A review by grilledcheesesamurai
The Bones of the Earth by Scott Hale

4.0

A post-apocalyptic, Cthulhu style, fantasy, horror?

Or...something?

It's kind of hard to pigeon hole this one. Let's just let it be its own thing. Cuz you know what? I loved the shit outta whatever it was doing. It worked.

Scott Hale immediately blew me away with his words. The words were with intention. They had weight. It felt like taking my time reading the words was important. So often I just blow through books, they kinda just zip right through me and are done. Which is fine - I like a zippy story as much as the next person. But with The Bones Of The Earth I almost felt like I should be cautious with the words. To take my time with them and make sure I completely chewed before swallowing.

So I did. I took my time.

Not gonna lie, this is a fucking fucked up book. Yup. Double fucks. And I say that in a good way! Still, there's no getting around it. This book chewed me up and splatooed me all over its pages.

What?

What I'm trying to say is that sometimes the book was creepy as shit - then all of a sudden it would make me smirk and give one of those chuckles that aren't even a real chuckle but you do it cuz you know somewhere in there you are supposed to chuckle. And then all of a sudden there's battles and swords stabbing in guts and then...oh look!! Kissing!!

It really tuckered me out.

But by taking my time and letting Mr. Hales words slowly dissolve into me...well...it all made for a very surreal (and often grizzly) experience.

I was pretty much intent on giving this book a nice solid 3-star review. But as I sit here typing this out (I write all my reviews pants) and processing my journey, it has become pretty obvious that this is getting bumped up to 4-stars.

The book made me think. It tossed a few curve balls at me, and most importantly, it made me react.

Thanks for the story, Scott Hale! It was...an experience.