Bone Parish, Volume 2 by Cullen Bunn, illustrated by Jonas Scharf

BOOM! Studios, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1684154258

Available: Paperback, Kindle, comiXology

Bone Parish, Volume 2 follows the Winters family, a New Orleans crime family that created a hallucinogenic drug made from the ashes of the dead. Anyone who takes the drug, called “The Ash”, lives the memories of the deceased. The second volume opens with Grace Winters and the rest of the family attending the funeral of Wade Winters, the youngest sibling, who was killed by a rival cartel. After the funeral, Grace approaches a shadowy figure in attendance who did not approach the other mourners. He is not unfamiliar to her. After all, Andre is her deceased husband. She used the last of her late husband’s ashes for him to be able to attend his son’s funeral.

Throughout the story, Grace starts seeing herself take on Andre’s physical traits, such as seeing his reflection in a mirror where her own should be, and her eyes begin to take on the eerie purple glow that his did when he appeared to her. Her own transformation isn’t the only one occurring with the use of Ash. Other cartels are employing their own people to attempt creating their own strains of the drug, but the results are not the same as the Winters’ product. The “test cases”, typically any drug addict they pick up off the street, are attacked by the memories of the dead who want to go on living. The physical side effects the users experience can only be described as Cronenbergian. While all of this is occurring, Wade’s death has created new rifts. Grace pushes daughter Brigitte to keep creating “The Ash”, especially considering other drug families are trying to create their own strains. Brae constantly berates Grace, Brigitte, and Leon about Wade’s death, the latter of whom he believes is at fault, and about the family business. He is less than prudent and levelheaded when he meets a mysterious woman painted with a Día de Muertos skull, and gets in bed with the enemy, as well as hiring a biker gang for personal protection. Leon, despite his older brother’s tirades and everything else in play that is picking apart already tenuous familial bonds, still believes his late father’s words, that family is the only thing that matters. The question remains, just how much strain can those bonds handle before they are torn apart?

As with the first volume of this series, I am not surprised that Bone Parish, Volume 2 has been nominated for a Stoker Award. Bunn has become one of my favourite writers in the horror genre. He weaves a good yarn, and the artists who are paired with him create fantastic visuals. Scharf’s artwork adds significantly to Bunn’s story. Highly recommended.

Contains: body horror, drug use, gore, murder, sexual content

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Editor’s note: Bone Parish, Volume 2 is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.