like A Cup of Tea, Liminal Monster is packed with Tarzian’s wicked sense of dark humor, keeping the heavy stuff from swallowing us readers whole. Pisswhisker McKeen, the foul-mouthed cat who’s royally pissed about his own name, had me cracking up, then there’s Jaksov, the satyr with a disturbingly wild love for ice cream, whose antics are so twisted they’re hilarious. Moments like a raccoon waving a used condom or chapter titles like “Scotch & Magic” are pure Tarzian, mixing morbid wit with absurd charm to give you a breather when the grief hits hard. It’s like finding a grim chuckle in a nightmare, and I was all in for it.
What really got me was how Liminal Monster feels like a raw, messy map of healing. The protagonist’s bouncing between therapy, boozy nights, and strange places like Whimsy Hell—it’s like watching someone wrestle their demons in real time. I saw myself in that struggle, as I said in my review of A Cup of Tea, I resonated a lot with this story since I lost my dad in 2015 to colon cancer, and I’m coming up on the 10 year anniversary in July, that lingering grief feels like my own “milk-white grin” stuck in the back of my mind and Tarzian nails that kind of ache. But with the darkness and the humor, Tarzian’s final image of apple blossoms and bear cubs playing under a smiling sun is a quiet promise that light’s out there somewhere. This story’s a beast, heartbreaking, strange, and beautiful, and Tarzian knows I’m a fan for life.
Wolfmantula.com 