Reviews

The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth by Sarah Monette

painfullyshybookworm's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

meganlynae's review

5.0

Sarah Monette's work is so well done. This collection of Kyle Murchison Booth stories range from very scary to mildly fantastical, but all of them do amazing things with character development and worldbuilding. Some aspects of Kyle's life are recognizable to those who read historical fiction, but much of it is wilder than that. The best story in the collection is easily "Drowning Palmer" which balances recognizable schoolboy drama with something much more supernatural.

laurizzie's review against another edition

5.0

Reading again after a few years and upping the star rating. Spooky, sparse, entirely unsettling and entirely unforgettable.

kristamccracken's review against another edition

4.0

Wonderfully written stories which all feature a museum rare books curator/archivist as the protagonist. (Yes, I may have read this book for that reason..shhh). There are some definite archivist cliches throughout the stories, but they add a bit of humor and play well with the noir style of the writing. A great mix of mystery and horror in the stories with a number written in Lovecraft's style.

schomj's review

3.0

I liked the stories and would be happy to read more--they were scary in the middle and then resolved in a way that calmed me down, so I could actually read them before bed. The Lovecraftian ties were clearer in some stories than others. In the introduction the author mentions wanting to add women and sexuality to the Lovecraft universe, which she does, but I wish she'd taken the same care with the racial and colonialist elements. [b:She Walks in Shadows|25118836|She Walks in Shadows|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426059280s/25118836.jpg|44814770] pushes those social boundaries further.

CW: references to child abuse, references to sex, ghosts, death

timetoread_more2022's review against another edition

Can't remember why I put this one under "couldn't finish". I normally love Monette's work.

ashleyjapan's review against another edition

3.0

Despite some weird bits this was a fun spooky read. I liked the protagonist a lot in the way that you love to hear the same stories told by that one weird relative who likes to embellish.

meschaeffer's review against another edition

4.0

Setting: extremely cool. Horror: also cool! Not all that terrifying, but interesting premises. But the main character in these short stories is just... sort of difficult to get behind. He is consistently morose and so insecure that it's a little difficult to enjoy the situations he finds himself in. Don't get me wrong - still enjoyable, but I generally prefer to identify with the main character rather than pitying him.

myooouyo_o's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

5.0

acoustic_insect's review against another edition

5.0

I really enjoyed this book, lovecraftian horror without all the sexism and racism. Hooray!

(and a touch of gay, nice)