The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson

A young man is fighting for his life. Into his room walks a bewitching woman who believes she can save him. Their journey will have you believing in the impossible. The nameless and beautiful narrator of The Gargoyle is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and wakes up in a burns ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned. His life is over – he is now a monster. But in fact it is only just beginning. One day, Marianne Engel, a wild and compelling sculptress of gargoyles, enters his life and tells him that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly burned mercenary and she was a nun and a scribe who nursed him back to health in the famed monastery of Engelthal. As she spins her tale, Scheherazade fashion, and relates equally mesmerising stories of deathless love in Japan, Greenland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life – and, finally, to love.


The book opens with detailed description of the accident that disfigures the unnamed narrator, with a beautiful, horrific break down of the accident itself, and the subsequent medical procedures he must undergo to recover. A former porn star and now disfigured beyond recognition, the narrator takes us on a journey into his own past, into his future and recovery, and into medieval Germany.

For at least half of the book, I was completely hooked. Some parts of the story are slow, and yet the prose is dynamic and exciting enough to carry you through. It's extremely gritty, and the protagonist is exactly the kind I like: cynical, sarcastic, and with a somewhat nihilistic view of the world. 

While recovering in the hospital, the narrator becomes addicted to morphine and even more addicted to misery, plotting his own suicide in graphic detail. That is - until Marianne Engel appears in his room. Marianne is undoubtedly strange, and he suspects that she is either suffering from manic depression or schizophrenia. Because the things she tells him cannot possibly be true.

Among her tales of love stories, she also reveals that they have a "past". Once upon a time in fourteenth-century Germany, they were lovers. Ludicrous as this obviously is, the protagonist is drawn into her tales, finding new reason to live from her companionship, whilst also being concerned for her mental health.

Both the present day recovery and the historical elements are fascinating. The writing is lush and vivid, weaving a modern day tale of tragedy and romance with history and the suggestion of fantasy. Absolutely stunning writing. 

However, the problem was--okay, one of the problems was--that I found the many love stories to be more interesting than Marianne's own story. The main issue I had was that there was no real conflict to propel the plot along and I didn't think that the characters were strong enough to carry the story themselves. Yes, there were some details that intrigued me (like the Asian woman whispering to a young Narrator about the origin of his scar, which was completely forgotten), and Marianne's assertion that they were lovers did pique my interest--was she for real or just a deeply confused schizophrenic? But the majority of the plot was about the Narrator's recovery in the burn unit, his rehabilitation and physical therapy, which, granted, was quite thoroughly researched but a little boring after a while. And Marrianne's slow slip into madness. However, there were parts where the author slipped into long, monotonous, detailed description that could have easily been cut. A half page listing all of the foods at the Christmas feast? Seriously?

My second major issue was the characters. I just felt that they were one-dimensional and uninteresting beyond the fact that one is burned and the other thinks they're lovers from 700 years ago. They reminded me of the titular gargoyle: meticulously crafted but ultimately stony and impenetrable and without much substance below the surface. I didn't think that they had any chemistry together, either. In fact, I was more charmed by the crush Gregor had on Mizumoto than I was by the primary romance.
Age Rating 16+. The main character is an ex-porn star and is not afraid to talk about it. Child abuse, substance abuse, talk about sex and violence.