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Break The Bodies, Haunt The Bones
Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms... They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you.
Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn’t want to know. Henry, Jane’s brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.
When new arrivals begin scoring precious jobs at the last factory in town, both the living and the dead are furious. This insult on the end of a long economic decline sparks a conflagration. Buffeted by rage on all sides, Jane must find a way to save her haunted family and escape the town before it kills them.
Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn’t want to know. Henry, Jane’s brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.
When new arrivals begin scoring precious jobs at the last factory in town, both the living and the dead are furious. This insult on the end of a long economic decline sparks a conflagration. Buffeted by rage on all sides, Jane must find a way to save her haunted family and escape the town before it kills them.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 5, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 222 reviews
February 8, 2019
It’s refreshing to run into a genre novel that carves its own path, and that’s what you get with Micah Dean Hicks’ debut Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones. The novel's setting is Swine Hill, a town so saturated with ghosts that literally everyone has at least one haunting them. Jane has a good relationship with her ghost, who feeds her the secrets others hide from the world. Her boyfriend Trigger is haunted by the ghost of his own brother, whom he accidently killed. And her brother Henry’s mad scientist of a ghost helps him create, Doctor Moreau-style, a pig person called Walter Hogboss, who ends up running the local slaughterhouse. When the company that owns the slaughterhouse creates more pig people to staff the place, the townspeople turn on their monstrous new residents, leading Jane to believe they must flee before the town overflows with violence.
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is a surreal horror story about “economic anxiety”, which has been a buzzy media term the last few years. It doesn't work as a political allegory, but as an exercise in sustained dread I found much to admire. The story unfolds with a captivating spontaneity, and while it sometimes felt unfocused this mostly works in the novel’s favor. Those looking for an offbeat read may find this rewarding.
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is a surreal horror story about “economic anxiety”, which has been a buzzy media term the last few years. It doesn't work as a political allegory, but as an exercise in sustained dread I found much to admire. The story unfolds with a captivating spontaneity, and while it sometimes felt unfocused this mostly works in the novel’s favor. Those looking for an offbeat read may find this rewarding.
March 3, 2019
The hollow men dragged metal chains and lengths of pipe. Several voices poured from each mouth, the dead shouting over one another to speak. They remembered decades of violence long forgotten, thought of themselves as heroes for bringing it back. They would kill Jane and the pigs, tear down their houses, bring Swine Hill to rubble. They would burn down the world to show that it belonged to them.
This is going to be a hard book to review - it's not often you find something so completely new and brilliantly written, but it broke my heart and filled it with hope simultaneously. I'm a mess of warring emotion, but at the same time, any book that has me this involved, this stirred up and invested, has my utmost admiration.
Just as the description says, Swine Hill (Swain Hill before the pig plant became the only thing keeping the town alive) is full of the dead. Whole areas of the town are left solely to them, while the living cling to the areas they still have left and try to pretend they're really living, and not just surviving. Jane's family, just like many other families, are as entwined with the dead as the town is, and it's this relationship that first begins to drive the story.
This book won't be for everyone, because it is heart-breaking, and it is weird, and it certainly isn't going to make itself easy for the reader to love. But there's something about all of the sadness and anger here that speaks to knowing people - and the world - can be better, and it's that layer that really hooked me. It's a debut novel, too, the author's first full-length work, and there's definitely a sense that maybe something new, terrifying, and completely wonderful has been released here.
I'm still a mess, and so is this review. But I absolutely loved this book, and it's going to keep my mind churning for some time to come. What more could I ask for?
This is going to be a hard book to review - it's not often you find something so completely new and brilliantly written, but it broke my heart and filled it with hope simultaneously. I'm a mess of warring emotion, but at the same time, any book that has me this involved, this stirred up and invested, has my utmost admiration.
Just as the description says, Swine Hill (Swain Hill before the pig plant became the only thing keeping the town alive) is full of the dead. Whole areas of the town are left solely to them, while the living cling to the areas they still have left and try to pretend they're really living, and not just surviving. Jane's family, just like many other families, are as entwined with the dead as the town is, and it's this relationship that first begins to drive the story.
This book won't be for everyone, because it is heart-breaking, and it is weird, and it certainly isn't going to make itself easy for the reader to love. But there's something about all of the sadness and anger here that speaks to knowing people - and the world - can be better, and it's that layer that really hooked me. It's a debut novel, too, the author's first full-length work, and there's definitely a sense that maybe something new, terrifying, and completely wonderful has been released here.
I'm still a mess, and so is this review. But I absolutely loved this book, and it's going to keep my mind churning for some time to come. What more could I ask for?
March 3, 2019
He was different, so people thought anything they did to him was okay.This was one of the strangest books I’ve ever loved.
Swine Hill is a haunted town, where the dead outnumber the living. Downtown is overrun by ghosts and the main employer is the Pig City meat packing plant.
Most of the people Jane went to school with escaped as soon as they could to start over, but she’s stuck in a dead end job in this dying town. She can’t imagine leaving her parents, younger brother or the ghost girl who’s been attached to her since she was a child.
Nothing will ever be the same for the living or the dead of Swine Hill when newcomers start working at Pig City.
This was a dark book, with so much loss, grief and violence experienced by the living and the dead, yet there’s also a thread of light that runs through it (quite literally at times), of hope and love. The best and worst of what it means to be human are represented here.
While I found each haunting interesting and consistently wanted to know more, I connected intellectually, not emotionally, with the majority of the characters. The person I really connected with was a pig boy called Dennis, who was more human than most of the characters who were born that way. His innocence, enthusiasm and ability to see beauty wherever he looked made me adore him. The world would be a much better place if we could all see it through Dennis’ eyes.
Besides the awesomeness that is Dennis, there’s also a girl who cannot lose, a mad scientist who makes the impossible out of junk, a woman who burns and a boy who freezes, a robot in love, an alien, alternate realities, and let’s not forget the rest of the pig people. There’s so much going on in this layered story that it shouldn’t work but somehow it did. I have no doubt that people a lot smarter than I am will write very eloquently about things I didn’t dig deep enough to even realise were there but this book made me think. A lot.
I thought about what it means to be human and how you don’t need to have a ghost to be haunted. I considered the impacts unfulfilled dreams have, not only on our own lives but also on our relationships with others and the wider community who are missing out on what we could be bringing into the world.
I was frustrated by my inability to come up with a genius plan to eradicate the fear of the other. I thought about how ghosts linger in our present and wondered whether it’s possible to ever truly escape the past. I reevaluated my ideas of responsibility and how it intersects with blame.
I thought about love, forgiveness and what I have to be thankful for. I wanted to dance. I wondered if I’ll ever be able to look at bacon the same way again.
I’m struggling to work out who I’d recommend this book to. I expect a lot of people are going to read this book and think, ‘What the hell am I reading?!’ but that’s not necessarily going to be a bad thing. I thought it (several times) but couldn’t put it down, even when I wanted to after a couple of scenes of fairly graphic violence.
Content warnings include
I was left with a few unanswered questions but I don’t feel the frustration I usually would; instead I’m enjoying pondering the possibilities for myself. I spent most of the book wondering how this story could wind up in a way that I’d be okay with and, while I would never have guessed the ending, I’m satisfied.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and John Joseph Adams Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for the opportunity to read this book. I’m intrigued to see what this author comes up with next.
October 11, 2018
Surreal and poignant. Jane, and her brother, Henry, live in a world where people can be haunted. Henry’s ghost is a sort of engineer/scientist that possesses him and uses his body to work on building and making his projects. He works at the pig slaughtering facility and creates a new race of sentient pig men. This causes tension in the town as the townsfolk are afraid of losing their jobs.
