Be careful what you bring back from a curating expedition...

“What we have here is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”  -Relic

Relic is a thriller novel published in 1995 by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Going into the novel, I was hesitant if the whole thing would keep my interest because the beginning with the Relic created an entirely more intriguing set of ideas that added substance to the monster's story, rather than just a typical gore-everywhere-for-no-reason kind of deal.

expedition seemed a bit jumpy and difficult to follow. Much to my pleasant surprise, not only would all the holes from the mysterious expedition get filled throughout the novel, but the rest of the book offered an interesting plot and a monster that I thought was written right. It's so easy to have a bloodthirsty monster on the loose and let it go from there, but the authors of

The characters and setting were huge selling points for me. I love museums, and the idea of something spooky happening as an exhibit on superstition went underway was a great setup. Museums, with their wide array of strange artifacts and collections, are great places for inspiration for writers, and I've often gathered ideas from walking through exhibits, but I never thought to actually have a story take place in the museum itself, so I really loved the whole idea. The descriptions of the labyrinth of exhibits, the basement, the secret tunnels, passages, doors and so forth greatly added to the setting, and to breathing life into the huge space of the museum. The dim lights (or no lights when the power went out) created an intimidating atmosphere and mood for our lost, wandering characters as they were trapped in the museum with the creature, and I found myself hooked to every moment of the survival adventure.

Margo and Pendergast were my two favorite characters, and I'm excited to see the sequel in the series seems to pick up their stories. I definitely want to read that. Margo's character possessed quick-wit, a drive to help others, and other relatable characteristics such as struggling to know if she wanted to stay at the museum or follow in her late father's footsteps. Her interactions with Frock, Pendergast, Smithback and others really helped drive the story. Margo did not back down from challenges and proved to be instrumental in defeating the beast. Pendergast himself made a great FBI agent with his odd, but charming demeanor and backstory. He was clever and possessed a quiet intimidation that I adored. Frock, Smithback, and D'Agosta were also characters I ended up really liking, and I actually enjoyed how the novel switched between all their stories, yet we got to see everyone come together at the end and wrap up the novel. Even the asshole characters, such as Cuthbert, Rickman, and Coffey were all characters I loved to dislike. Their personalities were written so distinctively that all the characters felt real to me. This was a refreshing relief from the typical stock characters in horror that are sometimes just created so they can be killed off later on.

The monster itself was pretty creepy. The name He Who Walks On All Fours had a spooky charm to it, and the description of the rancid smell that accompanied the beast had my nose crinkling in disgust. The descriptions were vivid enough to give readers a portrait of the monster without

Awesome artwork on a representation of Mbwun by Noel Hill, found here (x)

revealing so much that nothing was left to the imagination. The authors really had a knack for doing that with all the descriptions throughout the book. I felt like I was there in the middle of all the danger and excitement. Mbwun's fierce, evil actions compared to the sadness that was described in his eyes at times really helped create conflicting feelings toward the monster, which I thought was great (especially when we learned the twist about Mbwun at the end). It was a murderous beast, yet at the same time it was intelligent, had a purpose/reason for being in the museum and killing the way it did (at least at first), and the authors did a spot-on job of creating a monster that was creepy, had an interesting back story, and was strong but had vulnerabilities.

The literary value of Relic should not be ignored either. The novel tactfully brings up notions of the power of the press and media, the influence of national institutions, critiques of police procedures and security, and of course the amount of research that must have went into the novel cannot be ignored. Overall, the creature feature mixed with the literary merit combines to create one fantastic novel.

The very end with Kawakita discovering what really happened to Whittlesey and who/what Mbwun really is was fascinating. It provided a great twist to something I thought had been wrapped up, yet it wasn't so outrageous that it felt like the idea came from nowhere. The trail of bread crumbs was definitely there and Kawakita was the one who put it together. What he was doing at the end with turning the plant into a peddling drug was interesting as well and has a recipe for disaster written all over it. I'm sure that will come up in the next book and I definitely want to find out what happens and continue along with the stories of Margo and Pendergast.