The change that has come over him is nothing less than the change from mortality to immortality: it all at once occurs to her, as it never has before, that he’ll die that death already has its imprint on him, on the days he’s not yet lived, like a watermark on empty sheets of paper. The horror that Perry delivers in Melmoth harks back to the Gothic tales of old and the subtle art of not showing the reader the true horror that awaits its main protagonist – leaving the construction of the unspoken and unseen horror well and truly in the mind of the reader which makes this book a wonderful gift to the world of horror (Gothic) writing – allowing the readers imagination to catch fire and burn the world down. The tension within Melmoth builds with a deftly crafted pace and before long you are stuck in an avalanche of terror – Perry whisks the reader off within the claustrophobic momentum of Melmoth, which at times I had to remind myself to breathe, everything was going to be OK – as a reader you just can’t help but be taken along for the devastatingly brutal ride. What this book delivers in subtle horror and terror is incredible and showcases Perry as a raconteur at the top of her game. In my opinion Sarah Perry is one of the most impressive and important writers in the UK right now and Melmoth may be her masterpiece to offer the world a book that I feel will define and shape the face of literature for generations – children will be studying this book at school in the not too distant future alongside Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (I am probably showing my age now…do they even study Frankenstein anymore…). She is in black, this woman, many layers of it, the layers containing the detritus of a week’s meals, and the scent of sandalwood, talc, and sweat. ‘Helen? I said, is that you?’ – and there is her companion, waddling on bowed legs, the joints of her hips worn down, splayed and weak like those of a baby dependent these days on an aluminium frame, which catches against the carpet and in doing so is volubly cursed. In the dim hall she sets down her satchel. Perry’s prose throughout is delectable and as a reader and writer I couldn’t help but marvel at her craft. The horrors concealed in the pages of this book are waiting to lay their cold hands around the readers throat, once they get you they will pull you into the gloom that there is no escape from – Melmoth will consume you in the most horrific ways imaginable. Melmoth by Sarah Perry is a beast of a novel – a great hulking monster lurking in a bleak but beautifully constructed Gothic landscape.

Melmoth review