Although this is a surreal setting, the emotions that drive the characters feel real. I’ve lived in dying towns and this book elegantly captures the everyday horror of trying to escape a place that feels suffocating. Jane was a complex and deep protagonist whom suffered from regrets that shaped her actions. The Hogboss is an uncanny type of monster. I empathized with him and the pig people.
I would highly recommend this book to horror fans.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.
Although this is a surreal setting, the emotions that drive the characters feel real. I’ve lived in dying towns and this book elegantly captures the everyday horror of trying to escape a place that feels suffocating. Jane was a complex and deep protagonist whom suffered from regrets that shaped her actions. The Hogboss is an uncanny type of monster. I empathized with him and the pig people.
I would highly recommend this book to horror fans.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.
November 18, 2019
Usually, when horror fiction wants to portray the collapse of society, it goes big, with monumental apocalyptic epics like Stephen King’s The Stand or Robert McCammon’s Swan Song offering up humanity’s last hurrah on a Biblical scale. But the reality will probably be a lot less grandiose. Slouching towards armageddon, you might say. In his debut novel, Micah Dean Hicks delivers an ambitious, allegorically rich tale in a tight, 300-page package. On the surface a story about a haunted city, Hicks turns Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones into a metaphor for the socioeconomic collapse of the American industrial heartland and the deep sense of personal disconnection that comes from loss. Eerie and often heart-wrenchingly tragic, it reads as if China Miéville and J.G. Ballard collaborated on a reboot of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
Our setting is the town of Swine Hill. Its real name is something slightly different. But the name has stuck, because of Pig City, the slaughterhouse and meat-packing plant that has been the main job provider for generations. But the town is in decline, a jungle of empty storefronts and abandoned homes. And this is because of all the ghosts.
They’re everywhere, haunting and possessing everything: buildings, machinery, random objects, even people. The remaining human inhabitants of the town stay either because they see no opportunities for them anywhere else, or perhaps because they’re tied to their ghosts. These specters are more pitiful than scary. They don’t move on because they’re mostly just lonely and afraid of whatever great unknown lies beyond. They cling to the routines they knew in life in their desperation to remain anchored to the world, and they cling to people, for better or worse. (cont'd)
Our setting is the town of Swine Hill. Its real name is something slightly different. But the name has stuck, because of Pig City, the slaughterhouse and meat-packing plant that has been the main job provider for generations. But the town is in decline, a jungle of empty storefronts and abandoned homes. And this is because of all the ghosts.
They’re everywhere, haunting and possessing everything: buildings, machinery, random objects, even people. The remaining human inhabitants of the town stay either because they see no opportunities for them anywhere else, or perhaps because they’re tied to their ghosts. These specters are more pitiful than scary. They don’t move on because they’re mostly just lonely and afraid of whatever great unknown lies beyond. They cling to the routines they knew in life in their desperation to remain anchored to the world, and they cling to people, for better or worse. (cont'd)
January 15, 2019
This is a hard book to rate. There is so much here. If there is one thing that's done well, it's the sense of atmosphere. The characters live in town that's dying and suffocating. They are haunted by literal and figurative ghosts. Our main character, Jane's ghost tells her what people around her are thinking and what their intentions are, while her brother Henry's ghost is a genius that takes him over and keeps him up building machines. There were a lot of big ideas at play in this book: views towards immigration and immigrants, race relations, and corporate greed. The story is told with a dark surrealism that feels like a dream. I think the pacing in the middle, after we are introduced to the major characters and conflict, slogs a little bit. The story itself was a little dark and depressing at times, but I thought the ending was well executed.
October 1, 2020
This goes way beyond "creative" - this is a bizarro book.
Remember American Horror Story - Asylum, the season set in an insane asylum with a mad Nazi scientist, a serial killer, human experiments gone wrong wandering the forest, alien abduction, angels.... I mean, it was everything AND the kitchen sink. Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones comes off the same way - there's so much going on that nothing gets fully explained/ explored in the story. This book has ghosts, people who can be possessed by more than one ghost, pig people, meteorites with aliens... it’s a lot.
I kept going with it, thinking the ending would resolve my questions, but no. The ending was one giant bummer after another.
Remember American Horror Story - Asylum, the season set in an insane asylum with a mad Nazi scientist, a serial killer, human experiments gone wrong wandering the forest, alien abduction, angels.... I mean, it was everything AND the kitchen sink. Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones comes off the same way - there's so much going on that nothing gets fully explained/ explored in the story. This book has ghosts, people who can be possessed by more than one ghost, pig people, meteorites with aliens... it’s a lot.
I kept going with it, thinking the ending would resolve my questions, but no. The ending was one giant bummer after another.
February 20, 2019
Ahoy there me mateys! I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Here be me honest musings. . .
The totally awesome cover is what led me to find out more about this book and the weird premise is what drew me in. This book takes place in a dying American town called Swine Hill. The only thing stopping the town from total annihilation is a pork processing plant whose workers have little hope and no resources to start anew. Economic troubles would be bad enough but then there be the ghosts. Generations of angry and depressed dead are tied to the town and its residents. If ye aren't careful yer body can become a host for one or more restless spirits.
This book centers around one such haunted family. Jane has carried her ghost since she was a young girl. Her ghost reads other people's thoughts and also likes to offer commentary on Jane's own inner desires and feelings. Jane considers her a friend but it's a double-edged relationship. Her brother, Henry, harbors the ghost of a tinker and scientist. The two minds together can come up with marvels. However, this ghost sometimes subsumes the boy when a particular problem catches his fancy. The problem gets solved but Henry is completely blank of all memories of the solution and the missing time. Their mother has been consumed by a ghost with an overwhelming need to be loved. This love is so selfish and strong that it literally burns the flesh of her lovers. Her children cannot touch her for fear of being scalded. Their father is a human automaton who left the family, became homeless, and roams the streets. He shuns all company and the ghosts shun him. Neither Jane nor her brother know why. Talk about family dysfunction.
The highlight of this book for me was the complexities of the world building around Swine Hill. Its depressive nature is pervasive and yet it be rich with unusual ideas and imagery. The ghost elements were absolutely fascinating and I loved the diverse effects of spirit inhabitation. There was also an odd but sad robot and animal hybrids. This book led to excellent questions about humanity, economics, brutality, fear, greed, loss, and tenacity. The world felt real and gritty and very unpleasant. And yet the residents continued to hang onto survival even if the war has been lost. Though hope is missing, there is still the desire for comfort at any cost. I honestly wanted better for Jane and Henry. The story couldn't end well given the rules of the world but I had to know the resolution. And I truly liked what I was given.
I don't know if I could legitimately recommend this to anyone because it is so unique and weird and gritty. But I admit that I am so very glad that I read this book and I look forward to seeing what else this author has in store. For a debut, it is wonderful. Arrrr!
So lastly . . .
Thank you John Joseph Adams / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt!
Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordp...
The totally awesome cover is what led me to find out more about this book and the weird premise is what drew me in. This book takes place in a dying American town called Swine Hill. The only thing stopping the town from total annihilation is a pork processing plant whose workers have little hope and no resources to start anew. Economic troubles would be bad enough but then there be the ghosts. Generations of angry and depressed dead are tied to the town and its residents. If ye aren't careful yer body can become a host for one or more restless spirits.
