Title: An Odd, Interesting First Novel
Product review: Kirsten Bakis has created an interesting fantasy with heavy doses of gothic about these dogs who talk and think and then party and die in her first novel, Lives of the Monster Dogs. It is ultimately a sad novel. It is written with the romanticism of past centuries in its truly Victorian sensibility, which is found in the writing. It could have gone a little farther in that direction, particulary in the Manhattan castle sequences which could have used a taste more of Mervyn Peake's neo-Gothic romanticism. The imagery would pull back a little just when it should have thrust forward but this is a minor quibble in an impressive first novel with a very original idea combined with a feel for the past.
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