You all know the dance: A book catches your fancy, you check out the blurb, log on to Goodreads, read the reviews. "Weird", they say. "Innovative", "wickedly gruesome, yet funny". Being an old hand at this by now, someone who's seen (and read) it all, you titter quietly, sipping your tea-Oh pshaw, how weird can it be? How innovative can literature still get? So you pick up the book, expecting to be mildly entertained. You read the first page. You blink, startled. You read on. By page two, you are weirded out as no book has yet achieved. By page three, you're hooked, lost in this crazy, crazy world peopled by the most exceptionally insane, personable, interesting characters you have encountered maybe ever. 
 Need I say I absolutely LOVED this book?! 
 What Hawkins creates is truly astonishing. A book that effortlessly encompasses the superbly weird, the mundane, blending the two expertly, presenting a well-crafted mythology which would deserve a full length novel itself. 
 I loved that it is completely unapologetic about its craziness, making the reader take it in stride while it takes us on its action packed, at times cruelly brutal yet darkly comical ride to its surprising, stunning, perfect conclusion. 
 I don't often use the term "masterpiece" but The Library at Mount Char definitely deserves it.