Book Review: Mosaic by Catherine McCarthy

23 year old Robin is hired to restore a stained glass window in an old church, but things are not what they seem. 

This novella is definitely a companion piece to McCarthy’s previous novella, “Immortelle”, and the short story “Retribution”, which appeared in her collection, “Mists and Megaliths”. All have a touch of cosmic horror, a flavor of folk horror, and concern the demonic hiding within the trappings of the Christian church. “Mosaic” is her most modern take on these themes, and it was interesting to see how she handled shades of Lovecraft in the technological age. 

There is no doubt that the author writes beautifully, and her descriptions of graveyards, old churches, and intricate art processes are a joy to read. 

The beginning of “Mosaic” brought to mind movies from the heyday of Hammer Studios. The superficially idyllic Welsh countryside full of bucolic vistas and quaint villages, where the inhabitants seem charming and proper, but you know that a bubbling cesspool of darkness dwells beneath. 

I liked Robin’s backstory with her family and her fight for independence, but I struggled to get a handle on her character. She is completely isolated throughout the book, for good reason, but it made it hard to get a good picture of what she was like. Her interactions with the builders renovating the church didn’t add the extra levels of complexity to her character that I craved, and some of her actions in the second half of the book puzzled me. I couldn’t understand her motivations for doing certain things. I longed for a scene with her therapist or her friend to see how she acted around people she had a relationship with. 

While the beginning and end held me engrossed, the middle, like the lead in the church windows, was a little soft. 

With McCarthy so proficient at her craft, it’s impossible not to enjoy this book. It has a solid, if slightly predictable, plot, and an interesting character in Robin.