A review by lawrence_retold
The 37th Mandala by Marc Laidlaw

3.0

Marc Laidlaw's an interesting writer. I first discovered him through his story "Leng" in [b:Lovecraft Unbound|26236506|Lovecraft Unbound|Ellen Datlow|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441537804s/26236506.jpg|6696594], one of my favorite stories in that anthology, and only later discovered that he also wrote for video games. This (earlier) novel isn't as good as "Leng" for me — its explicitly sexual scenes, in particular, I found not up to par — but, the pacing is good and the book's climax is surprisingly satisfying. For a book in which the characters themselves are often unsure about which parts of their experiences represent reality, too, The 37th Mandala was remarkably not confusing to read. I found some discomfort in "mandalas" being the name of the supernatural beings, and felt (relatedly) that Laidlaw perhaps missed a big opportunity to have an Asian point-of-view character, so the cultural currency of this book is pretty much nonexistent; but, it drew me in nonetheless: I really felt like I *lived* with this book, on and off, for a year. I read somewhere that Laidlaw wrote it, in part, explicitly in order to train himself to be a better writer; as it stands, it is sort of all over the place, but, if "Leng" is any indication, The 37th Mandala did manage to accomplish its goal.