Monette, Sarah - The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchinson Booth

[oyceter]

Kyle Murchinson Booth is the insomniac, horrifically shy, socially awkward archivist at the Samuel Mather Parrington Museum. Thanks to a semi-unwilling foray into the supernatural (detailed in the first short story), he now seems to attract all sorts of ghosts and curses. The Bone Key is a set of short stories about Booth and the things that happen to him; all were published first elsewhere save the final story.

Monette writes in the introduction that she was inspired by M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft, both writers I haven't read, one because I haven't heard of him and the other because I avoid horror like the plague. I'm still not sure why I started this book, given my loathing of horror—I am really easily scared, as in, The Sixth Sense scared me—but I'm glad I did, despite several cases of the chills. Also, I think my long-held phobia of mirrors is back again.

Mostly I love the style of the book, and I'm glad I can read something like it without having to actually dip my toes into Lovecraft. I feel for Booth in particular, whom I think is the adolescent in all of us, and as such, "Elegy for a Demon Lover" ended up being my favorite story for the last line. Although I enjoyed getting more Booth backstory, I ended up being the most intrigued by the longer case files; the Booth-centric stories felt like they didn't have enough meat for me to sink my teeth into. As such, the two I enjoyed the most outside of "Elegy" were "The Venebretti Necklace" (which I also liked for the main female character) and "The Wall of Clouds."

In conclusion: a good read with beautiful style, and amazingly not as scary as I had dreaded (this is a plus).

Links:
- desdenova's review
- buymeaclue's review

Comments

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

I like M. R. James! I am very easily scared, so he is just about the right level of horror for me. (Less susceptible friends find themselves completely unaffected, as any possibility of being scared is for them drowned out by the Victorian prose.)

I didn't like The Bone Key much, despite totally being behind the homoeroticisation (not a word, but you know what I mean) of Lovecraft and M. R. James. Sadly I think Sarah Monette is just one of those writers whose works don't work for me, even though I can recognise their merits, and even though people who like the sort of thing I like tend to like her stuff.

[oyceter]

Oh, what didn't work for you? I'm curious just because I would have thought this book was something that wouldn't work for me as well.

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

I don't know! I just found it so boring. I'm not sure I know how to describe the quality of dullness -- okay, it is a bit like this. With some writers I loathe, e.g. Thomas Hardy, current bane of my life, I can tell their books are rubbish and awful, but reading Jude the Obscure is like eating not a very nice burger. It is not super enjoyable and I know there's going to be a nasty taste in my mouth later, but there is some meat in it, and there is crack-laced ketchup and mayo and whatnot, so I can eat it with some interest even if I'm muttering to myself about what an awful lunch I am having.

With those of Sarah Monette's books that I have read so far -- less so with Melusine, but the feeling was still there -- it is like eating a sandwich. It has ingredients you know are good for you and that you usually like (tomatoes in the case of the sandwich, feminism and just general Brains in the case of the other), but they have not put in any cheese, or meat, or any of the sort of thing you crave. (The cheese and meat stand for the Id-satisfying elements of story. Er, this analogy does posit that you are, like me, something of a carnivore; sorry about that.)

They said they'd put in lots of cheese and meat. All your friends were chatting contentedly about how much cheese and meat there was in this sandwich. But they didn't put it in! Or even if they did you can barely taste it. And the prose -- I mean the bread -- does not taste nice, there is nothing to it even though you can tell it is supposed to be good bread.

What a useless analogy, haha. Um, my current theory is that Monette's id likes different things from my id, but I think a lot of it is to do with style as well. I prolly would have liked her book better if it had wallowed in the gnarly depths of Victorian prose more than it did.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing, to me, is that The Bone Key does often work for folks who don't care for Sarah's other work. (Me, for example. The writeup is here, http://buymeaclue.livejournal.com/446235.html, Oyce, if you're collecting 'em.)

Which isn't to say that you should have liked it, of course! Different tastes, etc., and that's all very well. But figured I'd mention for other folks reading this, since your particular experience doesn't seem to be in-general how this particular book works.

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

No, I liked Melusine better than The Bone Key, just not enough to want to read the sequels.

[oyceter]

*nods* Hee, I like your sandwich analogy! Also, yeah, I totally feel that way about a lot of things, and it's always hard to predict taste.