David DemchukRezensionen

I honestly thought I was going to utterly love this book. For several reasons.

First is, there are a couple of Bookstagrammers I know who count this either as their all-time favourite horror novel, or count it in their top reads.

The second reason was that I'd quite enjoyed meeting the author. Wonderful guy, and he's the primary reason I purchased the novel at the same time.

And the final reason is, because it started out very strong. Unfortunately—and I'm going to focus the blame solely on me here—is that the ongoing story didn't capture me as I thought it would as it progressed.

Overall, the story is an interesting one, with both some really well-drawn characters that I learned to care for, and some exceptionally creepy and well-written scenes of horror. The author also did a great job of tying the characters together in unexpected, yet meaningful ways. And, there's also the central mystery of the buried iron box as well.

So, all the elements are there for a really good horror novel. And, while some of the author interjections throughout the story and between the time jumps felt a bit jarring, again, he managed to tie it together toward the end. That being said, I did find that those sections really pulled me out of the main story, more than I should have been.

But if there's a central aspect to the story that limited my enjoyment, I believe it was the excessively large cast, and the minutiae to which we experienced every aspect of their lives, whether it fed the characterization or the plot, or not.

There was just...too much of the daily stuff, and I felt it slowed the story down two much or, at times, obscured it altogether. I guess you could say, between that and the author interjections, I found myself continually losing the plot.

I understand the story the author was telling and it's a good one, an important one, and it should be told. Again and again.

But for me, as well as understanding and experiencing the underlying thematic elements, I still want to be entertained, and unfortunately, as the novel progressed, I was less and less entertained.

Not a bad book, and one I'm quite glad I read, and obviously others get more out of it than I did. Which is good, because this novel actually does deserve to find its audience.

As much a study of horror as a genre as it is a queer horror story. Demchuk goes Vonnegut and inserts himself and real historical events into the story. This left me with questions but I felt like that was done purposefully. It was graphic, gory, and creepy, but also highlighted the strength, resilience and interconnectedness of the queer community in a unique way. Just wow!

There are some books which can only be described as 'being an experience'...and this is one of them. For me, reading this book felt more like living through something than sinking into a book, and I mean that in the best way possible, as well as the darkest.

I remember seeing the cover of this book and thinking it felt like a warning--kind of like the poison stickers you see on dangerous substances one might find around the average house, warning children/people away from being too careless. Now, having read the book, I'd say that's an apt impression, and one not to take too lightly. There's real trauma in this book--both lived and remembered, out of history as well as imagined--and it is, very simply, not an easy read. From the images, to the themes, to the very real attention to the trauma and difficulties endured by the LGBTQA community (especially during the HIV/AIDS crisis), Demchuk doesn't hesitate to explore the darkest corners of recent related history while weaving this tale, and the results are impressive. His integration of his own history/memoir into the work makes it all the more powerful and other-worldly, and is one of the key elements that elevates this book into an experience that has the power to affect a reader on a level which, at least for me, isn't often achieved. Not, at least, quite like this.

To Demchuk's credit, there's no shock value here, shocking as some of the events are. There's no wallowing in trauma, mystery, horror, or even the darkest images. All of these things simply *are*, existing as they must in the world of the book. As a result, the book has a certain reality to it--gorgeous as the writing it is, it often doesn't feel like fiction. And again, I mean that in the best, darkest way possible.

This isn't going to be a book for all readers, but all readers who are even remotely tempted by it should absolutely pick it up. I'll be reading everything Demchuk writes from here on out.

This is a horror story about men mysteriously disappearing from Toronto's gay village, reflecting real-life events that happened in the city. I found this book deeply disturbing and provocative. I recommend it with reservations, as it's quite graphic and the format is unusual, but wow, Demchuk sure can write suspenseful scenes! Maybe that is not so surprising, as Demchuk is also a screenwriter for television and film.

This is one of the books nominated for the 2022 Aurora Best Novel novel, for Canadian SFF.½

Ne parlerò più avanti perchè devo decisamente metabolizzare questa meraviglia.
Assolutamente consigliato, racconti weird del più alto livello, intrisi del folklore dell'est europeo.
Da leggere per gli amanti del genere, brividi assicurati.

Ne parlo QUI

Interestingly, I literally have no memory of how this book managed to be in my possession. Reading the back cover description (which I did once I set the book down), it's really not one that I can see myself even picking up. There's nothing wrong with it, it just isn't in my typical sphere of interest.

However, as is usual, I often start the next book in my TBR pile months after purchasing it, and I have to assume that's the same situation here. I read the first fifty-ish pages and, while there was nothing wrong with the book, I just found these felt more like anecdotes than stories, and I simply couldn't get into them.