This book centers around one such haunted family. Jane has carried her ghost since she was a young girl. Her ghost reads other people's thoughts and also likes to offer commentary on Jane's own inner desires and feelings. Jane considers her a friend but it's a double-edged relationship. Her brother, Henry, harbors the ghost of a tinker and scientist. The two minds together can come up with marvels. However, this ghost sometimes subsumes the boy when a particular problem catches his fancy. The problem gets solved but Henry is completely blank of all memories of the solution and the missing time. Their mother has been consumed by a ghost with an overwhelming need to be loved. This love is so selfish and strong that it literally burns the flesh of her lovers. Her children cannot touch her for fear of being scalded. Their father is a human automaton who left the family, became homeless, and roams the streets. He shuns all company and the ghosts shun him. Neither Jane nor her brother know why. Talk about family dysfunction.
The highlight of this book for me was the complexities of the world building around Swine Hill. Its depressive nature is pervasive and yet it be rich with unusual ideas and imagery. The ghost elements were absolutely fascinating and I loved the diverse effects of spirit inhabitation. There was also an odd but sad robot and animal hybrids. This book led to excellent questions about humanity, economics, brutality, fear, greed, loss, and tenacity. The world felt real and gritty and very unpleasant. And yet the residents continued to hang onto survival even if the war has been lost. Though hope is missing, there is still the desire for comfort at any cost. I honestly wanted better for Jane and Henry. The story couldn't end well given the rules of the world but I had to know the resolution. And I truly liked what I was given.
I don't know if I could legitimately recommend this to anyone because it is so unique and weird and gritty. But I admit that I am so very glad that I read this book and I look forward to seeing what else this author has in store. For a debut, it is wonderful. Arrrr!
So lastly . . .
Thank you John Joseph Adams / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt!
Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordp...
March 18, 2021
*****SPOILERS*****
Release Date: February 5th, 2019
Genre: Horror
Rating: ☘️☘️ ☘️
What I Liked:
1. Seemed like such an awesome concept
2. The cover. I know some people hated it but I think it's gorgeous.
What I Didn't Like:
1. The way she says Pigboss over and over on a page. I counted on one page alone 5 times.
2. Not really a horror novel
Overall Thoughts: Okay... this was strange. Not strange in a great and exciting way but in a weird way. I'm seriously trying to understand what made this a horror novel. It wasn't scary or gory. Yeah there are ghosts but telling us about a ghost that shows up to sell dresses and suits isn't scary. The characters come off lame and boring. You want to care about them but you really don't. I felt like I was just trying to get this book over with. I did dnf this book at the 50% mark because it felt like nothing was ever going to happen that I cared about. The story kind of reminded me of something in Nightvale.
Final Thoughts: This book belongs in paranormal drama and not horror. If you are getting into this book expecting something terrifying than don't look here.
Release Date: February 5th, 2019
Genre: Horror
Rating: ☘️☘️ ☘️
What I Liked:
1. Seemed like such an awesome concept
2. The cover. I know some people hated it but I think it's gorgeous.
What I Didn't Like:
1. The way she says Pigboss over and over on a page. I counted on one page alone 5 times.
2. Not really a horror novel
Overall Thoughts: Okay... this was strange. Not strange in a great and exciting way but in a weird way. I'm seriously trying to understand what made this a horror novel. It wasn't scary or gory. Yeah there are ghosts but telling us about a ghost that shows up to sell dresses and suits isn't scary. The characters come off lame and boring. You want to care about them but you really don't. I felt like I was just trying to get this book over with. I did dnf this book at the 50% mark because it felt like nothing was ever going to happen that I cared about. The story kind of reminded me of something in Nightvale.
Final Thoughts: This book belongs in paranormal drama and not horror. If you are getting into this book expecting something terrifying than don't look here.
April 10, 2019
What a strange book. I would say it started put really strong but ended relatively flat. It was one of those books that could have ended much sooner than it did, and I found myself annoyed at the fact that it just kept GOING. Sometimes it's better to know when to just leave better enough alone, because by the end of the book I felt like things just got chaotic and confusing.
December 20, 2018
If you would like to read more of my review check out beforewegoblog.com
Swine hill is a place that will hurt your body, wrack your soul at the altar of human selfishness, and destroy you. Imagine living in this place. Imagine working at the store or a packing plant here. Imagine having to share part of your soul with the undead. Hick's characters do, and for a short time, we readers also do. Hick's has invented a story that is so rife with pain, imagination, and horrors that if you could take the spawn of Dr. Moreau and The Haunting of Hill House you would have something close to this. Haunt is unsettling in ways that made me uncomfortable deep down in my bones.
Hicks explores the premise of a haunted family in a haunted town. It centers around the protagonists Jane and Henry. Brother and sister trapped with the souls of unsettled ghosts inside them. In Jane's case, it is the soul of a woman who thrives on conflict and secrets. The spirit silently whispers to jane the horrible thoughts and intentions of those around her. Henry has the ghost of a mad inventor inside him seeking to create incredible and awful machines whose purpose is sometimes unknown. The pair is also influenced by their mother and father, both haunted. Her mother is haunted by a person so craving affection that her body physically radiates heat. Enough to burn and scar. Jane is the heart of the family. Silently she pounds away at life and looks after her family as best as she can within the circumstances.
The crux of the story rests around Henry and how his mad ghost creates things. This time Henry invents pig people. Upright human-like animals that are built to self-slaughter and could eventually render the town and by extension humans obsolete. Henry creates many, but individually we meet Hog Boss and his kind son Dennis. Both are good-natured and thoughtful people set at deliberate juxtaposition to the rest of the "human" inhabitants of the town. Enter the fearful townsfolk, frightened of the unknown, in both the pig people and the loss of their livelihood. What happens next can only be described as an explosive clash between the old ways and the new all within the context of Jane attempting to save people.
The setting in the story is unrestrainedly unworldly. The writing drips darkness and moisture from every page and sometimes, I could swear my kindle was fogging up from the cold. Hicks absolutely has created a world where you should be very afraid that ghosts will settle in your bones.
The underlying theme of this story is relationships: sister to brother, mother to son, lover to lover. In this, it is the immense power of links that can drive a person to the unthinkable or the extraordinary. What would I do for the person I love? What would I do to the person I hate? Person to person a spiderweb of narrative and relationships is created. This web holds the town together and eventually culminating in it blasting apart.
Behind the relationship web and narrative, Hicks also remarks on social problems. Racism, sexism, classicism and the dehumanization of immigrants in the United States are allegorically reflected upon. This adds another critical dimension to the story. It is more profound than ghosts or pigs. It is so much more.
It is poignantly cruel that these characters, so afflicted, must also contend with the worst problems we see in our own world. Hicks will unflinchingly show you the horrific visage of ghosts and nightmares pulled from the headlines of our own world, leaving you to wonder whether one lot is truly fundamentally worse than the other. And yet, perhaps it is true that they who would grow must first be made to suffer. Certainly, the growth we see in these characters is the result of a purposefully built set of trials and woes; it is not an easy journey for us to follow but it rewards us as only a master-crafted tale can.
Things get harsh and really painful for the characters in this story. I know I have alluded to it vaguely, but I don't want to give away the cleverness of the story. It is scary, mystical, and bittersweet. It absolutely deserves all of the forthcoming awards that are going to be thrown at it. If you are a fan of the horror/bizarro genre, look no further than this book, but even more so if you are a fan of the written word and the power it can wield, this is a worthy read.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.
