What happens when you build an entire fantasy world inside a pub?
I was sorting Jamal's school permission slips at the kitchen table around midnight - both boys finally asleep after Malik fought bedtime for an hour straight - and I had Tapped Book 2 rolling through my earbuds while I tried to make sense of which field trip needed what signature. And I'll tell you, Chris Holloway's problems with a smiling stranger trying to buy his pub out from under him hit different when you're a man who knows what it feels like to protect your territory.
A Pub Worth Fighting For
So here's the setup: Chris Holloway runs The Butt and Beam, a pub that sits at the intersection of magical roads called the Lanes, in a Welsh village called Pant-y-Giggles (yes, that's the actual name, and no, the book never lets you forget it). Book 2 picks up right after whatever chaos went down in Book 1 - Opening Night left its mark - and immediately throws three problems at Chris. A disturbance rippling through the Hollows, a too-smooth businessman called the Smiling Man making offers he shouldn't be making, and a vampire in a bikini showing up begging for sanctuary with daddy issues of the literal bloodsucker variety.
Now look, this isn't my usual lane. I'm a thriller guy, a true crime guy, a "does this actually make sense in the real world" guy. But Cassius Lange and Bram Kingsley do something here that grabbed me by the collar - they built the fantasy around work. Chris isn't some chosen one swinging swords. He's a landlord. He brews beer. He manages a building that has opinions. He negotiates with entities that could eat him alive, and he does it the way any small business owner would: with stubbornness, common sense, and people he trusts. Real blue-collar shit right here, just dressed up in magic. Cabinet of Curiosities pulls something similar—ordinary people navigating extraordinary systems they didn't ask to be part of, and the grind of surviving it is what makes the story land.
The supporting cast - Ceri with her lightning, Honey with her fire, Too-Far with his chaos - they feel like a crew. Like the guys on my warehouse floor who each bring something different and you'd be screwed without any one of them. The book respects that dynamic instead of making Chris some lone wolf hero.
Two Voices in a Welsh Pub
JD Tanner and Kitty Perrelli split narration duties, and at 1.6x they kept good pace without tripping over the Welsh names and fantasy terminology (which, trust me, there's plenty of). Tanner handles Chris's voice with this dry British everyman quality - not too polished, not too rough - that fits a guy who's basically learning on the job while the job tries to kill him. Perrelli brings warmth to the female characters without making them sound like they're performing. The handoffs between narrators felt natural enough that I didn't get yanked out of the story during my drive home on the Dan Ryan at 4AM.
What I can't tell you is whether the production has sound effects or musical cues because honestly, between the truck engine and Chicago wind, I might've missed subtle stuff. The audio was clean though - no weird volume drops or compression issues that plague some indie fantasy releases.
Where the Magic Gets Real (And Where It Doesn't)
Here's my honest problem: I jumped into Book 2 without reading Book 1, and the story doesn't hold your hand. The Hollows, the Lanes, the Way - there's a whole system here that the book assumes you already understand. I caught up, but for the first hour I was piecing things together like reading an instruction manual that starts on page 30. If you're coming in fresh, go back to Book 1 first.
The other thing - at just under 9 hours, this is a setup book. You can feel it. The Smiling Man conflict doesn't fully resolve, the vampire situation opens more doors than it closes, and the Hollows themselves seem to be building toward something bigger. It's satisfying enough on its own, but you're signing up for a series commitment here, not a standalone experience.
But what Lange gets right - and this is why I stuck with it - is the weight of responsibility. Chris protecting The Butt and Beam isn't abstract hero stuff. It's a man defending his livelihood, his community, his people. The warehouse taught me more than college, and this book understands that kind of pride. When the Smiling Man makes his play for the pub, you feel the violation of it because the book earned that emotional investment through hours of Chris doing the daily work of keeping his place running.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
If you like your fantasy grounded in working-class grit - characters who earn what they have and fight to keep it - this one's for you. Cozy fantasy fans who want a pub setting with real teeth will dig it too. Skip it if you need standalone stories that wrap clean, or if jumping into a series mid-stream with no hand-holding sounds like a headache.
Clocking Out on This One
I wouldn't've picked this up on my own - fantasy pubs and vampires in bikinis aren't exactly my playlist. But someone on the floor recommended it and I'm glad I listened. It's not perfect, it leans heavy on series momentum over standalone payoff, and the worldbuilding can feel like drinking from a fire hose. But Chris Holloway works for what he has, and I respect any story that respects that. 1.6x and still had me gripping the wheel on the way home.
