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Jan 05, 2012

Margaret rated it:

My god, this was a good book to read on Hallowe'en. Almost too good, in fact. I finished reading it in daylight, but the atmosphere it created was with me well into the evening.

Kyle Murchison Booth is a museum archivist, bookish, erudite, awkward, and painfully shy. After a reluctant experiment with necromancy, in the collection's first story, "Bringing Helena Back", he finds that he has opened the door to the world of the supernatural, beginning a series of encounters whic More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2008

Jam rated it:

Sarah Monette is a thinky writer and this definitely plays to that strength. In the introduction, Monette says that she wanted to write something with the feel of M. R. James and Lovecraft, but that acknwoldged things that are conspicuously absent in James and Lovecraft's works - things like strong women and sexuality.

And she succeeded remarkably well, to the point where I almost don't want to mention it because when I'm reading it, I don't have to think about it. It's a good thing More...

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Jul 11, 2008

sage rated it:

You know, the more I think about this book, the more I really love it. As stated elsewhere, it's a a series of interlocking short stories in the life of Kyle Murchison Booth. It's set in some historically nebulous time in the years after WW2, but the protagonist is so NOT grounded in the physical world that the lack of a detailed setting works very well. The things he pays attention to are exquisitely detailed, and I love that because specific detail ought to reflect what the pov character ca More...

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Nov 06, 2008

Peter rated it:

A nice little collection of melancholy stories about a curator in a strange museum in an unnamed Eastern US city who, after an ill-considered act of necromancy, becomes a little too attractive to the dead. (This is assuming that anyone can engage in a well-considered act of necromancy or be insufficiently attractive to the dead....) Anyway, the stories are loosely connected tales of unhappy goings-on with a supernatural twist; they are told in a voice nicely balanced between Lovecraftian hyperbo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 06, 2011

Krissie rated it:

Perhaps I've grown up in a culture that has desensitized me to horror, but the stories in the book, while intriguing and interesting, did little to terrify me. Perhaps, had I read them with a only 25-watt bulb lit on one of those oppressively hot and humid summer nights when even the crickets and the lightning bugs are loathe to do anything, I would have been more disturbed. Perhaps if I weren't such a fan of the sci-fi section at the library (mostly by dint of its being the smallest section), More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 01, 2008

Jen rated it:

Kyle Murchison Booth is the kind of character who really needs a hug, except if you did hug him he'd probably end up shaking from the trauma for days. He's an immensely Lovecraftian character, more so than anyone else in these stories; in fact, I think he's the only character who knows what kind of universe he's in.

As horror, the first few stories in this collection didn't work so well for me, but the last two or three did. (Oooh, that hotel. *shudder*) As a modern retake on Lovecra More...

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Oct 20, 2007

Natlyn rated it:

All the stories work well and only once was I confused at the end of the story about what had happened ("The Wall of Clouds"). I had intended to stagger my reading of this collection because I thought it would be too one-note and my enjoyment would pale. However, such was not the case. I couldn't stop reading (what was Booth going to run into next and how was he going to handle it?), and each story says something different about the human and sometimes inhuman condition. If your tastes More...

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Jul 03, 2008

Zen rated it:

Curiously bloodless; dull. I read (and was embarrassingly terrified by) M. R. James, but while I could see what Monette was trying to get at, I didn't think she ever got at it. It was as if the stories were wrapped in a thin skin of dullness, and they were straining and straining and a couple of times they came so close to being genuinely scary that you could see the shape of the stories they wanted to be through the skin, but they were never even close to breaking it.

I don't really kn More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Miss Ginny Tea rated it:

I think this will be one of the rare books that improves as it sits in memory. It's a collection of short stories that follows a progression, a character development and graceful reveal with no info dumps, no clunky "this is why I'm the way I am."

Kyle Murchison Booth is the kind of damaged and endearing Sarah Monette excels at. Through the stories, he progressed from helplessly watching eventually to acting and having an effect on the results. At the same time, his history More...