Swine hill is a place that will hurt your body, wrack your soul at the altar of human selfishness, and destroy you. Imagine living in this place. Imagine working at the store or a packing plant here. Imagine having to share part of your soul with the undead. Hick's characters do, and for a short time, we readers also do. Hick's has invented a story that is so rife with pain, imagination, and horrors that if you could take the spawn of Dr. Moreau and The Haunting of Hill House you would have something close to this. Haunt is unsettling in ways that made me uncomfortable deep down in my bones.
Hicks explores the premise of a haunted family in a haunted town. It centers around the protagonists Jane and Henry. Brother and sister trapped with the souls of unsettled ghosts inside them. In Jane's case, it is the soul of a woman who thrives on conflict and secrets. The spirit silently whispers to jane the horrible thoughts and intentions of those around her. Henry has the ghost of a mad inventor inside him seeking to create incredible and awful machines whose purpose is sometimes unknown. The pair is also influenced by their mother and father, both haunted. Her mother is haunted by a person so craving affection that her body physically radiates heat. Enough to burn and scar. Jane is the heart of the family. Silently she pounds away at life and looks after her family as best as she can within the circumstances.
The crux of the story rests around Henry and how his mad ghost creates things. This time Henry invents pig people. Upright human-like animals that are built to self-slaughter and could eventually render the town and by extension humans obsolete. Henry creates many, but individually we meet Hog Boss and his kind son Dennis. Both are good-natured and thoughtful people set at deliberate juxtaposition to the rest of the "human" inhabitants of the town. Enter the fearful townsfolk, frightened of the unknown, in both the pig people and the loss of their livelihood. What happens next can only be described as an explosive clash between the old ways and the new all within the context of Jane attempting to save people.
The setting in the story is unrestrainedly unworldly. The writing drips darkness and moisture from every page and sometimes, I could swear my kindle was fogging up from the cold. Hicks absolutely has created a world where you should be very afraid that ghosts will settle in your bones.
The underlying theme of this story is relationships: sister to brother, mother to son, lover to lover. In this, it is the immense power of links that can drive a person to the unthinkable or the extraordinary. What would I do for the person I love? What would I do to the person I hate? Person to person a spiderweb of narrative and relationships is created. This web holds the town together and eventually culminating in it blasting apart.
Behind the relationship web and narrative, Hicks also remarks on social problems. Racism, sexism, classicism and the dehumanization of immigrants in the United States are allegorically reflected upon. This adds another critical dimension to the story. It is more profound than ghosts or pigs. It is so much more.
It is poignantly cruel that these characters, so afflicted, must also contend with the worst problems we see in our own world. Hicks will unflinchingly show you the horrific visage of ghosts and nightmares pulled from the headlines of our own world, leaving you to wonder whether one lot is truly fundamentally worse than the other. And yet, perhaps it is true that they who would grow must first be made to suffer. Certainly, the growth we see in these characters is the result of a purposefully built set of trials and woes; it is not an easy journey for us to follow but it rewards us as only a master-crafted tale can.
Things get harsh and really painful for the characters in this story. I know I have alluded to it vaguely, but I don't want to give away the cleverness of the story. It is scary, mystical, and bittersweet. It absolutely deserves all of the forthcoming awards that are going to be thrown at it. If you are a fan of the horror/bizarro genre, look no further than this book, but even more so if you are a fan of the written word and the power it can wield, this is a worthy read.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.
March 7, 2021
The aliens seemed unnecessary.
August 14, 2019
EDIT: I re-listened to this book recently, and I have been fighting with myself over the 4-star/5-star rating. I finally broke down and gave it a full 5 stars because I fell in love with the characters all over again.
Well. That was... an experience...
Characterization: AMAZING - I love the protagonist, I love her brother, and I love the Bleeding Man. (You'll see when you get there) EDIT: Having re-listened to this book, the characterization is SO amazing that I just HAD to bump the review up to 5-stars. The characters are THAT good.
Setting: Excellent - It's set in the fictional town of Swine Hill, and this town comes alive as the characters travel through it.
Plot: Very Good - there are no plot holes and everything makes sense, mostly.
Beginning: Excellent - sets everything up perfectly
Rising action: Excellent
Climax: Very Good
Falling action: Good - to me, it felt a little rushed and a started to feel a little anti-climatic.
Conclusion: Very Good
Darkness Level: To me, that's a flashlight shining in an empty canyon level of dark.
Sadness Level: 4-Kleenex out of 5 - OH MY GOSH I cried so many times during this stupid novel!
Happy Ending?: ...uh... well... I guess you could call it an esoteric happy ending... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
Warnings:
CHILD DEATH!!!
Injured, frightened animals!
Possession
Scary ghosts and tame ghosts
Weird Science
Weird sci-fi stuff
Redefining the essence of humanity
Weird Stuff That Makes Me Raise My Eyebrows:
(spoilers! beware!)
Stuff That Made the Story Not as Fantastic To ME:
(You really don't have to read this - it doesn't affect the review in any way and is mostly me musing on philosophy. Read only if you want a personal reflection.)
Stuff I LOVED OUT LOUD:
(Spoilers!)
Overall Impression:
This is the WEIRDEST book I've read in a long time. I don't know how I feel about it exactly, except that it's good, it's well-written, and the characters all feel real to me. The only real reason it got 4/5 stars is that right after the big climax, it felt a little somewhere between rushed at the end, and a little flat.
Don't get me wrong - the ending was good! I just wasn't AMAZING. The best way I could describe it is, you're playing an awesome game of kickball, and right toward the end there's a very slight leak in the ball and it gets a little saggy. You can still play the last three innings perfectly well, but when you kick the ball, you're just not quite getting enough oomph when you strike it.
EDIT: I had to stop and think about that ending upon re-listening. You know, following each character's arc throughout the story, the ending was a lot stronger than I thought the first time I listened. I feel like it would be dishonest to leave it 4-stars. Hicks made me ADORE the characters, and that's hard to do. I haven't loved the people I've met in a book so much since I read Brother Odd by Dean Koontz.
READ THIS BOOK! You won't regret it - it's dark and grim and beautiful, and each person you encounter feels like a real human being!
Well. That was... an experience...
Characterization: AMAZING - I love the protagonist, I love her brother, and I love the Bleeding Man. (You'll see when you get there) EDIT: Having re-listened to this book, the characterization is SO amazing that I just HAD to bump the review up to 5-stars. The characters are THAT good.
Setting: Excellent - It's set in the fictional town of Swine Hill, and this town comes alive as the characters travel through it.
Plot: Very Good - there are no plot holes and everything makes sense, mostly.
Beginning: Excellent - sets everything up perfectly
Rising action: Excellent
Climax: Very Good
Falling action: Good - to me, it felt a little rushed and a started to feel a little anti-climatic.
Conclusion: Very Good
Darkness Level: To me, that's a flashlight shining in an empty canyon level of dark.
Sadness Level: 4-Kleenex out of 5 - OH MY GOSH I cried so many times during this stupid novel!
Happy Ending?: ...uh... well... I guess you could call it an esoteric happy ending... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
Warnings:
CHILD DEATH!!!
Injured, frightened animals!
Possession
Scary ghosts and tame ghosts
Weird Science
Weird sci-fi stuff
Redefining the essence of humanity
Weird Stuff That Makes Me Raise My Eyebrows:
(spoilers! beware!)
Stuff That Made the Story Not as Fantastic To ME:
(You really don't have to read this - it doesn't affect the review in any way and is mostly me musing on philosophy. Read only if you want a personal reflection.)
Stuff I LOVED OUT LOUD:
(Spoilers!)
