From the Bookshelf of GET READING HORROR…

The Bone Cutters

Renee S. DeCamillis

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Sep 12, 2019 Joe X Young rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-own

Renee S. DeCamillis gives us a story pared to the bone.

Coming in at a shade under 24,500 words this is a quick read, made significantly quicker by the simplicity of language and rapid pace.

The somewhat unfortunate revelatory back cover blurb gives away far too much of what makes the story interesting— and it IS genuinely interesting. Although there is a strong hint in the title it doesn’t give the reason why the bone cutters are indeed bone cutters or whether it applies to people, creatures or Renee S. DeCamillis gives us a story pared to the bone.

Coming in at a shade under 24,500 words this is a quick read, made significantly quicker by the simplicity of language and rapid pace.

The somewhat unfortunate revelatory back cover blurb gives away far too much of what makes the story interesting— and it IS genuinely interesting. Although there is a strong hint in the title it doesn’t give the reason why the bone cutters are indeed bone cutters or whether it applies to people, creatures or even medical instruments. Much is left to the imagination there, and the same can be said for the general contents, but as I said, the back cover blurb says too much. That doesn’t prevent it from being a totally engrossing read.

The book itself is written in a first-person point of view, which in many books can often prove problematic but not here as both the concept and narrative are fresh and it pays attention to the tenses which are sometimes the downfall of stories written in the first person. The characterization is quirky with even the most stereotypical of them being handled with just enough description to make them believable but not enough as to bog one down in unnecessary details. There’s nothing overplayed here and I would have liked more about many of the characters, which would have taken a book double the length— a small sacrifice.

The main character’s name is kept from us for the most part, but there is no actual revelation forthcoming as to why that is, it’s just the way things are. It’s not actually meant to be a secret as it’s given in the back cover blurb, but it does add to the expectation that something more will happen from it. As the story of a young woman ‘finding herself’ in a situation she should never have been in it all kinda-sorta makes sense.

No matter what books we read there are always going to be problems, and The Bone Cutters is no exception as there are a couple of things which go against it somewhat. First of all, is that the ending doesn’t do justice to the overall concept. Don’t get me wrong, the ending does work, it does resolve things, but I would have loved to have seen more of the final events in question. It’s not easy to explain things without spoilers, suffice to say that when you read it you’ll no doubt see what I mean. There’s such clarity of writing here that it’s something more than the sum of its parts and I feel a lot more could have been done with those individual parts. The second thing really trails on from the first in that The Bone Cutters is too damned short. There are many books out there which do a lot with a novella-length word count and some of those really won’t have needed 20,000+ words to do it in, yet The Bone Cutters is different as it gives the overall feeling of just scraping the bones of the story. I wanted to know more, read more and be involved more as I feel there was so much unsaid throughout. I’m not sure whether there would have been a full novel-length work here without overdoing it, yet I feel it could certainly have doubled in size without losing any of the quality. It’s actually refreshing to be able to enjoy a book so much that you were miffed when it was over. Generally, I read a lot of things which I could readily edit a third of the content from without losing any of the plots, The Bone Cutters isn’t one of those, if anything it’s leaving so many interesting things untold.

As the debut novella from Renee S. DeCamillis it’s a fantastic beginning to what could prove to be a career to watch.

I’m giving this a solid 4 out of 5. Yeah, I’m punishing it for the reasons I’ve already given, but considering that I’ve never read anything which rated a 5 I think The Bone Cutters is doing just fine. So go check it out. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 06, 2023 Renee S. DeCamillis rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author)

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls