116. The Bone Key by Sarah Monette (Fantasy Horror) 253 p.

It’s taken me a few days to review this book, and I suppose I should start by confessing that I loved it. Yeah, I know: I loved a book by Sarah Monette; what a surprise! But it was, to me, a little surprising. Her three previous books, which I love as much as anything I’ve ever read, are fantasy novels, while The Bone Key is a series of short stories, connected by the protagonist, Kyle Murchison Booth, who narrates all ten. The genre? Horror, which a week ago I would have dismissed as being not to my taste. However, I trusted that Ms. Monette would be able to reconcile me to just about anything, and of course she did. But reading The Bone Key reminded me of something I’d forgotten: that I actually like horror; at least, the old-fashioned kind.

Kyle Murchison Booth is an intelligent, introverted archivist for the Samuel Mather Parrington Museum in his hometown. When his only friend, a man he hasn’t spoken to in years, comes looking for his help, he has his own reasons for agreeing to help him. Participation in a necromantic rite leaves him sensitive to the occult, and he becomes entangled in a number of supernatural problems.

I pre-ordered The Bone Key online from Chapters in July, and it was due to be released on August 15. It was shipped this week and I received it on Monday, only slightly more than two months late. As I was beginning to wonder whether Chapters would ever actually receive any copies from the publisher, I’m just happy it came at all. Especially since it’s so awesome. And it was a perfect book to read the night before Halloween.

Even though The Bone Key is a short story collection, it read a lot like a novel, because so much of Booth’s history and character are revealed over the course of the book. And he himself is a charming narrator, perceptive and rather amusing. One of the stories from the collection, “Wait for Me“, is archived at Sarah Monette’s official website. (Quite a few of her short stories are available online, including two of my favourite standalone stories, “A Light in Troy” and “A Night in Electric Squidland“.)

Books read: 116
Pages read: 34,384

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Kyle Murchison Booth, Sarah Monette