Review: Bone White

5 stars. Might re-read this immediately. Wintery supernatural small town horror is such a huge turn-on for me and this one checks all the boxes.

The bare bones are this: Dread's Hand is an isolated mining town in Alaska with a dark history and bad vibes, and it's where Paul Gallo's twin brother went missing over a year ago. When a serial killer from the Hand confesses to his crimes - along with the location of his buried victims - Paul wonders if his brother is among them. So he travels across the world to find out, following his instincts and the strange connection he and Danny always shared. The Hand offers very few answers and Paul grows more and more desperate, and then terrified, as he begins to connect what happened to his brother and what haunts the woods around the town.

Difficult to summarize, because there are many layers to this story... layers of history and folklore and side treks that don't go anywhere. There is Paul's investigation, and the law's investigation, which both lead to discoveries that tangle up things further. Scary symbols, eerie connections, etc. And there's a journalist with some crazy but helpful stories, and the flu is going around, and some creepy masked kids are causing trouble, and the church was built over a giant sinkhole, and the "Inn" only has one room, and winter is coming. The crosses, so good. The whole thing is really just a vibe.

A couple of minor complaints: some sequences drag on too long, some details are a little too on-the-nose (I adore a creepy town name but this one felt a bit forced), and I could never really connect with Paul as a protagonist. Minor, minor, minor. I couldn't put this down and I absolutely loved how wacky and delicious and OTT it is. Paul's journey ... ugh, so satisfying. The premise, the lore, the showdown... the tropes I know and love are fresh and fun here. Highly recommend.

Bone White on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads