Book Review – Bones by Andrew Cull

Title: Bones: A Collection of Monsters

Author: Andrew Cull

Edition: Paperback

Page Count: 212 pages

Rating:  5 / 5 ✨✨✨✨✨

Short Summary:

‘Bones’ brings together four chilling ghost stories by award winning writer-director Andrew Cull. Four monsters collected in paperback for the first time.

Goodreads | Amazon (Physical) | Amazon (eBook)

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“Being scared’s good,” Grandpa Walker had told me once. “Stops us from doing stupid things.” It hadn’t stopped me.

First, I’d like to thank Andrew Cull for sending a copy of his book over to me shortly after I joined the bookstagram community. I was a lowly nobody there, with barely any followers, and he was just trying to spread the word of his book – and he gave me a chance! I went on vacation shortly after, and the book arrived and sat at home waiting for me until I was able to give it the attention it deserved. Fast forward to now, a couple months later, when I’ve read the darn thing THREE TIMES because it’s so good, and am finally attempting to review it here!

This book is comprised of 4 short stories (5, if you count the awesome little flash fiction-esque bonus at the very end!), and I honestly am hard pressed trying to choose a single favorite. Each one of them is so different from the others in the book, but themes of death, grief, and loss tie them together in a beautifully woven tapestry that make up Cull’s stellar debut into the writing world.

I’d honestly give 5 stars to every story, so I can’t choose a favorite, and am going to include info on all of them (no spoilers, of course!):

Did You Forget About Me?

Synopsis from the book:

When Cam Miller returns to the town he grew up in he’s heading to clear his estranged father’s farmhouse. He’s also returning to the house he fled 23 years before. There, among the nicotine stained keepsakes and remnants of a broken life, he’ll come face to face with a horror that has waited all those years for his return.

Thoughts:

What an atmospheric entry to the collection! This one blew me away, and I kept expecting the danger to come from the wrong place – I loved it so much. Despite it not really having anything similar overall plot-wise, there was a scene in this that reminded me of the UNTIL DAWN video game, and gave me the same sort of chills.

Hope and Walker

Synopsis from the book:

Em Walker is just like any other 10-year-old girl growing up in the small, outback town of Hope. That is, except for the fact that her Dad runs one of the town’s two funeral parlours, and the dead have just started speaking to her…

When Hope is rocked by a terrible crime, Em, stubborn, scared of spiders, and with a temper that’s likely to get her into trouble, will find herself thrust into the middle of a dangerous hunt for the truth.

Thoughts:

I loved little Em so much! She was such a fleshed out character for so little space in a book, and she reminded me a lot of myself as a kid. Despite this being about the dead speaking to a little girl, the real horror from this story comes from other people. I loved the ending as well!

The Trade

Synopsis from the book:

That summer should have been filled with laughter, with slip n’ slides in the yard, lazy afternoons lying watching ice cream clouds swirling through the blue sky, melting in slow motion. I watched a plane rising high above our house. From the ground it looked completely still, as if it hung suspended in the air, a model on a string. I wished I was on it, I wished I could escape. I was seven and that was the summer death stalked our home.

It began with the offerings…

Thoughts:

I really enjoy that the stories vary between feeling like they’re in pretty populated areas, or being extremely remote. This one felt almost claustrophobic in the way it was told from the perspective of a small house next to some woods, and that definitely amped up my anxiety as the story progressed!

Knock and You Will See Me

Synopsis from the book:

When grieving Ellie Ray finds a crumpled, handwritten note from her recently deceased father, hidden behind the couch, she assumes that her middle boy, Max, left it there. It has a single word written on it: WHY. But, as more and more letters begin to appear throughout the house, Ellie and her three boys will find themselves dragged into a deeply sinister mystery surrounding her father’s death.

Thoughts:

The first time I read this one, I flipped backwards in the book and immediately read it again. The descriptions of the bugs and moisture and tattered slips of paper were so good; I felt like I could really see and feel everything happening in this story, as terrifying and heartbreaking as it was. There’s a brief intro to the book written by Eddie Generous from UNNERVING, and in it, he talks about how Andrew writes like he’s watching the story unfold as a movie – and that’s so incredibly accurate! I’d watch and read anything by him ever, tbh.

Bonus: The Rambling Man

Thoughts:

This super short little story took me by total surprise because I wasn’t expecting it to be in the book. I ended up wishing it could have been as long as – if not longer than – the other stories. I love stories about strange little cult-like groups of people that do weird things due to their belief systems – like The Witch or The Wicker Man – and The Rambling Man is now one of my favorites of that type, especially thanks to the nice little twist at the end. How writers manage to flip the entire story upside down in just a matter of pages always stuns me, and I’m consistently impressed by the ability!

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Overall, I was extremely impressed with this collection, and I’m adding Andrew to my list of must-read authors for all of his new releases. Speaking of, his first full book, REMAINS, should be out sometime in 2019, and I can’t wait to add it to my collection!

Thanks again to Andrew for the book in exchange for an honest review, and for just being such a cool person in general. If you aren’t already following him on social media, make sure you do! (Twitter and Instagram)