Michelle de Kretser’s Scary Monsters is a novel of two faces, two halves. As soon as you weigh the book in your hands, de Kretser gives you a choice: where will you begin? There are no clues to help you decide. Everything within the book is mirrored: the number of pages, the publishing details, the acknowledgements. Your choice is a kind of Rorschach: you must judge this book by its covers—a lone cherry set on deep magenta, or delicate white blossom. This challenge—for it is a challenge set for us by the author—simply yet radically disrupts traditional narrative linearity, which establishes the tone for the two halves of de Kretser’s reversible novel. This intellectual acuity should not come as a surprise; de Kretser’s literary credentials—which include two Miles Franklin awards—are immaculate.