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Book Review: The Bone Cutters by Renee S. DeCamillis

The Bone Cutters by Renee S. DeCamillis

Eraserhead Press, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1621052937

Available: Paperback

 

This has been a banner year for introducing stellar new horror writers to the world. Renee S. DeCamillis shows she is one of these with  her novella The Bone Cutters, one of the strangest, but coolest, entries of 2019. Fans of Gwendolyn Kiste or Cody Goodfellow will definitely want to seek this out.

The novella is a wonderful form for horror, giving the reader and author just enough time to grow into the story, fall for the characters, and then leave both with a scar on the soul. DeCamillis’ story touches on elements of the familiar, but makes it her own.

Dory, the main character, wakes up in a mental ward with no idea how she got there, but learns she has been “blue-papered”– committed without consent. In other hands than DeCamillis’, this could have turned out to be just another horror tale in a tired setting, but the story takes a hard left when Dory attends her first group meeting. The people in the group have strange scars signaling that they are  addicts of a new kind. These people are “dusters,” the titular “bone cutters”. who carve into their own– or others’ — bodies, to get high off the dust within. They dig and scrape until they procure enough of the material from the bones to give themselves  a high unknown to other addicts. Because Dory is a “freshie”– a newbie who hasn’t been dusted yet– she becomes their prime target. Dory has nobody to help her until she meets the enigmatic custodian, Tommy, whose past may tie into the patients from whom Dory is trying to escape.

To say more about the plot would give away too much. Just dive in and enjoy.

DeCamillis doesn’t mess around with frills here. Her writing is as razor sharp as the cutting tools the patients use. Not a word is wasted in this lean tale that grabs hold from the get go, and drags the reader through a surreal experience that evokes One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, if written by Clive Barker. The ending arrives way too fast, but it will leave readers jonesing for another hit of this new writer.

A recommended novella to be added to a fine 2019.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on September 13, 2019 by , 1 comment

Book Review: Curse of the Boggin (The Library, Book 1) by D.J. MacHale


Curse of the Boggin (The Library, Book 1) by D.J. MacHale

Random House Books for Young Readers, 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1101932537

Available: Hardcover, audiobook, audio CD

 

Marcus O’Mara was an ordinary troublemaking kid headed to detention until a ghost in pajamas started haunting him, and the words “surrender the key” appeared in shattered glass in the school hallway. Suspended from school for accidentally blowing out all the computers in the computer lab while in unsupervised detention, he researches the term on the Internet and finds the obituary of the man who has been haunting him, and decides to sneak out of the house to find the man’s family. When Marcus arrives at the man’s household,  his wife recognizes Marcus, and tells him that both her husband and his birth parents were paranormal investigators who died under mysterious circumstances. Her husband had been holding onto something left for Marcus by his parents: a key that can open any door into a library of unfinished stories. The librarian tells Marcus it is up to him to finish the chain of events that will lead to the end of the ghost’s story, which means capturing the spirit who led to his death: the boggin. The boggin is a spirit with the power of illusion whose chief purpose is to cause fear and dread, and it is the one demanding that Marcus “surrender the key”. With the help of his friends Lu and Theo, Marcus must find a way to defeat and imprison the boggin and prevent it from getting the key to the library.

This is the first book in a series, and provides the setup for further volumes that the author says can be read in any order as stand-alone adventures. And they are adventures: from the prologue on, the action rarely stops. MacHale’s economy of words means the story moves along, but there’s enough description to create appropriately frightening atmosphere (much of which is related to weather, such as lightning strikes and thick fog). A spirit who can create completely effective illusions gives the author a lot of latitude to work with in terms of creating some pretty nasty experiences for Marcus and his friends.  As in many suspense and mystery novels for middle-graders, there are a lot of unlikely coincidences and character tropes (MacHale plays with these, but the physically adventurous risk-taker and the cautious, nerdy skeptic are pretty standard) and the ending is predictable, but I love the concept of the Library! Kids looking for a mildly scary, suspenseful ride, with plenty of ghosts and spirits (and spiders), will enjoy this.

 

Editor’s note:  Curse of the Boggin is a nominee for the 2019-2020 Young Hoosier Book Award in the grades 4-6 category.

Posted on September 13, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Dead Aware: A Zombie Journey by Eleanor Merry

 

Dead Aware: A Zombie Journey by Eleanor Merry

LAC, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1999212810

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

When does a zombie story become interesting again, after the glut that’s thicker than the goo between the undead’s ears?

Dead Aware  is a tale that’s enjoyable from start to finish, that was an unexpected pleasure. Told from the points of view of an undead couple, Merry’s story chronicles Clara and Max Jacobs from living to dead to undead to… whatever.

A strange virus – F.I.R.E. (Fever Induced Rapid Encephalitis) hits the world hard – and fast. The onset is pretty standard for a zombie novel,  but that’s just where the fun begins. Both Max and Clara succumb to the affliction while separated on different ends of Canada:  him in Toronto, and her in British Columbia. Through the help of Jay (a fascinating character that truly helps “flesh” out this story), Max recovers slightly and begins to speak again, think again, and remember his love for Clara.

Max embarks on a journey to find her, a trek wrought with obstacles that would stop most of the living. Being undead comes with its own bevy of obstacles, but he’s determined to get back home, without devouring any humans on the way.

Meanwhile, Clara is captured and tested by a military group that wants the zombies dead. However, Rachel, a scientist who knows something about this virus, is dead set on finding a cure, or at least a way to help the afflicted to “live” in society peacefully. The relationship between the two women brings yet another dimension to the novel that separates it from most of its kind.

Merry has written a story that deserves to be read, enjoyable for fans of the undead or simply those who enjoy their horror with a heart. Her writing is solid and intriguing. The characters ring authentic– creating empathy for the undead is pretty tough to accomplish– yet she pulls it off in just 154 pages. As this is the start of a series, it will be intriguing to see where the story heads next.

Eleanor Merry is a new writer to watch.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on September 12, 2019 by , Reply
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