As I said, it was only after I decided to not carry on with the book that I read the back cover and kind of went, huh? How'd I end up with this one.

It's not a horrible book, it's well written, it's just not for me.

I can sum this one up in two words: LOVED IT!

Told as a series of short stories, I adored the way THE BONE MOTHER was presented. Each tale was preceded by a photograph and I found that those photos gave a face to the characters in each vignette.

The tales themselves were very dark. They all came together,( mostly), at the end, to tell a story of pure evil. Told from Ukranian/Romanian points of view, these characters named horrors that I admittedly know little about: The Holodomor, for instance. Easily over 3 million dead, yet most Americans I've met know nothing about it. Why? References to Kristallnacht, and other horrific events in history also appear, all of which add to the darkness and brutal honesty of this volume.

In some ways, though, these tales do have a lighter side to them-isn't it often the darkest of times that bring out the best in people? These characters sacrificed and loved each other, despite the often miserable lives and events they faced. In that way, this book SHINES.

The writing was gorgeous and descriptive without being overly wordy. The presentation just blew me away. The photographs, the stories, the horror, the love and finally the darkness of it all-combined they make THE BONE MOTHER.

My HIGHEST recommendation!

*I received this paperback from the author with no strings attached. I read it, loved it and here we are!*

Oh, wow! I think I may have found my new favorite horror author!

Well, new for me, anyway. He's been around for many years but mostly as a short story artist. But after meeting him and listening to him speak at a convention, I knew I had to read his work. Sharp mind, deep horror sensibility. :) But even without meeting him, this book is an awesome treat.

Ukranian in flavor, we have all the Slavic influences at the fore. Each story in here makes up a much larger picture of the surrounding area filled with VERY creepy influences. You know, like the Night Police, parents eating their children, mass starvation, government-sponsored assassinations, children never growing up, Strigoi, old witches feeding children worms, and a dark mystery that weaves through every story in the best possible way.

Sound cool? It gets better. Demchuk has a WAY WITH WORDS. At first, I thought he was writing in a minimalist way, but it's better than that. He writes like poetry.

The rhythm to his writing is more than compelling. It takes over your heart and pumps your blood for you. I generally never get scared with horror books. Generally. But this one managed to burrow under my skin and wrap around my spine, making me twinge with every new creepy reveal.

I'm totally thrilled. It's like Angela Slater decided to focus on horror. :) My eyes are wide open, now. I'm going to keep a very sharp eye on this writer. :)

Wonderfully creepy stories about people who are not what they seem. I liked the eastern European folklore and how it was seamlessly inserted to recent history and present day. The style was unique, like putting together pieces of a puzzle to figure out what was going on, but in a a good way.

This is a series of vignettes, each narrated by a different person, set mostly in and around the Ukraine, framing traditional fairy tales and mythical creatures in the real world of WWII and Soviet occupation. I picked this up because it was short-listed for the Shirley Jackson Award in the best novel category, but I couldn't find the narrative thread that would tie these vignettes together into what I would consider to be a novel. I thought the writing was good, and I enjoyed the photographs of (real) people that preceded each vignette, but I think I would have been lost without the publisher's description on the back of the book. Still, interesting and different.

Pros: delightfully creepy and/or unsettling vignettes, real photographs, fascinating mythologies

Con: no frame story to bring the disparate bits together

This is a collection of vignettes by people who have had supernatural experiences of some sort or are themselves supernatural creatures. Each story shows a snippet of life. There’s little description or detail, but it’s not required. I enjoyed piecing some of the stories together as the collection went on, though there’s no frame story giving them the feeling of being a cohesive whole. The publisher’s synopsis for the book is basically the frame story the book itself lacks and needs in order to give a sense of cohesion to the collection. I read this in ebook format and hadn’t read the synopsis in months, so wasn’t able to benefit from the information it gave. At the very least there should have been a wrap up story that tied things together better.

Most of the stories are fronted by a real photograph from the Costica Acsinte Archive. A few stories have hand drawn illustrations instead.

While I was familiar with a few of the creatures described, most of them were new and quite fascinating. It would have been cool to get more details about them, but again, the stories are more about ambiance and the feeling of dread than about describing things in detail. In this way, not knowing what the creatures were in some ways enhanced the horror based on the limited descriptions that were given.

Several of the stories are by people who grew up and lived in the three Eastern European villages, the rest are by their descendants. At least one story took place in Canada, and another in the United States.

On the whole I enjoyed the collection. A few of the stories were genuinely terrifying, while most were joyfully creepy. I would have liked a proper conclusion or frame story tying everything together better, but it’s definitely worth picking up.