€œYou hold in your hands a book of stories that forced Brian McNaughton to write. I was originally hooked by Alan Rogers introductory comments: Oddly-placed, but well-done, is a stylistic humor reminiscent of that presented in Cohen Brothers movies (Fargo 1996, Burn After Reading 2008) the situations are so dire and characters so pathetic, that you cannot help but laugh at their choices and predicaments. The book won a 1997 World Fantasy Award and remains fresh and daring, even now (2012). With each successive story, the connection between characters clarifies as does the "rules" of being a ghoul. Here, the timid and disoriented may want to leave the book unfinished. Less so are the next six stories, which are a connected set (the titular Throne of Bones sequence) and should prove weird and jarring even to mature dark fantasy readers (can you say "ghoul erotica"?). The first tale, Ringard and Dendra, admittedly should prove digestible to many. I am biased toward enjoying provocative fantasy/horror, and Throne of Bones delivers a pleasantly disturbing escape that is too shocking for young adults.
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May 2023
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