The Cipher by Kathe Koja
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Caveats first:

This is a book for anyone who seriously loves a great body-horror novel mixed with some serious mental health issues and a supernatural Cthulhu-ish aspect that goes way beyond claustrophobic and off the deep end of cultish nutteries.

If you don't like anything I just said here, then skip this. It's not for you.

BUT, if you're a sick and twisted nutter and you love tight prose going hand-in-hand with a supernatural stylism that starts us out with a pitch-perfect hum of depression and self-harm obsession, then you're going to LOVE this.

Basically, you have to understand the darkness of the human spirit first in order to appreciate just how deep down the hole this can get.


As for the supernatural bit... I was utterly delighted. The minimalism of it and the darkly delicious attraction of the sweet delights of hell, quite reminiscent of Barker's Hellraiser, had me chortling with glee by the end.

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