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German Review about "CULT"
This book is a light in the darkness. It flickers and teases, it retreats, it seduces and disturbs, it smirks and sticks its tongue out at you, and with this tongue it also licks your hand, which feels horrid but also good. This book lures you in through its naivety, its directness, its coolness, its fear; everything is inside this book: love, romance, a quest that makes your head expand and then explode, the eternal drama of youth and also the mocking look of all those who felt they were too good for this drama and chose to live in a world without mystery. It is beautiful and fearful and fearless, this book, it is a book of our time and also a strange edifice, this book, because it is so contradictory, so self-assured, so lost. ― Die Zeit
An unsparing, cynical and yet witty portrait of a new generation.
It is not only the virtuosity and sheer linguistic power with which Lyubko Deresh mixes fantastical elements with pop culture, the arcane and world literature that is amazing about CULT. Equally remarkable is the fact that the author was a mere 16 years old when he finished his novel, which earned him the unwelcome epithet “Ukraine’s literary wunderkind.” ― DeutschlandRadio
As the plot gathers momentum, Deresh modulates the atmosphere to that of a gothic novel. What initially had appeared to be a Galician campus novel (with free drugs for everyone) turns into a horror thriller à la Stephen King and H. P. Lovecraft… As it races towards its conclusion, the story becomes more and more dramatic, the mix of literary and pop-cultural allusions zanier and zanier, the boldness with which Deresh blends different genres more and more breath-taking… All this bears testimony to a great, untamed energy. ― Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
CULT is a cheeky collage of H. P. Lovecraft and pop-cultural references – and much more than that: the way Lyubko Deresh writes about love, about fear, rebellion and growing up demonstrates that this young writer is a great novelist. ― Brigitte
Deresh’s novel is called CULT, and it promises to turn into just that. ― Südwestrundfunk
“Everything in this world, even matter, is energy,” reads a passage in CULT. And that’s what Deresh’s novel is: energy… What makes us so sure that this book is an important sign of the times and not just an idiosyncrasy? Maybe the fact that when CULT was published in Ukraine, it did indeed turn into a cult novel. And that its author was only 16 at the time. ― Süddeutsche Zeitung
It’s hard to believe that the author was only 16 when he wrote CULT… Deresh works with a tight web of allusions, expertly weaving together classical and pop cultural references… An instant classic of fantastical fiction. ― amazon.de