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Sep 23, 2011

Kelly rated it:

What a gorgeous, well-written ride this was. The creep factor is high, but it's not gory. This is the type of book that makes you check in the corners of empty rooms and dive for the covers when the lights go out. This is the type of book that lingers long after you've finished.

Sarah Monette has crafted something extraordinary here. A series of short stories all revolving around Kyle Murchison Booth and his brushes with the paranormal, Booth isn't your typical hero-type. He's qu More...

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Dec 02, 2011

Magdala rated it:

Kyle Murchison Booth is a love. He's one of those introverts who has been stepped on so badly all throughout his life that he stutters when he speaks, and sinks into deep dark woe! when subjected to such trials such as, say, Having Dinner with People.

I first encountered him in an audio reading of "White Charles", and after just listening to his dialogue with all the precisely enunicated ellipses points, I knew that he was my kind of fictional character.

Booth (n More...

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Apr 15, 2009

Heather rated it:

A collection of short stories loosely centered around introverted museum archivist Kyle Murchison Booth. The stories could best be categorized as haunting, cerebral, necromantic mysteries. They are old-fashioned horror stories in the style of H. P. Lovecraft, where much of the horror is insinuated rather than blatantly or graphically described. The stories are subtle, stylishly understated and disturbing.

In some stories I wished that quite not so much had been held back in the name More...

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Dec 27, 2008

Anna rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 28, 2010

Jan rated it:

This is a slim volume of interconnected tales feature Kyle Murchison Booth, an introverted and reclusive museum archivist with an uncomfortable affinity with the dead. The style is vaguely Lovecraftian: quietly dark stories following Booth's encounters with horrors-unseen, hauntings, and other chilling, supernatural nastiness.

Booth's character and voice may not work for everyone - he is a man far more comfortable with paper than people - but it is consistent and the stories cree More...

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Dec 23, 2011

Littoface rated it:

You couldn't possibly think of a more unlikely hero than Booth. Yet the stammering and introverted museum curator is the perfect protagonist in these ten short stories. The stories tie into one another perfectly, and let you watch the growth and development of the main character. The smooth prose of the author are contrasted by Booth's poor attempts at speech. Monette creates a surreal world whose supernatural presence in the book is real enough to make your heart beat a bit faster the next time More...

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May 09, 2010

AnaSara rated it:

I was introduced to Sarah Monette through her Melusine series. This book was very different, being a series of connected short stories about the same main character, but still had the easy-to-follow, engaging and yet well-crafted style of her other works. Not exceptionally remarkable, but very pleasing, and slightly creepy when read by flashlight at midnight. More...

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Oct 05, 2011

Sesana rated it:

The Bone Key is actually a series of short stories, all about Kyle Murchison Booth (nobody calls him Kyle) and his encounters with the paranormal. He traces them back to a necromantic rite he foolishly helped a friend perform, which seems to have made him more receptive to strange things.

In her introduction, Sarah Monette says she was inspired by M. R. James and Lovecraft. It shows, mostly in the atmosphere. I was not at all surprised to discover that she had a story published in the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2011

Cynthia rated it:

If you love a good ghost story as I do, this collection is for you. The connecting figure in the stories is the narrator and protagonist Kyle Murchison Booth. He is eccentric, to say the least and yet a highly sympathetic and extremely interesting character. The writing is intelligent and the stories have a wit and sensibility which recalls classic writing of the past. Elegy of a Demon Lover was one which made me tear up and The Wall of Clouds was one I was thinking about long after I read i More...

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Nov 01, 2008

Deb rated it:

Gothic lit, of the uncanny sort: I haven't read any good modern fiction in that genre for a long time. Maybe ever.

All the short stories in this book have the same character, but the stories are varied enough that it doesn't read like a novel. My fav was this one that starts out with a body bricked in a wall, a nice head-bob to one the genre's forefather--quite a few of the stories are like that (head bobby, not bricks and bodies). In the introduction, the author talks about being fru More...

