BRAT by Gabriel Smith Review (Gifted, AD)

Hello Readers,
Thank you, Scribner UK, for sending me a physical ARC of Brat by Gabriel Smith for free in exchange for an honest review. This book has been out for less than a month, so I am going to try keep as spoiler free as possible.
 
Title: BRAT
Author: Gabriel Smith
Genre: Psychological Fiction, Horror Fiction, Urban fiction
Pages: 336
Cover Image:

Synopsis:

We meet our ill-tempered protagonist—the story’s titular “brat”—at a low moment, but not yet at rock bottom. The Gabriel of the novel is mourning the death of his father as well as a recent breakup and struggling to finish writing his second book. Alone and aimless, he agrees to move back into his parents’ house to clear it out for sale. Here, the clichés end. Gabriel has trouble delivering on his promises: as the mouldy, overgrown house deteriorates around him, so does his own health, and large sheets of his skin begin to peel from his body at a terrifying rate. In fragments and figments, Gabriel takes us on a surreal journey into the mysteries of the family home, where he finds unfinished manuscripts written by his parents that seem to mutate every time, he picks them up and a bizarre home video that hints at long-buried secrets. Brat is a serious debut that refuses to take itself too seriously.
 

Miniature Review

This is one of them books that you just let take your hand and follow it down the rabbit hole. Could I possibly make an argument that this book is a brilliant reflection of the mentality of a person during grief and depression possibly, but this isn’t a dissertation. There is no polite way to say this other than this book was a fever dream of a story.

This was such a quick read for me, and I read it in one sitting. I could not put this book down I just had to know more. Heads up dear Reader there are some particularly gruesome moments of body horror in this book and not for the faint of heart. Themes of grief, insanity, and the supernatural are sprinkled with a mix of deadpan humour and surreal horror.

My face throughout this book…

I know this book won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but personally I loved every second of the bizarre ride and would happily jump back down the rabbit hole.

L x

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