BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN! I buy copies in bulk so I may gift it to others. Its this insane tale of a guy who is basically a terrible person. He gets into the most elegantly written hell fire of a car wreck and is no longer viewing himself as human after his 'member' is gone. While he is being terrible to all the endearing hospital staff a lady from the psych ward comes over and insists on telling him about her 7 hearts and how he is hers. All of his other drug addled mates abandon him rather quickly so for the sake of some company (any company) he listens to her 7 stories over the span of the book, each one thrusting you into past life regressions and even Dantes Inferno. READ THIS BOOK! Its perfect. I am not the only person passing out copies to everyone. Its life changing, rich, historical, dramatic, exciting, and terrifying. Andrew Davidson is doing a disservice to humanity by not putting out another book out, because after you read this you'll be desperate for more.

This was a fascinating book, weaving what would seem to be incongruous stories into a seamless, well written and incredibly well researched novel. What a mix of genres: Realistic fiction, historical fiction, tragedy, romance, magic realism, suspense, mystery, drama. Realistic, imaginative, intelligent and thought provoking. Memorable. Loved it.

I read this book in 2 days I just couldn't put it down it was not what I expected it's not actually about any gargoyles it's about this man's journey through life he was living one lifestyle ended up living a different lifestyle there's a little bit of a fantasy in there but it's mostly pretty straightforward about how this guy transforms his life after a tragedy. There is a bit of a horror aspect to it so you have to kind of like some of the darker stuff as well it was right up my alley and I loved it

Amazing Book!!! Yasmine Yousaf (Krewella) Favorite Book. If she recommended the book. It must be amazing! Fictional story, but the authors only book Andrew Davidson has ever written. It kind of feels like it could of been a biography of His life. Amazing work!!! A must read for you to believe what i am talking about. Long story short. No spoilers trust me. The very first part of the book. Maybe 40 pages in it gets really specific and detailed on what is happening to this one character. But, the story is definitely a page turner for sure.

I did not expect this book to be as good as it is. How it was written like a diary and how honest the character was.I liked how the author was very meticulous with the burn treatment. It was factual and it really helped me understand the severity of the character's situation and what he was going through. And it wasn't just the physical side, the mental and emotional side was also very nicely written that it coincided with the whole ordeal he was going through.

"Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, often violently, just like love."

I liked the odd love story of this book. How it's unadulterated love that Marianne felt and worked to it until the end. It was painful reading her struggle rather than the burn part which was quite odd but good because it was unexpected and gave it a sort of twist.

"I do not believe in any God that considers love to be a sin."

"I am not a hero in soul and never will be, but I am better than I was. Or so I tell myself; and for now, that is enough."

"If you cannot love the pain, you can at least love the lesson it teaches."

"All the while, I'm composing in my mind. These pages that you have now read, most of them originated at my lonely command post at the edge of the world where the earth falls into the sea. I have spent much time there, in this grand empty space between memory and desire, creating this cracked empire of sentences in which I now live."

The Gargoyle was filled with intensity and creativity. From the first pages of the book through the end, the author delivers. I read this book for a book club. We haven't discussed this book in our formal group meeting yet, but it was controversial enough that emails were flying. It seems people either loved it or hated it. Some read the first chapters and then refused to read more but eventually caved in and read it, skipping chapters that were offensive to them. I think it is intense because it deals with topics such as near death experiences, blood and gore, drug addiction, pornography, severe mental illness, unconditional love, and death. It is creative the way the author finds fresh ways of describing things. I have highlighted many creative descriptions in the book since I am preparing to defend myself at book club for the top star rating I am giving this book.

Here are some quotes from "The Gargoyle" that show the author's creativity and wittiness:

“My flesh began to singe as if I were a scrap of meat newly thrown onto the barbecue, and then i could hear the bubbling of my skin as the flames kissed it.”

“I have no idea whether beginning with my accident was the best decision, as I've never written a book before. Truth be told, I started with the crash because I wanted to catch your interest and drag you into the story. You're still reading, so it seems to have worked.”

“The doctors removed my wasteland exterior by debriding me, scraping away the charred flesh. they brought in tanks of liquid nitrogen containing skin recently harvested from corpses. The sheets were thawed in pans of water, then neatly arranged on my back and stapled into place. Just like that, as if they were laying strips of sod over the problem areas behind their summer cabins, they wrapped me in the skin of the dead. My body was cleaned constantly but I rejected these sheets of necro-flesh anyway; I've never played well with others. So over and over again, I was sheeted with cadaver skin.”

"Every imperfection was amplified, and I looked like the bastard child of Hannibal Lecter and the Phantomess of the Opera."

"I wanted her to recoil at the sight of my lonely scrotum, which looked for all the world like a tumbleweed on the abandoned street of a ghost town."

"Morphine is like a religious zealot on a mission: it searches for body parts to convert, offerring milk-and-honeyed dreams to flow sluggishly through your veins."

"She was like an anthropomorphized butterball turkey, cast as the lead character in a Raymond Chandler novel......"Whaddya think you're looking at Crispy Critter?"

“I once knew a woman who liked to imagine Love in the guise of a sturdy dog, one that would always chase down the stick after it was thrown and return with his ears flopping around happily. Completely loyal, completely unconditional. And I laughed at her, because even I knew that love is not like that. Love is a delicate thing that needs to be cosseted and protected. Love is not robust and love is not unyeilding. Love can crumble under a few harsh words, or be tossed away with a handful of careless actions. Love isn't a steadfast dog at all; love is more like a pygmy mouse lemur. ”

“Didn't anyone ever tell you that the mouth is the front gate of all misfortune?”

“My words were Egyptian hieroglyphics before the discovery of the Rosetta stone; my words were wounded soldiers limping home, guns spent, from a lost battle; my words were dying fish, flipping hysterically as the net is opened and the pile spreads across the boat deck like a slippery mountain trying to become a prairie.
My words were, and are, unworthy of Marianne Engel.”