Honestly how could you not enjoy something that a man wrote solely to fuck with his friend's head?

I feel like I always forget just *how intensely* I enjoy the bleak cynicism and gallows humor in Irvine Welsh's novels.

I keep hearing people comparing this favorably with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. My take; if you want a Miéville Neverwhere dupe, then Un Lun Dun is a better choice by far. Despite it being geared towards a younger audience.

Grotesque, bibically epic, and beautifully lyrical- this novel is a *lengthy* reflection of Nick Cave's musical tone and subject matter. As such- I was completely engrossed. However; those with a weak stomach - especially concerning violence to animals- should probably give this one a hard pass.

"Arthur felt happy. He was terribly pleased that the day was for once working out so much according to plan. Only twenty minutes ago he had decided he would go mad, and now he was already chasing a Chesterfield sofa across the fields of pre-historic Earth."

Pictured: Deeba Resham

Whimsically dark, delightfully subversive, and utterly clever. I tore through this book with the kind of rapt wonder that one seldom feels reading as an adult... Which, I believe, is probably the highest complement that anyone can afford a "children's" book.

"...Below us
stretched the unknown lands of sorrow.
Men had little wisdom there. They sat
In their filth like sick dogs, vomiting up
Their food. And they fought that nothing
Might be changed. In the image of God."

"Imagine a fifteen-year-old boy.
No again.
No. Not close.
He has fingers that move like he has no bones. He has eyes that move like he has no patience. He has a tongue that changes shape every day. He has a skeletal structure and coloring and hair that change every day. He seems different than you remember. He is always unlike he was before.
Imagine.
Good. That's actually pretty good."