Overall Impression:
This is the WEIRDEST book I've read in a long time. I don't know how I feel about it exactly, except that it's good, it's well-written, and the characters all feel real to me. The only real reason it got 4/5 stars is that right after the big climax, it felt a little somewhere between rushed at the end, and a little flat.
Don't get me wrong - the ending was good! I just wasn't AMAZING. The best way I could describe it is, you're playing an awesome game of kickball, and right toward the end there's a very slight leak in the ball and it gets a little saggy. You can still play the last three innings perfectly well, but when you kick the ball, you're just not quite getting enough oomph when you strike it.
EDIT: I had to stop and think about that ending upon re-listening. You know, following each character's arc throughout the story, the ending was a lot stronger than I thought the first time I listened. I feel like it would be dishonest to leave it 4-stars. Hicks made me ADORE the characters, and that's hard to do. I haven't loved the people I've met in a book so much since I read Brother Odd by Dean Koontz.
READ THIS BOOK! You won't regret it - it's dark and grim and beautiful, and each person you encounter feels like a real human being!
December 23, 2019
Weird, creepy, and beautiful.
Shelved as 'other'
May 24, 2020
December 28, 2022
My standout book of the year. I loved everything about it from start to finish: the cross genre leaping, the decadent writing, the rotting collapse of swine hill, the oddly uplifting moments of joy.
I miss reading New Weird. I spend so much time reading more commercial fiction for blurbs or research, and also writing in it. And I love it for the most part. But I was so happy to read new weird again, immersed in something unusual and relatively niche. This is my spiritual book home.
Trauma, memories, love, hate, mistakes, bigotry, violence, consent, selfishness. Cascading layers of brutalised humanity and the echos of lives unfulfilled.
Break the Bodies Haunt the Bones was badly let down by the publisher folding and taking the book with it. But it is truly fantastic and if you can get ahold of a copy, do try it.
I miss reading New Weird. I spend so much time reading more commercial fiction for blurbs or research, and also writing in it. And I love it for the most part. But I was so happy to read new weird again, immersed in something unusual and relatively niche. This is my spiritual book home.
Trauma, memories, love, hate, mistakes, bigotry, violence, consent, selfishness. Cascading layers of brutalised humanity and the echos of lives unfulfilled.
Break the Bodies Haunt the Bones was badly let down by the publisher folding and taking the book with it. But it is truly fantastic and if you can get ahold of a copy, do try it.
January 31, 2024
this book is so bad i dont even feel like writing a real thoughtful review for it and im mad that i wasted so much time reading it :/
February 8, 2019
This review was originally posted on my blog Mad Book Love
There is just so much to unpack with this book, I don't know how I'm going to keep this review a reasonable length. While I can hardly say what it was I expected, I can say with complete certainty that it wasn't what I got. And thank the gods for that! This book wow'd me. WOW'D. Me. Now where to start, where to start...
The cover: in no way appealed to me. If you've read any of my reviews, you know how much I covet covers. Covers are meant to convey something about the book, they make promises about what's on offer inside, and if I don't like the cover, my gut says I'm likely to feel the same about the story. Were it not for the promise of ghosts (and the offer of an ARC), I probably would have bypassed this book. And that would have been terrible!!! Now that I'm done reading it, the cover is no more aesthetically appealing to me, but I see how it connects to the actual story, and it really couldn't be more appropriate.
The story: I'd say I'm at a loss for words, but it's really that there are so many words, and I shouldn't write a novel or an essay (though I would love to do a deep, close read of this book, if time allowed, there is so much to dissect!). This story promised ghosts and it delivered in spades, but there is so much more to this than ghosts. This is not the kind of horror novel that relies on graphic and gruesome violence and anxiety-inducing, heart-wrenching fear. Which isn't to say there isn't some violence, and perhaps a little gruesomeness, but that it isn't particularly graphic, and that the cause of the violence and gruesomeness is where the horror lies. And the fact that the source is reflective of many of American societies ills; that it all makes sense.
To some, it might seem a bit absurdist. There were moments when I felt that way, and I suspect it's intended. This story is a sort of quasi-apocalyptic Animal Farm meets Frankenstein with angry ghosts who can hurt you, who can possess you, who are angry and sad and scared and can't move on to...wherever or whatever the next step is. Their existence has crumbled, and over the years, the town they left behind has crumbled along with them, weakening their tether to the world. They fight desperately to prevent change, while still keeping the town alive, because they are afraid of the unknown, because they feel they were cheated and are owed something, because they have things they still want to do, because they have needs that must be filled. And they don't care who they hurt along the way.
Oh my gosh, I could go on and on, but what I mean to say is, it is a strange book, but it is a beautifully strange book, thought-provoking, poignant, and ridiculously relevant. It is fascinating and hideous, beautiful and confounding, brilliant and ghastly. Without a doubt, one of the most surprising stories I've ever read, certainly not one I'll forget, and an easy, hands-down, no-need-to-contemplate, brilliantly-shining 5 star read.
All of that said, this feels like a book that isn't for everybody. There are some small, quick scenes of violence. It is not a happy or light read. It's edgy and twisted and bizarre and outlandish and if you like those things, it's absolutely fabulous and you should read it now. Right. Now.
Note: I received this book from the publisher. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.
There is just so much to unpack with this book, I don't know how I'm going to keep this review a reasonable length. While I can hardly say what it was I expected, I can say with complete certainty that it wasn't what I got. And thank the gods for that! This book wow'd me. WOW'D. Me. Now where to start, where to start...
The cover: in no way appealed to me. If you've read any of my reviews, you know how much I covet covers. Covers are meant to convey something about the book, they make promises about what's on offer inside, and if I don't like the cover, my gut says I'm likely to feel the same about the story. Were it not for the promise of ghosts (and the offer of an ARC), I probably would have bypassed this book. And that would have been terrible!!! Now that I'm done reading it, the cover is no more aesthetically appealing to me, but I see how it connects to the actual story, and it really couldn't be more appropriate.
The story: I'd say I'm at a loss for words, but it's really that there are so many words, and I shouldn't write a novel or an essay (though I would love to do a deep, close read of this book, if time allowed, there is so much to dissect!). This story promised ghosts and it delivered in spades, but there is so much more to this than ghosts. This is not the kind of horror novel that relies on graphic and gruesome violence and anxiety-inducing, heart-wrenching fear. Which isn't to say there isn't some violence, and perhaps a little gruesomeness, but that it isn't particularly graphic, and that the cause of the violence and gruesomeness is where the horror lies. And the fact that the source is reflective of many of American societies ills; that it all makes sense.
To some, it might seem a bit absurdist. There were moments when I felt that way, and I suspect it's intended. This story is a sort of quasi-apocalyptic Animal Farm meets Frankenstein with angry ghosts who can hurt you, who can possess you, who are angry and sad and scared and can't move on to...wherever or whatever the next step is. Their existence has crumbled, and over the years, the town they left behind has crumbled along with them, weakening their tether to the world. They fight desperately to prevent change, while still keeping the town alive, because they are afraid of the unknown, because they feel they were cheated and are owed something, because they have things they still want to do, because they have needs that must be filled. And they don't care who they hurt along the way.
Oh my gosh, I could go on and on, but what I mean to say is, it is a strange book, but it is a beautifully strange book, thought-provoking, poignant, and ridiculously relevant. It is fascinating and hideous, beautiful and confounding, brilliant and ghastly. Without a doubt, one of the most surprising stories I've ever read, certainly not one I'll forget, and an easy, hands-down, no-need-to-contemplate, brilliantly-shining 5 star read.
