YOU CAN'T KILL WHAT'S ALREADY DEAD.
Listen... do you hear the squeaking swing? Bloody Bones is on the porch, and he's coming to get you.
Thirty years ago, the stranger came to the sleepy southern town of Farnsworth, and the killings began. Wearing a black suit and passing himself off as a traveling preacher, the Dark Man targeted children. But when he took the daughter of the local hoodoo woman, she exacted a terrible revenge.
Listen... do you hear the creaking door? Bloody Bones is in the house, and he's coming to get you.
Bound to a ploughshare at the bottom of a quicksand hole and unable to die, the Dark Man raged as his body rotted to bones. Three decades later, a murder and a gruesome burial resurrects the stranger. Now, two boys, a witch, and a deputy will attempt to keep the Dark man from sating his monstrous appetite. Listen! Do you hear the blood dripping on your bed? Bloody Bones is here, and he's...GOTCHA!
Bloody Bones is a jarring, distressing, occult horror. It made my heart hurt.
I am not even going to talk about the plot. I am only going to say that it concerns an abomination from the past that is reawakened by a depraved act 30 years later, told in graphic detail.
It is very dark, disturbing, and upsetting. I feel like I watched someone's soul get crushed when their hope was ripped away by evil. I have always said the best horror can make you feel something.
The writing is skillful, the storytelling is excellent, and I'm sitting here stunned. Never have I ever, until Bloody Bones, read a book that made me wish with all my might that the children in it would die. To be clear, I didn't just want them to die I wanted them to suffer first. Even the thought that they might get away with what they did filled me with such rage that I had to take a break and check my blood pressure.
Even though this is likely to end up on my best horror of the year list for 2025 I would cautiously recommend it to those who think they can handle it. It strained my own boundaries very close to the breaking point.
My thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications for the e-ARC.
5 out of 5 stars
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