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A review by peer105
Bones: A Collection of Monsters by Andrew Cull
5.0
When you make a short story collection, especially when it's a debut, the stories better hit hard. The less stories included, the harder they should hit.
Bones is a collection of 3 short stories, a novella, and a flash fiction short story as a bonus. And they hit oh so hard.
Now it's hard for me to properly review the writing. Look at it this way, Andrew Cull writes very cinematically. You can clearly see each scene in your head. The setting, the characters, the horror, they all come alive. And story-wise I'd say that it's like those very good indie-horror movies that a lot of people haven't watched. It feels that way too, through the atmosphere and characterwork it contains.
And that's what Cull pulled off here. The stories start off slow (though each one has a first line that just make it so that you cannot wait for the good stuff!), builds on character, adds dread, and is incredibly atmospheric. Cull has beautiful prose on top of that as well, which makes reading it such a joy.
Stories included:
Did You Forget About Me 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Hope And Walker 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Trade 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Knock And You Will See Me 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Rambling man 🌟🌟🌟
The best story here, in my opinion, is the novella Knock And You Will See Me. But it was not my favorite. That one would be The Trade. I loved the characters and family dynamic in that one and it is was immensely claustrophobic.
But, you know, it's hard to pick favorites when there are four 5 star reads present.🤷🏼♂️
The only story I couldn't rate as high was the little three-page bonus story, The Rambling Man. I think, had it been longer, it could have easily been my favorite out of all the stories. Alas, I found it to be too short to work on my emotions.
I could nitpick two or three things I liked less, but in the end those were small and had no effect on my rating. If you're a fan of horror, I invite you to check this collection out!
I can't wait to read Andrew Cull's recently released novel Remains!🙌🏻
Bones is a collection of 3 short stories, a novella, and a flash fiction short story as a bonus. And they hit oh so hard.
Now it's hard for me to properly review the writing. Look at it this way, Andrew Cull writes very cinematically. You can clearly see each scene in your head. The setting, the characters, the horror, they all come alive. And story-wise I'd say that it's like those very good indie-horror movies that a lot of people haven't watched. It feels that way too, through the atmosphere and characterwork it contains.
And that's what Cull pulled off here. The stories start off slow (though each one has a first line that just make it so that you cannot wait for the good stuff!), builds on character, adds dread, and is incredibly atmospheric. Cull has beautiful prose on top of that as well, which makes reading it such a joy.
Stories included:
Did You Forget About Me 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Hope And Walker 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Trade 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Knock And You Will See Me 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Rambling man 🌟🌟🌟
The best story here, in my opinion, is the novella Knock And You Will See Me. But it was not my favorite. That one would be The Trade. I loved the characters and family dynamic in that one and it is was immensely claustrophobic.
But, you know, it's hard to pick favorites when there are four 5 star reads present.🤷🏼♂️
The only story I couldn't rate as high was the little three-page bonus story, The Rambling Man. I think, had it been longer, it could have easily been my favorite out of all the stories. Alas, I found it to be too short to work on my emotions.
I could nitpick two or three things I liked less, but in the end those were small and had no effect on my rating. If you're a fan of horror, I invite you to check this collection out!
I can't wait to read Andrew Cull's recently released novel Remains!🙌🏻