In
Hideous Creatures, Lister tells the story of Arthur Hallingham who is
on the run from his aristocratic family in England, where he had to
leave because of some dark occurence – we don't find out the truth
until near the end of the novel. He starts out for Africa, before
travelling on a slave ship to America, hoping to lose himself in the
New World. What transpires goes entirely beyond his worst nightmares,
lost in the destructiveness of a native medicine man, Shelo, and
another companion, Flora, daughter of an outlaw. The trio journey
through the wilderness, as Shelo's true intentions come to the
fore...
There
are two interlinking stories: one starting from Arthur's passage on
the ship, moving to the present, and the other starting in the
present and moving forward. This could have been confusing, but
Lister handled the change of time effectively without having to
resort to dates etc, which is quite refreshing. Despite this, I did
find the plot a little hard to follow at times, but I believe this
was intentional: Lister wants the reader to be as in the dark as
Arthur is.
The
prose is beautiful and well constructed, but my main problem was that
I just didn't really like Arthur very much! I'm not sure that we are
meant to like him exactly, but his cowardice and general
uselessness really grated on me! Flora, I liked, and Shelo was scary,
as I'm sure was intended.
Overall,
a promising début from Lister, and nice to read something a bit
different from a young author – not just another apocalyptic teen
novel! Thank you Mr B's and Emma!
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