All of that said, this feels like a book that isn't for everybody. There are some small, quick scenes of violence. It is not a happy or light read. It's edgy and twisted and bizarre and outlandish and if you like those things, it's absolutely fabulous and you should read it now. Right. Now.
Note: I received this book from the publisher. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.
May 3, 2019
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks is a novel that does not conform to any particular genre. It is horror and science fiction and dystonia all in one, and then it is not. But what it is, is wholly original and compelling and a novel not to be missed.
"...Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms... They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you..."
Since she was a young girl, Jane has been haunted. She carries with her a ghost girl who feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her. The ghost whispers these secrets to Jane, even though she doesn't want to know. Jane is not unique in this. Not in Swine Hill. Her brother Henry is haunted by an inventor who takes over Henry from time to time to create and invent. Henry only knows this happens because he blacks out. Their mother is haunted by a woman who is desperate for love. Her anger burns so deep that she can kill anyone with her touch, incinerating them. Their father tried to take care of their mother but overtime the hauntings drove him away from them all and he now wanders the town as a homeless man. In Swine Hill, there are far more dead than living.
But Swine Hill is also a factory town. A place that is dependent upon the Pig City, the slaughterhouse that supports the fragile economy of Swine Hill. But even that is coming under change. Because Henry's ghost has done something drastic and dark. He has created a Pig Man. A Pig that thinks and talks and now runs the factory. A Pig that wants more than to be only a Pig and wants to be accepted as a man.
The townspeople, already burdened with the yoke of the ghosts, now must deal with the influx of pig creatures that threatened to take over the factory and take what little work there is left. The ghosts sense this unrest and soon Swine Hill explodes into violence and murder and cruelty that only the desperate men are capable of.
"...Echoes of ghosts jumped from the walls and floors, piling on top of him, gnawing their way into him too, responding to his fear with their own. The bleeding man fell and writhed on the floor, his eyes sun bright. Jane couldn't feel the cop or Trigger as distinct things anymore. The bleeding man was suddenly honeycombed with ghosts, an entire city of the dead. The spirits built a hell inside his heart..."
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones succeeds on so many levels. It is a ghost story. It is a tale of science gone wrong, ala Island of Dr. Moreau. It is a tale of love lost and a family torn asunder. It is the story of the small town America, dependent upon the factory to survive and what happens to its people when the factory no longer is there. It is bitter. It is sweet. It is incredibly human to a fault and perhaps that is its strongest suit. It is all of these and at moments none of these.
For me it is about hope. That small glimmer of hope when you have lived a life without any. The small ray of light in the grey dusk that takes you a moment to realize just what it is because you have lived so much of your life without it.
It is, put simply, just a damn good story.
"...Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms... They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you..."
Since she was a young girl, Jane has been haunted. She carries with her a ghost girl who feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her. The ghost whispers these secrets to Jane, even though she doesn't want to know. Jane is not unique in this. Not in Swine Hill. Her brother Henry is haunted by an inventor who takes over Henry from time to time to create and invent. Henry only knows this happens because he blacks out. Their mother is haunted by a woman who is desperate for love. Her anger burns so deep that she can kill anyone with her touch, incinerating them. Their father tried to take care of their mother but overtime the hauntings drove him away from them all and he now wanders the town as a homeless man. In Swine Hill, there are far more dead than living.
But Swine Hill is also a factory town. A place that is dependent upon the Pig City, the slaughterhouse that supports the fragile economy of Swine Hill. But even that is coming under change. Because Henry's ghost has done something drastic and dark. He has created a Pig Man. A Pig that thinks and talks and now runs the factory. A Pig that wants more than to be only a Pig and wants to be accepted as a man.
The townspeople, already burdened with the yoke of the ghosts, now must deal with the influx of pig creatures that threatened to take over the factory and take what little work there is left. The ghosts sense this unrest and soon Swine Hill explodes into violence and murder and cruelty that only the desperate men are capable of.
"...Echoes of ghosts jumped from the walls and floors, piling on top of him, gnawing their way into him too, responding to his fear with their own. The bleeding man fell and writhed on the floor, his eyes sun bright. Jane couldn't feel the cop or Trigger as distinct things anymore. The bleeding man was suddenly honeycombed with ghosts, an entire city of the dead. The spirits built a hell inside his heart..."
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones succeeds on so many levels. It is a ghost story. It is a tale of science gone wrong, ala Island of Dr. Moreau. It is a tale of love lost and a family torn asunder. It is the story of the small town America, dependent upon the factory to survive and what happens to its people when the factory no longer is there. It is bitter. It is sweet. It is incredibly human to a fault and perhaps that is its strongest suit. It is all of these and at moments none of these.
For me it is about hope. That small glimmer of hope when you have lived a life without any. The small ray of light in the grey dusk that takes you a moment to realize just what it is because you have lived so much of your life without it.
It is, put simply, just a damn good story.
March 29, 2020
I finished this a while ago, but it works deeper in the mind, so I needed some decompressing. This is as spoiler-free as possible. I'm not going to discuss any plot points per se, but there are some aspects of the story that are *special* and need to be addressed to discuss the novel at all.
The setting is a depressed Southern town, Swine Hill, in more-or-less modern times. The pork processing business has become the town's livelihood. Almost everyone works there or works in businesses that support its employees. The special thing about the town is that its center is inhabited by ghosts and their circle of influence is growing.
Jane & Henry live amidst these ghosts. Swine Hill ghosts are a bit non-traditional, reminding me of Pullman daemons, but they are selfish and basically sinister. They lend their special abilities to their haunteds. Jane's ghost allows her to see people's internal thoughts and loves secrets, causing Jane much anguish, but sometimes also saving her. Henry's ghost kidnaps his consciousness to go problem solving, because of the same lack of empathy in which Jane constantly drowns, usually creating a worse problem.
One of the "problems" that Henry creates is an entire species of people, which Hicks uses to juxtapose modern race relations (how whites excluded black people from the prom for years versus how Dennis--the young pig--was welcomed with such "originality." ;-)
The other theme is redemption, how you can constantly get everything wrong but through sheer persistence and sincere commitment battle through to find solutions. This is a healthy message but it's despite the character actions, rather than because of them, so this is no moral play. If there is a lesson at all, it's that you should keep trying even if you fuck everything up constantly, which (checking my watch) really works good for 2020.
Hicks has written a very special novel that reeks of Gothic madness. It's not perfect (for me). I would have liked to see more sexual tension. I would have enjoyed more background on Swine Hill's violent past, because there seems plenty here to mine. (The snatches I got reminded me of Derry-like secrets.) At the same time, I love how the ghosts are represented (it's fresh) and frankly enjoyed the characters so much. Pig-Boss, especially, is a complex character worthy of more exploration. I mean... can you imagine his pov? ;-)
Good story for your Coronavirus confinement! Things can always get worse. See?
The setting is a depressed Southern town, Swine Hill, in more-or-less modern times. The pork processing business has become the town's livelihood. Almost everyone works there or works in businesses that support its employees. The special thing about the town is that its center is inhabited by ghosts and their circle of influence is growing.
Jane & Henry live amidst these ghosts. Swine Hill ghosts are a bit non-traditional, reminding me of Pullman daemons, but they are selfish and basically sinister. They lend their special abilities to their haunteds. Jane's ghost allows her to see people's internal thoughts and loves secrets, causing Jane much anguish, but sometimes also saving her. Henry's ghost kidnaps his consciousness to go problem solving, because of the same lack of empathy in which Jane constantly drowns, usually creating a worse problem.
