The Library at Mount Char is one of my all-time favorites, so after eleven years of waiting, I was very curious to see what Scott Hawkins would come up with next. Following up a book as strange and brilliant as TLaMC is no easy task.

Blacktail is a very different book, but it still feels unmistakably like Hawkins. It's whimsical, brutal, philosophical and absurd, sometimes all within a few pages. It's also weird, with the kind of ideas and turns that made me keep wondering where the hell he was going to take the story next.

This time we're following Blacktail, a half-wolf who sets out on a rather bloody quest after losing his mate and unborn pups. The entire story is told from animal perspectives, which works well. Hawkins gives the animals their own way of understanding the world, and seeing humans from that perspective is... well, we're not exactly coming out of this looking good.

Most humans in this book are pretty much scum. We destroy habitats, hurt animals, kill for convenience and generally behave like the planet belongs to us. And because we're mostly seeing the story through the eyes of animals, some of the things that humans consider completely normal suddenly look rather horrifying. There are exceptions, of course, but Hawkins clearly isn't interested in giving humanity the benefit of the doubt.

The book is also very violent. Animals get hurt and animals die, sometimes in pretty horrible ways, so if you're particularly sensitive about that, be warned. At the same time, there's a lot of humor and absurdity mixed into all the brutality. Squirrels have a death cult, cats have witches, dogs worship food, and all of this fits together into the same story.

I also loved how the story gradually takes on a more mythic quality. What starts as a fairly straightforward story of grief and revenge grows into something much bigger, while still keeping almost fairytale-like quality throughout.

So yes, Blacktail worked for me. It's not The Library at Mount Char, and I wouldn't want it to be. But it has that same sense that you're reading something completely unlike whatever else is sitting on your shelf, and that's exactly what I was hoping for.

Whatever Hawkins writes next, I'll be reading it. Hopefully we don't have to wait another eleven years this time.