Ballydog may well be a weird, weird town (in Ireland as it happens) with weird characters, and monsters giving it that supernatural touch but this is a great read. The author is a terrific storyteller and has clearly had a great time writing both this the second set in the town of Ballydog and the first one The Badness of Ballydog. Surprising too that even though the storyline is so surreal and weird it's also strangely believable.
At last there is peace in the city. A shipment of vicious creatures will be exported faraway. Their containers rattle, howl and smell of death. But not everyone is keen to see them leave. Shouldn't the place that makes the monsters keep them? Ewan has returned to the city for his father's trial. May has joined a school for special talents. Andrew wants only to keep out of trouble. But trouble is sure to find them. It has their scent.
32-year-old Garrett Carr comes from a town in the west of Ireland a bit like Ballydog. He has worked as a cook, a fruit-picker, a brickie, a web-developer, but mainly as an illustrator. He has worked for governmental agencies in his native Ireland and for development agencies in Latin America. He now lives in Belfast, where he contributes to the city's burgeoning literary scene with publications, exhibitions, and readings of his work. He has been studying at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry where he was taught by author Ian Sansom. This is the first book in a trilogy about May, Andrew and Ewan - and their battles with monsters old and new.