One of the "problems" that Henry creates is an entire species of people, which Hicks uses to juxtapose modern race relations (how whites excluded black people from the prom for years versus how Dennis--the young pig--was welcomed with such "originality." ;-)
The other theme is redemption, how you can constantly get everything wrong but through sheer persistence and sincere commitment battle through to find solutions. This is a healthy message but it's despite the character actions, rather than because of them, so this is no moral play. If there is a lesson at all, it's that you should keep trying even if you fuck everything up constantly, which (checking my watch) really works good for 2020.
Hicks has written a very special novel that reeks of Gothic madness. It's not perfect (for me). I would have liked to see more sexual tension. I would have enjoyed more background on Swine Hill's violent past, because there seems plenty here to mine. (The snatches I got reminded me of Derry-like secrets.) At the same time, I love how the ghosts are represented (it's fresh) and frankly enjoyed the characters so much. Pig-Boss, especially, is a complex character worthy of more exploration. I mean... can you imagine his pov? ;-)
Good story for your Coronavirus confinement! Things can always get worse. See?
August 5, 2021
A whole lot of things happen in this book and yet nothing happens. The premise of a haunted, dying town, where people kind of get superpowers from their each individual hell is pretty neat. There are some pretty creative scenes, such as the one with the haunted dog, the haunted cop or Trigger's haunting. It could have been a good story, it could have been. But then there are humanoid pigs, a sentient robot, aliens, interdimensional travel, a heart beating in a box, and who knows what else. I'm surprised no vampires or werewolves show up. Just too much.
For me the story died when the pigs showed up. It's the stupidest plot line I have ever read, with the emo pig, the absolutely hilarious funeral (I am sorry, could not find that scene sad) and the eeeeveeel corporation creating humanoid beings just to cut down on them salaries. I am pretty sure immigrants are cheaper, but ok. Also I am not sure what the rules are - is the whole world messed up or just Swinehill? Because I'm pretty sure the world would freak out to hear about it.
My other problem is with the characters I'm supposed to like, but who are absolutely terrible people. Jane and Henry I hated everyone in this book, maybe except for the father. Poor dude.
This book could have easily entered the category "so bad it's good" had the author not tried to insert some message about racism in the most hamfisted way possible (see what I did there?). Sorry, but this story is just too dumb to try to get anything serious out of it.
I am sure the intentions were good and there is creativity put into this book, but it's too all over the place to make any sense.
For me the story died when the pigs showed up. It's the stupidest plot line I have ever read, with the emo pig, the absolutely hilarious funeral (I am sorry, could not find that scene sad) and the eeeeveeel corporation creating humanoid beings just to cut down on them salaries. I am pretty sure immigrants are cheaper, but ok. Also I am not sure what the rules are - is the whole world messed up or just Swinehill? Because I'm pretty sure the world would freak out to hear about it.
My other problem is with the characters I'm supposed to like, but who are absolutely terrible people. Jane and Henry I hated everyone in this book, maybe except for the father. Poor dude.
This book could have easily entered the category "so bad it's good" had the author not tried to insert some message about racism in the most hamfisted way possible (see what I did there?). Sorry, but this story is just too dumb to try to get anything serious out of it.
I am sure the intentions were good and there is creativity put into this book, but it's too all over the place to make any sense.
October 30, 2020
this book has such an amazing premise but it slows waaaay down after the first act and never picks up again. like the first third of the book FLEW by and then the never explained alien(?) subplot was introduced and things took a huge turn for the not so good. also – this is personal preference – but i really can't vibe with books written in such a detached third person perspective. it can be used to a wonderful and almost cinematic effect in other cases but here it totally fell flat, esp. since you'd think one would want to, y'know. FEEL something for the protagonist, or the stakes character, or anyone else in the book. hicks seems to have focused most of his energy on crafting the town and making it its own sort of "character," which is totally fine and appropriate for a story that is so deeply entrenched in its setting. i just wish he'd focused some of those energies on the characters we were meant to be rooting for.
i will say though – the prose? gorgeous!! definitely made the book worth reading in the end.
i will say though – the prose? gorgeous!! definitely made the book worth reading in the end.
July 5, 2019
This book was not a typical read for me, but the publisher sent it, and so I read it. I'm glad I did. It was such a creepy story-- a mix of animal farm meets 1984 meets speaker for the dead. It's hard to describe, but it is most simply an allegory of our time-- of the dying small businesses in dying towns, and what it means to be left behind. Do we try to press forward and live our lives in the present and future or do we chose to live in the past with our ghosts? And when someone different tries to advance us, do we turn on them or do we embrace the future? The pig people and what happens to them creeped me out so much that I thought about this book long after it was over. This is a must read, especially in our current political climate. I have a feeling this will eventually end up on school booklists and will reach a cult following in the future.
May 23, 2019
A strange, eerie book. If you're looking to read something different, look no further.
June 18, 2020
The first 140 pages or so flew by, but it became a struggle to finish it. Would not recommend.
February 21, 2022
Wow! what a weird book...but in a good way! A clever and unique story that sucked me in. I could not put it down. Bravo to Micah Dean Hicks for a fabulous debut !
May 31, 2020
Micah Dean Hicks' literary horror novel Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is very bizarre.
When we get down to brass tacks, this book is about Jane and Henry, a brother and sister who are just trying to do the right thing and make their world a better place.
The problem is, Jane and Henry live in Swine Hill, a place defined by the slaughterhouse at its center and the ghosts that haunt absolutely everything in the town, especially the residents. Jane and Henry themselves are haunted. Jane's ghost reads minds, feeding off of secrets and emotions, and tells her everything it knows. Henry's ghost loves to solve problems and takes over his body and mind when it finds something interesting to "fix".
As the book opens, Jane is working at the local grocery store when an unusual customer comes in: a large pig-man named Arthur Hogboss. Turns out, Henry may or may not have Frankensteined Hogboss together from slaughterhouse pig parts while in a fugue state initiated by his ghost to solve a problem of worker satisfaction.
See what I mean when I say bizarre? And you won't even know the half of it until you read the book.
But along with being bizarre, Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is also incredibly dour and tragic and sad. Jane and Henry are in a bad situation when the book starts and, somehow, as it goes along, things just get worse and worse and worse.
It took me a while to read this book because picking it up was like picking up the weight of the world. All the feelings anyone has ever had of stagnancy and repression and the inability to live up to their potential is condensed down into this bizarre story about being so haunted that, no matter what you do, at the end of the day, you will always be left holding a shovel and digging your own grave.
And I kind of love that about this book.
I mean, I'm not often surprised anymore by anything. But this book...
Its not like anything I've ever read before.
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is not afraid to be batshit crazy. It's not afraid to grab your heart and soul and just constrict it slowly with every word.
Like, fuck. I'm going to be hurting from this one for a while.
I don't even have the energy to get into all the social commentary here. Or all the allegorical, metaphorical, and symbolic stuff. And just trust me when I say this book is heavy with literary appeal. But its also a book you can enjoy (if that is the right word) without looking for all the deeper meanings.
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is both an elegy to the past and an ode to moving on.
And I can tell you right now, this fucking book is going to haunt me.
It was goddamn brilliant.
I rated Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks 5 out of 5 stars. I cautiously recommend it, knowing that not everyone will like it.
When we get down to brass tacks, this book is about Jane and Henry, a brother and sister who are just trying to do the right thing and make their world a better place.
The problem is, Jane and Henry live in Swine Hill, a place defined by the slaughterhouse at its center and the ghosts that haunt absolutely everything in the town, especially the residents. Jane and Henry themselves are haunted. Jane's ghost reads minds, feeding off of secrets and emotions, and tells her everything it knows. Henry's ghost loves to solve problems and takes over his body and mind when it finds something interesting to "fix".
