REVIEW: Lesath by A. M. Kherbash

Twin Peaks meets Shutter Island meets The Thing

LESATH by A. M. Kherbash Published on 30th September

Twin Peaks meets Shutter Island meets The Thing in this utterly disorientating, disorientating mystery. Blending psychological horror with a loosely sci-fi mystery, this is a very strange book, with a good hook and storyline, if the plotting and pacing is a bit flabby and disjointed at times.

Greg is an amateur journalist exploring a manor that’s rumoured to be a government black site, when he suddenly wakes up in a cell, imprisoned by Dr Carver. As Carver explains that Greg looks identical to a prisoner that escaped a few days ago, it’s clear that things maybe aren’t quite as they seem.

With blends of sci-fi, horror and conspiracy theory, Lesath has all the makings of a great read, but I confess I found the first half a bit disjointed. There’s a ton of interesting plot strands here, but the author throws them into the story one after the other rather relentlessly, not leaving time for the reader to invest in one story or character before anther is quickly thrust into the mix. It’s a shame, because individually the plots are all interesting. That said, I recognise that the whole atmosphere of the book is intended to be disorientating, but I think it goes a step too far in trying to confuse the reader. Perhaps removing a few plot strands or introducing them later into the (much pacier and more engaging) second half.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. I considered DNFing when I struggled to connect in the first half, but it salvaged a lot in the second half and made an unusual, unnerving read.

---

---

I received an advanced review copy via NetGalley, in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.