Kitty Horror

Kayla, a 12 year old orphan and Garty, a drug addicted waster, both find themselves at their uncles desert mansion. Kayla has been picked to begin an apprenticeship with her uncle and Garty is roped in to help with her tuition.

Things are not as they first seem as they both suffer from horrifying nightmares and find themselves questioning the reality around them as strange things transpire. It becomes clear that they are there for a much bigger purpose and that their uncle is not exactly who he seems.

You could never accuse Keith Deininger of having no imagination, this strange and surreal tale was a mix of many different genres and they blended together almost seamlessly. Character wise, Kayla and Garty are engaging for the most part although Garty isn't the most sympathetic character at the start, his journey in the story sees him becoming a much stronger person and one I really liked by the end of the novel.

Although I enjoyed it I found that there was just too much going on for me in this. The dark fantasy and magical world building weren't clear enough for me and I struggled to remember or make sense of what was going on. This read is about altered realities so I expected that there would be a certain amount of trippiness but with so much detail in the book it failed to make enough sense for me.

Whilst this read didn't quite gel for me I think the author is very talented and I have enjoyed his other reads immensely, anyone thinking of picking up his work would do well to read The New Flesh, an amazing read that I highly recommend.