As the book opens, Jane is working at the local grocery store when an unusual customer comes in: a large pig-man named Arthur Hogboss. Turns out, Henry may or may not have Frankensteined Hogboss together from slaughterhouse pig parts while in a fugue state initiated by his ghost to solve a problem of worker satisfaction.
See what I mean when I say bizarre? And you won't even know the half of it until you read the book.
But along with being bizarre, Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is also incredibly dour and tragic and sad. Jane and Henry are in a bad situation when the book starts and, somehow, as it goes along, things just get worse and worse and worse.
It took me a while to read this book because picking it up was like picking up the weight of the world. All the feelings anyone has ever had of stagnancy and repression and the inability to live up to their potential is condensed down into this bizarre story about being so haunted that, no matter what you do, at the end of the day, you will always be left holding a shovel and digging your own grave.
And I kind of love that about this book.
I mean, I'm not often surprised anymore by anything. But this book...
Its not like anything I've ever read before.
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is not afraid to be batshit crazy. It's not afraid to grab your heart and soul and just constrict it slowly with every word.
Like, fuck. I'm going to be hurting from this one for a while.
I don't even have the energy to get into all the social commentary here. Or all the allegorical, metaphorical, and symbolic stuff. And just trust me when I say this book is heavy with literary appeal. But its also a book you can enjoy (if that is the right word) without looking for all the deeper meanings.
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is both an elegy to the past and an ode to moving on.
And I can tell you right now, this fucking book is going to haunt me.
It was goddamn brilliant.
I rated Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks 5 out of 5 stars. I cautiously recommend it, knowing that not everyone will like it.
May 24, 2023
A low 3 stars.
I didn’t think I would find myself back writing a review for a book that started strong but ended badly, but alas here I am again.
This book was on my to read list for years, and I recently decided to bite the bullet and get a copy. I had no real idea of the plot besides it was full of ghosts and suffering, so I was onboard.
And as I said the book started strong, we had ghosts, pig people and aliens, all wrapped up in the most depressingly broken town I have ever encountered. The story was so weird and off key I was looking forward to the end game as I expected something as bonkers as the rest of it. But no, what did I get instead?
Whining.
Children whining.
And more fucking WHINING.
I have never come across a book filled with more unhappy characters overflowing with self-loathing and self-disgust. And they were so wrapped up in their little worlds of despair that it didn’t dawn on them that maybe just upping and leaving this hell town full of said ghosts and pig people would solve all of their problems.
To compound the issue I thought the story was very surface level. It was full of hate and cruelty and disturbing imagery but none of it was delved into, and I felt if you was to scratch the surface of this book you would go right through. And that is a shame as there is some dark shit in here that could have been written better.
I hated every character. This was not helped by one of the main characters being a whiny 16 year old boy. One of my least fave kinds of people. And I hate most kinds of people. None of their life choices made sense to me, and like the story they seemed paper thin.
And the ending was stupid. There I’ve said it.
I didn’t think I would find myself back writing a review for a book that started strong but ended badly, but alas here I am again.
This book was on my to read list for years, and I recently decided to bite the bullet and get a copy. I had no real idea of the plot besides it was full of ghosts and suffering, so I was onboard.
And as I said the book started strong, we had ghosts, pig people and aliens, all wrapped up in the most depressingly broken town I have ever encountered. The story was so weird and off key I was looking forward to the end game as I expected something as bonkers as the rest of it. But no, what did I get instead?
Whining.
Children whining.
And more fucking WHINING.
I have never come across a book filled with more unhappy characters overflowing with self-loathing and self-disgust. And they were so wrapped up in their little worlds of despair that it didn’t dawn on them that maybe just upping and leaving this hell town full of said ghosts and pig people would solve all of their problems.
To compound the issue I thought the story was very surface level. It was full of hate and cruelty and disturbing imagery but none of it was delved into, and I felt if you was to scratch the surface of this book you would go right through. And that is a shame as there is some dark shit in here that could have been written better.
I hated every character. This was not helped by one of the main characters being a whiny 16 year old boy. One of my least fave kinds of people. And I hate most kinds of people. None of their life choices made sense to me, and like the story they seemed paper thin.
And the ending was stupid. There I’ve said it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2021
4.5 stars.
At the bottom of him, he felt that he deserved to be haunted.
Break the Bodies, Haunt the bones has to be one of the weirdest, most surreal reading experiences I have ever had. This isn't your typical ghost story, most of the ghosts here aren't the specters that come to scare us in the night, but are a direct reflection of the horrors of our real world.
While this is a book that is so damn beautiful, it's also unflinchingly cruel, thrusting the reader into a tiny town plagued by the dead, where every atrocity committed is shown with excruciating detail. No one is spared here, from the moment you start this novel, you will experience the suffering of those who dared to be different, you'll see the unfairness of life.
Usually, when the end of a society is depicted, it's done with a bang. Here, it's a slow, painful erosion of a town so vividly captured, you almost feel like you're walking its streets. Ultimately, this is a book shows that every town has its ghosts, and everybody has something haunting them.
At the bottom of him, he felt that he deserved to be haunted.
Break the Bodies, Haunt the bones has to be one of the weirdest, most surreal reading experiences I have ever had. This isn't your typical ghost story, most of the ghosts here aren't the specters that come to scare us in the night, but are a direct reflection of the horrors of our real world.
While this is a book that is so damn beautiful, it's also unflinchingly cruel, thrusting the reader into a tiny town plagued by the dead, where every atrocity committed is shown with excruciating detail. No one is spared here, from the moment you start this novel, you will experience the suffering of those who dared to be different, you'll see the unfairness of life.
Usually, when the end of a society is depicted, it's done with a bang. Here, it's a slow, painful erosion of a town so vividly captured, you almost feel like you're walking its streets. Ultimately, this is a book shows that every town has its ghosts, and everybody has something haunting them.
October 29, 2021
DNF
OK - this may or may not have SPOILERS, but as I only read 52% of this book, it's not going to ruin the ending.
I was reluctant to abandon this book because I rarely do it, but the more I thought about it and discussed with other people the more I realized that this book is all over the place and it's too much.
The premise of the haunted town with spirits that possess those living who remain is a great start to something deemed as "horror." HOWEVER, with the introduction of the pig-man, the alien orb situation (that's as far as I got with that situation), and the fact that it made ZERO sense that the school was still operating when NOTHING but the pig processing plant remained open LOST ME.
Were the ideas in and of themselves horrific if it were to happen in real life, absolutely -- jamming them all-together in one story and maintaining a horror plot = flop.
It started off with promise, but the synopsis does NOT even begin to cover the confusion and randomness that is this story.
OK - this may or may not have SPOILERS, but as I only read 52% of this book, it's not going to ruin the ending.
I was reluctant to abandon this book because I rarely do it, but the more I thought about it and discussed with other people the more I realized that this book is all over the place and it's too much.
The premise of the haunted town with spirits that possess those living who remain is a great start to something deemed as "horror." HOWEVER, with the introduction of the pig-man, the alien orb situation (that's as far as I got with that situation), and the fact that it made ZERO sense that the school was still operating when NOTHING but the pig processing plant remained open LOST ME.
Were the ideas in and of themselves horrific if it were to happen in real life, absolutely -- jamming them all-together in one story and maintaining a horror plot = flop.
It started off with promise, but the synopsis does NOT even begin to cover the confusion and randomness that is this story.
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