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Apr 14, 2009

John rated it:

This collection of horror short stories filled a dark need I had forgotten I had. By the time I was finishing the second story I was in love. I first discovered Lovecraft almost forty years ago, and it was good. The lack of character and other weaknesses were no matter. These were stories I was born to read.
Now, I'm older and so much more sophisticated. And along comes Sarah Monette who knows about character (including female characters!), sexuality, and style. But that is not what got me. More...

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Jul 25, 2009

Lisa rated it:

The style in this book was very uniform through all the stories, sort of a Sherlock Holmes-esque feel to it. It was very well done, but the narrator was somewhat dry about relating what had happened to him (which fit with the style, but I wanted details, darn it), and several of the stories had an interesting piece to them, but no dynamic plot developed. If you like Srah Monette, it's worth the read, but probably something to borrow instead of to buy.

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Dec 14, 2011

Betsy rated it:

I don't know if I'd give this a straight up five star, maybe more like 4.5, but I rounded up just because I really enjoyed it. I thought the last couple of stories dragged a hair, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why I didn't think they didn't work as well as the others.

But let me say that this is like quibbling over why chocolate chip cookies are a little better than brownies. The whole thing was delicious.

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Jul 14, 2008

Alice rated it:

I loved this book because it reminded me of old classic ghost stories. I didn't get much sense of the main character who didn't seem too interesting at first. But I liked how a different aspect of him was shown in each story.

In case you haven't guessed, this is actually a series of short stories. 'The Bone Key' is subtitled 'The Necromatic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth' and are each a ghost/supernatural occurance in his life. The level of occult in his life in explained and intr More...

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Apr 14, 2009

Brigid rated it:

"The Bone Key" is a deliciously creepy and well written set of short stories in the vein of M. R. James and H. P. Lovecraft. Told from the point of view of painfully shy and fussily overly educated Kyle Murchison Booth, we the reader are privy to the secret dark world that lies just beneath the thin veil of normalcy that most people see. Booth is privy to that dark world as well, to his regret.

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Jan 20, 2009

Ashley rated it:

I went through this book really quickly--anything in the ballpark of twenty-four hours is "quickly" for me these days--which surprised me, since I'm not the hugest fan of short story collections. I am, however, a huge fan of Sarah Monette's writing and characters, and I think that's what made this a relatively compelling read for me. All the stories in this collection are united by a single character--insomniac, gawky, socially-awkward Kyle Murchison Booth--as he finds himself ensconce More...

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Feb 07, 2009

Punk rated it:

Short Stories. This is a series of interconnected gothic short stories that feature Kyle Murchison Booth, an antisocial fellow who works in a museum, loves old manuscripts, and has a tendency to see ghosts. Booth is timid, vaguely gay, and has about as much personality as a cooked turnip. He's the opposite of a Mary Sue; no one likes him and he can't do anything right. He's pretty bland. In The Green Glass Paperweight, we get a hint of maybe why he is how he is, but no follow up.

On t More...

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Dec 26, 2011

Molly rated it:

Sarah Monette is a fantastic writer because of her well realized characters, and Kyle Murchison Booth, the protagonist of the stories in -The Bone Key- is another shining example. At first I was skeptical because this is a book of short stories, but they are all excellently written, and tie well together. A fictional book complete with fictional footnotes. Fantastic.

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Feb 04, 2012

Rina rated it:

So, where do I start?

This book is quite amazing. It's not a book you can read in one go or which is so addicting, you can't stop reading. Quite on the contrary actually. You need time to read it. The storys often are very deep and meaningful. You have to take time and think about all the things the story tells you, without really saying anything. Some storys I read two times, just so I can get all the things unsaid.
The storys are kinda unemotional written and still, they made me f More...

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Jun 02, 2009

Mary rated it:

A fantastic collection of ghost stories that involve a shy young museum archivist named Kyle Murchison Booth. Excellent, spooky reading - I hope the author plans more stories with this protagonist.

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Dec 30, 2010

Dami rated it:

Perfect for anyone who loves the Neo-Victorian sensibilities and chilling horror of Lovecraft, and even better if you enjoy a splash of homoerotica with your supernatural.

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