'A woman trapped on a mountain attempts to survive more than one kind of monster, in a dread-inducing horror novel from the national bestselling author Christina Henry.
'Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they're not alone after all.
'There's something in the woods that wasn't there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws. When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.'
There's something about Christina Henry's books that make them really hard to put down, and Near The Bone is no exception. From the very first page to the heart pounding final pages, the book had me hooked.
The story follows Mattie, a young woman living in a remote mountain cabin deep in the woods with her husband William. William, who's much older than Mattie, is a harsh man, one who will only have his way and beats any kind of fight out of Mattie to achieve those ends. Because of this Mattie begins the book a fairly broken person, one with little to no self esteem or belief in herself, a young woman living in constant terror that her husband will find something she does angering and will beat her.
Having been with William as long as she can remember Mattie has no sense of what the outside world is, and can barely remember ever seeing another human. She's not allowed out of the cabin unsupervised except for the occasional chore. She's not allowed to read anything but the Bible. She's a prisoner in her life.
This all changes one day when Mattie is checking the rabbit traps close to their cabin and comes across the mutilated remains of a fox. Not just that, but there are strange bear-like tracks in the snow, large tracks of a huge creature that seems to move around on its hind legs. Mattie shows this to William, and the two of them follow the trail until it mysteriously vanishes.
The next day William decides they'll investigate some nearby caves, hoping to find the creature's lair. What they do find is more bizarre and terrifying then they ever expected, however. Things only get worse though when they run into another human, a young man in strange clothing and carrying gear that Mattie doesn't recognise. This begins a series of horrific events as more outsiders arrive on the mountain, searching for this strange creature that seems to be stalking people through the woods. Now Mattie has to not only survive this unknown monster, but her enraged husband who's determined to keep Mattie away from the outside world.
Near The Bone is told from Mattie's perspective, and she makes for an interesting narrator. Having been kept in isolation for much of her life, and raised by a vicious man, it soon becomes clear that she has a very narrow view of the world. Mattie can only relate things through her experiences, and there are times during the book that she struggles to put things into words, even to the reader. Over time we learn more about Mattie, as she begins to slowly unlock her older memories thanks to the events going on around her, and we see how she ended up the woman she is.
This is one of the more fascinating parts of the book, and it's possibly more frightening than the strange creature killing people in the forest because of how human and real it is. It soon becomes clear that the events of this book aren't set a hundred year ago or more, which it first seemed to, and that Mattie is so isolated from the real world that she's essentially living in the past. Learning how Mattie went from living in our world to becoming a captive on a remote mountain is one of the biggest mysteries of the book, and is unlocked slowly as Mattie recovers the secrets of her past. These scenes are not only fascinating for the answers they provide, but are some of the most emotional moments of the book. Things like Mattie remembering what a grilled cheese sandwich is and the way it connects her to her mother, or tasting chocolate for the first time in over a decade. These tiny moments are close to heartbreaking as we see Mattie discovering these tiny parts of life that we all take for granted, but change her entire world.
There's a very human story at the heart of this book, one of a young woman living through extreme trauma and abuse, and it makes the book so much better than if it were just a group of people being picked off by this strange monster. There are times where William is the more frightening of the two monsters that are stalking Mattie, and the level of fear she has for him is not only understandable, but so terrifyingly real.
That being said, the creature in this book is so frighteningly fascinating. We never get a clear look at this thing, we never find out what it really is, and that's one of the most infuriating and brilliant parts. I wanted to know what this thing was. I wanted to know how it could be so huge but move almost silently. I wanted to know why it mutilated animals and people. I wanted to know how smart it was. And I wanted to know where it had come from. But, I also know that knowing all of that would have taken away a lot of the mystique of this thing. As such, I was more than happy to get tiny glimpses, to only see it briefly, and to be put in the same situation as the people on the mountain. The times where the creature turned up were some of the most tense, well paced moments of the book, and I loved them.
Near The Bone is a horror story where more than horror is thrown at the characters. William or the creature alone would have been enough to carry this book. Either one of them was frightening enough to be the main threat, but to throw both of them at Mattie and the reader? Well, it meant that you were never able to relax, were always on the edge of your seat, and always desperate to keep reading more.
I loved the incredibly real horror of being a captive, of being abused and broken by a human being, as well as the completely alien horror of being hunted by something otherworldly. There are few writers who'd be able to weave two very different narratives like that together so well, whilst also making Mattie's journey so engaging and emotionally resonating; but Christina Henry is able to do it with such amazing flair. This is a book that no horror fan should miss out on. Absolutely perfect.
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